they're discussing trust building measures including a possible transfer of prisoners from guantanamo bay pakistan who previously thwarted attempts at such talks has now let taliban leaders past safely through its territory to qatar and to kill nuri from the think tank new world strategies coalition things islam about now realize that only tough negotiation can get the u.s. to leave the region. i really think that slobo has been pressured by the international community is a symptom that islamabad must have come up with an idea that look i really think the only way that we can get americans out of afghanistan it would be to talk with them and once you assure we assure the american. disses if you will be fine and this is the way out. i believe that americans will leave and then we can all be back to back to normal that whatever they want to express imposed on of them on afghanistan right before we get to natasha with a business that's check out the r.t.

world update for you some other international headlines in brief thousands of people have gathered in central pakistan to demand supply routes used by nato forces in afghanistan kept closed islamist speakers at the rally called independence from u.s. foreign policy and vowed to stage further protests if any attempt to open the channels is made all the checkpoints stopped supplies for nato troops in afghanistan late last year following an airstrike which killed twenty four pakistani troops. ten people have been killed and eighteen injured in a highway crash in florida it happened in the early hours of the morning after smoke from a nearby brushfire combined with fog reduced visibility on the road multiple vehicles were involved in the accident with some of them bursting into flames left wreckage covering almost one mile of the highway. well written over russia's economic priorities that's what prime minister and

presidential hopeful vladimir putin sees as one of the main tasks if he regains that top job a fresh bottle of ideas with an economic sense comes in his third pre-election article published in one of russia's major newspapers and you could have just got off summed up all the main points. according to prime minister putin the world is currently witnessing a very interesting time when the global economic crisis has led to reorganization of power with some traditional fevered stepping down and new players gaining more influence and the prime minister says russia has all the chances to secure a place ome all the leaders of course are problems and one of the main one is russia's dependency on natural resources leads to poor a labor efficiency outdated technologies and a lack of competitiveness in other spheres of in this trees in russia and the prime minister also says that private investors are afraid to give money into new

projects in the other steers besides energy projects that are major overhaul is needed for the entire system for all sectors from the service sector to the farming industry but it's not an easy task since russia is a huge country with diverse climates band big population these aren't really tast for the next several months about for the next several years for the prime minister is also listed set off for coup or industries which have to be developed they include the traditional space exploration and nuclear energy there's also the pharmaceutics and high tech came a coal industries aviation and so on and the prime minister says even though the state has to start reducing its influence on the economy there are these couper steers of industries where control is simply essential russia needs more innovations more new technologies which has to be based on

a better education and better jobs the country has to stop importing took knowledge is from abroad and work on some it's all new ones it's very important that russia has managed to finally get into the world trade organisation which is going to help its modernize the entire system so these are some of the key ideas put forward by the prime minister in the sort of go forming the foundation of his electoral program. that is you go to preschool reporting ok natasha is here now with the prisoners. twenty two minutes past three pm in a mosque you're watching business on our t.v. as we've just been hearing vladimir putin has outlined the changes he thinks need to be made to the russian economy putin recognizes the need to diversify away from raw materials reduce that control over business and improve the investment climate

earlier spoke to ivanchuk car of it renascence capital he told me that while the new ideas are not new they are still relevant. these are not. fundamentally new things that putin is proposing however at the same time i would argue the. very first time we're hearing such lofty goals at a very high level we should remember that this is the second very important speech the region has delivered on the economy over the last two weeks he. started with a speech on twenty second of december when he said that the potential growth of the russian economy should be raised to six percent and this is the second major speech i think it's a very important one of course it is very rich the key question for us is whether it will be reach an implementation you mentioned rhetoric is one thing but implementation is something different how do you think these ideas will be implemented actually think that they'll be strong mockery konami political economy

incentives for put in should he return as a president to be much more reform of the entity and much more proactive in a in introducing and implementing this kind of reforms this is an idea to been trying to advance here at an essence capital russia is already running a significant fiscal deficits based on our estimates into two years time russia will start running current account deficits these deficits will need to be financed somehow therefore really it will be imperative for direction economy to change and i think of putting understands that i think that he would like to ensure that russia's image as an investment destination is changed a little bit and again i think there are enough incentives for us to assume that you might be a little bit more broadly formal the entity in historic terms as a president of course if he if he wins the election. and as article put in writes the russian economy needs a new wave of industrialization and industrial holdings should be created to boost

