so you could as flagrant interference with the internal affairs really the sense here from damascus is that the government here are working on their own reforms they want the arab league mission to focus on their job of course the problem is you've got countries in the arab league like saudi arabia like qatar now seem to sense that they're reaching democracy to syria when of course they themselves don't have democracy. brushes stances once again that this should be seeking resolution with our foreign intervention i've actually spoken to the national coordinator council which is the opposition within the country they welcomed the maven again reiterated best felt that as long as there is no move towards foreign military intervention that they're very pleased with the response from the arab league mission because you still got observers on the ground it's expected that the mission is actually now going to continue possibly for another month and possibly with the extension of their powers and the numbers as well of course what you don't

want to see happen now is that the arab league mission which is really the only route there remains a teacher seeing dialogue in the country to now have blocks put in its way so the question really is how to make the mission the observer mission more effective because as we've been witnessing in the past couple of weeks really at the moment in the country what you want to be thing is the sightedness and not further division. or civilization. or. going. to homes the conflict has moved ever closer to the country's capital now many damascus suburbs are also in brussels in the conflicts between government forces and the armed opposition. well this is all that's left of many of the houses now inside just absolutely gutted it's broken glass you've got bullet holes lining the walls you've got clothes seen around the house where people have left them behind

fleeing very quickly you can really see here the devastating consequences that this conflict has hurt the picking up the pieces way preview easy amongst the opposition themselves there are a worrying divisions and as the conflicts become increasingly violent there are now areas of the country where it's unclear exactly he's in control what the people here in the image i think the syrian army having control not or it's. not. a lot of number of the number of six weeks ago is in charge and so. quickly the issue of the cordon the diversion of the stuff arab league observers look set to remain in the country for another month trying to build the basis for multi-party elections even seen by the international community although you are your sort of or you are into a position you have to put in your mind that you have to work with of sides working

with the other side uses their own look instead of fighting with thousands kills bringing the different factions to the negotiating table is going to be a major task sara for. damascus syria and i mean time the e.u. has imposed fresh travel bans and asset freezes on the syrian regime as punishment for the ongoing violence but america based political analyst dr oman a shopper who says that responsibility for the bloodshed should be shared by the syrian opposition and it's time now to ultimately engage in dialogue. the opposition or what the so-called syrian free army or the desert there is from the syrian army have been also using heavy gunfire against civilians they have been using explosives apparently they have been using and the armored. rockets and you know some weapons that cannot usually be used in civilian areas and against

civilians there is a president said also enjoys. popular support. one cannot deny this not even the institute in qatar denied this when they did the research last month and they found that fifty five percent of the city and population opposed to down for didn't move out of president. it's time for dialogue has tried. somebody form some democratic reforms there is a constitutional council now in syria trying to rewrite the constitution there will be elections in the coming months there are some of the forums i think that the opposition shows face because it is of the interest of no one of no one's interests that need to or steps in they would be destruction and they would be chaos as was the case in libya. turn our attention from syria to egypt now the latter

being one of the countries where people are now seeing the consequences of the democracy they fought so hard to achieve at the newly elected parliament holds its first post revolution session many egyptians feel betrayed by the muslim brotherhood and its march to a majority. you nations have formally adopted an unprecedented set of sanctions against iran including a wide one iranian oil the move targets iran's nuclear program which the islamic republic insists is purely for peaceful purposes to australia reports from brussels it's essential a total oil embargo it will have immediate effect on new contracts but that existing contract will be allowed to run for another six months they've also agreed on a ban on gold and gold trade and other precious metals with the iranian central bank all of these of course aiming to financially and economically cripple iran over its controversial nuclear program with western leaders still insisting iran is trying

to build nuclear weapons while terror ron denies this now the e.u. embargo follow strict new way u.s. sanctions that were passed into law by president obama in january so as far as the e.u. is concerned by july it will be a full and total implementation of these new sanctions this is unprecedented in terms of the scope and be desired of potential effects on iran but it is also one president in terms of its potential economic impact on the european union itself let's not forget the e.u. imports up to twenty percent of the ring in all its second biggest buyer and one of the twenty seven the biggest buyers within that are elite spain and greece the very same countries that are now struggling to deal with that sovereign debt crisis greece in particular heavily dependent on the range with up to one third of its total imports from iran also it's relying on terror for easier credit terms so they will definitely have to find alternatives for these countries these are what the leaders will have to talk about how to cushion the potential economic impacts on the several member states and of course because of all the uncertainty oil markets

