this isn't just about nuclear weapons if it were about nuclear weapons in the middle east then the united states would have a bone to pick with israel which is the only power in the middle east which actually possesses nuclear weapons it's not about that that's the cause of spare life but the reason for this continued conflict is because the american administration simply can't live with an iran which has as much regional power as it has at the moment you see the americans when they look at the iranian regime they see its links with syria they see it links with hamas they see its links with hezbollah and this is a challenge to american power in an absolutely critical economically critical geopolitically critical area of the globe and it's that which is the sticking point for the american ministration in my view there are some people hawks in israel hawks in the united states who want to stop all this militarily and it does seem to me that once we begin on the process of implementing sanctions of iran responding to the sanctions that there will be calls further down the road for direct military conflict and that in this case is even more dangerous than it was in the case of

iraq so it's to from here go to a political science professor from paris west university who says that by isolating iran western leaders are trying to improve their political standing ignoring the economic dangers it spells. from an economic point of view it is not wise but you know from a political point of view this is grandstanding and political. coming from leaders who are facing elections obama in the us and obama has to care very tough on iran because it is accused by the republicans are being soft on iran and so cozy who is quite discredited in crans is trying to score a success so trying to bash iran something good for political reasons for this readers on the domestic stage it can only of course if i learn prices continue to raise it would be very bad for the entire global economy i think the sanctions are likely to affect european countries as well and in fact i read that mario drag is

asking for a delay for it to live because iran owes it deliver lot of money so maybe the sanctions are not going to happen in the way they were announced today but it would be very bad for european economies no doubt it would also have an impact on the rand but iran has other possibilities the most obvious one is of course selling to china. we'd like to hear your opinions on the story head to our forum section of our website our teeth or confidence to get involved is just a few of the viewpoints about what you think is going to happen maybe one viewer telling us the world still in a financial crisis which george bush and tony blair left us with maybe russia and china will throw their weight forward to stop an attack on iran one thought another opinion iran will not dare to hamper all exports to start a war in the middle east simply because it will be razed to the ground goes on to say europe and america can easily imposing new sanctions on iran for the good of all people on earth just one more thought for now quote just hope at least one side

of this conflict will be sensible and push the other towards normal out brackets which ultimately means nuclear war the us is playing with fire putting pressure on iran just a few thoughts there tonight if you want to know if you think this will go to form section of the sea or opinions also have your say. this is r.t. from moscow coming up in the program shifting priorities at the pentagon. the u.s. on bail to its new military strategy ground wars are now seen as passe ending your kind of warfare is indoors i'll tell you more about it as i come back in just a few minutes. prosecutors in the trial of ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak called for death by hanging for him and his closest associates they justified the request by arguing that mubarak was personally responsible for every protest to death during the country's revolution the prosecutor went on to claim that quote

retribution is the solution for the eighty three year olds currently suffering severe health problems it was carried into the hearing on a stretcher radio host and author stephen leatherman told us he believes the trials merely a diversion from the continuing brutality against protesters in the country. this is a distraction this is to do. your believing . for each in their own trying to absolve themselves of the process things are worse now one of the military. know also. people running the country to say more closely allied with love there are used to seeing people because all the grievances that people are into i think the protests will go on people all the violence will continue to struggle there's a long way to go. meanwhile in syria over five hundred fifty prisoners involved the

anti regime uprising there have been released according to state t.v. it comes as officials say the government's pulled heavy weapons and tanks from civilian areas so the activists previously said was true opposition groups also accused the massacres of misleading the league's observers by taking into areas loyal to the government as pressure builds up syrian authorities the country's foreign ministry slammed the u.s. for interfering so after washington sent an envoy to the arab league for talks on the latest developments beirut based political analyst and journalist author of when a shabby says league observers around the heavy western pressure. the arab observers that have been. sent to syria from the arab league in cairo have been working for the past week and additional numbers of observers entering syria they are under a lot of pressure apparently there are some american pressure there are pressures by some arab countries that are pro-american on the go servers to actually like the

way they will draft their reports these observers the syrian officials have been given the observers access to all locations in syria today the observations are visiting the prison in that. they have access to police stations they have access to different localities even in the different neighborhoods where there was a lot of tension now let's hold. they will let this commission do its job independently and will make the truth come out and the truth i think is that there are. gunmen shooting at the army there are some groups of gunmen who are creating chaos in syria and now they are profiting from the movement it's such a big shame that some western powers and some fallen intervention in syrian affairs is using these people and using the demands of these people to reach political

