eleven pm here in moscow this new year's day will welcome to you if you just take our top story u.s. president barack obama welcomed in the new year by signing into law a tough new set of sanctions for iran and they were now doing business with central bank will face punishment thanks to the new measures directly targeted will financial sector the move comes as a time of heightened tension over iran's program and the threat of sanctions is already seen around the block off a key oil export route in response to the situation is iran's plan to test long range missiles during naval drills of the gulf that's led u.s. warships being sent to the area reza marashi of the independent lobby group the national radio american council told us the lack of diplomatic ties between the two countries is increasing the danger of a hostile. calling the strait of hormuz for the iranian government would be the equivalent of cutting off its nose to spite its face it's heavily heavily reliant on its on its income from oil exports the vast majority of which go through the

strait that being said just because it's something that the iranian government doesn't want to do it doesn't necessarily mean that it's something that it's want to have pressure increases to the point where iran is backed into a corner to governments that haven't been communicating for over three decades and when you don't have direct channels of communication that increases the likelihood of miscalculations and misperceptions and it reinforces a cycle of escalation in conflict and it increases the likelihood that you can you can take actions that might not be in accordance even with your own interests and rather than governments controlling the conflict the conflict begins to control the governments and we end up with an outcome that i think both parties independently would seek to avoid. to syria now where violence began in march has spilled over into the new year arab league observers on a mission to the country of warned about is against cracking down on protesters at least thirteen were reportedly killed in the past day despite efforts to oversee the implementation of a peace plan an advisory group now linked to the arab league has called for

observers to pull out claiming the mission is distracting attention from the ongoing crackdown devices non-binding stay in syria for at least three more weeks let's get some thoughts about this more insight from universal peace federation dr mayer saloon is in beirut for us thanks for taking the time to be with our. just mentioned there over the news arab league observers although they've only been in syria less than a week now being advised maybe to pull out how is that likely to affect what they're doing. well it will affect what they're doing eventually i mean hardly enough that they should withdraw but the keys i mean the arab league the official arab league executives and top the chairman let's see no deal allowed to be will ask them to withdraw i mean officially from syria but up to you know i would. in all intervention should be occupied by any regional state all any international

power would affect the monitoring crosses all independent supposedly observers being appointed by the arab league themselves know the situation inside syria the choreography was going to say you said supposedly there was going to pick up on that supposedly independent hearing criticism in the they are biased do you think they're biased the observers. i believe they are partly by as the as they are being affected totally by. the powers that see a regional such as qatar or major egyptian officials and international powers who are europeans even at the level of the european community level and the united states for sure know this international pressure to towards the observers will give them a bye is the bias starters they should not cover as independently as in of no if

they were to release any public statements or any statements towards the media like we've we are witnessing right now on the new t.v. to the people i mean this will affect hardish tarnish even the whole process and this will affect the transparency of the whole measures that say and the process itself by monitoring independently there is apparently enough let the one distance between the loyalists and the opposition is as such i mean as observers they have they have to be at one distance between the opposition as to the regime of bashar al assad and to the loyalists of his government dr biased or not is also the privilege istiklal headache there are only about fifty arab league observers in syria right now this post a lot more how are they going to cover such a large the just declare they going to cover such a large area to fulfill their mission alley monitors should there be to do the job properly. i think the numbers is to law i mean according to the provinces in the

major cities and major neighborhoods where clashes have been you know already inside syria no the whole process needs to be well covered i believe by the arab league themselves and then coordination this is what the amendment to that syria house of fish really from the arab league in coordination with the government of syria itself because in this case there will not be any sensitive response by either the parties actually on the ground and then we shall be trust and confidence in dealing or processing the whole actually monitoring process by those interviews so there shall be i mean enough cooperation and coordination between both parties i meant the government of syria and the arab league itself but on the political front when i hear you as well two leading opposition groups in syria have decided to unite their efforts which leverage the thing these groups would have to negotiate peace with damascus. world peace is highly i mean need the great though in the

mask is dialogue for sure between all you know involved the parties here whether they are oppositionist or loyalists to the government i believe this is as a piece of data that myself i urge all political parties actually inside syria to sit down once and for all for god's sake you know and for the people sake of syria and its future an economy for sure let them have a stance or at one point sit down together and discuss all the necessary movements that they shall pertti as soon as possible. actually unify and install if that is. to keep the republic of syria. is solidarity any closer as we head into a new year the u.s. and its allies including the slap sanctions on the massacres for cracking down on pace for protesters but of course the big question mark still remains about the free syrian army it's made up of military deserted fighting to bring down president assad's rule so it's not something because peaceful opposition is the west ill