have already reacted pushing oil prices up and higher oil prices will just mean higher prices of goods. reporting right then willing to discuss the implications of against iran that's all talk to richard in a foreign affairs analyst the specializing in international security joining us live from the philippines our thanks for coming on today so a senior iranian official has already said that if the. world oil train and will go ahead with its threat to block the vital strait. vital waterway the oil transit route this comes at a time when one new u.s. aircraft carrier is replacing another that is also being tailed by a british frigate where do you see this situation in the next few days if not the next fortnight. let's look at the nuance of the issue so far the statement on closing on or most came from an iranian lawmaker so we have to wait and see what the defense ministry is going to say but this point i think in military terms. iran

has the conventional capability to close the strait of hormuz but for a very limited range of a symmetrical. it can create problems but i think the main message that iran is sending here is political because it knows that it's going to close of the strait of hormuz of course it's going to. it's. already warned you against iran closing of the street before and what they're trying to do here is to just draw the red light and say to america and the european union that they're willing to retaliate in any way possible and gets what they perceive as a clear economic warfare against iran and everyone knows that your. trade and its ability to really. and according to barghouti even make it more difficult for you but when you talk about issues over here for example before we get into the implications of china and china being the largest consumer of everybody and export oil in terms of retaliation we've got a u.s. aircraft carrier in the region in the gulf pritish frigate as well just days ago

iranians doing that big naval test you know picture show of strength as well who is provoking who. of course i mean it always takes two to tango so i think they feel that this is a legitimate military threat in response to what they see as a total siege of the arena but as they say they feel this is more of a political message rather clear indication of military. of course as i said before in the interviews before that. iran was small skirmish with america and it really lost warships and it easily lost the battle and i don't think he's in a position right now to take on. these by the british and french. will try to prop up the u.s. presence in the strait of hormuz so i think political military i don't think that iran. really eager to take on the united states of america but no one knows if the

situation gets really really desperate for iran. which is already under a lot of pressure we did he think it's no less record forty percent depreciation since last december iran might contemplate on some sort of retaliation and creating some sort of. some sort of retaliation to take head on that type of trouble as you said british french american ships israel and the involved in there are some point or another but as you were saying that oil trade is a significant lifeline for iran and europe is a second largest oil consumer is there any way at all that can circumvent these sanctions to reduce the hit taken by its economy and moments ago you alluded to the big china. moments ago the possible role china could levy i think some of the economic stress put on iran

. sanctions could you give us some more on that. i mean iran is really taking a big hit i mean the koreans already depreciated by forty percent since last year iran has already had a lot of problems with making. china and right now you already have both the united states and european. maybe in the short term be able to make some sort of deal with the chinese with the turks and other countries. but definitely the core and some markets. iran has already problems economic growth because the subsidies. so even though you will be able to somehow a million in the european and american sanctions by trading with china you'd have a lot of short term. money markets. which is a bit right now so i think that the sanctions will eventually. we

did. by the way undergoing right now i mean the process of contemplating in. iraq and ultimately in the wake of these embargoes could ultimately. to india and china as the e.u. sanctions mean that a couple of european countries will have to start pumping out more veron crude but also putting pressure on saudi arabia to make up the shortfall richard and i wish we had more time foreign affairs analyst from the philippines thank you thank you very much. well coming up for you later in the program here on the twists and turns of russian politics as the electoral campaign intensifies presidential hopeful putin that wants to get tough on immigration. now a quarter past the hour here in moscow and e.u. entry ticket has been approved by the people of croatia the us wasn't as solid as expected and with more than half of simply ignoring the national referendum the country will become the union's twenty eight state by july next year but only after

all the other members are ratify the move croatia was split on the issue with those in opposition saying there's nothing to gain from a bloc currently it's parenting its worst ever crisis and the saudis tomball reports the divisions are here to stay even after the yes fight. violent scenes in the croatian capital it's the country's e.u. referendum but setting. let me. list to be the right move the peace to the protesters away they take and protest his way situation in. the creation capital and financing has been telling. you. these protesters say the government is trying to suppress the dissenting voices they are joining with the way she is independence to brussels. yes but very

