with allegations expected to increase sanctions on tehran two iranians were charged over trying to hire members of a mexican drug cartel to carry out the attack something to iran dismissed as a comedy show that is going to cannes has more from washington. the administration strongly believes in the case against this uranium war a man who is accused of trying to plot the s.s. the nation of the saudi ambassador in washington the administration seems to be willing to take the accusations to the next level they're calling for the world to unite against iran we hear reports that the u.s. might raise the issue at the u.n. security council they were talking about the need to completely isolate iran in the international community and they are trying to get other countries on board on this one so a lot of tough words against the drums of war are beating loud and clear in washington although the u.s. administration officials are not talking about a military action yet but they keep it very vague at the moment saying all options are on the table whatever that means today we're heard about a new round of sanctions that the u.s. is imposing on iran's goals include sanctions on the new raney an airline which

according to american investigation investigators flew members of an elite force linked to the alleged plot to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s. vice president joe biden hinted that the u.s. actions could go beyond sanctions let me remind you that the state department has listed iran as a state sponsor of terror since one thousand nine hundred four and many experts say it's been washington's long time goal to undermine the government in iraq and have to be fresh accusations in the u.s. mainstream media you constantly hear various experts say quite literally we need to undermine the arabian government and that's the state of mind here the question about the motive that the iranians might have had when allegedly plotting to kill the saudi ambassador in washington these very important thing context of b. investigation but nevertheless you don't hear much questioning here neither among politicians nor among the media pundits most seem to be taking the accusations at face value in the meantime there are lots of doubts about why on earth would you rant plot to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s.

and blow up the embassies of israel and saudi arabia in washington and those are the accusations brought up by the u.s. justice department how could you read possibly benefit from it many analysts doubt that you could actually actually would. actually to undermine itself that way iranian history denies all the allegations saying it's again the us is playing possibly to divert attention from their domestic problems whatever the invisible underlying current what's on the surface now is tension which is growing going to check on that well for more on this i'm not joined by ivan eland he's from the independent institute in washington so what do you make of these accusations aimed at iran. well it's a spectacular accusation it doesn't really fit and i think most experts with agree with this it doesn't really fit the qods force as usual way of operating usually they operate in secret and try to keep their fingerprints off everything this this thing was

a. multitude of areas they had iranian used car salesman in the u.s. who has a cousin in the qods force and they're commissioning him to commission drug lords in mexico to kill the ambassador and to attack the embassies not only in the united states but in argentina and so this very high risk for the amount of gain that they would have gotten for this in the cards for us hasn't really operated much in the u.s. because it would give the u.s. an excuse to retaliate and also simply because the force may lose its people here or they might be exposed and as i say they like they usually like to operate through proxies in secret and this was operating through proxies but they were very untested and they were transferring money through new york banks and everything and there was a real ham handed amateurish approach and this may be some sort of if the whole

thing is true it may be a rogue. elements of the qods force are doing it i don't know when i've been i've been just very crazy just to interrupt you say if the whole thing is true i've talked to a number of analysts tonight to question these allegations. do you doubt the credibility of these allegations. well there is there has to be some doubt i think just because they are so wild and they don't really fit the pattern of the code's force the the iranians have been fairly cagey about operating various places in the world and this sounds like something out of you know a. you know a bad movie or something i mean it's just crazy but washington is speaking about an escalation in iran's support for terrorism words from hillary clinton calling for an international response all those comments potentially provocative.

well i think that's the whole thing about this thing it's very unfortunate because i think it gives the hawks in the united states some sort of excuse for ratcheting up the pressure maybe even including military action but of course they're not talking about military action right now but certainly you have a weakened president who is who might benefit from a foreign crisis and we've seen that happen before in u.s. history so i don't think if the iranians really did this it was really a bungled. bungled mess and also a bad thing to do because it could invite the u.s. retaliation and gives them an excuse to do so and i think this type of rhetoric is not good even under these circumstances i think we've got to get to the bottom of this and see what really happened and see you know what who is behind this and what what actually was going on you mentioned u.s. retaliation all options on the table so officials say in washington certainly excluding military action apart from those sanctions we've heard of another

sanction being imposed today apart from sanctions what can the u.s. do how can they put more pressure on to iran. well you know diplomatically of course these sanctions are mainly symbolic because they they don't really. have the bite that most people think they do because there's also all sorts of ways to evade sanctions you can just pay higher prices and that sort of thing so i think it does put pressure on the regime they can also take it to the security council as your report mentioned and other diplomatic. steps but i think there are limited responses that the u.s. can have of course the u.s. can also use covert operations to do sinister things to the iranian regime and of course the u.s. has many are more resources to do that than the iranians do that's why this whole thing doesn't seem to add up that the iranians would actually be foolish enough to do something like this. it doesn't hold out up well that's certainly what the iranians are saying and that dismissing it as a bit of a whole thing is a comedy act almost these accusations but they're also saying that. washington is

