country clubs suborning shirts and funnest piece of the first earth all should convince the swiss are still close knit hold me gloats come gold and gold boutique hotel. a breaking news this hour on our t.v. rebels claim to control the libyan capital after a major nato back to advance was thought to a colonel gadhafi sons have been captured by the opposition but one has reportedly escaped with the help of loyalists pointers. independent journalists at the rixos hotel in tripoli tell r.t. they feel under siege and in danger from what's happening outside. the. opposition supporters rejoice in the forty year old regime is nearing a dead end and skeptics point to the protests disillusionment that followed the full of egypt's to take. leaders rush to hold talks with officials from libya's new government as the transitional council named several nato nations as favorites for

a new credit contract. international news live from r.t. here moscow is just turned eleven pm and nine pm in tripoli and so to our breaking news this hour the fast moving developments in libya rebel say that they now control most of tripoli and have taken libya state t.v. channels off air in some reports suggest opposition fighters have been looting private how's it's to good after his sons enough will be in rebel hands for the third having escaped house arrest opposition leaders say a large number of their fighters have been killed the reports of heavy fighting around gadhafi compound but the whereabouts of the colonel are unknown nato insists it will continue combat air patrols until all government forces surrender for the night of chaos in the capital crowds have been seen in tripoli simple. square

waiting really reflects. what general theory miso he's founder and chairman of online newspaper the voltaire network is in the rixos hotel in tripoli and told me earlier that nato forces are doing everything to back up the rebels. now in this hotel is no more the leaders of the country. from the earth but only from sholay from friday will tell because you know some of the u.n. surely fellow journalists are told the only. cause of journalism if will try to keep the all those inside the hotel. without electricity and no food and we have some medium fighters inside to protect. us and. the utterly surrounded by to try. to to prevent the entrance of. nato lose

a lot of. ground to be specially resettled those would be counterproductive from where you are for. the. base from. which part of. the night. nato is going to places. that we actually we elect to shoot everybody in the street and after that only after that the so-called rebels enter the industry. there are reports of gunfire near the libya tunisia border and thousands of libyans are heading in that direction and then to flee the fierce fighting between pro and anti gadhafi forces and r.t. correspondent i mean a clash is at the border. there has been a rather intense fighting reported missing the i'll talk about the end rebel forces about shifting from or from the border with tunisia in the challenges will come much to the border in libya until we have sort of a degree is

a plate over the past five months people have been drinking chiefly because they have a serious look like if not what's going on you know it's essential eventually now with libyan forces literally attacking going over out of their way over tripoli i found it even more confusing now people who president every site near the border we can cite say that over the past couple of weeks here have to be reported clashes between on the right hand side arm down arms and you can border guards they also say that. there have been sightings of humor is those loaded with armed people reportedly were libyans but it was the license plate so it's hard to identify exactly who those people were in a clash. were twitter earlier today between regions where trolls. are just like to be in government fear have not been if we've. just watched this already so to say

that they believe some of the gunmen on the libyan side might have. leaders of from sicily and you can have or not so be holding individual tools for the leaders of the libyan transitional government that's next week well that's close to all he's done you can show he's calm and they just details all news joining us there in paris now what's being the reaction in from the e.u. to the the mage's events in libya. the french president has spoken to. jabril by telephone on monday and announced that he's invited him for talks on wednesday france said the navy is a potentially rich country but it needs support and. in fact paris is behaving as if it's all over now that the war is finished and as a pact of fact officially announced its military mission in libya is complete but

experts who do express fears that the region is between the rebels themselves that they like a common enemy and give their feet if gadhafi has indeed now gone maybe there is further violence as those splits between the rebels are already exposed but in brussels the diplomats and analysts seem to be united states has really taken a back seat here soon opportunity to take a leading role of the e.u. says that much hard work is ahead and it is prepared to work with new leadership of libya and nato says that it will continue with its mission which is to protect civilians and. residents and i did that is doing that it's protecting civilians on the ground and. these talks that are coming up to tell us more about the subject matter of those talks what's anticipated. yes the french defense minister says that this will find

a roadmap to build the future of libya that's necessary to avoid the country slipping back into civil war to find common ground through kristie the officially approved toys between the european nations and the new government no it's of these leaders silvio berlusconi has also announced that he will be meeting the rebel leaders now here are saying that this may be to also lobby for western corporation for of all oil corporations for example we know that any had large contracts with the before the civil war and was accused of corruption in order to gain massive contracts in that country daniel thanks very much indeed that's the latest from our correspondent daniel bushell there in paris well to discuss the situation in libya now i'm joined live by eric margolis he's a war correspondent columnist and author from toronto in canada eric thanks very much for being with us here on r.t. now the u.n. mandate for nato military mission expires next month the question is will nato stay

