property as it begins its pursuit of the presidency. welcome it's eleven pm here in moscow now my name is kevin owen and top of the. arab league divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria today as he is president has warned it could see violence flare up across the whole region of qatar's leader calls for arab action in syria to put a stop to the ten month long fighting there he was also a key player in the arab league's role in opposing colonel gadhafi is rooted in libya meantime syria's announced the release of prisoners jailed during the uprising this move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november to syria first reports now from damascus. free at last strings of people leave this syrian prison into the arms of eagerly waiting family

and friends waiting kissing loved ones who haven't been seen for many months prisoners delighted i'm relieved to think given back their freedom here this prison on the outskirts of damascus these are the prisoners even slated for release this evening you can see the signing on this is being a bit seen by some of the arab league observers here being here this is part of the amnesty announced by president assad but of course for everyone he's not being released from detention questions being asked about actually why they were detained in the first place you know. i've been in prison for four months i was accused of weakening national security i didn't protest they brought me here by mistake the amnesty is a good step i just hope it includes everyone. i had some weapons i had inherited from my grandfather and was accused of bearing illegal weapons i've been here three months we. people heard about the amnesty they were

ecstatic they never thought this could happen. here on the stand for those calls from qatar lead our military intervention in syria if the violence doesn't stop un general secretary thank you mean president assad to end the bloodshed and set the age of ten a season one man rule in the arab world and some critics however feel these statements risk inflaming in already highly volatile situation the amnesty shows that syria is trying to find a political solution rather than a security solution and that the country is succeeding in implementing the plan agreed by the arab league the move being described by some opposition groups as being little more than a gesture. do you mean all political prisoners are number one the rest said since the beginning of the crisis have been released then the amnesty will have been affected but the answer is c. does not consider this the start of dialogue but for a united family just is

a welcome one hundred hopes will be freed over the coming days but outside the prison walls people in the country remain trapped in a situation of escalating violence in which so far this seems. the nastiest asia times correspondent pepe escobar points out that the arab league itself mostly consists of oppressive mauna kea so the pressure of the series got nothing to do with worries about democracy. don't forget that all of these are genes are doctor sees that the local populations have no no possibility at all for a political expression some of them their own populations like in the case of the rate seventy percent shiite population they're treated as second rate citizens and now we have the persian gulf water is trying to teach the world lessons on the mockers like the whole sink the whole scheme is sampson lukey upsurge to start with

so can we imagine if we had what we seen in syria inside easter saudi arabia for it's. all because no calls for democracy no calls for deposing the government like qatar is they nowadays imagine not not only imagine look at what happened sobering sister beginning of the pro-democracy protests in manama almost a year ago there were oppression was total with help from saudi arabia and the emirates so the same persian gulf monarchies were are saying now to the world we must intervene on the behalf of people in syria they would smash their own people in any possibility of an arab spring in any of the sixpence and go mark. and of course you get more perspective news from syria. blog. for international correspondent sara furthur bringing you the latest that's online at r.t. dot com while you're there too these stories should be in full in this room to read the twenty first century titanic they're calling it look at those pictures of that

ship the latest information on the rescue operation there were a cruise ship capsized with four thousand people on board so lucky that there weren't more casualties there but even so tragic for the people who did lose their lives got more in line and lashing out over a thousand demonstrators cause may have been bucharest have been reporting this to the last couple of days they're angry at the government and the latest wave of austerity cuts we've got video online on our you tube channel. as a round in the west step up their war of words over the islamic states nuclear program the u.k. to refuse him to rule out taking military action foreign secretary william hague also spoke of his confidence that anyone bargo iranian oil will be in place by the end of the month bennett reports from london. iran's oil exports only make up one percent of britain's oil imports the most in europe is italy with seven percent of it's all coming from iran so there's a lot to play with there which will severely damage iran's economy however iran has taken steps itself threatening to block the straits of hormuz which is

a crucial oil shipping lane so whilst the iran oil embargo won't have any detrimental effects on britain's economy or europe's really this play by iran definitely could because a third of all seaborne oil trade goes through the straits and that could increase oil prices and have a detrimental effect and severe consequences on already fragile western economies the u.s. has already said that any such move from iran will be considered an act of war and the question is though how far is each side willing to go here for now it's just a threat. the u.k. says it will continue to pursue a diplomatic attack i increasingly sanctions with the hope of bringing iran to the negotiating table after talks over its nuclear program stalled a year ago but that tactic has been tried for the last year hasn't seemed to work tactics have actually seemed to encourage this dangerous game of brinkmanship each