good that couple in another street nearby the foreign minister is trying to convince people that accession is vital to the current economy actually without the stability the scale can lead it into the credit rating of creation. that is translated into membership of the union gracious budget would be in serious trouble everywhere you turn in croatia the e.u. is being discussed but whereas most of the political class no longer question the europhiles stance public views differ widely. italians will come into or see and touch all their fish and that's our biggest trade you know if you go there after you get told us we have to obey the e.u. has regulations those that don't want to obey must stop trading here in memphis you know we have two sons turn employed and mainly because of that i would be prying

a secret to most of the symbols were don't you know the illegitimate worries about sovereignty local industry and economy well being a former state and there are still some voices in parliament think the benefits of what joining it were the costs that we were not going with our heads high up we're going on our knees because our economy our non-existing our exporting is pretty bad our b d p is very low so we don't really have anything to offer if you back out on the streets the arguments quality will not continue with ferocity with such strong emotions it seems unlikely this referendum result the nation's division and the european membership tom bottom are too. far off from the business news here on our table with russia's presidential election just around the corner a candidates are ramping up their campaigns prime minister and hopeful run of lot

of may have put in as proposing a stricter immigration rules in his second major newspaper article in the run up to the vote i thought he's put her on for now explains. but talking on multiculturalism a migration vladimir putin praised what he sees as russia's long history as a multicultural nation a history he says goes back to the days of the russian empire and it's been some very serious problems though when it comes to migration and integration of migrants in russia that these problems over the last twenty years since the collapse of the soviet union were very serious indeed in our problems that russia is still struggling to to deal with today speaking about what the results can be of migration going wrong he warned of the rise of nationalism the rise of xenophobia these type of issues that we saw acted out in real life in moscow in two thousand and ten with ethnic clashes taking place i'm right next to the kremlin in the heart of the russian capital

a hit so to. see nationalism rising hit out at those who have slogans such as stop feeding and stop funding the caucuses saying well the caucuses are a part of russia talking of multiculturalism he said that russia had a very unique system of multiculturalism something very different to say what happens in europe he said basically multiculturalism had failed and that russia system was something. very different over to me and said that there's no way that you can completely get rid of all illegal immigration into russia but if he's elected president in the elections in march that he hopes to be able to to make significant cuts to the amount of people that are arriving in russia illegally now he wants to do this by toughening the laws to try and deter people from entering the country illegally he also wants to see a system put in place not just to monitor foreign immigrants coming into russia but also to monitor internal migrants also by twenty thirty he wants to see an exam put

in place to those wanting to come and settled and live and work in russia but they have to be able to pass the russian language exam also an exam on russian culture russian history so those are the things that he wants to put him. do you tackle the issue of migration and multiculturalism. reporting right when i asked the march vote approaches all of us here at our keeping a close eye on the campaign trail and of course you can find more on that on our website our dot com pre-election scandal it flares up around a veteran liberal candidate who may be pushed out of the race due to violations in the registration process for those details on our website at dot dot com. the newly elected parliament in egypt has started its first session most of the seats are occupied by the muslim brotherhood and other islamist parties who won an overwhelming majority in the first post mubarak poll result he's tells us many now feel the brotherhood lied in its march into power. there is

a growing auction here in egypt told really that with these with this new policy and changes will actually not be as dramatic as people in the revolution demonstrators protesters have expected them to be the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party has indeed one the first vote in post and dark ages mostly because it had voted had promised people all for a tip to how to keep poor touch and transitional transition from ministry to civil power something people have been calling for have been demonstrating for since the supreme council of the armed forces took power from mubarak last february because to them they say that the ruling generals have been actually representing the old regime something they've been fighting against and something actually their revolution has been designed to gets rid off but over in today we have many signs indicating that the islamists in this new parliament the muslim brotherhood

as well as salafist the second party that warn of vote are actually going most likely to cooperate with cough and that's why many people who have been able to speak to here in prague road say they feel a little bit strange. tracking the latest developments of all of us in cairo or bear in mind you can check out our to twitter feed as well as maria's personal one for the latest on egypt first parliamentary session under growing frustration in the region as we can see in one of the latest tweets here she says that people keep calling for the ruling generals to step down all the details are standing by for you now twenty four hours a day online on our team with. the leader of libya's national transitional council says the country could be heading towards a civil war and follows protests in the city of benghazi that resulted in the resignation of his deputy this past weekend integration libyans took to the streets