competitiveness the chairman of russia's institute for contemporary development says for this to work russia first needs to reform trade unions the unions at the moment is as bureaucratic as the korean. is that was in the soviet union so. demographically the trade unions. in the coming together. attacking the situation as a brainstorming session. in. revolution and regulation. there are the bare minimum. and it's time now to look at the markets oil first it's losing value traders are cautious ahead of the european union summit in brussels late on monday even tensions with iran failed to support the oil price iran's deputy oil minister said the crude could reach one hundred fifty dollars

a barrel if the e.u. embargo on the country's exports continues comes into force in july this hour topping ninety nine dollars a barrel brand is at one hundred eleven and who are. now on to equities europe first european bourses a failing to withstand the pressure ahead of the e.u. meeting greece is likely to be in the spotlight the officials they are trying to reach a deal with private bondholders this hour the footsie is shedding two thirds of a percent the dax is half a percent lower. charon moscow the markets are also shedding value the sour and sympathy with global indices lower oil is adding to the pressure the r.t.s. is down around one percent this hour the my six is losing three quarters of a percent. and now the biggest movers on the my sex most financials are in the red but their bank losing around one of a third of a percent energy majors the mix gazprom is less than half of a percent down while loop oil is standing the pressure. around two percent.

and now on to the currency rates a lower oil prices a winning on the ruble it's losing against the dollar and the euro and the euro is retreating against the dollar head of the euro zone summit. now a business r.t. exclusive pasko the owner of the world's biggest alamy and producer who's sol in one of russia's richest man predicts the first half of the year could be tough for his business he sees commodity prices remaining stable with growth only coming in the sack second half of the year. we don't expect. another significant improvement the next six months in the we are. not in the very bullish but optimistic for the second part those here but it's a moment some of this market you know is quite stable in general course we come right. in the positive transformation in the improvement do you see the

slowdown in the euro but in general the state. and you can see the full version of that interview with i like their pos car on our website at r.t. dot com slash business not so latest from the business team this hour we'll be back in about fifteen minutes.

critique three. three. three.

three. three. three broken video for your media project a free media. with r.t. live from moscow time for your headlines now. clouds of war looming over the syrian capital with heavy artillery fire on the outskirts and government tanks witnessed on the streets of iran warns a ban on oil sales to some e.u. countries is still possible as a group of top u.n. nuclear inspectors start their three day mission and the islamic republic. cops on occupiers in the city of oakland hold notions of tolerance to go out the window as police probe

a quality activists with grenades and. jail time. also prime minister putin gets down to business sun comes up with russia's new economic in the latest article to back his presidential bid. right now in just a moment here on r.t. tempers flare and accusations fly and what's next for iran with western navy warships loitering on its border and nuclear inspectors touring its facilities crosstalk in just a sec. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tired welcome to the big picture.

and you can. start. following the welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle crude blockade and the turning off of the taps as the united states and the e.u. again sanction iran iran is also threatening to impose punitive steps against the western powers are we witnessing merely a game of chicken or a potential bomb ticking before the advent of war. and. start. to cross like iran and its oil i'm joined by john robson in ottawa he is a columnist and commentator for a sun news network and invited professor at the university of ottawa in london we have to settle me he is an international oil economist and technical expert with

the united nations industrial development organisation and in irvine we go to our bankers our day he is a professor of engineering at the university of california irvine all right gentlemen this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first ok let's go to john robson in in london the you pushing forward july first will cut off all oil exports into the european union from iran and it is calling the strategy to avoid chaos in the middle east isn't it just actually the reverse this will create even more chaos in the middle east this is counterproductive and actually it really actually provoke iran into taking some kind of offensive move that it hasn't to that to date. well the thing is iran is already taking as many offensive moves as it can possibly manage the fear of provoking aggressive regimes is one that's paralyzed the west throughout the twentieth century with terrible consequences i think the time for a showdown with iran is now rather than after it gets