side countering the other's threat with one of its own mistakes getting higher and escalating each time so this mention of military action still being on the table is really the latest play in this complex game of brinkmanship. of a bunch of correspondent in london let's try and gauge all this is heading and get some reaction inside from the political analyst chris bambery there chris do you think he will go ahead with imposing this oil embargo against iran in full at the end of the day despite these threats that we're still hearing from to iran that they will block the vital strait of hormuz in response. well i think the crisis we're going around is ratcheting up we've seen to be where you hear it see the military action is not be ruled out and we know that britain has got plans to join any american attack on iran and an oil embargo be a very serious ratcheting up of the sanctions now include financial sanctions but of course we've also seen the killing last week of the fourth iranian nuclear scientists that operation assassination carried out integrand there is

a dirty war being waged inside the rant against the against the nuclear program not just the killing of the new core scientists but attacks bombing attacks on bases killing a military per person l. the israelis have been prepared to take credit for these attacks and i'm sure that more side is involved in it in my mind there is no question in americans must be involved in that committed millions of dollars to destabilize in the arena and regime there are going ethnic groups along the borders of iran to carry out attacks on attacks on the country we nor both israel and america are recruiting agents are in kurdish kurdish iraq and i'm sure that britain is true in all behind that given that britain's historical role i also have to say that we're in here the talk of sanctions and military action the day britain just this week has been selling more arms as has america to saudi arabia. saudi arabia has four times the size military

budget that iran has saudi arabia is both israel and america to attack iran is an unholy alliance of sodium israel that is forward and as our previous correspondent point pointed out it's rich actually the americans are falling behind so if you're not a tragic state which is responsible for the occupation of background. and the suppression of the democracy movement there all right krista politics aside board the financial economic implications be if this did go the full did in poland that embargo in the strait was closed by iran. well first of the markets are very nervous or will work and process of what would happen to the process of oil in particular to brant very very nervous nervous indeed i think the sanctions of cells are unlikely to affect iran because iran has the time to put in a good alternatives in place and it's also in a situation as unlikely both russia and china will go along with these sanctions so i think you will get round the sanctions one way or another but sanctions have

become as we north from yugoslavia and from iraq a way of softening up a country in preparation for a military assault by the west than that which i am worried about logic say is that america should not be involved in full frontal wars that's what obama himself says yet it is involved in covert war in iraq it is involved in syria and the syrian conflict is becoming a mess does this because america see overthrowing assad regime as removing one of the rounds. once you become involved in this sort of war then as we know from history in america's own history it's very easy to slide into into an open war so i would these are assassination operations which. will run a bit short of time where do you think this is heading if international community does want to make sure iran doesn't ever develop a nuclear weapon what other options are there besides these tough sanctions already seeing and or military is solved i mean is there anything else that could be done.

well i think the obvious that israel is talking about an attack on the. nuclear program we will take a pass if more than one off attack could be up to americans the attack any attack would lead to conventional warfare in a region which is already rules trouble sport and it would go. into other countries into iraq and lebanon i actually believe know that such an attack is likely because i think the want to which is a plan is moving in that direction and any mistake for instance of cia operatives or israeli operatives or capture into iran or must be spying organizations working there to cairo these assassinations could easy trigger open conflict and sanctions are just a continuing racking up of this process so therefore in the last six months i think there is a logic moving towards a military conflict which must frighten people across the globe it certainly frightens me what about the argument i'm sure i know what you gonna say about this what about the argue that if iran did have a nuclear deterrent that would arguably make the region more stable or balance give

that israel's currently the only allegedly but we think it is nuclear power there declared one. well of course israel does not sign up to treaties which is iran has israel does not alone atomic energy inspectors in to look at its missiles which iran does do there is double standards here in britain and france of course provided the means for israel to get its secret nuclear program in place and i think we should remember that you know the countries criticizing iran america britain france and israel have got nuclear weapons iran doesn't have nuclear weapons iran has not carried out any act of aggression against the united states the united states has carried out an act of aggression against iran you are throwing one hundred fifty three of them off of their governments but also in the late one nine hundred eighty s. a shooting down a civilian airliner in which two hundred ninety passengers were killed by. american forces there is a history of american intervention against iran there's no history of

a reunion intervention against america really a military action so we've got double bookkeeping here as usual with the united states and britain and the charge of the once war weeks to mind from london chris bambery political analyst thank you very much for your thoughts. well we'll just as know what you think about that that's the question we're asking what you think the iranian imports is really all about who r.t. dot com you can take part in our latest global web poll this is take a look at the graph this is what you're telling us over a third of you say it's a strategy that will not benefit the e.u. in the long run coming a close second there the opinion that iran would simply find new buyers for its oil almost a quarter believe it's an empty threat that means nothing of the minority. saying it's a move that will scale into compliance just a good time to go online and vote right now it's good to hear from you. while you will consider this next step in the standoff with iran then the us media is already deep in a conflict of it so. really two options bomb around or let iran get the bomb

