international news in comments live from moscow this is r.t. france's prized aaa credit rating could be about to be cut according to a senior eurozone source the speculation that standard and poor's might downgrade the country's status has sent world markets plunging after an optimistic start to the year let's now get more on this latest development from michael's point a senior who's in brussels so what will this downgrade bode for france and the euro zone if indeed it is true. well if indeed it is true the short answer to that is confidence investor confidence is the first thing that will be affected and then you'll have a downward spiral from then on based on those reports what we're seeing is a possible downgrade by one notch of france's credit rating as well as austria

germany the netherlands finland and luxembourg will keep their current standing now france in particular has been closely watching especially since it's played a very big role in the bailouts for greece or portugal and also it leaves through the european central bank making it's a banking system financial system very very vulnerable and it had got warnings from s. and p. for one as well as a lot of analysts that we've been talking to last year saying that a french downgrade is imminent now what this essentially means is it will certainly stall whatever plans they have for growth for the eurozone especially when that is the new focus now they're saying they're adding growth on top of a sturdy measures the european central bank said it had some positive news that there's a bit of stability but then if you have some news like this investor credibility investor confidence that is again is impacted but one more thing that i'd like to bring up is that european leaders of a lot of indignation for credit ratings agencies especially say you bring about some bad news at a time when they're trying to get out of this euro zone crisis now some leaders

have called credit ratings agencies as dangerous and of also in the past they've tried to limit the influence of s. and p. movies and other agencies in the financial markets now if you remember the credibility of such agencies have already come into question especially in two thousand and eight when they had fact some assets that were essentially considered junk and they didn't downgrade it until the very last moment so two sides here although it was expected that france will get this credit rating downgrade and although the credibility of the s. and p. and all the ratings agencies are coming into question still the effect that we will see here is investor confidence going and that will see another downward spiral. thanks very much indeed. live there with that update in brussels this is r t with you here in moscow we hope to get more reaction on this developing story there concerning france and its credit rating a little later here in the program in the meantime british prime minister david cameron has arrived in saudi arabia the u.k.'s biggest trade partner an arms market

in the middle east the gulf kingdom has been rattled by recent unrest in the arab world and has suppressed protests on home soil as well as elsewhere with ruthless force our correspondent laura smith has more. this is david cameron's first trip as prime minister he's going to be meeting with king abdullah and also crown prince naif while he's that will be discussing a huge range of issues really including the global economy energy security counterterrorism obviously the situation in syria and the situation in iran at the moment and this is an important relationship really for both parties saudi arabia is obviously the world's biggest oil exporter it's also got ninety five billion dollars or thereabouts invested in the u.k. and the u.k. and the middle east do about twenty three billion dollars worth of trade every year so a very very big partnership on both sides strong relationships with the saudis is very important to britain for advancing the ukase interests in the region saudi arabia

has recently been hugely roiled and rattled by various developments in the region including the overthrow of their longtime ally hosni mubarak and these recent tensions with iran and there is a certain amount of a lot of powerful opposition to this visit here in the u.k. a group of very powerful members of parliament the committee on export controls has questioned why licenses to saudi arabia for arms exports from the u.k. haven't been revoked in the wake of that trouble they have submitted questions and then publish those questions to the government on licensing of various equipment including bombs and components of vehicles and helicopters and also communications equipment and they're saying why given the unrest that we did see in saudi arabia it was very very little reported on what happened that license being revoked why would the u.k. government trust the assurances that the saudi the saudi powers have given them that about the end. of the weapons that they're being sold we saw violence last

year during the arab spring brutal suppression of protesters particularly from this shiite minority saudi. of course it's a sunni majority country there's a shiite minority they came out on the streets and were brutally suppressed and indeed just as late as thursday night we saw one processor killed and three wounded when the security forces opened fire with live ammunition on. the saudis the violence in iraq iran is has a shiite majority and in the region they represent the interests of minorities in other sunni majority countries like saudi arabia so iran is accusing them of meddling there's also an accusation by the u.s. that iran plotted to have the saudi ambassador to washington assassinated in october so there's all sorts of tension between saudi arabia and iran very worrying

but nevertheless the british government is looking at carrying on selling arms to saudi arabia and even up in those arms contracts so much of amount of money at stake for the u.k. government but also reputation according to this powerful group of lobbyists within the government. but no return to our top story this france's treasure triple a credit rating is reportedly facing a downgrade for the first time let's get more perspective on this possible downgrade and its consequences on executive director of the investment firm devi advisors patrick why not why did s. and p. if the reports are true choose to go ahead with this downgrade at this stage when you are actually seems to be achieving some sort of stability in its finances. well i think the problem is that there may be a semblance of stability at the top of the overall tree but realistically overall the e.u. has not done enough to actually settle their finances and the problem is looking at the big picture of it all i mean the situation in france as finances is that

