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 seeing the sense that they're preaching democracy to syria when of course they themselves don't have democracy. russia's stance is once again that this should be seeking resolution with alice for an intervention now 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 are 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 the engine of their

powers and their 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 third the division. or civilization. or. going. to homes the conflict has moved ever closer to the country's capital now many damascus suburbs rule so 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 strewn around the house where people have left them behind

fleeing very quickly you can really see the devastating consequences that this conflict has heard that picking up the pieces when preview easy amongst the opposition themselves there are worrying divisions and as the conflicts become increasingly violent there are now areas of the country where it's unclear exactly is in control what do the people here in the image i think the syrian army having control not or. not have. a lot of number of number of seats we see your heart is in charge and. the could diminish 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 in your sort of where you are into a position where you have to put in your mind that you have to work with the other side's working with the other side uses their own book instead of targeting it with

thousands killed bringing the different factions to the negotiating table is going to be a major task sara for. damascus syria he has imposed fresh travel bans and asset freezes on the syrian regime as punishment for the ongoing violence we replace political analyst dr omar in a shabby things responsibility for the bloodshed should be shared by the opposition and it's time when gaijin dialogue. the opposition or what the so-called syrian 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 armored. rockets and you know some weapons that cannot usually be used in civilian areas and against civilians there is president said also enjoys. popular support and said you know 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 it down for you or didn't even of president assad it's time for dialogue a place that assad has has tried some 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 funds i think that the opposition shows good faith because it is the interests of no one no one's interests that need to steps in there would be destruction and they would be chaos as was the case in libya egypt is one of the countries where people are now seeing the consequences of the democracy they fought to achieve as the newly elected parliament holders for the post revolution session there are gyptian who feel

they've been betrayed by the muslim brotherhood and its marched with majority. but first nations are formally adopted an unprecedented set of sanctions against iran including a block wide or oil embargo the move targets iran's nuclear program which the islamic republic insists is purely for peaceful purposes russia says they were gretz the sanctions adding they undermine diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis. in brussels with more on the e.u.'s latest measures against iran. it's sensually 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 a 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 run 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 the desire to have 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 rain 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 a senior iranian official has said if the e.u.

imposed embargo affects world oil trade it will go ahead with its threat to block off the vital strait of hormuz oil transit route james corbet editor of the independent news website the corporate report says the threat is unlikely to be carried out anytime soon. i think there's no doubt there is some provocation and some testing of the waters quite literally and figuratively going on right now and certainly with iran's recent threats to to block the strait of hormuz now we see the americans sending ships through there to sort of test the defenses so to speak so so i think there is definitely some cat and mouse going on right now and i think at this point it is saber rattling and testing both sides testing to see how far the other is going to go back and as i say at this point i would be extremely shocked to see iran actually pulling out the the option of of mining or otherwise blockading the strait of hormuz because that seems to me that that's that's pretty much the last part of their sleeves so i don't think they want to put it on the you know on the table too early oddly enough i think the further that iran is pushed

into a corner here the more their their position will strengthen over time as they as they develop alternative routes for their for their oil exports if they for example increase their trading partnership with china or russia and india as we've seen in recent days they've been scrambling to establish exchanges in other currencies including their local currencies including even asking india to trade in japanese yen so we could see really a fundamental shift in the in the entire dynamic of this that is energy export economy that that's taking place right now and it could actually serve to to benefit iran in the long run from getting them off of their dependence on the petro dollar. stay with us here on r t still to come in the program the twists and turns of russian politics and electoral campaign intensifies the presidential hopeful widen your wants to get tough on immigration. but first take it has been approved by the people of courage the yes wasn't as solid as expected more than half of the

croats simply ignore the national referendum the country will become the union's twenty eight state by july of next year if it gets the approval of all other member states was split on the issue with those in the opposition saying there is nothing to gain from a block currently experiencing its worst ever crisis as artie's tom barton reports divisions are here to stay even after a yes vote. violent scenes in the croatian capital it is the country's referendum that said to. me. only to be made behind me the police came to the protest as always they take and seize protest his way six ways and in many states in the creation capital and financing has been telling. you. these anti protesters say the government is trying to suppress the dissenting

voices they are the ones that joining would surrender croatia's independence to brussels. in another street nearby the foreign minister is trying to convince people that accession is vital for the crew not to call me to leave the stability that scouting late into the created trading of creation. that is translated into membership of the union gracious budgets would be in serious trouble everywhere you turn in croatia the e.u. is being discussed the women's most of the political class no longer the question of the euro. while it stands for public views differ widely in this it doesn't tell us what to into or see because all our fish and that's our biggest threat you know if you go there after you though they told us we have to bathe the e.u. is regulations those they don't want so they must stop trading here in memphis even

