you're watching our top stories russia refuses to back the latest u.n. draft resolution on syria unless it's a mandate to clearly rule out military intervention and an arms embargo on damascus moscow's against regime change and once the blame for the bloodshed in syria plays equally on the government and the armed opposition. german chancellor angela merkel is in china calling on the country to help the financially crippled e.u. by investing in the euro and pushing for refusing to get on board the western policy on iraq. as the international community calls on israel to stop building homes on occupied land the palestinians who live there are trying to stop what they

call terrorism at the hands of israeli settlers israel's promise to climb down the perpetrators but the continued support for settlement construction is sending mixed signals. thus we have lines here in our next we talk to the senior editor of new statesman magazine maggie hassan who tells r.t. that finding a solution to the crisis in syria won't be easy and won't be legitimate without a un resolution. today i'm talking to mehdi has the he's the senior political editor for the new statesman magazine where the me talking about the violence that's going on in syria at the moment and also the developing situation in iran that he has and thank you very much for talking to me today now we've seen observers being sent into syria who seem to have done nothing to stop the violence in fact the death toll has risen from twenty to thirty people that day how good do you think the observers are

implementing that monday's i've been there very good given held one of the leaders of the mission where originally went in was a sudanese general who's been accused of carrying out war crimes and ethnic cleansing a doll for which slightly hobbled both the legitimacy of the mission and the trust of a lot of syrian opposition groups and in the arab league mission since then the saudi arabians have complained about the mission they've pulled out their observer they're pulling out their a bus about the arab league has really been all over the place on syria on the one hand it's condemned syria it was praised for the first time condemning a fellow arab nation and putting the resolution if you want to go since the mission has been criticized for among other things the personnel it's deployed and its inability to stop the violence i think the real issue is that the syrians need to allow in a much much more neutral a much more wide ranging a much more forceful international observer mission if they've got nothing to hide if it's if they're genuinely not killing innocent people then one of the good diet and what about sanctions the u.k. recently proposed tougher sanctions on syria things like travel bans asset freezes what effect if any do you think that have it depends how targeted the sanctions are

more on the fence over sanctions given the experience we have with iraq for over a decade of sanctions which cause more suffering to the people than to the saddam regime i support sanctions targeted against regime members targeted against people who are indicted for human rights violations or war crimes fine if they squeeze the country from the people of the book i'm going to think that's a mistake i think we have to think much more creatively about syria i'm not one of those who support military action in syria isn't libya it won't be easy. be legitimate without a u.n. resolution and more and more innocent people will die than will have already died but that doesn't mean you just turn a blind eye to the violence that's going on more than five thousand people have died according to the un's own figures and our side is about it clearly is not backing down you look at some of his interviews you know he's not as bonkers as colonel gadhafi but he says some pretty crazy things about how it's nothing to do with me not my orders these are all armed rebels everyone who's dying and let's talk about the opposition for a little bit there appear to be three some distinct blocks that the free syrian army has a kind of external opposition that's been in the streets do you think they'll be

able to form any kind of well that's one of the objections of a lot of people are having against any kind of external military action which is where is the legitimacy in libya you had a opposition movement which despite being consisting of different groups secular religious etc indigenous those outside the country they did for a you noted opposition for the purposes of getting rid of gadhafi and they controlled territory bengazi it's what prompted the intervention to begin with in syria they don't control any territory they don't control any cities or towns and there is this division between the external opposition figures like the leader of the syrian national council is based in paris and those who are on the on the streets who have said again and again to western reporters to human rights groups that we don't want military intervention we are opposed to both syrian president were opposed to the assad regime and were opposed to western intervention we saw what happened in iraq and the syrians what's interesting about the syrians is that they saw up close and personal the effects of western intervention in iraq because hundreds of thousands of iraqi refugees fled into syria they know the consequences

of ill ill timed ill thought out heavy handed western intervention which just exacerbates the violence and the free syrian army as far as you can see what are they fighting for does it look like genuine democracy there's a huge debate about the f.s.a. and how much first of all how many defections there are going on because they claim to be getting dozens and dozens of defectors every day every week from syrian armed forces and yet all the independent observers not just the assad regime but it's apologists i said well. it's a trickle and they're exaggerated there are strengths in order to again justify a western intervention if you look at the history of western interventions so-called humanitarian interventions you always see there's an equivalent to the f.s.a. on the ground whether in libya or if you go back to kosovo in the k.l.a. which also said you know give us the guns give us the support and we'll do the fighting and in afghanistan you have the northern alliance and actually it turns out that these groups tend not to have as much legitimacy as they claim and being don't have as much military strength as they claim and the free syrian army is accused of killing people itself isn't it do we have any idea of the number of