they've basically been borrowing money on their every year budget since the mid one nine hundred seventy something to mr brace now who was in charge more or less just after the nixon white house ended i mean it's absolutely ludicrous and unfortunately all good things must come to an end today finally we see the s. and p. have decided or it looks as if they're going to decide that today is the day when they announce that ultimately the structural funding and remember what a rating agencies dolls' is looks forward and says harvey careful is this country or this person or this corporation going to be of paying their debts dharna line and in those senses it's like the straw that breaks the camel's back so don't buy it as a project don't buy what you just said about france's history the current situation you do then think this downgrade is deserved oh good grief yes it's been deserved frankly for several years i mean the french government has been economically

incontinent for the course of several decades they've lived in never never land they have no concept of how to run a reasonable economy in terms of not spending more money than they can afford and actually they've only been lucky because of economic growth in europe as a whole and the fact that there are economic powerhouses being struck to the ultimate power eyes of europe which is germany and that's why this is such an emotional moment of the european experiment because not everyone across the border in germany from france is going to be looking dining on their neighbors and saying why should we germany and up being alone amongst the very elite club of nations that have got their aaa the top grit rating and indeed. our french partners the germans are going to see it is no longer the perfect bride tarnished goods emotional but also extremely embarrassing them for psycho's the now that he's trying to lead the way with merkel to sort out the euro it's

a disaster for mr sarkozy but then again it's been coming since the start of his presidency it's been building for twenty five years and he did nothing about it so he's just as culpable as everybody else in this issue but of course it looks terrible because not he looks just like the man in the cartoon sees the man playing with the trin set while mrs mrs moon markel is actually making the decisions for europe going ahead the issue of motive leo this is that it fundamentally alters the balance of power within europe because france is not very very second degree and member of the top pairing in the european union and that leaves everything up to play for in the e.u. at the moment it also leads germany to hideously exposed and domestic politics in germany are advised to get very bloody from it as markets domestic policy politics of course for psycho's into where the presidential elections looming there in france look at this juncture i've been saying it for months i actually think that

mr sarkozy will be lucky to make it into the second round runoff of the presidential elections because generally speaking ok he's a very good poll or he's very very good on the campaign hoskins but i think france is just how they're not with him he's hyperactive but delivers nothing appeared alternately he will be the man who was the man who was there when france was dying grid as a major league economic part to being a second tier nation financially just finally you say this is disastrous what impact does this have on the future of the euro just finally on the future of the euro everything is now up for grabs again it emotionally destabilizes every single aspect of the euro because we still have no leadership in the euro zone we've got. situations like greece needing fourteen billion euro to refund in march alone the euro sits on the precipice tragically and that's a terrible thing for all our viewers throughout the world thank you very much indeed for your reaction to this latest development concerning france's credit

rating there this is r.t. coming to you twenty four hours a day from moscow just coming up to twelve minutes past the hour now other news for you a leaked report by the cia and other intelligence agencies is painted a gloomy picture of the situation in afghanistan the document says the country is in a stalemate despite u.s. army general optimistic outlook he warns that attempts to improve security have been undermined by corruption bad local government and taliban attacks from neighboring pakistan defense analysts from the brass tacks think tank says that pakistan is falling victim to u.s. military ambitions in the region. basically what the americans are now trying to do is their past the responsibility of their failures and of what imus found upon pakistan and this is all true corroborated from the fact that the nato supplies that pakistan has blocked in pakistan then the military hardware which is then i envision level hardware almost nine armored infantry divisions and their support

equipment supplies weapons and ammunition but are stuck in pakistan and the concern in pakistan army is that if the americans are talking of the drawing from of i understand they brought me a piece meal of a taliban then why would the americans need a bronze and one in one main battle tanks and almost nine armored infantry divisions. political hardliners in kosovo have announced their to block serbian trucks border crossings this weekend comes despite belgrade ongoing steps towards a compromise in the border issue is the country strives for membership and ethnic serbs in kosovo say they're finding themselves under more pressure from the albanian majority is now reports. the agony it's a checkpoint in northern kosovo may not look like an obvious triumph of peace but here is the same spot just two weeks ago since a summer e.u. backed kosovo albanians have tried to take control of the border between serbia and

