from russia to host in moscow peace based talks between syria's authorities and the opposition has been accepted by the assad government r.t. sara first now has the latest from damascus. but we've seen the situation escalating dramatically over the past couple of days now over the weekend the suburbs were broiled in a heavy clashes between the two sides in fact in damascus people were waking up yesterday to the sounds of gunfire and shelling in those areas very very alarming indeed some of the reports that were coming from those areas and certainly the response from the government to the free syrian army taking control of some of those suburbs has been a strong well we've had reports of tanks going into those areas and the death toll on both sides extremely high as well and of course this comes on the back of the arab league monitoring mission saying that they had halted their mission and for the time being those of the remaining observers that are here in the country they

hadn't really seems to recover from that decision last week of the gulf states to withdraw their monitors well it's hard to say really exactly what the future of the mission now is there's a little bit of a sense that it's dead in the war so now what we saw at the end of the month of course as they presented their reports i was interesting is the details of that has made note of abuses on both sides that was what had been mentioned and on the back of that it was discussed possibly increasing the numbers on the ground and making the mission stronger as well as the other the how doing what we saw was the decision for the goals things to improve them all this is now today russia's foreign ministry has said that it has put forward the offer of using moscow as a place to hold a reconciliation talks between the two sides pursuing some sort of resolution to the situation through dialogue again because what we've seen with the arab league decision to go to the u.s.

the fears are that there's a real close now for international and parents the international involvement adding possibly we could see the conflict get even more violent even more militarized and that's not what i. well once this is he said the last few days have been and escalating situation. for reporting right there and are still ahead for you in the program just over a month before russia's presidential vote. prime minister of the reporting plans his third pre-election or to go between himself as the presidential candidate for widespread economic reform. in the occupy movement has spilled onto the streets of london police are accused of going over the top during a crackdown on protesters our correspondent joins us with a fresh update in just a few minutes but for now over to see in the business. coming out the russian markets close to day's trading session in the red following on from those losses in

europe and asia and the u.s. markets have opened up in their eyes twenty minutes time for more details. you're watching artsy iran has vowed to halt oil exports to some e.u. countries for up to fifteen years despite his parliament perspire winning a debate on a complete ban on crude supplies to europe it would be in retaliation to the e.u. imposed embargo on iranian oil due to come into a full effect this summer russia's foreign minister says tehran's threat shows how unilateral sanctions can often backfire. you. russia has firmly held the opinion that in most cases sanctions are not only effective but also counterproductive the current situation yet again confirms the old war to every action there is an equal reaction iran's announcement was made in response to be european union's decision to ban the purchasing of very new oil by either member states. meanwhile iran's nuclear program the target of

a huge sanctions is being scrutinized by u.n. inspectors tehran has offered i.a.e.a. officials the chance to extend their mission and said it was ready to answer any question to prove its atomic ambitions a peaceful to discuss the situation i'm now joined live from the u.s. by paul hero a middle east expert and a u.s. congressional candidate. i thank you for joining us on our to today iran offered u.n. inspectors a chance to prolong their mission yet the e.u. imposed an oil embargo just a week ago saying that iran is not cooperating at all on the side is that iran wants to work with the agency there on the wall. yeah i believe that the are really a government is looking to work with the i.a.e.a. because there's a lot of interest pressure for iran to do that. now if i may there to run seems certain that it can convince the atomic agency that its program is peaceful but the

west isn't really interested in hearing about let's be honest here. that's where the iran has maintained from the outset its program is one for peaceful energy purposes but. has found some evidence that suggests doesn't prove but just suggests that maybe the program is designed for nuclear purposes nuclear weapon purposes but iran for the meantime let's let's talk about these ongoing economic issues here threatening to stop oil supplies to just some european countries as opposed to a previous threat to ban exports to the whole easy you why we seeing a shift in what why why a change. i think what iran is trying to do. you know let the rest of the world know particularly you because of its recent sanctions and those forces start this summer. can do with. the e.u. as a customer in other words

a china or india are willing to buy more oil or pace slightly higher price and so what iran is trying to project is that it is in a suit position where it doesn't need to have the e.u. as a customer i think that a lot of that might just be symbolic i don't know if i really truly believe that in other words there could be a bluff to be called when you talk about a pumping cold it's now just a week after this unprecedented set of sanctions against iran adopted already signs already science that it's starting to backfire if you actually believe sanctions can still work and actually make a difference in this crisis all around iran's nuclear program. sanctions i believe are only one of several things that can and should be done i believe with sanctions diplomacy you know has to continue sanctions alone may lead to you know internal uprising by the people against its government because right now inflation