casualties well again without wanting to overdo the composer delivery and syria one of the things you see when you do support rebel groups sometimes unsavory groups you know my enemy's enemy is my friend you support people who are perhaps not the greatest defenders or advocates of human rights themselves in afghanistan we supported all sorts of unsavory warlords and still do in libya the opposition groups and the national transition council there in libya was accused by human rights watch during the conflict of carrying out all sorts of killings and abuses of prisoners which still haven't been resolved to properly accounted for do we then want to lurch into a syrian conflict where again we are ignorant of what's going on on the ground we're not experts on who these people are what these groups are for and the f.s.a. of course if you consist of defecting soldiers from an army that's carried out human rights abuses then a lot of those defectors will be part of those human rights abuses that's just the horrible reality of the world we live in and in terms of the actual people do you see any link between the libyan islamists and stays on the ground in syria well there's been reports about as you know as with all these conflicts you know very

gray and then murky that libya does live as groups fighting in libya finished fighting in libya have transferred over to help some of the syrian opposition groups and do you see any extra will move towards intervention since the new year my position is changing and i can imagine a scenario where we are where nato is asked or the british government american governors are asked to enforce a no fly zone to enforce some kind of safety corridor or look which which would be would be ostensibly of particular rights always. good but would push us into all sorts of areas of the middle east we don't want to be involved in because syria for example is a much bigger player in the israel arab conflict it's a much bigger country and tougher to overcome and beat militarily if it took us that long to beat libya how long did it take to syria how far do you think syria is already essentially a battlefield between iran and the west the israelis have been clear for many years that if you can pull syria out of iraq orbit you will weaken iran which they consider to be the number one enemy the number one menace in the neighborhood the

number one threat to israel's strategic interests so if you can get syria away from iran either through a diplomatic deal which they tried for many years all through regime change which seems to be the direction of travel mel that would definitely weaken iran and all roads in the middle east right now or do seem to lead back to tehran and saudi arabia's relationship with iran is increasingly hostile and it says iran is supporting create this testing shiite minority how do you think that saudi arabia's own position is brazenly one sided brazenly self-serving and hypocritical here you have saudi arabia having pulled its ambassador out of damascus having complained about the arab league on the ground of its human rights observations well first of all the saudi arabians have their own human rights abuses to deal with at home their own oppressive regime but even if you take the arab spring the saudis are throwing their weight behind the syrian opposition to assad and yet have done their utmost best to stop the arab spring to stop the revolt and all of the other countries in egypt in bahrain where saudi troops went into bearing are still in bed

suppressing protests in bahrain and yet in syria they're supporting the opposition if that's not one sided this i don't know what is and that shows you the saudi arabia's own interest of nothing to do with human rights with democracy of course and how could saudi arabia be interested in such issues it's about trying to deal with iran and we know from wiki leaks that the saudi king told the american government cut the head of the snake a deal with the snake that is iran in his view and iran has been threatening recently to block the straits of hormuz which of course we know is the main export gulf oil. what do you think the political consequences of that could be deeply and genuinely worried about what will happen if the iranians chop the strait of hormuz as they promised i think you'll have a situation where we start sleepwalking into war on both sides where there are extremists on both sides who want a conflict who would love a conflict because it would serve their purposes in the west there are people who want to take out iran both for america's national interest so-called and of course for the israelis and in iran there are hardliners who see the islamic revolution failing receipt agreed with the popular who are seeing lots of people protesting at

the regime and see a foreign war seeing who see the idea of being under attack as a way of uniting the country so they're hardliners on both sides and i think the people in the middle have to be careful that we don't allow the hardliners to kind of allow us to sleep welcome to war where they shut the straits of hormuz and the americans who i suspect don't want to go toward an election near a force to come in in order to secure the oil and to protect the israelis if israel were to attack iran as well which is the sixty four thousand dollar question you mentioned that this is of course an election year in the u.s. do you think that the u.s. is likely to wait until the election is over when in doing so it could anger israel by not acting senior well that's the interesting question i think of their own free will i don't think they do want to go to war think obama is running on a campaign of trying to energize his base saying we're the guys who ended iraq we're the guys we're going to bring troops home from afghanistan we're the guys who took a backseat in libya didn't put boots on the ground the idea that you would then kick off a conflict with iran but how does one american general put it you know if you loved iraq if you like to rock in afghanistan you love iraq i mean it would be