turning a blind eye to the makeup of that opposition i think using a double standard by the u.s. or the european level with the syrian regime will create more and still corruption or chaotic movements by the regime itself and certain clashes will eventually take place inside syria what they ought to do is to not to plead blindsight like you've been mentioning it's true they have to use their both eyes and create a certain balance between all parties concerned i mean the regime and the opposition is and all the council that is being perpetrated from outside syria unfortunately and this is not inside syria land finally don't have a good review by the u.n. role here the security council been mulling draft resolutions on syria for months but they continue delays how's that affecting the ongoing situation in syria. well the u.n. has been playing a bit of

a we cruel sword for it should have been much more more influential actually according to the accidents and the military clashes are actually inside syria no the un is urging is pressuring but is not taking the leading role such as the u.s. or the europeans and even the russians let's say the russians have been dealing with syria independently independently and of an as a as a friend as an ally also towards the syrian regime now what we need to have is a certain balance between superpowers here in order to create a certain. a certain angle or a certain dollar for an open dialogue between all parties concerned i do not believe that the arms and the and the military clashes will eventually solve the problems of social economic and political crisis inside syria today only dialogue and only peaceful movements thank you for your thoughts on a progress appreciated there live from beirut dr mayer salute appreciate it.

another arab country libya still recovering from the brutal civil war that toppled colonel gadhafi last year and now while there are signs of stability tensions are rising between the tribes and militias that fought together against the regime that is xander boyko far this report from tripoli tripoli but earlier in the week. flying high but still running low almost two months after the lifting of a no fly zone over tripoli the city's airport operates far below its capacity to the passenger traffic keeps increasing every month as more and more adeline's approaching tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with visitors a feller's have already been serviced and more expected to follow in the coming months but while flight controllers and customs officials are back of their desks it's still the militia who call the shots here and the rebels themselves admit that the situation is still way to trouble and to cede control to civilian authorities

they're no longer flashing their guns to get make it very clear who is in control here the rebel brigade from the western cd of the captured the airport in late august as the rebels over on the capital the control of this key facility how the town with a population of some fifty thousand or rise to national prominence since then does in time militia has successfully styled itself as the state guards of libya's future the sword for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one and same person. now we have a historic mission to overcome the difficulties of the transitional period we can build a new country and that. is one of the top guns in tripoli these days primarily a colonel in the good after his army he still keeps the good office army cap in his office his subordinates are now holding the deposed libyan leader's son safe will

islam. we are against any dictator but if history repeats itself we will wage a war but we will let the rule of law decide his fate. in ghazi zintan misrata these libyan c.d.'s one after another rose against gadhafi as regime . their militias now represent and the real axis of power in the country as their various and their legacy and agendas as this tribes on the only base new tricolor the prospect of civil war in libya is always there and it has been there but has been effectively mastered by the very strong centralized rule of the gadhafi regime but of course now that that has been destabilized we see this all of the tensions there in the fabric of libyan society coming to the fore another militia commander in charge of tripoli rebels is preparing for an interview it's been a month since he changed his military fatigues for

a business suit abdullah maker is now trying to transform rebels under his command into a political force a laptop has replaced every rifle as his main tool internet is his new front line of the armed assistant at his door is a sign that the political process is still in its very early stages but. we've seen many examples in the past when people's revolutions were stolen and we are very clear that our struggle is far from over gadhafi may still come back in some other shape or form and in that case we'll have to take up our weapons and defend our revolution. with guns are still a common side on the streets of tripoli of their prevalence has visibly decreased the city's covered with posters calling on the rebels to turn them in the design element of militias has so far failed to translate into national reconciliation the competition among various brigades may have become less visible but not less in

towns and the nato alliance would like to build up. on any division within the groups or the parties that they have revolutionised against the qaddafi regime and according to my own understanding they would like to see certain provinces being divided inside the state of libya back in the arrival hall is in town rebels are screening passengers bags on to the posters laughed from the old regime to get out his golden framed portrait that madness at the airport a year ago is gone hatred of him and have glued the libyan society for several months if he's killing the former units he appears to have died as well actually the work of art see tripoli. to help here this year in brief we take a look back in just a few of the momentous stories that made headlines in twenty eleven around the world. in egypt pro-democracy protesters held a candlelight vigil in cairo's tahrir square on new year's eve in memory of those