is around ten percent and you know growth in iran is about one percent and so if internally it's has a lot of challenges in two thousand and nine the green revolution didn't go anywhere but now with the arab spring there may be more you know for. more motivation by the people which continue on with you know some type of internal revolt against the government and i think that's something the government needs to be mindful of if this is also why the u.s. or israel or any other international agency you know i need should that matter you know should be careful as to strafe because it could just push people to be population behind the government let's say let's get to one important issue here when we talk about that issue of sanctions here some calling it in some way or another form of economic warfare warships from america britain france and in some degree israel

a loitering off iran's coast as tehran continues to plead its innocence and change you think possibly the west is provoking the situation that. i don't know all of the intention of the west to provoke any type of conflict but you know when you look at it from the iranian point of view that may be how it's received it now could be dangerous at the same time the you know the west what they're trying to do is presence in the persian gulf. so that you know these kind of a shot across the bow to iran there is you know a multinational force here very close to said u.s. britain france and perhaps the israel so. it could be the intention of what the west is doing and the way it's received maybe two different things and that's why the diplomacy should go along with sanctions on iran all which we're going to do but when you talk about going forward with sanctions here we have this rather

hot moving us presidential race right now certainly many of the republican the g.o.p. candidates are very being very hot tempered in their debates in their campaign debates on their campaign platforms saying iran wants to get a nuclear weapon iran wants to destroy israel there are some that say these candidates a are just pandering to the jewish lobby in america does the american public see through that and actually see that iran to some degree or many degrees is willing to work with the international community here. yes a lot of the g.o.p. candidates as republican candidates they're in a position where they can say what they want and not have to worry about the consequences of what they say and you know for example the you know michele bachmann before she dropped out of the race for president she you know had said that iran said it wanted to use nuclear weapons against israel iran never said such thing mahmoud ahmadinejad's did say that iran should be i'm sorry israel should be

waved off the face of the map but at the same time he's repeatedly denied as has the entire iranian government that they have any nuclear weapon and aspirations they've been consistent with saying it's for peaceful energy purposes so a lot of these. republican candidates they can say what they want because what they are trying to do is saber rattle to their base that's the conservative side of the u.s. . people in the u.s. you know a lot of citizens groups republican and democrat brilliant that iran is probably pursuing a nuclear weapons program and i think that you know a lot of folks also realize there is no easy solution to this people who do believe there is an easy solution i don't think any fully understand the complexity of it there are a middle east expert and a u.s. congressional candidate live in the u.s. thanks for coming on today thanks for having me. well the ongoing western attempts

to corner iran and tehran's response are the topics of debate and cross talk today that's coming your way in about twenty minutes time for now a preview. i want to bring the hidden event out of a well by doing something spectacular and destructive to enemies of islam and this is what motivates him right you know this is a guy it's not like 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 energy i think is 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 that so you have to be prepared to stop his military efforts that he says i'm going to lie destroy any says he doesn't and you can involve why did you marry in the helium you know he wants to wipe out israel which is what for a country that has been attacking anybody or should now we only talk to the most powerful 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 new bibi netanyahu even if it is

kind of information and rhetoric to get reelected he being here is a need now that people in you know i want to get out then like you are going to get me going i'm sorry if you get this interesting to me. watching r.t. live from moscow after surveying the damage from saturday's occupy protests in oakland california the mayor wants to kick activists out of the city the latest rowdy ended with riot police firing tear gas and flash bombs meanwhile in washington the national park service has given not just until noon today to remove all camping material from a pair of occupy camps but demonstrators have planned a peaceful protest in response sara flounders from the international action center believes the occupy movement continues to attract followers. it's very much achieving its goals in terms of waking up the youth in the us waking up working

people in the us to the reality the reality that poor and working people are losing more and more and that the one percent actually one thousands of one percent is gaining enormous new wealth so that they are very successful in drawing attention to that again and again the media tries to bait this occupy movement as being violent the violence has come from the police and a broken piece of glass is not the broken heads that the police are inflicting on the occupy movement and that movement is very determined to continue and to find new tactics or the accusations of excessive force by police in the us have been well documented since the occupy movement began now more than five months ago and there's proof of it on our website r t v dot com have a look here in washington a seemingly innocent protest there is corralled by police and tasered as dozens of

