we would have died of hunger and i want to now be charged to. play the be . this is d. w. news live from budget the commander of iran's revolutionary guard accepts full responsibility for shooting down a ukrainian passenger plane our brand says be a craft was brought down by accident last wednesday all true blue in

a sense different military sites in 16076 people deliberate killed we will have the latest from tecton also coming out german chancellor angela merkel meets with russian president vladimir putin in moscow 2 leaders have several significant points of dispute but can they find common ground on the middle east and its rising tensions in the region. and taiwan relax its president and delivers a blow to beijing to sign want to preserve taiwan soltani in the face of growing at that spot china to bring it on and under its control. the boy. i'm at home free glad you could join me the commander of iran's revolutionary guard has accepted full responsibility. the downing of a ukrainian a passenger jet on

a wednesday now iran says that the firing of a missile at the plane was a mistake blaming human error off the plane flew near a sensitive military site 176 people were killed in that crash techron had previously denied claims bait by the u.s. and canada that it was responsible. an explosion in the sky this mobile phone footage was one factor that led western countries to suspect in the reunion missile attack on the ukrainian passenger plane finally after days of vehement denial iran's military admitted his guilt with armed forces on the highest level of alert the ukrainian international airlines flight had appeared to fly like a hostile target near a sensitive military site. you know. when i became certain that this incident had happened really wished death for myself.

i wished i had died or not seen such an incident politicians followed human error had caused the missile to be fired iran's foreign minister tweeted meanwhile the country's president hassan rouhani called the attack a disastrous mistake they're both face comes after iran maintained that's a technical fault had been to blame for the crash even after u.s. canadian and british intelligence concluded that a surface to air missile had caused the tragedy. of. canada in particular has paid a high price for the recent saber rattling between iran and the u.s. this vigil in toronto was $1.00 of dozens across the country that paid tribute to the $57.00 canadian citizens many of them university students and researchers who were among the dead. these people that were on the plane they were young they were academics they were engineers this is compulsory it's more canadian prime minister

just and she called for justice for the families of the victims and said he expects the full cooperation of iran. and they have been protests in the last few hours outside the i'm a cupboard university in tech wrong students were initially holding a vigil for the victims of the crash but what started as morning turned into anger with the crowd chanting quote death to lives in protest over the government's handling of the plane crash now riot police quickly responded with tear gas in an attempt to break up the protest. we're here to talk more about this now is iran expert to face atop a hit in the studio with me good to see you and it washington all correspondent that fully las welcome to you both i want to begin with you today said because this admission of culpability now from iran's revolutionary guard of having shot down the plane it's generating quite

a heated response is now in tact around yes very much so the grief felt by many iranians trying to anger quite quickly we're seeing a lot of reactions on social media both from abroad and from within the country including the pictures we just saw in the part where people actually blaming the revolutionary guards for this tragedy they're asking why officials did not impose like a no fly zone while they knew that this situation was about to get more tense they're wondering why it took them so long to acknowledge the mistake and they're also demanding consequences you heard that they're shouting death to the lions they're also shouting the resignation is not enough prosecution is needed but so far none of that has happened of course on the contrary we see chagas being used against those protesters and we're also hearing rumors that the internet connection is worsening in some parts of the country. which could mean that the islamic republic is trying to shut down social media again like they did during the last round of protests outside. the critics now i mean he did take a long time to get to this point to this admission of guilt on behalf of the

revolutionary guard why is that and what do you think implications could be because of that well apparently it took a while until all the relevant officials within the islamic republic actually got to know about. this student down the plane because it's important to understand that that was not iran's regular military responsible for that country's revolutionary guards that's an organization designed to protect islamic republic political system and when they noticed they had a mistake they decided not to go public but to have an investigation of their own at 1st so they said they informed the officials but we don't know exactly who they informed because apparently president rouhani and the supreme leader ayatollah khamenei they also already got to know about that like a day later and from what we know it was them who then made the decision to go public with it or i want to go straight over then to in washington pablo what has the reaction in the united states been to this admission. well before we get on to

the reaction from the united states in the past few moments we've actually heard from the canadian prime minister justin trudeau who has spoken and he said in a conversation with the iranian president hassan rouhani he's asking for full clarity on how this tragedy could have happened he also said that it's absolutely necessary that kind of the takes part in the investigation into the downing of this aircraft but with regards to reaction here in the u.s. in fact it's been rather quiet this morning helena we haven't really heard much at all but we'd have to go back to friday and focus on what president trump was saying because really a lot of the reaction was more with regards to will say this overall incident that we've been dealing with this week with regards to the killing of the iranian general. sulaimani he was once again president trump justifying his