gone beyond its mandate do you think although not doubt about that the wording of the man changed to make even more humanitarian. but maybe a lot of money. and the lure of oil. is. committed to staying in libya the long stick nevertheless also the fact that the rebels are made up of what tribal factions sectarian factions it doesn't necessarily mean just because the rebels are one that we're going to see a peaceful future there in libya does it you know the only thing that we can safely say is that it looks like it's very confusing. for quite a long time for example we don't know where to go for years. barracks downtown tripoli where i interviewed him for he wants to know years ago.

one of the hiding but the problem is that this so-called transitional government ghazi traditional so of tripoli libya was more or less created by the french. or half of its members who are still exile some western oriented. the west for a long time but the other half lives majority are islamic militants and so they're very strange bedfellows and at this point i don't see how it is not interesting you say that you actually met graphene you interviewed him what do you make of his resolve or some may say i'm his to because he hasn't been seen in public he had nobody knows where he is at the moment what's he going for at the moment what is his plan do you think well there is you know the city he's president reagan described as the mad dog of the middle east or he certainly very eccentric and very odd but he's also crazy like

a fox because he's so why did power for forty two years. the younger a bill of health kill him. so he's obviously very weary. but he has now the fight you know and i wouldn't dismiss our hand fact these are just. clownish of posting about aids not only routes open but he said we're is like africa well he may take to the desert very rich country and trying to rally some kind of a guerrilla war against what he has is a modern colonial reoccupation and then there's an interesting sidebar you know the countries that are most prominent in the reoccupation of libya are france italy and britain which are all of the eight hundred former colonial powers of the region who used to compete. each other for influence and we smirks now you're a war correspondent you're not

a stranger to these sort of things you just mentioned a scenario where gadhafi could escape perhaps do you think then the media is jumping to the conclusion too quickly that it is all over now and a good daffy's days are numbered or do you think that he really could survive this well he could i really can't tell you know where there are he now. president obama's going to make up working hours which may break some news. captured we just don't know. enough and you'll be taken to easily the history is it's three sons. truly. inspiring saif islam are. putting up a fight. yes it's a book and then again we hear that one of them is a skate group with the help of lawyers so that's interesting it doesn't necessarily mean that they are in safe custody no one hears that there's a loyalist culture of france is going on and you know who the why does he look at

all these people into tripoli and his tribesmen are going to surround them. we'll you know this war is being fought by nato it's not. ok eric just finally this war is being fought by nato presumably they'll say if it's all over very soon it's won by nato but is that going to lead to the establishment of democracy in libya something the u.s. and the e.u. are so vocal about. willing to burn a lot of money. a long way away from. a democracy european war like armed chaos for a long time eric margolis always good to hear we have to say thanks so much for your time work or spawn a columnist and author live in toronto in canada thank you. well the news of the rebel advance into tripoli was greeted warmly by investors around the world sparking an immediate drop in oil prices and i'm saying now that the most important question is just how much to belittle the new government bring something i've just been talking to more guns about sarah far as the latest on. what we see

really is a kneejerk reaction in the oil markets to the events in tripoli we see in the oil prices as you say talking almost three dollars in festus thinking that there are some oil production could resume shortly now it's least foreign minister has confirmed that the italian oil company any has sent workers back into libya they've led the way really in sending their work is back there now what we've seen is the other big oil companies such is the key have actually passed on the fence at the moment they're waiting see exactly how this plays out what's going to happen over the coming days and weeks what we've heard from the information manager of the libyan rebel oil. they said they don't have any problems with western countries western companies italy france the u.k. but they could have political issues with countries like brazil china and russia

now if that's to be the case then that could certainly be a major setback this country's you could see the loss of billions of dollars worth of oil contracts i was speaking to one of the editors today a very large mistake here in italy and he's been following the situation very closely and how he described this it's like a chess game now between the oil companies between the front countries on the ground there is still an extremely confusing time in libya what's happening in tripoli now there is still a lot of. thought out and they certainly find it means that this at the moment but still the potential problems for those countries that libyan rebel. had printed out that it's a month they will market that they will be out that a.o.l. production was still in some point in the near future in libya so for three porting there an author an analyst thinks the struggle for libyan oil is the real bottom line of the whole nato operation. it's simply an insurgency been supported