fellow off you look on this video and many others are all at our you tube channel at you tube dot com slash are seen. police in london have also been accused of excessive force in their efforts to clear out occupy demonstrators protesters stood together last night as officers broke down the doors to the camps. there's more on the london based battle between occupiers and officers. what we've seen in the last twenty four hours is the first eviction of the occupy movement from a building that they were calling the bank of ideas it was a building that is owned by u.b.s. the bank and it was evicted by a group of bayless anyone who's been up against a bailiff in this country would call them hired thugs basically and what you see on the video that we're showing now is a bailiff essentially driving into a group of protesters watched on by the police basically he allegedly before this

incident took place punched a photographer in the face the police apparently did nothing apart from briefly confiscate the keys of the car keys of the bailiff in question they then gave back his car keys according to the occupy movement and then cleared the way for him to leave the scene so far they've received absolutely no response from the police to this instance at all. he's the worst myth right there well i do remember you can always find more news coming and analysis on our website dot com now let's have a look and see what study by if you are right now secrets unlocked british intelligence has been ordered to declassify all documents really related to f.s.b. officer alexander litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning in london five years ago i find out more about about online. plus the biggest unmanned drone in the world has crashed and exploded in israel during a test flight discover the cause at r.t.

dot com. all right in a moment is the business with katie but for now e.u. leaders are gathering for the first summit of two thousand and twelve with a sense of deja vu greece still the center of discussion the pressure is still on athens to overhaul its a corner me with the german finance minister warning it won't receive just a second financial lifeline if it doesn't. reports from brussels they're supposed to talk more about the fiscal compact made and agreed upon at the last e.u. summit as well as push for the e.s.m. here can stability mechanism which is the permanent bailout fund we will put in place now in june instead of july these are the official informal topics that greece is still hanging over their heads especially since there have been war of

words between greece and germany where the germans are calling for moving taxing and spending power over to brussels and then the german finance minister is saying that the europeans are willing to support greece as long as greece actually implements the this instance instead of just talking about it all the greeks had responded to that but with a lot of the still to be saying that this is definitely out of the question especially since this is a matter of. national sovereignty and one former eat commissioner who's now the greek education minister had actually called it quote unquote a product of a sick imagination so you can you can tell that the greeks are definitely upset to the german suggestion now why did the german suggested this is because of that ongoing talks between the greeks and their creditors it's still dragging it's been stalling for some time now the greeks need to strike a deal with the private sector and their creditors asking the banks for example to write down some of the greek back to take some waltzes about fifty to sixty percent of losses and this is in order for greece to get the second tranche of its bailout

which it needs to pay some debts in march because if they don't they will technically default now as the e.u. leaders are getting ready for the summit belgium where this is out there in brussels it's on a general strike a lot of walking and cycling today because all the metros down no buses and one of the airports is also closed the unions are protesting against the government a city plans cutting their benefits slashing retirement age also raising the retirement age rather so they're complaining that the workers are bearing the brunt and the enterprises are not getting here at. reporting she's keeping twitter stream updated on the fluid developments in brussels bringing up a twitter stream here post says the city is largely because of the general strike and people have to walk or cycle to get around so it's also spoke to union members taking part in the protests some are refusing to rule out europe wide strikes in the near future.

twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow the pre-election promises are coming thick and fast in russia less than five weeks before the presidential poll prime minister and presidential hopeful vladimir putin outlined his program to reform the country's economy in its third pre-election article you go to preschool for. this article has already been deemed by many analysts is a whole list of liberal reforms proposed by the prime minister on the economy first of all wasn't a fortune says he wants to see the role of the state and of state monopoly is reduced for example gas from which has quite an influence on our russia's business like secondly the fight against corruption especially in the sphere of high level

kickbacks during state orders and purchases more attention is needed to be paid there as well now another major problem for the economy according to the prime minister is a dependency on natural resources which has to be reduced as well and says that if these issues would be dealt with successfully it should improve the investment climate in the country and increase the economies competitiveness against other international players there is also another point worth mentioning from that article and that is the idea to propose the tax which should concern real estate and other a luxury purchases an issue which has been and is still being discussed in russian society for quite some time now. not easy going to piss going off reporting what i do stay with us here on r.t. our business bulletin with katie is coming your way in a few minutes with more detailed analysis of lot of me who didn't proposals however