american journalists are accused of once again hyping up tension between washington and its next enemy to win public support. next russia's prime minister set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing one of the country's leading newspapers putin voiced his vision for russia's future and address issues raised by opposition parties and he's a really good reports. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed his response to the accusations and statements made by the opposition leaders during the protests been president has pointed out that russia has already gone through an abrupt and very drastic change a very similar to a revolution during the collapse of the soviet union and that brought the country down into decline essentially into shambles and it took a very long time to get out of the dire situation but russia has succeeded in doing that as with which and in fact the education levels went up employment has also

risen over the past fifteen years as the whole is standards of living for eighty percent of russians have increased there's also the emergence of the middle class says it's dull comprises up to thirty percent off the population in russia where is during the soviet times that number was significantly smaller so let me put it has more in essentially people in his statement to be wary of that of the statements and slogans of which sound very lucrative may sound very lucrative by the opposition leaders but he did mention that as such a such an abrupt change in the government the system may have diarrhea effect on the country and he did talk at length about the situation we very much improved situation which the country finds itself right now but of course he also mentioned that some some problems do remain on the table there is a very well known problem of corruption there's also a lack of civil society overall in the mindset of people also unfortunately from ten to eleven percent of russian population still live below the poverty line that

is also something that needs to be taken care of and of course the country's dependence on natural resources oil and gas something which needs to be slowly taken step away from there's of course the progress into the high tech world and creating more jobs in that sphere also talks more about creating civil society and contributing more to charity and of course he'll see talked about russia a becoming a major and being a major player on the global political arena. russia has served as a bridge between the east and the west for centuries russia has a lot of experience in that area and of course to also is a major contributor to g. eight g. twenty and the united nations and the role of these are going to say since it is something which also should be taken into account and he also basically underlined this statement by saying that the country has to come out of the post so that that period is over and not just for russia but for the world as a whole so more global and

a new approach to the situation not just in the country but also in the entire world should be taken. i would like to see more of that article by vladimir putin is available if you follow our website. as a run in the u.s. and gauge the political standoff america's mainstream media is being accused of fueling the fire sanctions over to run its nuclear program and i'm certain through the gulf of provided news outlets in the states with a platform to speculate over the likelihood of war and is out he's got it if you can reports it's not the first time american views to be led to believe that conflict is inevitable. troy two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb with tension between iran and the west as high as ever a host of hardline speakers and us mainstream media seem to be pushing the audience to believe that war is inevitable the better way to prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons is to attack its nuclear weapons program directly although experts

say war with iran is far from being inevitable i don't think that we are very get that is to say at the precipice with the media are already preparing the grounds for it some by misinforming the public the new york times wrote that the international atomic energy agency said iran's nuclear program has a military objective but that's not what the i.a.e.a. reported the watchdog said iran might have the technology to develop a nuclear weapon if you wants to or here's another public misconception due to a lack of information it would be saying to the iranians you to open up those facilities you begin to dismantle them and make them available to the inspectors or we will degrade those facilities through air strikes in fact i e-s. specters have already been in the country monitoring iran's nuclear facilities when you american people here information over and over again and sometimes it is often these subtle subtleties you're not providing the context of the i report or not putting in some of the doubts back in two thousand to two thousand and three about

the iraqi w m d programs that kind of slanting of the news does have the effect of altering how the american public use in issues the u.s. mainstream media have proved to be cheerleaders for war jeff cohen was a senior producer of a popular t.v. show before the iraq invasion he says they were under pressure from their bosses to root for war because their owners benefited from it it was a constant pressure campaign. to make sure that the pro invasion voice was dominant jeff cohen says not much has changed in u.s. mainstream journalism since the iraq invasion there is no doubt that mainstream media are crucial in this idea of settling this idea that the u.s. is going to be on a per actual war media analysts say says the intervention in libya u.s. media have been instrumental in making americans get used to the idea that

washington will continue to intervene militarily in foreign affairs i worked at newsweek and as goes a.p. and other major u.s. news organizations and the and what i saw especially at a place like newsweek was this idea that the media was actually part of the establishment that it was what it was it was that the american people were to be guided more than even informed it seems most american media are so used to talking wars that when after a decade of the inconclusive war in afghanistan the white house announced the necessity to negotiate with the taliban you have to have a political solution at some point the message and the words political solution came out as somewhat alien peace talks with the taliban it's come to this tell us more about these proposed peace talks and that may sound a little weird to some of our viewers it seems that warrants a political solution don't belong in the u.s. media they can be larry two main reasons one moring and second some very powerful