actually trying to cover up its own domestic problems trying to divert attention from the economic problems that experiencing at the moment throughout the states would you agree with that. well i do i kind of doubt that actually because the obama administration is sophisticated enough to know that even something like this is probably not unless they're actually blew off a bomb or something is not going to take people's attention away from the economy and that's what the election is going to be about now if you actually had a terrorist attack on our soil that would be a different story but this was sort of a ham handed plot that was uncovered the story is true of course and so we don't have it doesn't rise to the level of. terrorist bombing or even of course raise another level to nine eleven so i think you know an actual terrorist attack on the u.s. would divert people's attention but i don't think the obama administration thinks

that. releasing this attack would would do that but of course it certainly would it certainly helps the administration in saying what we're strong on security but they've already proved that with the the killing of bin laden and al locky so i don't really think the administration really needs much help what they need is the economy to turn around here and it doesn't look like it's going to so but i don't see the them. you know they may they may certainly have crowed about this to get some political points but it's certainly not going to have much of an effect and i can't imagine that the. administration itself would think that it would have much effect ivan thanks very much indeed ivan eland from the independent institute in washington. and there we ask you at our website r.t. dot com what you think about the thwarted iranian plot uncovered by the u.s. and so far more than half the believe it was nothing more than an american ploy to

smear its enemy little less than a quarter think the story is just the tip of the iceberg with more revelations to come and nine percent say it was orchestrated by to run while the rest believe it's just a way for washington officials to boost their careers express your point of view good to hear from you at r.t. dot com. other news now bonding exercise prime minister putin strengthen russia's partnership with china during his high profile visit to the world's fastest growing economies came together to share common interests and commercial goals aimed at balancing the dominance of the west deals with seven billion u.s. dollars in energy trade and high tech industries have already been signed and more is yet to come. explains. the two day visit was more of course had an economic flavor rather than a political one this was promised to put in a first visit since announcing his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections and some say it's a sign of a change in focus for us and that the government is now looking east for both

russia and china of course members of the breaks group along with brazil india and south africa and the growing economic uncertainty in europe and the u.s. has seriously undermined their dominance of the global political stage paving the way for a margin economy is now prime minister putin said the us is currently using installment openly as the only global reserve currency and that's having a negative effect on their financial policy if you will because the you i never said the us was a parasite on the global economy but i do think it's feeding off the monopoly of the us dollar as a single global currency the problem is is not only for the world economy but for america's economy as well because it leads to a violation of financial discipline. when it comes to the e.u. vladimir putin said that greece is a big problem but that it could be resolved if countries that weren't afraid to take action he said of russia and china should lead the reform of international financial systems and that the brics work should play a bigger role on the world stage. i think it's time to talk about reforming

existing institutions first of all i mean global financial institutions such as the international monetary fund and world bank and here we agree that the role of the brics countries in those organizations must be enhanced given the growing importance of our country's economies another important issue here was energy corp lattimer put an end his chinese counterpart said there are all issues and disagreements were resolved when it comes to russia supply of oil when it comes to gas negotiations are still ongoing but both insist are there and the final stage of energy consumption is expected to increase dramatically in china and russia. could cover that actual demand and in doing so for those trying their strategic partnership. still ahead this hour. getting tough schools of occupy wall street protesters arrested in chicago washington d.c. and boston reports claim police got heavy handed with all veterans. and also still

to come this hour after seven months of violent crackdowns on anti-government demonstrations syria's president assad was bolstered by a huge show of support and find out more on that story in just a few minutes from now. israel has agreed to exchange over a thousand palestinian prisoners for one israeli soldier who was captured and held in gaza for over five years the deal with hamas has long been in the making and whether some high profile detainees will remain in israeli jails. reports from tel aviv where the return of gilad shalit is being eagerly awaited. there are some one thousand and twenty seven prisoners who will be released there will be released in various stages the latest we're hearing is that the first batch will be released possibly as soon as next week when we understand that gilad shalit could be taken to egypt egypt of course broke at this bill and the whole exchange will happen on egypt soil it was taken captive back in june two thousand and six now at this stage