for you i'll get to that let's get to the aussie world update now some other international news from around the world we will start with nigeria where the terrorist organization is suspected of attacking a police station in the northern city of kano a gunman opened fire and threw explosives killing two civilians in the years old over the weekend the organization distributed leaflets around the city warning residents of more attacks on security services ten days ago carried out multiple blasts in kano which left almost two hundred people dead. pakistani doctor is waiting to see whether he'll be put on trial for assisting the u.s. in its raid on osama bin laden's compound dr afridi helped the cia collect d.n.a. samples from residents in up with about to check if the al qaeda leader was there last week u.s. defense secretary leon panetta publicly acknowledged the doctor provided key data ahead of the operation. a car pile up on

a florida highway has left ten people dead and a dozen others wounded authorities are trying to find out what triggered the horrific crash witnesses say the drivers were blinded by fog and smoke from a fire that may have been started intentionally he said dozen cars and trucks were . quite a reminder of our headlines and other news coming your way shortly here or not see that will be after the latest business with. thank you rory our welcome to the business today as we've just been hearing vows of a fusion has outlined the changes he thinks need to be made to the russian economy putin recognizes the need to diversify away from all materials reduce state control over business and improve the investment climate checker off for. capital believes the country needs to act now to avoid future budget problems. they'll be strong

market economics and political economy incentives for putin should she return as a president to be march more reform oriented and much more proactive in introducing and implementing described the reforms this is an idea that you've been trying to your advantage. russia is already running a significant fiscal deficit based on our estimates into three years' time russia will start drawing current account deficits these deficits will need to be filing somehow therefore it is you 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 has changed a little bit and again i think there are enough incentives for us to assume that you might be a little bit more broad reform oriented in his term as a president of course if he if he wins their elections. the prime minister has been taking a hands on approach to business a month

a new state of the art train car production plant in russia's northwest the billion dollar facility will produce thirty thousand lichens a year to meet the growing demand for well freight and full face of soviet era cars that make up most of the country's rolling stock drives have a look at those markets oil traders are cautious ahead of the european union summit in brussels later on monday even tensions with iran are failing to boost the prices iran's deputy foreign minister said crude could reach one hundred fifty dollars a barrel if an e.u. comes into force in july this is now the w.t. eyes point seven percent down and the branches just spot it is to creep its way into positive territory that. u.s. stocks are sharply down minutes after the opening bell of course greece would not accept supervision of its budget decision as a condition that both the dow jones on the nasdaq losing around. up

a cent each and on to the next the mark is european bourses are failing to resist the pressure ahead of that e.u. me saying greece will be in the spotlight as all the members of the eurozone trying to force it to accept outside controls on his budget this are both of the under dogs not one percent in the negative territory both of my sex on the r.t.s. finish today's trading session in the red the artist lost over one percent on the my so a loss to around point eight percent or so you've read and now the biggest movers on the my sex why not to spin it sharply lower down beat sentiment from europe russia's top lenders dropped over two percent and the g majors did better than the market gazprom finished half a percent lower litella magnate dropped over one percent despite news is net profit rose over twenty four percent last year a bit better than expected. wraps up the days straight. trainees

months. again abstain from oil or in reserve requirements that was the expectation . and markets were this morning plus. there is no understanding of the greek talks and. that's not the end of a story there's portugal has been making headlines today. actually climbed for. almost across the board in europe which is again. and we're going to have a look at those currency rates now low all prices are weighing on the variable is losing against both the dollar and the year right on the year is retreating against the u.s. currency ahead of that european summit. well with me fifty five minutes babe i cancel markets all business here and i'll say.

culture is that so much given to each musician on the market crude blockade and the turning off of the taps as the united states meet you again sanction iran is also a threat between posed. the east side. loses. the

beasts. with all its the law from moscow are tough you headlines now international observers and. syria killing time in the hotel awaiting further instruction from the arab league fierce fighting to news around the capital meanwhile a russian officer talks between the syrian government and the opposition but

they're moscow's already taking up the offer. iran warns it could stop supplying oil to certain the e.u. states in response to sanctions against its nuclear program which is currently undergoing a un inspection and despite the iranian parliament suspending its debate on a complete ban of crude exports to the whole european union. and e.u. leaders meet in brussels for their first summit this year with the agenda is far from new with greek debt still the center of discussion the meetings taking place against the symbolic backdrop of your stare at the protests and the general strike in belgium. well before bill dog gets here in half an hour's time tempers flaring and accusations flying what's next for iran with western warships loitering on the border nuclear inspectors touring its facilities its own crosstalk right now stay with us.