if we have two sons who are unemployed and maimed because of that i would be prior to being raped or most of the symbols were don't you know those worries about solvency local industry and economic well being off limits to me and there are still some voices in parliament that think the benefits of what joining us would be the coals 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 go back out on the streets the arguments quality will not continue with ferocity with such strong emotions it seems unlikely this referendum dissolve the nation's division of the european membership tom bottom. i. and there are still tension in one of the newest e.u. member states romania the country's foreign minister has been fired for criticizing

the protesters angry at the government for more than a week people have been demanding the president and his ministers step down this against a backdrop of wage cuts and tax hikes in the e.u. second poorest country which is struggling to meet the demands of its international creditors you can watch reports sent in by our teams tom barton who was in the middle of the recent violence in bucharest on our website r t dot com. with russia's presidential race just around the corner candidates are wrapping up their campaigns prime minister and presidential hopeful vladimir putin is imposed is proposing stricter immigration rules in his second major newspaper article in the run up to the vote or peter all for reports. 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 it said it have 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 eight 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 a slogan such as stop feeding and stop funding the caucuses saying where 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 where 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 malls 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. to talk about the issue of migration and multiculturalism in russia. as the march vote approaches are keeping a close eye on the campaign trail of course you can find more on our website our team dot com. pre-election scandal flares up around a veteran liberal candidate he may be pushed out of the race because of violations

in the registration process all the details on our website party dot com. the newly elected parliament in egypt has started its first session most of the seats occupied by muslim brotherhood and other islamic party members who won an overwhelming majority in the first post mubarak poll as artie's marie if a notion or reports many feel the brotherhood may have wide its way into power this is a growing auction here in egypt told ready that with these new policy 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 function has indeed won the first vote in post barak egypt mostly because it had voted had promised people all aid to house to see who took to transitional transition from ministry to civil power is 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 they revolution has been designed to gets read off but over again today we have many signs indicating that these when this this new parliament the muslim brotherhood as well as some of the business section talk to dozens. of votes are actually going to cooperate we scoff and that's why many people who have been able to speak to here in cairo say they feel a little bit strange. in libya at least four people are dead more than a dozen injured after fighting broke out in the former khadafi stronghold bani walid fighters still loyal to the deposed leader clash with militia there this after a warning from the leader of the libya's national transitional council that there is the real threat of renewed civil war protests in the city of benghazi forced the resignation earlier of his deputy this past weekend in a rage libyans took to the streets of the city that was the center of the

opposition in the uprising against gadhafi demonstrators are now accusing the m.d.c. of corruption and a lack of reform and favoring former government low it while it's some are almost are present of the arab lawyers association tells r t libya could be on the edge of a return to chaos that is the risk for two reasons the reason number one is that the still in the hands of the that it's militias that is has the differences between the drone and tribal bases and what have you and of the same time the ideas the political views of the people in conflict you have some people who want rights to have more than ten percent seats and. well at the same time you have others who saying you shouldn't percentages women should have equal rights but no special favors for them you have a situation where people who want islam to be part of the constitution while you have the other the liberals who don't want to do that so you have

a conflict on policies as well as the availability of. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe the founder of file sharing website mega upload him dot com warpaint remain in police custody after a bail hearing today in new zealand prosecutors argue that dot com also goes by the name kim schmitz was a flight risk because he has multiple identities access to cash and a history of criminal charges u.s. authorities want to extradite dot com claiming he made nearly two hundred million dollars by copying and sharing copyrighted material he has denied the charges. two more bodies have been recovered from the capsized coast a can cordier cruise liner off italy's coast seventeen people remain missing after the ship ran aground a week ago environmental fears continue to grow as a sudden shift in the vessel could a rupture its fuel tanks are about half a million gallons of heavy fuel and hundreds of tons of diesel oil still aboard. the u.s. is counting down to its presidential election with the republicans going through

primaries to pick their candidate huge amounts of money have already been spent backing the candidates coming up later a debate on the so-called super pacs which allow unlimited campaign spending but is opposed by many americans take a look. the law says that they can't coordinate with the super pac and now you're criticizing them for a hearing to the stupid law that you're insisting upon but they are coordinating that's our only ours coordination rules our coordination rules are going to be and really is going to. be did you believe for one second to not coordinating former staffers from canada are not a problem i've been coordinating with you know several problem coordinating i don't have a problem with them coordinating this is free speech. we're getting back to one of our top stories this hour of the situation going on in egypt we're joined from on this by ahmed sala who is in cairo with the late thanks for

joining us so our correspondent in cairo maria if an ocean has been frustrated has seen frustrated protesters marching in massive numbers to talk or square how big is the movement do you think it is and what does it suggest for egypt's future the movement is as big as ever because we unfortunately have discovered the evolution did not succeed we are still doing go to lucian. now we are almost one year after the initial part of the revolution took place two of my colleagues in my own movement where murdered within twenty four hours one stabbed to death not very far from here. and another was accidentally hit by a car so we know very well that the revolution. we have to continue was a revolution until we get rid of the regime the regime of hosni mubarak still survives now in the form of