objectives and that's a very destructive move on the part of the united states and its allies in the region barack obama has announced a new road for the u.s. military with an emphasis on making the military leaner and cheaper the plan calls on the armed forces to abandon their ability to fight two simple taney as land wars and we shift focus on stumping the military superiority across asia or the pacific coast but i got a teacher can score more on this. the new strategy is to move away from ground wars from long term stability operations to mobile wars where the u.s. can as we don't put out a put it shift and deploy forces to fight any enemy anywhere they said they're going to invest heavily in new capabilities in drone scene space technologies to give the u.s. military this whole new shape which is the defense secretary said it will be nothing like the cold war or the post cold war military meaning they are moving away from ground wars told words air wars toward the intelligence war so to speak

of us as pull troops out of iraq would feel like thousands of contractors behind president obama said it was draw all day for u.s. forces in afghanistan which is due in twenty fourteen but winding down the decade of being conclusive wars in iraq and afghanistan won't necessarily mean less wars but rather wars of a different shape shape that was outlined to us this morning the us is already fighting this new kind of warfare on multiple fronts in different countries with the use of air force with the use of drones levy is one example the whole country was destroyed mainly from air pakistan is another example not not a successful one though people in pakistan are infuriated by u.s. strikes we end up killing many civilians and as it happened recently their own pakistani soldiers over washington said the strike was a tragic mistake the u.s. will have to do a lot of damage control work to help the pakistani leadership overcome the humiliation so although the u.s.

administration looks at the old strategy of ground wars is passe and irrelevant in this day and age yet it's not clear what result the new strategy will bring. well as it will hold water. the world the crew of the. coalition are going to be with us this is a very extensive the details are still coming through to what we've heard some of the details what will it have on america's military. as you think first of all that's not one that. well i think that what the obama administration is doing is going back in fact they're not really going forward they're going back to the first decade after the collapse of the soviet union the end of the cold war during that time there was the air war against iraq the nine hundred ninety one air war that lasted forty two days the united states flew one hundred twenty thousand military sorties over iraq hundred thousand iraqis died there were about one hundred

american casualties in one thousand nine hundred ninety united states using nato dropped twenty three thousand bombs and missiles on yugoslavia in an attempt to annex and break away kosovo that was successful when they threatened a ground war to go with it in june one thousand nine hundred nine i think it's clear that the iraq invasion and occupation has been a disaster militarily and politically as has afghanistan the united states is retooling but again you should be careful to remember what obama said today our goal is not as we go into a quote leaner and meaner military anything other than the maintenance of u.s. military supremacy those are his own words it's a very ambitious project these but do you see him getting it through congress what he squeeze it through a congress that makes no secret of his hostility to the president. well part of the defense budget. the defense budget cuts are triggered by the failure of the

so-called super committee to come up with budget deficit reductions but i think this is also in keeping with what the pentagon wants the generals and admirals are not looking forward to another afghanistan or another iraq they have a different vision for maintaining military domination or military supremacy as they put it i think the obama administration is not going against the pentagon it's going with the pentagon and even though the republicans will demagogic we attacked their you democrats and obama for being weak on defense i think in fact this has the full support of the military establishment what about his staying power and have you seen plenty of broken promises before from guantanamo to the repeal of bush era tax cuts for the ultra wit ultra rich will he stay but you think this plan well there is no reason not to because this is not a progressive development this is not a step away from war this is not a step towards pacifism or a step towards a retreat from empire building it's actually the use of a military strategy that costs the american political leaders be they obama or

whoever takes his place afterwards last on the home front if there are fewer american casualties of all the bleeding is done on the other side of all of the destruction is done by those who are suffering the consequences of the air war they feel that there will be less antiwar sentiment at home so it's not a promise in the progressive direction so i think obama will be very comfortable with this analysis going to go does china how does the country likely to react when the u.s. has been the first to criticize beijing's growing military of the same notes announcing a plan which amounts to its military surrounding china. well indeed i think that what the obama administration and what the pentagon are doing and it and obama signaled that explicitly in his speech today where he he puts again the primacy of the turn towards asia which really is a turn against china i think they're looking forward to this competition and the