a major conflict and i think if you listen to for example defense secretary panetta saying recently that actually an attack on iran would have unintended consequences would be a backlash against american troops in the region clearly he's not keen on it and yet if the israelis were to strike iran and iran were to strike back then the americans would be drawn in whether they like it or not because they can't abandon israel because of an israel for strategic purposes they certainly can about israel an election we're in very shaky economic times globally at the very. and but what no one seems to be talking about is what's the economic consequences of a war with iran would be in an age where we are facing a double dip recession possibly another great depression where oil prices are already so high we could see an attack on iran pushing oil prices above one hundred fifty dollars a barrel some of the sights even a record high of about two hundred dollars a barrel which really would tip the entire world economy not just ours but the asians the chinese back into a major major recession major. and i think people have kind of turned a blind eye to this and only recently with the rate of threatening to block the

strait of hormuz we think the third of the world seaboard oil passes three people stuff to go away to what the hell is going to happen that will present and i think that's a factor the american government's raising as well perhaps less of an israeli government's reasoning i think has been very much thank you. i am. a shot four times in. syria the board. should be allowed to the polls. are now.

you know the public comes out here and this makes it go bang and if what's in here is going to. that's all the training. regime and. hopefully we will never use the weapons for self defense but we should be. they are a full class and sleazy teacher assemblers. seventeen students and sage am one of seventy four stole a lot of. feel. just

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pressure refuses to back the latest u.n. draft resolution on syria unless it's a matter to put clearly military intervention and an arms embargo on damascus moscow's against regime change the blame for the bloodshed in syria placed equally on the government and the armed opposition led german chancellor angela merkel was in china calling on the country to help them financially crippled by investing in the euro and pushing. the western policy on iraq. as the international community calls on israel to stop building homes on occupied land palestinians who live there are trying to stop what they call terrorism at the hands of israeli settlers israel's promise to clamp down on their perpetrators but

the continued support for settlement construction is sending mixed signals. back at the top of the hour and meantime sports. hello and welcome to the sports headlines here's what's coming up tragedy in egypt more than seventy fans are killed following the pitch invasion during a top flight match. bride maria sharapova trains in moscow ahead of a rare fed cup outing for russia. i'm gunning for gold our team makes one of russia's big medal hopes for the sochi winter games. but three days of national mourning have been announced in egypt after more than seventy people lost their lives at a top flight football match violence flared up in the game between. when supporters some apparently armed with knives ran on to the pitch the visiting team were chased

into the changing room but were kicked and punched as they fled officials say the death toll could yet rise with more than two hundred injured the violence of football matches in egypt is only increased since political unrest swept across the country more than a year ago egypt's deputy health minister has described it as the biggest disaster in the country's footballing history. well over in england newcastle have moved up to fifty in the premier league to know when a black person on wednesday also have dropped down to seven thought they could only manage a goal is to a relegation threatened bolton the russian side. was unavailable as they drew one one at home to west brom aston villa for bachmann to nail down to take a point at home to keep the all the knowledge is six game unbeaten run came to an end with a three hole defeat at sunderland. in spain the first leg of the copa del rey seventy finals all complaints boss alone to hold the upper hand going into the second leg of their time with a legacy of offer a one one draw at them a star on wednesday twenty four hours previously offered to build miles of the

first adelaide. meanwhile a russian strike on a roman pavlyuchenko is to finalise he. move to lokomotiv moscow from tottenham later on thursday for a fee thought to be around thirty million dollars says the move back to russia was driven by his desire to play regular first team football. to some sad news from the world of boxing mohammed ali is legendary coach angelo dunn day has died at the age of ninety he was best known for working with ali and helping him become the world underlain picture in the court a man also worked with fifteen other world champions including sugar ray leonard and george foreman he was inducted into the boxing hall of fame in one thousand nine hundred. moving to tennis and maria sharapova has held her first training session in moscow and out of this weekend's fed cup quarter final with spain the twenty four year old has only have a plate in three fed cup matches or after a couple of injury plagued is the world number three which the australian open final last week told richard she's hoping to continue her good early season form by

helping russia which the fed cup semi. yeah well it's always great to be in the finals of a grand slam that's why you know you always want to be down to the last two and you know for me to be able to come to moscow in a few days obviously is a tough transition going from the heat to the cold but it's like that for everyone and you know i think we just have to make the quarter just once but i'm happy that we have a home match instead of away and then i can actually be in my home country and it's sort of last time you played for a cup of russia because for a few years you might hope she said give you no motivation this time because you know last year you know it's it's a team effort and i think that's really how it happened it's a lawn and i didn't have a good first day and then the next day you know the whole team kind of raise their level and one zero two so it's just it's such a different environment than what we're used to whereas when you lose a match and then you kind of out in a lose a match you still have a chance and that's what makes it so special here do you feel more confident now because i mean you're getting to be the grandson foreigner. but helping to put what