kosovo the serb minority erected barricades in response they don't recognize kosovo independence saying that the albanian dominated province is still part of serbia now both sides have fire new agreed that the border will be jointly policed. anyone can now freely pass through this checkpoint when you're trumpeting this as a happy resolution but a standoff and while life here has become easier a lot of serbs are saying that once again they have given up too much for the compromise and have received no rush owen says about their long term future belgrade tried to talk serbs in kosovo down from the barricades so it was to join the e.u. which made a peaceful solution to the border issue a precondition but despite progress on the border belgrade's application for candidate status has been stalled in the latest round of talks with brussels some countries which did recognize and they feel that serbia is a week in just before they are getting the kind of a status that's why they are squeezing serbia exacta trying to achieve something

more than than usually are asking their candidates. just meters from the e.u. soldiers. are serbian militia many here have been engaged in conflict through the albanians since nine hundred ninety nine when an ethnic war divided their territory into they have been coming to this roadblock since july and say they will carry on despite a border deal along with why should we be happy to e.u. soldiers give us permission to use this road we never used to need permission to use it at all we do not trust the e.u. and albanians wanted it when a relative's and friends have been injured in this conflict for the past twelve years. those who gain the most from the border compromise are ordinary serbs blocked prevented many children from coming to school and their parents from buying even basic foodstuffs but normality is some distance away. so. there are constant warning sirens during the lessons these children are not growing

up normally their lives are defined by the conflict and this is true not just for children but for all serbs have been living in kosovo for twelve years while opening the roads is a step forward to serve status in. do not consider their own and that does not appear to want them remains as uncertain as ever. see. the u.s. has reportedly used a secret channel of communication to issue a direct warning to iran supremely many washington says that any move by to run to block oil trade through the crucial strait of hormuz would be met with an immediate response inspectors from the un's nuclear watchdog a shuttle to come to iran in two weeks to see if its nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons capability meanwhile the war of words between washington and tehran has been heated up by wednesday's assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientists all this as an embargo on iran's oil exports could

be imposed by the at the end of the month political analyst christophe horsetail has told me earlier that such sanctions would result in a deep political crisis. we can restore sure that in this situation where the government literally is dragging for survival of their banks of this system of the euro you know the little oil crisis in effect doesn't matter economical is so much . we are understand iran will have. to locate their oil on the world of the global market china will be eager to pick it up and there will be other countries opening up for european customers and saying ok you can take a little more from us so. you know in africa there are countries so we have a chance that this doesn't effect the economy so much but it affects the political climate which is already and the highest possible tension due to the european

crisis and this in fact can cost. you woman has died after setting herself on fire in the country's port town as facts is the fourth case of self-immolation there in eight days and comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the ousting of former president. author a middle east expert tariq ali joins me now from london to discuss the state of post revolution tunisia well i've got some figures here from a trauma center in the capital saying that indeed over one hundred people have set themselves alight since the end ben ali's regime what's behind this huge number of public displays of self harm. i think people are disappointed and angry that the almost only operation has not been successful they were prepared to wait they did to wait. for the general elections the field the new era politicians who've taken over have no social and economic program to benefit the poor and they're trying to revive

a popular movement by burning themselves to the most extreme form protest of the most courageous form of protest to set yourself a light to reaganite the conscience of the two in this year and nation but the way in which the armies feed operating that we this extremely unintelligent president mark good to see has been operating and the way in which the new justice minister than the slow minister of blind social and moral. to decide what can go on and what can even go on and what shouldn't go on television is avoiding the real problems of crime cream which are social and economic problems and the man needs to be implemented to help the boy at the people who actually toppled the dictator so nothing's changed then since the revolution is

that because of a deliberate failure by the current government or is it just simply too early for changes to take place in twelve months well it is a leader on one level but at the same time you can set in motion it programme which is transparent and which people believe is going to bring about change the fact that the so-called moderate islamists are basically concentrating on moral sense so ship and want people to do in general is a sign of people in bankruptcy it's because they can offer the people anything else so they are receiving along these. so you know the commissions should model themselves if they are serious on some of the changes in south america where it took a year. for changes to be implemented and this still going on in. ecuador etc so they have more but you'll have to have a political will to implement it and that is lacking and i think the weaknesses

