people became very draconian jaring those times very sort of repressive and they would have supported a government move to bring in the army to sort the problem out. when britain boiled over. the twenty level continues with more eyewitness testimony from our reporters but remember the some of the british people said enough is enough. hello eight pm thursday night here in moscow my name's kevin knowing tonight's top story from our to israeli warplanes have launched two air strikes on what the army called terrorist sites in central and northern gaza killing at least one person and injuring ten others the israeli military earlier confirmed it is preparing for a new large scale offensive against the palestinian territory which hasn't yet recovered from the assault three years ago. as the latest from jerusalem. the

situation along the israel gaza border has been tense for several days now since monday four palestinians were killed and many more were injured in a number of targeted air strikes carried out by the israeli air force at the same time several rockets were fired by palestinian militants onto southern israel now on wednesday evening news radio on me admitted that it was considering a possible large scale military operation into gaza it said that this operation would be buried and different to the last operation that was carried out these three years ago and would aim at increasing israel's determines in the area khaled mashal from us his political bureau chief has called on palestinians not to target israeli civilians because of the fear of a massive israeli retaliation now back in two thousand and eight nearly one and a half thousand palestinians were killed in a three week operation that the israelis refer to as operational costs made four out of five people killed were civilians what we're hearing from the israelis now is that. should they go ahead with another operation this operation will be short

and it will see the use of more firepower but it's not clear that the timing is right for tel aviv to go ahead with another invasion of gaza certainly the new ten yahoo government is isolated on the international front more than it was three years ago and it will not want to risk losing more friends the combo of today is also very different to the cairo of two thousand and eight when the for me gyptian president hosni mubarak was in power the leadership in egypt today is much more likely to go to the aid of hamas if indeed it is attacked by israel at the same time palestinian militants have more weapons at their disposal including antitank missiles that are capable of inflicting a lot of damage on israeli tanks so it's not a done deal that israel is going to go ahead with an operation but certainly the fact that the israeli army has admitted that it is considering such an operation has people here all on standby. fall asleep with their will to discuss what's

developing the region others told the professor how to read from your girls university professor thanks for being with us and this must be an intensely worrying time for palestinians in gaza right now we're still of course recovering as we mentioned there from what happened back in two thousand and eight. absolutely i mean three years ago the palestinians of gaza lost more than one thousand four hundred forty people ninety percent of whom were civilians including more than four hundred thirty four children and that was a time when we were threatened with the in the words of the israeli deputy defense minister then. we were threatened with a greater show of a greater holocaust of course if the if the the organizations the military organizations based in the gaza slim did not stop you know launching rockets against against israel and israel lived up lived up to its word launched its genocide that we're going to war against the palestinians of gaza and killed so many people and three years on we are still under that head of medic didley siege

that has been imposed on gaza since january two thousand and six when the palestinians of the gaza strip and the west bank went to the polling stations and voted for a party that is opposed to the so-called you know peace process i.e. the the peace process and i think now what what is happening right now is that israel has a different government a government that is considered by so many analysts to be the most fascist government in the state in the history of the state of israel we are talking about of a liberal man and binyamin netanyahu who are intending actually on the complete eradication and destruction of the gaza strip and so yes we are bracing ourselves for the worst times to come but we also on the other hand need to remember that there is a new world right now first new mubarak who was considered a great asset to the state of israel is out now syria there is there are some changes happening right now in syria to get duffy is out of the yemeni president is

out and therefore we are witnessing a new era in the arab world and i think that israel is confused as in a dilemma with to launch a new genocidal war against the palestinians of gaza and the gardeners of the reaction of the new world order just to stay and and wait. test the waters of the world without launching a massive war against gaza so following on what you say you're telling me basically hamas may have been bullied by what's been happening elsewhere in the arab world and it could began during support to counter a major israeli attack now it's more strength than it was back in two thousand and eight well as we speak right now myself and you mean the prime minister of the hamas government in gaza is on the tour in the arab world he has been received by the secretary general of the arab league dr nabil elaraby he has been received by ministers and the prime minister even of egypt and he is he was in sudan yesterday received by the sudanese president and he would be on his way to qatar and other

gulf countries in other words how mass has gained actually more political momentum in the arab world of course with the winning of the islamic you know movements in egypt in tunisia and of course and libya so yes how how mass has gained much much more momentum but at the same time we need to remember israel is being isolated right now because of the growing momentum of the b. the campaign the book called divestment and sanctions and what we are saying is that right now we are witnessing to our south african moment in palestine exactly like what happened against apartheid south south africa in the late eighty's when they appeared system was isolated and ultimately it's come to that international pressure and accepted one person one vote where everybody in south africa went to the polling station and voted no samantha let mandela as the first black president of multi-generational south africa and i think that with the arab spring and with the spread of the be the culture all over the world this is where we are hitting