of a city which was the center of opposition in the uprising against gadhafi demonstrators are now accusing the m.t.c. of corruption a lack of reform and of favoring former government loyalists meanwhile the i.c.c. has yet to agree whether trial of colonel gadhafi is captured son saif will be held but as. the president of the arab league just told me just a bit earlier whether it's in libya or the hague it's unlikely he'll get a fair hearing. the trial will be probably just as unfair as that would be held before the i.c.c. seat because the i.c.c. is a highly politicized machinery which was created by the americans but then they decided it is so politicized that they decided not to work with many countries not. following the i.c.c. is saying that he has no teeth and we i think that it will not actually

provide a proper forum for a trial neither do i think that. will get a fair trial in libya. those are the headlines here in our view let's check out the latest business now with maria. hello and welcome to business here on our team now as we've been reporting the european union has formally adopted an oil embargo against iran over its nuclear program and this involves an immediate ban on all new contracts with iran but all existing contracts will be honored until the first of july allow for more i'm joined by jorge months back in from energy agency class thank you so much for joining us now we've seen the oil prices have been gaining slightly what do you expect when we see major fluctuations of the near future where we saw the oil price rising

a little bit but not really very much because the embargo was adopted today in writing but in actuality it's only going to be adopted in july. we also read that there is going to be a review of the embargo in may so that to me puts a lot of question marks there over whether something substantive is going to happen or perhaps that europe is trying to see if the dialogue can really occur with iran by pushing it forward so much and by review it in may maybe in fact it won't be implemented so the market i think is figuring this thing's out and by definition it's not reacting violently right it's kind of calm about it so sad to say that you don't expect the embargo it's the last for a long time i don't think europe is really ready to cut itself off from oil from one of their important suppliers but i think europe is very worried about the you know issues with nuclear power and things like that i think they're trying to work

to work things out so well that iran is certain cyclo strait of hormuz over the sanctions walk enough i could this have on the global economy the global market closure of the straits of hormuz would be very safe but also the kind of comments coming out of iran we could go there were a little bit more aggressive but in the past couple of days they have softened a little bit i don't think they're talking a simple lately of really closing the straits of hormuz they're more saying that they have the capability to close them. having the capability to actually close them is a little bit different but if the iranians were to close the straits of hormuz or if the passages seem to run the effects of the global view very severe not just for europe but for asia for the entire planet elsevier what i would talking about here . depending on the length of the closure you could see prices rise in the one

fifteen higher. but we shouldn't forget that some of these things are really happening in the one nine hundred eighty s. because in the one nine hundred eighty s. there was a war we also. as we called it at the time when several deals he says were blown up in the iraqi war so we have been there a little bit i mean this role is very severe people by i don't think people really want to see that happening again now that even the united states are not hard to persuade asian countries from reduced him purchases from iran how likely is that so happen and how could it affect i don't think that will happen in fact all the comments i have heard about the chinese is that they're being phatic that they will continue to buy uranium crude oil the indians are also saw very friendly to tours you run and i think turkey as well is not being on the side of the of the bargain so the possibilities of finding bargo effect in asia i think are front very very

you know just briefly if you can tell us what kind of impact could this have on russia if any well on russia if there is an embargo oil prices will go and that would be good from a price point of view but then you would have seen fear headwind in the a quantum is in europe on the rest of the world and then subsequently prices would crush so i don't think anybody wants instability. all right jorge want to pick a global director of markets reporting our pilots thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. now we have a little bit of time left so let's take a look at what's happening with the oil prices right now light sweet is trading at around ninety nine dollars per barrel the price is heading towards one hundred and eleven dollars per barrel and quick prices are poised heading higher after their oil embargo against iran. and that's all the business news for now for more stories

head to our website artie dot com slash business bye for now. culture is that so much money and which are. running. the biggest and most expensive elections money can buy this is how many american see what are called political action committees or super pacs.

this is all to you live from moscow headlines now syria is an arab league plan to solve the country's crisis the first quiet president assad to step down. said the initiative was an. unprecedented sanctions against iran which include a complete embargo on its oil and measures europe's latest response to tehran's nuclear program which the islamic republic insists is for purely peaceful purposes

. vote in favor of joining the death stricken edu in a national referendum but a low turnout and violent protests are perceiving the vote to show there are still deep divisions within the country. the u.s. often calls for democratic change in the middle east but seems reluctant to recognize the right of palestinians to self-determination president of the palestinian national authority mahmoud abbas who's been on a visit here to the russian capital talks to us next about the latest moves in palestine's bid for statehood do stay with us for our exclusive interview. visit with european tour tiny still waiting for a resolution to the statehood issue what do you.