we don't have the intricate details of who's on the list of prisoners and what the deal involves but it does seem to suggest that there has been not that much movement on both sides in terms of the deal over the last few years which is why many are saying it's the israelis who have given marion and certainly the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has a lot to gain from such a deal he's facing immense political pressure both internally and internationally must avoid side is coming up the winners of this deal so they have been celebrations particularly in the jabalya refugee camp in gaza so that is why you are hearing some voices in israel some voices of concern that the capture of one soldier is going to be something that is encouraged on the palestinian side because the price for one soldier is particularly high at this moment there are more than eight thousand prisoners who are currently being held in israeli jails among them are many women and children some three hundred children many of the prisoners are also there without having been tried and now there are some prisoners who are

currently undergoing a hunger strike they protesting against the general conditions in the prisons we've been hearing from activists who say that particularly the political prisoners they have basic rights like bathing that are being denied to them among the prisoners who are to be released a fair number will return to the gaza strip and it's going to actually it was taken hostage some five years ago there have been heavy restrictions on goods both coming in and out of gaza. over a hundred people arrested on tuesday in boston as part of the occupy wall street movement dozens more were detained in chicago and washington d.c. the movement started as a sit in protest in front of the new york stock exchange in mid september has grown nationwide thousands all across america are demanding social justice attacking rife corporate greed some of new york's richest most influential people also for them to the movement in this hundreds of activists walked by the homes of the city's elite and the so-called millionaires march social media consultant robert cool says the demonstrations could have far reaching consequences. what's happening here could be

as big a deal as the space program when we first started the space program we were talking about launching a satellite into space a rocket up there we didn't know that explosion of technologies that everybody would use every day that would change our lives we didn't know that the satellites that were being sent up could be used for cellphones eventually they don't even exist what's happening here is is a phenomenon that's huge it's an explosion and all the right there are people like orrin hatch who are saying this is dangerous he's right but he doesn't have a clue how dangerous it is people are waking up there are so many does that mean there's a lot of anger about this people are furious that they're getting ripped off that the system is broken that it no longer represents the people that the congress represents corporations now this is a very common thing that whether they're democrats or republicans it doesn't matter

who you vote for because they're going to take care of the corporations first not the people. social media consultant rob called on the phenomenon that's gripping the whole of the u.s. . an international chorus of disapproval has hit ukraine over the verdict handed down to the former prime minister yulia timoshenko the our lady of ukrainian politics has been sentenced to seven years behind bars for abuse of power when signing gas contracts with russia she's also been fined almost two hundred million dollars the exact sum of the deals allegedly last ukraine the verdict but because lawyers will appeal mass protests among her army of supporters crowds have been camping outside the court building since july when the trial started. by the way if you missed anything we've been covering here on screen you can always have to our website is our dot com there's more news and comment there and here's a taste of what's online few right now should you log on we look at how the case of a russian businessman accused of arms dealing is casting a shadow over the u.s.

justice system. and a russian trying to drive a rescue dozens of people from a burning building when he drove his vehicle next to the window so people could jump to their safety for more on that story and plenty of others had to r.t. dot com. hundreds of thousands of crowd of the streets of the syrian capital to show their support and to president assad the country's been divided by seven months of violent crackdowns on the regime protests that have left almost three thousand people dead so far syria has been threatened by international sanctions as pressure builds on assad to step down and syria is in the heart of damascus. thousands of people gathered show their support for the government here in syria there was a lot of chanting. slogans he shouted out as well as the syrian flag he carried around a poster that if you like all the cars were converging it to this one area here now of course this is a far cry from what we see in other places in the country in other cities where

there have been reported postures between at the government protesters and security forces not to mention the of the killings that have also been reportedly taking place of course if you think about it since the protests started the mass this has been largely sheltered from the the complex in those other cities and the people here when we talk to them they said they came out to the streets today essentially to say that the syrian people are still united to this at least as far as they are concerned ambassador they are not against reform they just don't want to see it coming from the outside they want to be able to make that decision on their own coming from within now what's interesting too is a saw couple of military helicopters flying a very low in my opinion over the crowd that they were carrying the a russian and chinese flight so they also wanted to show their gratitude to the two countries had vetoed the u.n. security council resolution that would have imposed sanctions on syria so what's interesting too is that the people i saw at least this morning power from various

sectors of society there were students there were older people there were some who were claiming to be from a rather lower social class and some appeared to be from a higher caste so it was from all different sectors but one the one thing that unites them though is that because of what's happening and their country they're now all involved in the sort of political discourse and they say that this can only be positive in light of things that's going on. so silly reporting there from damascus telling the top that you have some of the news in brief that to. twenty minutes past the up i'm not sure and man accused of trying to bomb a u.s. bound flights on christmas day two thousand and nine has predicted. up to one of nearly three hundred people on the flight to detroit passengers became aware of the suspect after the bomb sewn into his underwear failed to detonate fully instead catching fire his lawyers said the twenty four year old would admit to terrorism and other charges if found guilty he could get life imprisonment. at least twenty