a working nuclear bomb so why worry about the sanctions is there not enough there a substitute for decisive action but they're certainly a step in the right direction nato what do you think about that it's a step in the right direction. no he's absolutely wrong they're not working on weapons the i.a.e.a. hasn't said that and it's definitely increasing the temperature in the gulf persian gulf area and in my opinion the u.s. congress and the united states government basically wants to have a certain temperature but not to boil over they want to have the tightening of the rope around the government of iran but that the same time they don't want to have any particular military action over there and so therefore it's a very balancing act that this point and that's why the joint operation with israel was cancelled there are different reasons for that but certainly don't want to bring the temperature down to the level of simmering ok now if anything is good

because it keeps the price so if i can go back to you i mean but isn't that kind of dangerous i mean that's setting a a tipping point i mean if it's now you get to a small mistake and then the consequences are enormous go ahead absolutely so they cannot pat themselves on the back because as you mentioned correctly it's very dangerous because one major minor mistake could turn into a huge problem and also as you know these wars can start easy but they cannot be stopped so it's a very dangerous position and people aren't usually election purposes john when you want to jump in there. did you say ran is not working on nuclear weapons that's what he said yes there are no reports i.a.e.a. reports does not say that maybe you know something we don't know but anything that is publicly available not privately or by the intelligence community the things that are publicly available and even the sixth intelligence organizations in two thousand and seven and eight on two thousand and eleven clap clap or if the head of

the i.c. basically told the congress that there is no effort on the on the weaponized nation at this time ok gentlemen that's what he said you can find a quote on. monday so let me if in london if i can go to you what about this this oil regime that it could come into place here what by what the european union wants to do and what iran is threatening to do today is monday and its discussion of cutting off oil to. the european union or the iranians doing the right thing or is it a bluff. i don't think it is a love i think it is a defensive measure that they could force the o.p.m. union to look for it somewhere else at a higher price because the global oil market is sort of tight so trying to fly five hundred to six hundred thousand but is which are imported by the european union will not be as an easy job furthermore the gulf producers

including saudi arabia are not in a position to all of said the loss of that oil because they don't have any spare capacity to be able to provide for the european union so we are in a very. difficult situation with the oil market very very tight ok john if i can go back to you i mean really what this is all about we had tim geithner going around the world last month getting countries to cut oil imports from iran and most countries are not going to go along with it but what the what is really the plan is really about nuking iran is nuclear program or is it really about regime change for over thirty years now well after four sets of sanctions this is the silver bullet right this is the one that's finally to take the regime down is that what the plan is. well i think that that probably is the plan for the simple reason that the iranian regime is extremely of not just an aggressive and

you know the idea well they're not working on nuclear weapons they're just building centrifuges in a fortified compounds away under mountains and enriching uranium and doing all the things you would be doing if you were building nuclear weapons but we can trust and i would have an easier job because he said if he wants to wipe israel off the map mr first round of his war against the west you just can't afford to ignore that kind of thing but it's just one example of iran's thoroughly of not just behavior in the middle east and people say well if you attack iran the middle east will erupt and chaos will be war going on ok off it the countries around israel are doing everything they can and dare to do to destroy israel already it's not like making the mad is a danger you know this is like oh don't make hitler mad you know he might get aggressive your question is what range of threats to they pose and how can we deal with that you know they told the americans don't bring your aircraft carrier back to the strait of hormuz the americans brought into said ok you feel like a naval battle you want to peace of us do you do it of course the iranians back down because they would have had iran at life you know what i mean the idea is i think we're down the regime before it does something terrible i think we've got to

nato if i can go to you i mean i right before the program i took a look at look at a look at looked at a map of military bases the united states surrounding iran i mean my goodness there's a if you can call the regime of noxious if you want but it's certainly being threatened by the west in a very real way go ahead meet our. iran is israel is one of the most powerful nations in the world per capita per capita if you divide the number of nuclear weapons by the population is number one in the world it's even higher than russia and united states so nobody dares to attack israel this is just doesn't make sense but it's rambling this kind of nonsense is what the media and united states and some other places is going on is it changing the public's view of this is there is no record of this iranian government be tough on its own people and not treat them democratically but when it comes to externals countries they have not attack anybody two hundred years when the afghani regime the taliban's cut about twenty