right now and that is why is that is in a limbo prefer suggest very brave people go thirty seconds how would any moves against against a must be supported from the public of israel would they get support they support their government. well exactly if you go back to two thousand and eight when they launched its massacre of his the palestinians of gaza ninety four percent of the is the only public supported them a second and palestinians of gaza and i think the same percentage also voted for binyamin netanyahu and i think not lebanon and yes there the israeli government will have the support of the is there any public thank you being on the program much appreciated professor gaza based expert on the israeli palestinian conflict go to get your expert thoughts on that well we've got more opinion more reports on the timeline of the guards are offensive three years ago on our website if you want to refresh yourself or there's also information there you can find out about the latest on the ongoing israeli palestinian conflict developing it's at r.t.

dot com. league observers in syria have split into groups now and they're heading into three more uprising hotspots they've already been to the flashpoint city of homs where they found quote nothing frightening meanwhile opposition activists in syria suggest that over thirty people were killed by security forces on thursday middle east expert eric elie told me he doubts their admission will yield any plausible results. you'll see the syrians look in the monitors to show that they're . all thinking they'd find nothing but believe has been one of the most fair to call the most asians in the arab world for a long long time doing nothing. doing nothing to prevent the war on iraq and now it's being used as an engineer by the west so the arab leaders to seriously so we shall see what happens if it. well i can let you know that r.t.

spoke exclusively to russia's u.n. ambassador who told us that carrying out promised reforms may be too difficult for the assad regime while it's caught up in a civil war with extremists involved now spoke vitaly churkin at length for half an hour yes they've got full version of that coming up few little bit later this hour here's a quick preview. there was a crisis all sorts of extremist terrorist elements show up for instance several days ago there was a horrible terrorist attack in damascus and the day before that the minister of defense of lebanon said that they detected some al-qaeda groups are moving into syria from from lebanon so i wouldn't be surprised that you know some terrorist elements from libya or other places found their way to syria some reforms were announced or. some of them were pretty far reaching would you expect that those real reforms can be implemented in a situation where the crisis is sort of teetering on the brink of civil war even

under normal circumstances in any country forms of such magnitude on all these agreements but i mean the point i'm trying to make is that the sooner the crisis is the military clashes stop in a better position the international community will be to demand the syrian authorities move along the reform track as quickly as possible. the threats are being ramped up over a vital oil shipping route which iran is threatening to block to runs holding large scale war games in neutral waters near the strait of hormuz the u.s. says its own contingent in the region to mainly to ensure passage remains free bring us up to date on this moving story garniture can she's now in d.c. studio hi there garny what is america's response to iran's latest moves again today . well kevin reacting to iran's warning the u.s.

said no such disruption would be tolerated and that the u.s. fifth fleet that's based in the gulf would ensure that doesn't happen the strait of hormuz links to golf and the oil producing states of bahrain kuwait qatar saudi arabia and the united arab emirates to the indian ocean and that's about forty percent of the world's oil that's shipped on tankers by tankers and that that all passes through that strait it's a major oil artery and a potential cut off of might cost turmoil it would turmoil in the global oil market although a saudi official said that gulf nations would you know are ready to offset any loss of your rainy and crude from the statement that you get you get here in washington you get a sense that washington things iran is bluffing because there have been such threats before but iran's finds itself in a very difficult situation right now where it's a livelihood basically is in danger of the u.s. congress passed a bill that would dramatically complicate transactions three iran's central bank

european and asian nations import the iranian oil and use its central bank for those transactions and president obama has yet to sign that bill that's going to be a severe blow to the iranian economy you can imagine around forty eight around excuse me around eighty percent of its revenues you know depend on crude sales e.u. ministers said a decision on boycott of iranian oil will be made to in the coming weeks so iranians sense that the west is now targeting their livelihood and the threats that are coming from iran's indicate that it's ready to take action to protect their interests if it did kick off at this flashpoint what all the dangers for the region indeed the rest of the world other than the economic side of it. well kevin this could get very serious your i mean we all remember the suez crisis in one thousand nine hundred fifty six nearly started a third world war iranians feel pretty much cornered right now the west says you

know they will have to it will have to do. just has to give up its nuclear program iran says they're not doing anything wrong by pursuing a peaceful nuclear program for civilian purposes and that rather wait here in washington is very harsh against iran and the u.s. spy drone shot down by the iranians and before that washington accusing iran of plotting to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s. and blow up the u.s. really a saudi embassy in washington those were just some of the most recent episodes it all adds up and creates a lot of tension now if something happens over that strays strait of hormuz this could wrap into an all out war that you know you must go to. certain over doesn't cover it up but of course very much across developments with your help thanks brings up to date from washington d.c. let's get some more comments on it now to share in chauffeured a researcher at the school of oriental and african studies in london