killed during the uprising that ousted hosni mubarak meantime the u.s. says egypt's current rulers have agreed to hold raids on pro-democracy rights groups earlier this week soldiers and police stormed offices of non-governmental organizations including some funded by washington documents and computers were seized as part of investigations into the foreign funding of organizations the groups accuse the ruling military views of the same tactics of repression as the mubarak regime foreign policy on this whole trouble shamu told me thinks the generals want to make sure they hold on to power and people won't stop until they stop. this is part of the military the supreme council on armed forces way of making sure the revolution basically small due to the the type of government they want because that's those are the same generals by the way who work for mubarak. so that's really basically his forte of that

struggle is going to good use in going to go forward or is that evolution going to be molded and some dude into some visit role to the military but really the military has to step aside and let the civilian government come to power once the election are held and the elections should be held soonest possible they will not give up the power that easily but i think the egyptian people and you know in their house in general the mosque here and the rudd government and they have restored their dignity they were not following another military dictatorship and frankly i think all the evidence indicate that despite the sacrifices they have. around the world a brief first to nigeria where the country's leaders declared a state of emergency in areas hit by a wave of islamist attacks president goodluck jonathan borders with neighboring countries after a string of christmas day blasts which killed over forty he's vowed to crush boko haram militants who claimed responsibility violence has continued since churches

throughout the country were first attacked a week ago tens of thousands of homes now fearing further conflict. south sudan's government is sending army and police to an area at the center of a violent tribal conflict the town of people was attacked by thousands of fighters from rival tribes who taught buildings stole lives for schools to flee un troops deployed in the region run able to enforce security in recent months ethnic infighting caused by cattle rustling has left about a thousand people dead. us president barack obama signed into effect a mall which means that any person could be detained indefinitely without charge the major defense bill is aimed at dealing with terrorist suspects and it comes with a massive six hundred sixty two billion dollar price tag too but critics say the military will now have more authority to interrogate people deny them the basic constitutional rights. not much new year cheer from economists

predicting a return to recession in europe for twenty twelve in fact leaders use the new year messages to warn of hard times ahead in their countries german chancellor angela merkel said europe was facing its most severe test decades while french president sarkozy's warned that the debt crisis blanketing the continent was far from over many governments have been forced to slash their spending to meet debt obligations as economic growth of europe's been a standstill some analysts believe that the e.u. leaders attempts at keeping the eurozone together is only deepening the crisis. you peon leaders are trying to shore up the eurozone by having great agrees of centralization and more having countries like france and germany have the final say in a sense over the budgets of those e.u. member states that have excessive body deficit but that really isn't the answer to the problems what's really needed is either a massive injection of cash into countries like greece and italy to shore up their

economies was another option would of course to recognize that the single currency has hurt competitiveness in many nations of the eurozone so really there's a number of options either to transfer funds from the north to the struggling south or course have an orderly break up of the eurozone. robert oulds now russia's welcome twenty twelve in with a bag of being the world's biggest country course is celebrated you had nine times as you can see all of them out thanks to the times the country's far east kicked it all off for the festivities and russia's westernmost point the baltic city of kaliningrad finished off the festivities while hundreds gathered at moscow's red square as well of course as is tradition to toast in the new year the world was treated to a mass celebration from fireworks all over the globe let's take a look at me with out there we go thousands packed times square for the ceremonial ball dropping at midnight a stroller for a great show as usual to among the first countries to open its doors to the new year with glittering fireworks over sydney harbor bridge asia picked up the baton

with spectacular shows across the region dubai particularly hundreds they gathered at the world's tallest building to watch the mating and lumination display there it goes millions of revelers also packed into cities all over europe most notably london as well because that's the london i also saw fireworks a couple called not me before actually coming out from big ben there was a really spectacular show if you saw it at least here there's big bed in the distance there's a close up shot spectacular celebration sweeping the globe artie's in the snow a look back at what made twenty eleven. two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most eventful year in years the killing of bin ladin after a decade long manhunt libya's good to have free after months of nato bombing and the death of north korea's kim jong il don't even begin to illustrate twenty eleven . times shows the protester as person of the year and although there were different slogans signs and

demands of solutions twenty eleven will ultimately be remembered as the year people came out onto the streets. the arab spring bloomed into a european summer which harvested an american autumn from cairo to california moscow to madrid to harir to occupy global rallies shared common themes but if one thing stood out in the middle east and north africa alone it was protests that lead down one road regime change. tunisia and egypt got rid of their dictators without war but libya was not so lucky nato and allies began a humanitarian mission with a fierce bombing campaign the critics called it a mislabeled invasion to take down khadafi for benefits the only reason they're interested in with libya is about the oil you hear anybody screaming and yelling