ronnie and diplomats in missouri sheriff they couldn't even cross the border to attack them they are such a weak in terms of attacking other countries they are not interested in doing that they may have proxy wars with united said israel and that's not very good but in general the idea of the centrifuges that are in a safe guarded site in the tunnels which you cannot say that about israel's the facility that is breaking bob this is absolutely ridiculous going back to the oil as your guest from london said the capacity of saudis apparently from what i have read is about three to four million barrels so basically it will tighten the market so much and it will impact so the iranian government deciding to actually preventing europeans and bluff them and to actually try to remove all of purchases to them as soon as possible actually exasperate the economy of europe and it would definitely be a very defensive measure so all of this is increasing the temperature as i said

earlier what they don't want in washington is the temperature going boiling over they wanted to be simmering all of it to november two thousand and twelve because the obama administration needs to show to the republicans and the voters that he's tough on iran but does not want to have a war at this time before november. two thousand and twelve so that's a very balancing act that is going on and it's all related and one mistake will change all of that i mean london will be if it let's say it happens ok the european union cuts all imports of oil into iran well how will that are in fact the economy of iran will it break the back of the economy or is this just another round of sanctions that the iranians will just have to absorb the iranian economy is very dependent on oil exports the with the hold of. european union imports from iran will not very much affect the iranian economy

however if there is an effort to stop iran exporting oil and that could only happen at the united nations security council and i don't think that is a possibility it will happen simply because russia or china that so we are talking hypothetically about defensive measures of shutting the state of automobiles iran has the can really to mine this street over what it was and cause a blockage to various tankers however they will never to do that except on one condition if they were prohibited from selling their oil in that case they would take the attitude that if we cannot sell our oil we will stop all oil exports from the gulf third of that or more in an act of defiance iran is care by

a barrel of sample of challenging the us the nor are insane nations in saudi arabia which are of the biggest in stations and they were and from which the nine pm pair of cent of saudi oil exports are loaded. what do you think about that john my before we go to the break here i mean is is this what you think this is plausible that the sanctions will actually work or are really right this is just a political move in washington to please the israelis and please the republican electorate well i'm puzzled by it because the thing is if iran isn't selling its oil to the european union it will be selling it to somebody else that person will then need to import less oil from elsewhere and that will be freed up for the europeans i mean oil is pretty much oil and so if the same amount is going into the world market the same coming out i don't see that a whole lot has been achieved now if you get into a scenario where they start trying to stop arabian oil exports altogether and then the iranians might want to attack saudi oil fields this gives the west

a big incentive for a preemptive attack of the temperature right on that show and i know john i'm going to go to a short break i'll go right back to you after the short break i'm sure schoenberg will continue our discussion on the future of red state with our team. and.

well. welcome back to cross talk you know about to remind you we're talking about the oil embargo to be imposed on iran. and. again i think go back to john in iowa i mean we hear in mainstream media and politicians like to use the term carrot and stick as if iran is a donkey or something like that but this carrot and stick approach has never worked

it hasn't worked for thirty years what do you think it's going to work now oh it won't work this is just the way that western diplomats talk to justify not taking effective action in i mean so john when we had it would really be a what would be effective action going to war is that effective i think that's going to have to happen look my word in my name is i want to bring the hidden even out of the well by doing something spectacularly destructive to enemies of islam and this is what motivates him but you know this is a guy it's not of the old soviet leadership who for all their misdeeds were at least atheist so they believe that a nuclear war and death was an end in failure and many years i think dying in a nuclear war for allah will get him to paradise what incentive do you have to bring to bear on him what carrot can you offer him to compare with us so you have to be prepared to stop his military efforts if i can say to him i think does something really dangerous ok nato go ahead please do. then he has never said that he wants to die in a nuclear attack this is absolutely not true this is the kind of thing we heard

from the ill informed irresponsible republican nominees like michele bachmann he said they was going to use nuclear tipped missiles to hit israel he has never said that even if he says that what the sixteen words that they quote it is he's not in charge he's not the one who makes the decisions and isn't it interesting that when he says those things they believe him when he says we don't have nuclear bombs we don't believe it so we just selectively cherry pick what we want. that it really should have no look he says listen he says i'm going to write a story or any of that doesn't and you can evolve why did you marry him he laid it out he wants to wipe out israel which is what for a country that has a tad anybody now we only talk to the mossad heartful nation this kind of rhetoric this kind of rhetoric is not good for israel israel is a very strong country and it doesn't need this bibi netanyahu who looks at his kind of information i read rick to get reelected he being here is a need now the people.