a representative of the campaign against sanctions of military intervention in iran and sharon thanks ever so much for being with us so if you heard our correspondent there in washington d.c. will pick up on some of that again making threats like we've been hearing for performing a large scale military exercise isn't to run concerned it's going to be seen as a provocateur the moment. well as your correspondent rightly mentioned iran said that if an oil embargo is imposed against iran and the iranian livelihood is economy is threatened then iran would take. considerable measures to respond to that so that is not provocation but in terms of real provocation i think that what is provocative is the united states sending is warships thousands of miles away from his homeland into the persian gulf and also waging wars surrounding iran with wars in iraq in afghanistan military bases all around iran

that is provocative and iran is trying to defend this and nationals are vanity and territorial integrity we heard our correspondent there say that her take was that america was basically saying this is a bluff. however of course it is not bluff experts who said the military conflict in the gulf is a threat to world peace could it escalate to the. well of course it could we can remember in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight when there was a war between iran and iraq saddam hussein invaded iran with the help of united states and other western countries the united states it's a similar kind of warship shot down iranian passenger flight over iran's territorial waters and killed all its. passengers who were all civilians and that it. took rain in. four f.

fourteen tomcats fighters so you can see that if pensions escalate this mismanagement and threats can also has collate and we can be find ourselves in a very bad situation at this and to everything that your correspondent said about the rising oil prices and the very dire economic situation globally and not just in the u.s. or in europe i think this isn't the first time iran's very restricted to disillusion made a threat to block the strait of hormuz back in two thousand and eight which again we referred to just now washington ben thompson would be considered an act of war one of the perils primos happening now what happened. well now we see that they are we are seeing some unchristian then the aggressive measures coming from the west against iran for example. sanctions against iran central bank or threats of imposing an oil embargo against iran which according to many

politicians including some american politicians for example the candidate ron paul said that this is an act of war in itself the russian foreign ministry said that this is a violation of international law and is a tool for regime change so we see that there isn't a further escalation of threats coming from the west specially from the u.s. against iran and if this stress escalate even further it seems to be like that develop iran's. actions will follow as the reactions to this threat sure if there should be a diplomatic solution here is some which side do you think must make the first concessions is it to be to rubber be more open about its nuclear program maybe the in the u.s. by easing their drive to impose these crippling sanctions who should blink first if you like. well of course all sides should realize that while we are in it's a lose lose completely lose lose situation everybody is going to lose from this except for some military industrial complex in the in the best spots if there is

a diplomatic solution we have a very good nuclear deal between iran turkey and brazil which based on vision iran sends its most of his lawyers to raney and for nuclear fuel rods which you all really needs for its tehran research reactor for diagnosis of. complicated diseases like cancer for more than eight hundred thousand patients so that pill could be revived president obama first supported it in two thousand and ten in his letters to leaders of brazil and turkey and then backtracked in the security council impose more sanctions on iran so there should be more confrontation there should be participation and one more thing i want to mention is that there were in the united states has intervened in the region it has always brought death and destruction now maybe is a chance that the united states comes and facilitates negotiations with iran and participate cooperate in iran's nuclear program will be in our schools the new year

would make sure and show friday from the school of oriental and african studies thank you for your input to the program today. let me update you on a developing story bringing over the last hour reporting a fire that engulfed a nuclear submarine of the dockyard near the northwest russian coast well the good news there is that it's now been put out let's get across the latest because one minute most thought to be serious such as he is going off to cross this story one point just how bad was this fire. while it actually seems to be pretty bad but i think this is the first perfect example of the piece where speculation has to be divided from official information since our morning to reports coming from the locals they saw huge clouds of smoke rising from the ground and all the way to the skies well i'm already said that they had the fire under control although. the fall off these nuclear submarine was on fire in the dark around and they didn't fall on there any of your mobile from nearby those also tells you that you eat and

they mediately said that there's no threat to their health and that the levels of radioactivity are within the norm just to give you some background this submarine was being repaired at a dark here in the city of movements in northern russia and that's where caught on fire and our forty's and specifically the emergencies ministry they tried to fight it all from the ground from the skies and from water while the succeeded in the end in fact b.c.c. that quite quickly they even were saying that if they would not be able to put out this fire that we would have to do with what we've seen to the summary but since it was go it was being repaired it wasn't on no weapons on board but although there was and still is a nuclear reactor that's always the worry is no so if you hear the word nuclear hear the word fire that that's why you break up a bit it's good to know then that the fire according to the authorities at least has been put out there was there any news of any casualties was anyone heard or