covertly by u.s. financed arm shipments into the rebels and in order to simply carve up the oil fields and get it into western hands rather than you know libyan state hands which could offer he held firmly to that's and i think the real underlying issue in this whole nato bombing of libya i think it suits some of the western oil interests especially the british and the french who are fighting like and like puranas over grabbing the most you see the oil fields for them for their own companies. that it suits them to have chaos because and they can control the terms of oil exploitation much better and ever since and it's been the most brazen violation of internet it's so incredible to me that the international media doesn't have beat some of the some of the legal aspects of this and i think what what libya is going to face after that is a period of prolonged chaos and nobody knows the outcome this is as i said at the beginning this is try again strive this is not democracy it is not. president obama

said despite the rebel advance into tripoli the outcome of the main battle remains fluid but he's going to challenge joins me live now from washington janet what else did we hear from the white house today. well bill washington a key player in the fight for tripoli says they're in close contact with the rebels leadership and that the u.s. will support a peaceful transition to democracy president obama by a long vacation has made this statement this one day in the wake of dramatic developments in tripoli over the weekend that were really far from useful again he was talking about what a terrible dictator could be was what a great job nato has done he called for the leaders to support the transitional national council that's a body that's heavily backed by western allies as we know he once again said that billions of dollars in frozen leave in assets will go to the council to help them restore order in the country that's been torn apart by the civil war but before the

rebels made made it to the central square in tripoli to celebrate the city saw extensive nato bombings it's obvious to everyone that the regime is falling apart with enormous help needle and their airstrikes we've seen the rebels cheering all night that very much reminded of what we saw in cairo when hosni mubarak was ousted but let's not forget that up until now the people in egypt are not governed by those they chose as their leaders it gets just one example of a revolution that ended up with people not getting what they were fighting for and the review of those who took over and that is the transitional national council of not being chosen by the reagan people get that council is being recognized as a legitimate power in the good by all the allies that it's been helping. to develop the many libyans are outraged by the fact that foreign powers of the century made those very important choices for them nato has been in there. with the mission over the last six months the strike strikes

a lot of criticism they killed many innocent civilians while the goal of the mission was to protect civilians nato was facing a deadline in september when a resolution full strikes had to be renewed and given all the violations that have taken place it would be very high. to get everyone on board for expanding the campaign. well thanks very much indeed for that garner that's gonna live in washington let's get more analysis from the director of the antiwar coalition brian becker he's also in washington d.c. thanks very much indeed for being with us in r.t. but as you just heard about and said that nato has done a great job it looks like the people's wishes about to come true there in libya so the operation carried out by nato well their position has been vindicated doesn't it. well it depends what the what the mission was if it was to protect civilians it certainly hasn't been vindicated thousands of civilians have died the united states and nato forces have dropped seven thousand five hundred bombing

missions in libya just in the last month alone this is a nato war there may be living in soldiers fighting as part of the rebel force but their commando units from britain and france that are the real leaders just have put this in perspective the gross domestic product of libya is one tenth the size of the pentagon's annual military budget this is a david and goliath battle between powers the united states britain and france the old colonizers and slavers of africa wanting to put into place in libya a government that's not necessarily more democratic or more peaceful or more freedom loving but that will be a puppet and not a partner or a puppet regime in this oil rich country no matter how one could be critical about nato involvement let's look at the situation in the near future the country's not going to be with men who are euphoric they could be carrying weapons that could indeed be lawlessness there do you think it's right therefore that nato should continue beyond its mandate continue beyond september and act in

a humanitarian way because all through all the country could be lawless couldn't it after this. well you can make that argument with a certain degree of logic but if you look at the situation in a different way if you look at it from the point of view of the nato forces that liberally stoke and stimulated enough armed to civil war that ended up destroying big parts of the country and then bomb huge parts of the infrastructure knowing that that infrastructure would be later rebuild probably by western corporations making lots of money you have to have been stripped nato of any positive performance in in a post gadhafi libya i think in fact if nato stays they'll have noble humanitarian sounding sort of excuses and pretext for their role but ultimately it's to dominate this country remember before he came to power in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine the u.s. had the realist air force base the british had two major air bases in libya it