people are behind a kind of trigger happy pro-war journalism too many times in history the media did the bidding of war profiteers we can go back more than a hundred years and look at how the american public was primed for war with spain over cuba media tycoon william randolph hearst falsely hyped up the story that the spanish sunk on american ships when in fact it's something because of a coal bunker explosion it was then that hearst told his illustrator in havana. you furnish the pictures and i'll furnish the war more than a hundred years on the phrase still sounds relevant but it doesn't have to be that way and some argue political solution although not popular words in the media vocabulary is better than war and death i'm going to check on reporting from washington r.t. . the era of one party system because it started is now over after sunday's preliminary election results two more political factions are heading into the lower house of the country's parliament with the president's party still holding majority

i always see observers who claim the vote was undemocratic but other international monitors of praised it is transparent and fair elections were held after president nursultan nazarbayev dissolved parliament last autumn in order to make it more representative in december kunzig stansell violent clashes that killed sixteen people in an oil time where workers were protesting against layoffs of the news around the world now and first to pakistan where the supreme court's charged the country's prime minister yousuf killarney with contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution the proceedings were initiated for failing to carry out the court's order to open a corruption probe against president asif ali zardari has been told to appear in court on thursday. news virus erupted between rival militia groups in the libyan town of god it's left at least three there that injured fifty clashes began when the local military council demanded the tribe hand over members accused of aiding colonel gaddafi the fighting has included the use of rockets and machine guns

sporadic violence in libya continues even after the eight month long civil war which resulted in the deaths of thirty thousand people as well as the street killing of monica duffy. a car bomb in the iraqi city of mosul killed at least eight and wounded six the blast happened outside a residential complex which houses displaced cheer muslims it's the latest in a string of bombings against the country shia majority which has left one hundred forty dead since last month. looking ahead we've got lined up few just a couple of minutes time tonight cross-talk debates the pros and cons of cutting america's military budget that's after the business right now. our welcome to business here in r.t. thanks for joining me european equities have turned positive in late trading after the french government successfully sold treasury bills that's despite the fact that standard and poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine eurozone nations including france let's take a look at the numbers now u.k.

sports who gained over a quarter of a percent as media and publishing company pearson rose two point seven percent in germany the dax was supported by a two point nine percent gain for call make a dime or a two percent rise provide will be on double u.s. markets will close on monday for one new looking during the day. they were in moscow the markets ended in the black ignoring the fridge agency decision to cut the outlook on russia's debt rating from positive to stable the r.t.s. closed over half a percent higher demise it was up just the knowledge we combined trading volume yes animals exceeded ten trillion dollars last year that's the period to be the best result not only among c.i.s. countries but in western europe as well analysts say it was supported by the operational effect of the merger of russia's two main bourses now here are the main movers on the line six and i g majors were supported by strong the oil price is the largest private company just under a percent higher on monday preferred shares of pipeline operator translate have to

wear down struggling to keep up last week's momentum stocks were on the rise again point four percent. to be capital wraps up today's trade. in the morning the market opened up one percent mainly driven by sentiment from reaching downgrades in europe nine countries were downgraded. the market is taking this a bit quietly given the rating downgrades were expected. probably even some some more drastic radiation was expected i think it's natural from yield to from yields to maturity you see that france already perceived by the market to be a more risky investment than germany bonds with the same rating towards the end of the day the market more west than image because different across the board for instance gas promo is in the day slightly higher that is mainly driven by straight fuel prices so for russia this remains

a pretty big factor and it would be it will be closely watched by the investment community. now there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to commerce side's ukraine quoting local energy ministry sources he says now ready to sell one third of its national pipeline operator to russia in return for gas discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting on at least half a not to gas he says it can't afford the price specified in the current contract and insists on cutting imports of russian gas by half but russia's gas from says a crane could have reduced its order but by no more than twenty percent and only about six months advance notice late on friday the european union joined then saying it's ready to play a part in the talks last going to give her expected to restart negotiations on tuesday but analysts say ukraine's economy might not cope with reduced gas supplies while that's all the business news but remember you can always find more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash this. wealthy

british style.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. thanks for being with us from moscow tonight his huff post eleven pm here my name is kevin now and you're watching on t.v. the top stories they are league at loggerheads calls for intervention in syria other members want to could lead to a region wide unrest meantime damascus has announced a general amnesty for political prisoners in accordance with the peace that. united kingdom ups the ante against iran pushing for a toughie while embargo which to run promised to counter by blocking a vital from said.