five people have been killed and another sixty injured in baghdad after a string of blast hit iraqi security forces officials say there are at least three separate explosions the suicide bombers targeting local police stations attacks come just days after iraq asked for more than five thousand u.s. military instructors to stay on past the formal withdrawal date of december thirty first. general amnesty for more than six thousand prisoners has begun with dozens of looting political detainees already released and just international reports that among those due to be freed of some two thousand two hundred political prisoners have been held in poor conditions and subjected to torture release was a key condition of the united states to remove western sanctions imposed on the country's former military government. the captain of a container ship the granite of new zealand that leaking oil into the sea has been arrested was charged with operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk and could now face a year in prison the ship ran into a reef

a week ago causing the country's worst environmental disaster in decades there were three hundred tonnes of oil already leaked from the whole. what's the news looks of this i'll be about with some of our main stories in about eight minutes from now in the meantime we lift the lid on ancient chinese wisdom in our exclusive interview. meets with doris nosebleeds an observer of global social economic and political trends she's also written a book on china and tells us what lies behind the magic nation special interview is coming up next.

doris nesbitt thank you very much for being with us today thank you very much for having me so in your opinion why has china and still remains to greatest mystery for thinkers and scholars because there's too little interest to get to get behind the mystery and how something stays a mystery if you don't have enough interest to to open the curtain. there's also you know somebody said a philosopher also first said that most people do not want to learn something new but what took at confirmation of something they already believe in and i think

that's very much the case in china we have a certain picture of china and i wouldn't exclude myself ten years ago all. eleven years ago before i went to china for the first time i had a certain picture of china which was not really matching reality i felt that the country was much more backwards than it turned out to be. the fact is that the chinese have have still have and still today have kind of an innocence and openness once they trust you they embrace you and they really become friends with you and you can criticize a lot you know you can also with chinese politicians we talk a lot of. things in china that are not as they should be you can be very open but it has to come out of a positive spirit. and not of just looking for the negative spots while you talk about innocence where does that come from in your opinion does it have anything to

do with the fact that china's been communist for so long. and no no i think it has to do with the with the structure of having the community first and then the individual that meant you will always part of something you were part of a family a part of a community part of the city part of a province and the country and helping each other being together was part of survival and that's that's when they when you get to know the chinese and when they embrace who they are not ashamed of telling you all we love you and we admire you when and it's so sweet that openness i'm not saying that every chinese are sweet there is a lot of competition there can be very very. fierce fighting but in general they are willing to embrace you and talk about their feelings china socialist or capitalist their fight. for.

making their dreams come true. and the fight is something sometimes a little fierce because for a long time they couldn't make their dreams come true they couldn't lift the life they wanted and now specially for the generation that one in the one nine hundred ninety s. who has not lived through all the hard shift and the changes they say they really demand that they can do whatever they want to do and that's going to be a new situation in china with their chin aeration that has grown up with communication systems with western with information about everything that you can achieve in life and they're going to fight for achieving they have goals they want to they want to be the best they have achieved so much but but they don't really. to look at themselves and say well what we did why is the right i don't

know maybe because they are attacked much more than they're not knowledge and it's not that everything is great in china lots of things that we don't agree with us that we need to be improved but the west is very much focusing on the us and on the flaws. and i think we should have a balance the china there is a lot of good things and of course they have to work on the not so things do you think china is striving to be number one country in the world to be this huge superpower or is it just happening. i i hesitate because deep inside i think china wants to be the middle kingdom and wants to have the procession had it once head that's in the in the in the you know the history of china has really an empire is not out of the chinese head but they are not fighting

to dominate the world but they they are. they want to play the role in the world that they are slowly growing into simply by a. con i'm a the growing size of the economy and by the number of people what i think china strategies for russia they've been very good friends and they've been not so good friends i think they are seeking and alliance they are seeking a trade partner they are very close neighbor us so i think china in general wants to optimize relationships whether it's russia or america or europe doris nice pick thank you very much for this interchange you.

right and if you move soon from fans to pressure. starts on t.v. dot com.

good to have you with this is our. top stories now that washington is charged for an alleged plot to kill the saudi arabian ambassador to the u.s. it's claimed they tried to harm members of a mexican drug cartel to carry out the attack accusations to ron dismissed as comical. russia and china strengthen their partnership to bond and solve the economic and political dominance of the west deals with seven billion us dollars in energy trade and high tech industries have been signed his promise to putin that the chinese leadership in beijing. and an israeli soldier captured by hamas five years ago could soon be going home and on the way to deal with see him swap for over one thousand palestinian prisoners whether some high profile detainees will remain in israeli jails.