about all those people last week that were killed in the ivory coast or whose sudan gadhafi was brutally killed in october as the world watched the graphic video go viral thousands of civilians were killed over months of bombing and that's twenty twelve neared syria found itself in a similar set up for intervention russia and china fearing a repeat of the situation in libya a civil war intensifies this is a wreck it's the fact that the rhetoric clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russia and china on the one you know on the other side much more david was in libya protests continue in egypt libya syria and many more arab countries as the year ends. the battle to save the drowning single currency left board rooms and banks in twenty eleven and flooded the streets of europe most commonly and violently in athens greek debt

became the centerpiece of the euro crisis protests raged against desperate austerity cuts to qualify for i.m.f. bailout germany and france are primed for influence in the debt ridden so i think we will see an exit of greece given the situation in which the greek economy find itself has become really unavoidable draining the economy of big brother germany can't go on forever greece and italy are now led by on a lark to brussels back technocrat leaders who are trying to cope the crisis coming into a new year critics say twenty eleven bell outs or bust was the beginning of the end for the single european currency there's every chance the euro is going to crash. london burned for days in the summer of twenty eleven what began as a peaceful protests demanding justice over the death of a twenty nine year old man who was shot by police turned into days of riots and

left authorities helpless talks of possibly bringing out the military bars to shops were looted car set on fire and windows smashed across the u.k. the police the job center all the banks everything that's happening the recession you know there's a lot of anger about that social experts also through a felt multicultural program and racism into the mix you know stop and so. on a sense of place a certain institutional young people probably institutionally racist as well the riots faded but the problems are still passing some say only a spark is needed to set the public off again. occupy wall street became a household name in the u.s. and around the world when the protests began in september if you were talking about

mainstream media stayed silent until seven hundred people were arrested on the brooklyn bridge and that was truly based in the end of his fruits of american politics the crowd is easy since. they are at this organize they look funny what are they protesting nobody seems to know but negative coverage didn't stop us from spreading from small towns to huge ports occupied was not going anywhere rates on campus heavyhanded police and burning pepper spray only helped occupy grow and read their message of the need for economic equality and an end to corporate greed their slogan became we are the ninety nine percent and they the rich the one percent from oakland to boston the more people occupied the more brutality became more evident by was.

what you're doing with your. right our police forces have been militarized they are working more in cooperation with the pentagon they're buying and being given military surplus to quit meant that has been kind of designed for use in war and this is something that. needs to treating the public as you would treat an enemy a public that has promised to come out in full force in twenty twelve. parliamentary elections were the push behind tens of thousands of people coming out onto the streets of moscow after allegations the december duma vote was raked by i the protest at least fifty thousand strong the largest in recent history call for free and fair elections and remains peaceful ruling party united russia lost popularity in the vote with official results putting their numbers at almost fifty

percent but experts say a sixteen percent drop from two thousand and seven should be taken as a warning i think a lot of people wanted to punish. russia for having power for so long maybe not doing everything they could protest organized by vast groups of opposition members are set to continue in twenty twelve next year russia along with the u.s. and france holds presidential elections which makes it a safe bet people will be out on the streets in twenty twelve in europe america and around the world and he's now a r.t. moscow. we've got much more on the events that shaped twenty eleven way to view and a website called there also see how the world celebrates the arrival of twenty twelve we've got some spectacular footage of new year's celebration the composer put it all together on a website that was great fireworks around the world also on line for us the end of the year so u.s. troops way farewell to iraq call me exposed the implications and consequences of

nine years of conflict and also online tonight a look at the uprising the demos the disasters of twenty eleven the same for the eyes of our correspondents interesting series you brought you last week didn't catch it all the testimonies online take. witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and seven on our t.v. . in a few minutes we invite you to explore the remotest parts of siberia with us at our table but not before i've been back to update the headlines for you just ahead here on r.t. . the

least exposed because. you are touched by. surrounded by steve. case paintings on display for thousands of years.

eastern something beyond the tiger. see. why from moscow this is our t. our top stories tonight president obama signed a bill which imposes new tougher sanctions on iran over its disputed nuclear. program it's despite to run its threats to shut off a key oil supply route in the gulf was tension between the two countries continues to build. the syrian regime crackdown on demonstrators carries on unabated forcing our oblique observers now to want to mask is to rein in the violence the monitors are overseeing the implementation of the peace that president assad agreed to. the world rings in twenty twelve with a bag with.