evolution of a possible cold war type scenario with china which again gives the pentagon a long term enemy which justifies gives rationale to the continued expansion of the us defense budget this does not cut the defense budget it only slows the projected growth of the defense budget so we're looking at trillions more in defense expenditures and a lot of it will be used to justify or justified as a pretext against the people's republic of china something very threatening to china you know looking. at he said the military budget will continue to grow will be at slower than before as you mentioned there until the u.s. quote gets its fiscal house in order what does that mean. well you know there's amazing levels of deficit the deficit level in the united states is now almost one hundred percent of g.n.p. it's up in the fifteen trillion dollar range even five years ago it was about sixty percent of those deficits are likely to continue the economy is still stuck there

are forty million who are unemployed or underemployed millions are facing foreclosures and home u.s. government budget deficit is a major major problem in a threat to the united states standing in the global market but nonetheless the primacy of the military industrial complex is in fact intact so if there's a budget shortfall you'll see what teachers laid off nurses laid off firefighters laid off but the pentagon will get more than its fair share final so what does it say about think patients of iraq and afghanistan is this reshuffle basically maybe an admission of expensive failure. i think we've lost the connection to washington d.c. the well we had a good crack of that interview thanks brian back if you can still hear me thanks for being on the program ok now with the market is debt debacle you might think that germany we should be bankrolling we block survival efforts would be most

concerned but among many people there is very different priorities these days not easy go because can offer ports on an interesting phenomenon the rise of the country's pirate part. it looks like an ordinary scene at one of the many bars in merlin except there is one thing which makes this party totally different from all the others the parties they must have gotten. out of germany that's right and this is an annual meeting of a political party and all these people or i'm only it's eighteen thousand members across germany like me treat was tired of the mainstream and i was really disappointed in. all this the same way. the faces of. the firefighters are different one of the key differences apart from the style in general is a software system called liquid feedback allowing ordinary germans the opportunity to propose policies online the pirate stand for more transparency and freedom on

the internet but when it comes to core issues like the economy and we don't have currently a stand on this crisis maybe we'll have the next federal convention but this wasn't a problem at the previous election for the berlin state problem and when the port authority managed to win nearly ninety percent of the vote securing fifteen seats most people who i talked to they say are just something to get something fresh to like because many germans believe that politics are crass to this time as the big players struggle with big economic and political issues but part party doesn't even have an official stance on the eurozone crisis or the arab spring nevertheless it continues gathering more supporters i mean a coincidence or an alarming signal stream politicians the free democrats party which is an go in merkel's federal coalition porter is the first to feel the change

of heart from voters that actually lost that berlin wall to along with another four local vaults across the country a mainstream politics is also losing attractiveness because. there's often too little distinction or distinct difference between different parties from different fields or areas sometimes it's even difficult to tell the difference between conservative and social democrat experts see the poor success tool use the internet and see it as the new driving force changing politics similar to the way it was in films way t.v. were half a century ago so unless the mainstream parties adapt and change their tactics it may not be too long before they could find themselves on the margins. or in germany let's check out a few other stories around the world now making headlines wave of explosions in iraq has killed seventy eight wounded more than one hundred the deadliest attack was in the country south area claimed the lives of at least forty four shia pilgrims in baghdad a bomb attached to a motorbike went off to

a bus station that was followed then by three more explosions the violence has raised fears insurgents are stepping up attacks after u.s. troops last month. former israeli prime minister ehud olmert spent indicted on corruption charges he's accused of taking bribes to promote the construction of housing projects it dates back to before his time office of what's already on trial for three and related counts of fraud and breach of trust but denies all the charges. new year is just a few days old but already there's another looming crisis for the eurozone with greece's threat to ditch the euro if the country doesn't get another bailout our interview next with economist audio looks ahead to the rest of twenty twelve what might lie in store for the european union.