a military alliance with some islamist. demonstrators have been calling on the military hunter to hand over power you're obviously among them what do you think will happen here. what will happen is what we intend to do we intend to launch another wave of the revolution starting january twenty fifth so you can see very we'll scions of this and the protests of today in front of the parliament in protest to what the parliament has been doing and in protest of the parliament itself as an entity and demanding an end to the military rule. even if it would be in the form of handing over power to the party. we are starting again the rallies we are starting again the protests the sit ins in various parts of the country starting from wednesday and we are expecting that there

will be a lot of blood because already there was a threat from the chief of staff of our armed forces who said if the prime minister mr going to. demand the use of brutal force this time. they will do take such orders and they will do it unlike the previous time during the period during the time of mubarak so we understand that this is a threat. several members of. different movements have received various threats of this murder including myself so it is going to be hard but we are still doing our peaceful nonviolent revolution in the form of protests rallies and sit in a last question here before the elections the muslim brotherhood was standing by the protesters recently their stance seems to have shifted you think that was part of the group strategy all along. the muslim brotherhood

didn't join the protests until january twenty eighth after three days already several people were killed the boy the security. were put in jail including myself who was in jail with an injury as my nose was broken. and they only joined when the thought that the protests may win so unfortunately the most the muslim brotherhood always choose the winning side under their point of view and they don't see that probably the protests is the winning side but once the see that they are going to join the protest the protesters are we have to leave it there ahmed salah political activist in cairo thanks for your insight business news next with marina stay with us here on r.t. .

hello and welcome to business and here on ars see we start with more details on the e.u. and its oil embargo against iran over its nuclear program this involves an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with the country however all existent contracts will be honored and so the first of july and has decided just stay with us from b.m.p. party believes any e.u. led sanctions against a middle eastern country will only minor fluctuations in the price. the e.u. sanctions on the oh no i don't think that significant iran exports right about two point two million barrels a day of oil. oil that goes to europe is only represents run about one quarter of most go to asia so we don't expect. the impact of the e.u. sanctions. but the u.s. sanctions that might take effect to three end of this year. removing all sports two point two million barrels

a day of that i think will have greater price impacts. let's take a look at what's happening with the oil prices right now are light sweet is currently trading at ninety eight dollars per barrel while the brant blend is that of one hundred ten dollars or fifty one cents per barrel crude prices of course heading higher after that all apart against iran now let's take a look at the u.s. markets which i have slipped into negative territory where the green that jitter is dominating trading over in europe markets closed in the black the case benchmark stock index higher producer by gains for banks and oil stocks but most of the very best there is observing that stocks in greece as well here in russia the markets are also closed both the ideas and the why stocks end of the trading session on the positive note but the arts they are setting over one and a half percent secular governments hope movers on the my sites russia's largest oil company of rolls that were covered from earlier losses and managed to gain one and

a half percent this burbank which was opera later in the day there then managed to escape the negative territory and from point one percent of all operator enthusiast came around the end of the day over one percent and the black michael sign for markets they are wraps up today's trade for us. on the domestic side sentiment remains quite positive supported by the high oil price without support potentially getting a for the boost from news today that the e.u. has imposed an embargo on. also we noted putin's popularity has risen substantially to highest levels in six months in the latest opinion polls and this substantially reduces the chances of a second round of presidential elections into some extent improves political visibility. russia has found a new markets for star and stockman gas field gas from c i like say miller says the energy monopoly and its partners are consider and supply liquefied natural gas to japan the country is expected to increase consumption. after the cited to reduce

nuclear power generation gas from has been counted on the e.u. as as a market for stockmen but it had to start looking for alternatives fallen as spiking was the last production. that's all we have time for the south. side.

culture is that so much of it which of course you run it will be. the biggest and most expensive elections money can buy this is how many american see what are called political action committees or super pacs. nine thirty pm in moscow the zero headlines syria slams an arab league plan to solve the country's crisis that required president assad to step down damascus says the initiative was an interference in its internal affairs that attack on the country suffer. the e.u. adopts unprecedented sanctions against iran that include a complete oil embargo a move targeting tehran's nuclear program russia calls the sanctions a mistake that undermines diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis adding the embargo won't make iran change policy. voting in favor of joining the debt stricken

e.u. in a national referendum but a low turnout and violent protests perceiving the vote sure there are still divisions within the country. coming up it can only be reached by helicopter but the stunning scenery of the caucasus nature reserve in southern russia is definitely worth seeing with your own eyes and you can catch it up next in our special report. russia.