look big to see in islam islam mirrored by those look at their brethren in egypt and elsewhere if they go on the model of the turkish islamists what we will have. nothing more than bow and that is not going to deliver the goods to the people look to this year you're talking about the act of self-immolation rigged night in conscience could it reignite another revolution as the very first one did well i think seem all to thing both about to see any trip is that we all have this awareness that it was only when they came out of their homes and took to streets that they talk all these dictators that awareness gives them a feeling i don't understand being real and it is not impossible that if things carry on like this they will do so again and then it will be a question of what the army goes i mean the army has been quite progressive over

the last six months and some of to me unless we know in egypt so we should see what happens over the next six months but if these regimes fail to deliver then there will be what just briefly political will could be brought about by public sentiment and the pressure from abroad but it is interesting to see that the new prime minister has appointed the heads of the major media outlets in the country just days before the revolution anniversary and some of those are said to be controversial because of their past links with the former regime in some ways what we're seeing in syria where there's a lack of media telling us what's happening there not country do you think the same could be applied to tunisia where their media freedom just doesn't exist. and we're not aware of what's happening i think the control of the media that's been established by the new government is appalling i mean in addition to their young women filmmakers have been attacked and denounced is quite a stroke of political censorship in force in tunis and this is resentment by

the people and imposes a blanket on the concrete but i think what has to pierce this fog of deception and find out exactly what's going on and we are going through various sources that pains into news here are not good while we're talking about it now thank you very much for your thoughts tariq ali joining us live there in london thank you to bring you up to take the moment here on r.t. daniel will bring you the latest from the world of business next on r.t. . to the business program the european union has joined the growing conflict between russia and ukraine and education of. both sides must take into account agreements already started with the e.u. ukraine's struggling economy can't afford the volumes agreed its contract with moscow to cut purchases by hoff but russia's energy joint gazprom says kiev could have reduced its order well to twenty percent but only if it's

a given six months notice the e.u. has offered its support to ukraine in this row a more talks will be held on tuesday chris weaver from troika dialog says the situation is likely to result in ukraine conceding to brussels and moscow a stake in its point system. that makes much more engineering commercial economic sense than the alternatives such as the south stream pipe and i think that russia is more likely to agree to the proposal provided of course that the equity ownership in the transit system in ukraine also changes specifically to allow gazprom to take at least a twenty five percent initial stake in the pipeline and with some mechanism that would allow it maybe go up to fifty percent ownership i believe at the end result over the next couple of months will be a concession from key of this ownership issue and i believe that the european union will have a role in this as well as gazprom and then i think this essentially the south

stream project along with in the book a pipeline project will both kind of die off and believe will be shelved indefinitely. let's take a look at the markets the expectation that the standard and poor's ratings agency will downgrade frog's has put a damper on shares across the euro zone frankfurt was up most of the day before rumors of the downgrade tumbling in the afternoon. same story here. which i enjoyed a run until the final few hours of trading russia as usual risk of contagion from bad news in process of. this now have a look at the share movers on the my six today gazprom ended hoyer off the laying down the line on gas supplies with ukraine to call slipped into the red on the end of trade off the revealing its oil output dropped over five percent last year telecom finished flat on reports that will boil armenian operated g n c l four for over twenty two million dollars wrapping up the week's trademarks in shushing call

from rural serves as the overall trend as markets is favorable. definitely very positive for us which came as a surprise to many myself i was actually expected it's probably poorer for us and there's you know the market was open in movies during all this is the first time the my six actually the warnings from on that but but overall you know russia did pretty well in terms of inflow of capital we strongly the form the rest of the emerging markets russia received about three hundred million years of money year to date compared to one point five billion dollars through from gem from global emerging markets which is essentially a sign that people which has been very cautious about russian story grigory coming back. and in other news turnover in russian trade with the c.i.s.

countries rose by a third in the first eleven months of last year reaching six hundred thirty two billion dollars fuel and energy accounted for three quarters of exports while machinery and equipment total imports russia's top three russia's top three trading partners for the period were china germany and the netherlands. that's all from the headlines are next here on r.t. .

when an uncomfortable question leads to a grave accusation the world who is more is enough obviously. the president who isn't supposed to hide anything. or it's someone asking him why do you make a secret out but when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different culture when you go experiencing very serious problems often the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three but a book that was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were often be set up and humiliated in public when the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger that we have been deprived of the only means of earning a living and i have gone to the originals of all the papers to be out there little ice-t. ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just

a stage prop. commissioners. cretaceous free cruise for churches free. agency free. three stooges free. old free books. free media. elite. league. just speak. to.

her. credit rating is slated for the. relative economic stability recently established by. russia. but all those. british prime minister david cameron the russian.