wasn't just oil it's about military bases it's about control of what was a vital u.s. and british fear of influence so how do you post libya the vision that the e.u. and the us of settles. well i think you could look to iraq and see what's the track record in terms of what really might happen the u.s. is stoked ethno sectarian conflicts geographic conflicts in order to kind of carry out a divide and rule strategy i think they know very well that the that the national transition council could not have come to power except for this amazing amount of military operations from the nato forces and they hope that this entity will do what they want them to do what will that be it will be to give contracts that rebuild the country to western corporations to dean nationalize or find some way to hand over libya's vast oil resources to those western oil corporations in other words a kind of meal colonialism colonialism but packaged in

a different way i don't think that looks very good broad just finally what do you think is next for gadhafi will he face the international criminal court in the hague will do you think it should be left to the libyan people. well we don't know yet what the final outcome is i mean there are the reports that we're getting are sketchy we will know i think within hours or certainly within days with the final outcome is that the international criminal court is something of a joke only the western powers use it to target those who they determine must be demonized before being occupied and before having their their governments overthrown the same western powers who perhaps as we know invaded iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of iraqis they never stand in the dock at the hague or in the international criminal court the u.s. will use it as it has in the past in order to gain credibility for its invasion and occupation or in this case bombing campaign we don't know what if you will do it but it's not just this at the hague. here where you have to say thanks for your

time joining us live in washington d.c. thank you. well members of the european union once again called on gadhafi to relinquish power but euphoria over the ongoing assault on tripoli is fading replaced by concern that the new government may not have the authority needed to bring and maintain peaceful artie's i've been it is following the reaction for us from london. the prime minister david cameron is very confident that this is the beginning of the end he said that he is on his way out he's recently just been on the phone to the leader of the national transitional council mustapha. stressing the need for a smooth peaceful and that's going to transition to this new democratic leadership at the same time as all of that he did say that nato forces mandate for being in the country expires in just one month will stay there for as long as it takes a quote an open ended response to that question if there is some uncertainty tempering the jubilation around the rebels' presence in tripoli the other uncertainty is over the question of the frozen assets britain it has said it's

prepared to release them for building a new infrastructure in the country and stabilize the but there is some uncertainty is who those will go to and how they'll be used also uncertainty around the e.u. sanctions a spokesperson for the e.u. foreign affairs committee has said for the time being will remain in place over libya and will be lifted when the time is right and finally to get down to where is he. is still unknown and britain stance has changed once again about on that issue prime minister saying this morning that his future will be in the hands of the rebels themselves to begin with when the campaign started six months ago he was saying that gadhafi must go then they changed about a month ago saying that he can stay in the country so long as he stands down living in exile now there seem to be washing their hands of it once again saying that it will be in the hands of the rebels in libya potentially precarious state this is a post limbo and we've been here of course before with iraq when mistakes were made

and like iran libya sits on a great deal of oil wealth so that really complicates the issue considerably unlike iraq however there is this foundation for a new government already in place that is recognized around you they already have a demand. mission here in london but already the british press is quite skeptical of their ability to govern democratically saying that there are there is potential for infighting a lot of the interest they're. reporting now from london and britain sworn to stand by the fractured transitional government in the days and weeks ahead but self interest may be the driving force behind london's promise is the last according to john reese and the stop the war coalition. got rid of gadhafi and nobody's going to shed any tears for that brutal dictatorship but i imagine that what most people in libya don't want is to swap the rule of gadhafi for that of the western powers and

part of the problem here is of course the way in which he has fallen today has been the single biggest day of nato air operations in the entire history of this intervention so it's quite clear. he will come to power as the proxies of the western powers and the western powers don't do this without asking for a payback and they will be asking for a payback if i were a libyan and i were listening to david cameron's speech or if i had listened to what nato said earlier that they want to assist the transition i mean heaven knows what a military alliance supposedly assisting a transition to democracy is all about i would take those remarks as more threat than a promise that is a direct threat to famine that they will use their military and economic weight to gain what they want out of any new government in libya the only chance of unity for the t.n.c. is that they do what most libyans i believe want them to do and that is to say that

the future of libya is to be decided by libyans and by nobody else but they do not require the systems of nato they do not require the assistance of the major powers that they do not want their resources exploited by western oil companies that could be a point of unification but if they continue. down the line of competing amongst themselves for who has the ear who has the great piece of the greatest sway with the major powers that i really i really believe that that will further divide them. but that brings us now to twenty seven help in his past and i'll be back with a recap of the latest headlines the latest developments in libya shortly stay with us live here in moscow.

the lib. listeners. just saw. the band. the books on. the. last time the assault team was a phenomenal beach where the gold rush still gets people talking. this time margi goes to your own region. where the local government is giving power back to the people. where every offer will be a dud.