they got no information on that and what do and why was a nuclear submarine base there. well fortunately nobody got hurt in this incident despite all these rumors of huge cloud of small very big fire. the summary was there because it was being repaired i guess it was just. a regular repair job being done to the submarine but actually we're talking about a pretty big vessel this is it's named that you can see in the book it's a strategic nuclear submarine it's around one hundred seventy meters long which is over five hundred feet long and it was being repaired in that dark but just in the spring and summer it's to force us three to four in the navy drills actually an intercontinental ballistic missile a successful launch from it and just tell you a bit more about it it's part of these six such submarines russia's northern fleet

and usually they're on the sixty the intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on them so thankfully this was not the case and while everything went smoothly no casualties nobody got very good to go girls got a bit more news israeli authorities reporting that at the time the actual reactor was shut down as well that was going to be powering that ship so again another bit of good news all right thanks ever so much for updating us appreciate it. where you are revisiting the key moments which show how the world is ending twenty eleven very differently to how it began to see through the eyes of artes global correspondents now let's look back to august next year wait a whole month for britain not least of all because it was shaken by the worst unrest in decades as thousands of rioters rampaged through key cities correspondent laura smith witnessed the chaos that left an indelible mark on the country.

we first realised what a big story this was going to be on the night of the seventh of august there had been localized just says on saturday the six but we were tracking the news and we literally couldn't believe what we were hearing we decided that this was a story that we had to go and. we went initially to the retail park and field where we couldn't see anything it was already dark it was quite late. and then all of a sudden out of the darkness came a group of around two hundred youths running across the retail dressed mainly in black colors with hooded top so and so you couldn't see their faces and gradually

we realised they were smashing everything they could find. for me as a journalist it was an incredible story we were out on the streets every night wearing what i've come to call my riot gear a black jacket with everything i need in the pocket so that i can get away quickly if necessary it's an uneasy relationship. these. between the people who was the police and it's people say state should know. we really felt two of the nights the whole of london was on fire. you would see you would arrive assist us in the area and you'd be able to see the flames on the smoke rising from two streets away and know that the writers had set fire to a car or broken into a shop and set fire to it or even on one occasion they set fire to an enormous

coffin. house. arrest breads to different parts of love and. around london following it as it happens. almost anywhere that you went in the mall. of london there was some form of new say we went round and also days areas to have a look at what was going on and there was streets that were just completely no go areas no certainly for ordinary people but it seemed for the police as well we were talking to the police and it was clear from what they were saying that they had no idea what to do about the situation they just didn't know what to do there were looks of. they eventually settled on certainly for those two nights was. just to show that presence and then running away again really purely running away

and it wasn't until the third or fourth night that they really got into game and elements of control. on the second off to noon we went to hackney west some of the worst unrest was taking place and it was literally shut down. the police were not really less than anyone through they had surrounded the town center and when you go into the town we still people and just smashing into shops and grabbing whatever they could. but not just young people adults as well. as darkness just just. the other frightening thing was the effects that it had on society if you had talked to people two weeks before the riots about whether bringing in the mill millet tree to take control of the streets was a good idea everybody would have said no it's quite a liberal society when you get down to it but the people i spoke to during the

riots. and immediately after genuinely felt that bringing in the army would have been a good idea and that using water cannon on the streets of london and other cities which it would have sorted the problem of out immediately so people became very draconian jaring those times very sort of repressive and they would have supported the government to bring in the army to sort the problem out. the studies are being done now into why the riots happened and a variety of reasons have been put forward maybe it's to bad relationship with the police in these impoverished areas particularly amongst the black youths who say that they are stopped and searched by the police sometimes multiple times a day for having done nothing some people say that's because young people in england particularly feel that they have no prospects there's no jobs for them unemployment amongst young people is running at twenty five percent now they've got no hope for the future. those two things remain true and so therefore i see no

reason why this kind of thing wouldn't happen again. laura smith there's more to come on the world's big events of the year from our reporters who were there and if you missed any of the series as well join you're able to watch as well online. just after twenty nine minutes past the. very shortly as promised exclusive interview with. the u.n. that's all for a quick look at this hour's top stories in forty five seconds from the.

lines palestinians face a new year nightmare israel wants another deadly onslaught against. hitting the region with strikes. iran says it's ready to strike ships. following its threats to block passage of the west insists on tough sanctions. also firefighters and put out a blaze on a nuclear submarine of a dockyard in northern russia it happened when scaffolding around the vessel called .