happened in two thousand and two thousand and eight behind you and just moving forward even that you want to get into the point zero zero zero to kind of i want to get to the stage of being in a final it's great and for me to to have been in the open where i haven't been a stage in the second week of a grand slam is a really good achievement for me and you know to be number three in the world is great as well just one final question obviously a huge year for you with the ground so i'm trying to get on the ground sometimes to be lympics i mean this is part of a region where you're playing fed cup trying to get in the lead because even though it wouldn't mean to you one of the olympics has meant so much for me since i was a young kid those really well we always looked forward to one day in tennis when i was young wasn't that big and it was always all the limpid winter sports that i watched and i. beijing with the shoulder surgery and. we're going to fix everything which means i'm now in boston build your own league top sixteen have extended their lead at the top of group j. with a home victory over italian side a seven the host took the bull by the horns right from the start winning the

quarter twenty points to twelve continue to press in the second increasing their advantage to sixteen points by half time and we don't account top score for next with sixteen including this two pointer to make it forty two twenty two midway through the third period because untamed then took their foot off the gas the firmly held onto the lead fifty nine forty for the final score there. may be more. group a olympiacos registered their first win of the top sixteen the great spate on a dolo fs of turkey at home eighty three sixty five. top scored for the hosts with eighteen points. staying with basketball in the n.b.a. indiana has beaten minnesota are on the road where the pacers scored more than one hundred points for only the second time this season it was a pretty close affair during the first two quarters but the visitors would start pulling away late in the third danny granger talks go with thirty six points including this three pointer to make it sixty fifty two in favor of the paces.

granger was then involved in an all to cation with kevin love but the referees managed to calm the players and avoid a massive brawl granger also shined in the final period adding several crucial points as indiana ran out winners one hundred nine points to ninety nine. to women's figure skating where russia has never claimed a single olympic gold medal however with two years to go into the sochi winter games there's plenty of hope that that run will soon end with a dime in his being to meet one of the most promising young russians in the sport i believe in something. single. and. eluded such a big figure skating nation like russia i didn't see it nicholas is one of the few people over bring major hope for the moment anticipated ladies grow in the sport first of all in sochi twenty four teams at the age of fifteen slip because early

claimed the russian domestic judge told three times during his the world junior championships in cages eleven allows chiles she has already proved destroy all to win she's a fighter and this is something you cannot teach that's given by god she's one of those who can compete and can achieve top results and that's a fact that put up an eighteen year of bradley wish i was for it when my mom took me to skating school nearby just to test my capability for skating with professional coaches all the kids around started crying when they fell down but i stood up and kept moving forward step by step and the coaches knew that my mother inside was strongly recommend that you make her continue and that's how i started to figure ski. according to the international skating union is rankings so because she's currently the world's number seventeen what has plenty of time to fine tune her skills with a coach wife danielle sergeant than ian of a there is

a. have you seen that come on you should have completed that element every single jill is destined to place just a goodish and often downs at the first every youth winter olympics in israel but in general cyclical was edged away for teaming another russian hopeful it is a visit to the mission that i didn't and b. at the russian championships in innsbruck the outcome was opposite they always get compared to each other they compete against each other and that's ok it's just like they've been evolution. in rivalry which only gave a boost to. russian men's figure skating was asked by the girls only time will tell who's better they're both still growing because it was we have a good relationship i would say we're friends ever usually picks an ins break we'll be together in the same apartment but when it comes to the ice rink it gets tough

which is do battle for survival. there is still a lot to be done for a billion a city to fulfill her huge potential. thing has always been there to hand the champions mentality you know which i like to see chances and i always take the risks of doing things which are difficult for me sometimes i mean i don't do well during warm up and my coach tells me to leave some complicated down us out of new program but i always dare to do them i think to myself i'm strong i'm stupid i can do this this is what nobody can teach and so you go why has it. that you're feeling down i think. and finally with one hundred twenty seven days left until the start of your i twenty twelve excitement is growing across the host countries the ukrainian city of china cassy which isn't even hosting the games has dedicated it's an ice festival to the tournament which takes place in ukraine and poland the some of the features several sculptures including famous football and

try things as football fever sweeps across the country. and you can see this is a gathering that goes on every yeah they stand it's related to euro twenty twelve the fame is for the cubs heroes and everything related to the upcoming tournament well i'm looking forward to it already that's all the sport for now i'll have more faith in a couple of hours to enjoy me that. close up team has been to the whole bar of screen. where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. now our team goes to the

area. was named after lenin but looking to a different character to represent itself for local businesses are striving to build the aviation capital of russia. and for the four by fours are made and can be tested to the limit. welcome to the screeching. russian close up on r t.

protection can be used. in global supremacy. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine. fifteen billion dollars in the price paid for the entire program that we are dealing with right now here in two thousand and eleven is another hundred fifty billion dollars that's larger than many country's entire military budget often becomes the best form of.