u.s. administration's reasons for actually deciding to carry out this killing saying that there was an imminent threat to u.s. targets and among the targets were 4 u.s. embassies even specified in this interview that he gave to the big u.s. network fox news that one of the targets was the embassy in baghdad so there's also been a lot of heat on president trump and his administration over the handling of this situation with many democrats and even some republicans saying that it wasn't really it was ready correctly and demanding more answers over why they say killing actually took place in the 1st place and good to have the latest from canada is true with that in mind i want to ask you what do you think the next steps will be with regards to investigations the coup for external investigations that as well as well as what else might unfold in light of this wrong well. when her son rouhani

has promised further investigations and also prosecution of the people responsible . fathers prosecution will go we'll have to see because it's unprecedented that any high ranking officials within the iranian military are actually prosecuted we're hearing that persons responsible might have already offered their resignation but that that has been declined by the higher ranking military and. all right so we'll monitor how that continues potentially more unrest as well in texas. thank you so much for giving us your insights as well as our correspondent there in d.c. public thanks so much to you back. let's take it now some of the other stories making news around the walls labor unions have marched through paris and other french cities to protest pension reforms planned by president emanuel demonstrations came after talks between the government and unions failed to break

a deadlock a strike against the reform has disrupted public transport since early december. now german chancellor angela merkel says every possible effort should be made to adhere to the iran nuclear deal the terms of which techron has violated chancellor made the comments after emerging from extended talks with russian president vladimir putin in moscow now on a separate issue knuckle also announced but it will be hosting a peace summit as it seeks to broker a deescalation of the conflict in libya now at the press conference putin said russia will be part of those talks. let's bring in amy show in moscow now emily bring us up to date with what both merkel and putin had to say at their press conference. well there was really a broad agenda of topics on the top it on the table for both leaders today from economic ties to cover the crisis of the conflict in ukraine to the middle east to

the tensions there and the 2 leaders spoke for nearly 2 hours longer than they had initially planned when they came to speak to the press it seemed that you could see that the 2 leaders had been working together for many years they they both speak each other's language and they both seem to be rather satisfied with the meeting as well they both talked about it being productive and useful several times ukraine which was the main stumbling block or is the main stumbling block after the an extension of crimea in 2014 between the 2 countries was much lower on the agenda today and they seem to present a united front on many issues including the fact that they both want to save the iran nuclear deal which the u.s. left and also the fact that they both want to finish the construction of the nord stream to gas pipeline which was hit with u.s. sanctions last year so it seems in both of those cases at least that u.s.

policy may be bringing russia and germany closer now of course putin is a key player in the middle east merkel doesn't have to say influence did she manage to go on a some cooperation from the russian president with regards to that region. yeah fact one expert i spoke to ahead of the meeting said that putin would be in the driving seat and that germany is really an observer from the sidelines but merkel did achieve some concrete results when it comes to the middle east as well she had been pushing for a berlin peace conference on libya and putin today agreed to that he also talked about the importance of a ceasefire which is supposed to come into force in libya tomorrow so in that case in the case of libya both sides could present themselves kind of as peace brokers in the middle east when it comes to syria putin has been pushing european partners including germany to kind of contribute including financially to the

reconstruction in syria and he mentioned the importance of that again today it doesn't seem however that he got any concrete commit some commitments from their call their correspondent and the show in a moscow thank 70. well taiwan's pro independence president sightly one has been reelected by a landslide margin outside to 57 percent of the vote showing strong support for the tough stance against china which does not recognize taiwanese independence and insists the island is still pass of china. savoring her victory site you want a message of defiance to get speccing earned her a lopsided win in her acceptance speech she warned china the taiwan would not be influenced by threats from. iran that the people of taiwan reject a one country 2 systems model we respect tomography and our sovereign rights one

that. i'm a woman. i hope this election result sends china a clear message i. don't miss. her supporters were ecstatic. i'm very happy with the result today because we have made it known to china that taiwan is not to be bullied. yeah they would say oh. ever since i was small i was taught by my father that taiwan is a country for 21 years so at this moment i feel very moved to see so many taiwanese agreeing that taiwan has its own sovereignty democracy and freedom. to its. size main opponent national party candidate honcho you campaigned on resetting ties with china to boost taiwan's economy but that message failed to resonate with many voters. sighs government faces several challenges going forward

beijing is likely to increase its efforts to isolate taiwan hoping to bring it back under chinese control. your work life from berlin coming up next is a reporter with a look at some of the challenges fate. by a family caring for their child with special needs remember you can always get the latest news and information on the clock on our website at www dot com i have a home free thanks for your company small cloth headlines find out. i was issued when i arrived here i slept with 6 people in a room. it was hardest for. i even got white hair. learning the german language hell. this gets me to include

a bunch maybe 2 in truck loads of say you want to do their story. writing and reliable information for margaret.