well today we're joined by are you an economist author and professor at the erasmus university in rotterdam thanks very much for joining us today and the first question is in one thousand nine hundred one you wrote a newspaper article that a monetary union is not sustainable cannot be maintained without a political union after all that said we have the euro exists and there is a crisis can a political union save the euro at this point given the circumstances that it's in ideally. you could say that a political union could be formed service stronger fiscal. coordination but

also a social policy that would sort of supporting dural only in my system it is this europe will not be able to form such a political union there is too much. countries through different. countries are too attached to their own. different styles they have a hard time working together on international issues. think of iraq. and so it will be very hard to to have one address that foreigners can call haven't emerged he is there. that they will speak with one voice that are willing to give up their very seat in the united nations and the i.m.f. and they will speak in voice it is at the moment inconceivable. that britain will give up their rights but also france is not even thinking of giving that up.

germany will become too powerful there's simply too much that prevents europe from becoming one political union if you want german chancellor angela merkel she said that political union is already taking shape is it though and what is she basic that statement on well from where we are we are making progress in the in the sense of suggestions of because these are suggestions or plans to have stricter rules and to enforce those rules and her view and her reality that is working moving towards a political union but my critique is that what is lacking and what they're really needed for political union is also in sense of society i think is not example germany germany is a society how do we notice that germany is a society the part of germany for me east german states.

that are a real dire financial economic situation much worse than greece is right now do you notice anything about that in the rest of the world no because west germans take it as self as something self evident that they are to support the east german states there's massive transfers of money going from west to east to maintain a sense of. unity and a sense of stability and therefore a sense of society those conditions are not in place and not. can be imagined to be in place in europe at large the greek government spokesman said quote unquote greece faces an exit from the europe bloc unless it clinches the deal on a second one hundred thirty billion bailout from its international lenders how much do you think they really believe in this threat is it something the really think is

likely or are they using this rhetoric to gain support for pushing more sturdy measures i think that they usually know as an argument to enforce all kinds of cutbacks and to get popular consent which they need to in order to make the policy effective i think that greece still an overall desire to hold on to the euro and the reason is that the greeks are very suspicious of their government's. so they desperately want to have european government involved in their country because they're sort of a countervailing power against their own politicians the same story applies to you telling us. this is going to work i don't think so the best spreadsheet is to do what iceland did in argentina has gone in so many other people countries have done before is allowed to have their own currency devalue it so to make their country more cheaper and use that as sort of the beginning all the

. efforts to organize commercial activity that the neighbors then to sell when you talk to experts analysts and economists to even if they are euro skeptics is the situation seems to have gotten so complicated that they would also mention concessions that they're saying that there are two choices now one is being forced into more europe more integration otherwise the alternative is a financial crisis are these the only two options left. i do think that if if you give up you up the euro which i think you need to do we will face a so-called crisis all kinds of institutions will get into serious trouble banks will fill countries will look at the trouble unemployment. will feel faces serious depression i think all that will materialize but i also see is the possibility and that's what i would focus on of restructuring rethinking the way be doing things

rethink also the way we view the economy focus less on economic growth focus more on quality being more concerned the sustainability and so if you ask for that i see action an opportunity arising if we give up on ideal that i think is an old fashioned one. holds for the next stage are you a climber thanks very much for your time. one stream cascading from mom slopes the view is mesmerizing.

but this beauty brings deaths at a speed of more than four hundred kilometers her own. stepping down along. the close up team has been to die you stop birthplace to the most ambitious football club in the world. not all are cheap goes to the far east where the timber industry affects the legendary siberian tigers where the ancient native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. welcome to the club arms creature russia blows up.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are the day.

this is r t coming to you live from moscow it's kevin owen here this hour with a headline update the e.u. says it's agreed in principle an embargo on a radio while exports driving up fears now of a spike in oil prices a bit of trouble the global economy. addiction prosecutors demand death by hanging for eighty three year old former president hosni mubarak ousted from power by public protests last year it's already being seen as an attempt to divert public attention from criticism of the country's interim military rulers. plus barack obama unveils a new road map for a military overhaul aimed at stamping us

a pretty or a t. over asia or in the pacific at the same time traveling its deficit. complete change of direction next there's often the one clear danger for skiers or snowboarders not the threat of tons of snow hurtling towards you next them the story of the mountain thrill seekers who've stared death in the face we're talking avalanches here and lived to tell the tale. the cola peninsular in russia's north home to the q.b. in the massive mountain range this is the cold and windy bolshoi pass the snow here between one and a half and four meters deep avalanche safety specialists are probing the snow structure on one of the slopes. the top layer of snow drifts on a slope is unstable.