syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups. as she tries to convince. you but also support for the oil in. iran. and egypt more. skilled in post. investigation into the tragedy. claims of police.

this is welcome to the program. defense ministry has reiterated to moscow is committed to agreements made with international partners and will continue. to syria. against their weapons and saying it would not prevent the opposition groups from abroad although progress has been made at the u.n. on a syria resolution moscow is adamant it will block any draft which doesn't rule out military intervention and. explains. russia says it won't accept even a hint of an embargo on arms embargo when it comes to syria and its reasoning for this is pretty simple it says firstly that the weapons and arms are that russia provides to syria cannot be used against demonstrators thus don't influence anything that goes on inside syria when it comes to this conflict now secondly

russia says that it is only following its legal obligations it's following its international contracts with syria and it's not breaching any international laws at all and most importantly it says that the lessons of libya need to be large because when an arms embargo was put in place on libya what ended up happening was government forces were embargoed but the opposition groups continued to receive openly arms from abroad and this is something that they don't want to see in syria and russia says it's time for the west to stop pretending like armed groups don't exist over there. it would seem logical if there is a conflict let's not supply arms because we saw what happened in libya in an imperfect world this would have meant the following no weapons with a government opposition pointis could get them from anyone that's what that would mean especially now our security council colleagues refuse even to admit the presence of groups they will not condemn them. being supplied with weapons and we say ok contracts

a longstanding relations with syria but they will start supplying even more to the position groups they did in libya the arab and western backed regime change resolution calls for the. syrian president to step down if this does not happen within fifteen days further measures could take place and russia says no thanks we've seen this similar scenario in libya and this particular case moscow says what's important is for talks for syria to exercise its sovereignty for the opposition and the government to sit down together moscow has offered russia as the center stage for these negotiations but it's important to say that russia still. believes that a consensus can be found within the united nations security council it says that broad resolutions that are dangerous should not be put on the table that can split the council and really aggravate any sort of conflict and it continues to call for the importance of arab observers to our remaining working on the ground. and i

thought here chuck and i are reporting right that while washington and the e.u. and some arab states are committed to pushing president assad from power but a political analyst dr benjamin says forcing regime change is a bad idea because it's already a tactic that's published other arab countries into. the case of libya the case of yemen and a number of other countries egypt also suggest that you have to be careful what you wish for the west is rather uncritical the recent insurgency is a good thing only to find that insurgency often means anarchy fractionalization splintering various groups up against one and the triumph over time of forces that are no more welcome to the west than the one for the displaced nobody i think did what will happen if assad is overthrown were killed or steps down and no one really knows what the outcome is likely to be as the west is hoping it will be less

supportive of hezbollah less supportive of iran and less support of abbas and that could be the case no one really knows what it's going to look like so the fact is would you support insurgencies you're basically taking a very difficult bet on uncertainty. political analyst dr benjamin barber there talking to us earlier from new york. now iran's nuclear ambitions and the euro zone's debt struggles topped the german chancellor's agenda on her trip to china and below merkel is calling on beijing the biggest buyer of iranian oil not to buy more after an e.u. embargo and to use its influence to persuade to iran to abandon any possible atomic weapons ambitions she also wants to offer reassurance that investing in the eurozone is still a safe bet let's not talk to a professor or goes to a sort of from the solder business school in barcelona about angela merkel's trip to beijing i thank you for coming on our team today let's start with the issue of iran beijing has been refusing to support the oil embargo that i just mentioned is

there any incentive the chancellor merkel can offer to china to sway it not to increase oil purchases or even reduce than the u.s. treasury secretary certainly failed to do so. it's nice to be with you again i think the good is a very complex issue is not just a matter of asking china to the creators of the earth is from iran's oil and that region. around consistently has been trying to developing what we believe nuclear weapons but at the same time i think we need more more parts we we should at the same time think the chinese would have our ship in finding a new source of oil so we need to give something in return in a way that's what the chinese side believes. it is interest that you bring up that

point is that china could find hardships in trying to discover some other source of oil is where china is the third biggest buyer of iranian oil exports if indeed beijing did join the sanctions against iran even in part do you think it could truly affect the chinese economy. yes sure this is a third world country because of something that never happens and it happened and history so far so we have emerging huge power like never seen in history before and at the same time we have a third world country here so we're nothing is enough for china china is so are hungry for energy on simply hungry for energy we have to remember the hardships china had to prepare your bank. hard winter eaters and they have energy for a few days so it's not easy if you think. just of airing away from the issue of

iran and out of oil exports and how it might affect china's economy let's turn our focus now to that of the eurozone and whether or not it's a good investment for china because i this week european leaders agreed to impose new spending controls and sanctions on budget rule breakers europe is china's top export market will angela merkel be able to convince china the euro zone and the why the e.u. is still a safe bet for investment. well one thing is the european financial stability facility is something we are on really curious to know whether china will believe in us for the time being is not the critical point the other frank it is how the china not good how the european union is plays beings or national monetary fund and i think i believe that angular merkel the chancellor merkel has being bi polar sense something that even those not for jobs that i think the sense of each you

for your money for europe is to get more direct investment and china has announced such a fun in december for the european union and the united states is a band war of around three hundred million dollars a billion dollars so it is a matter of time actually it's happening now i'm sure this is the year of four and three is an increasing tendency we have seen over the last year the last two years of more direct investment in in europe but we should get a side of via the european of financial stability facility john i would support. a way to see let's wait and see we should be more in order is not enough of. a loss for the we both leaving europe and in the last days we need to show china

that we are really united we have a united kingdom and the czech republic still not exactly being a hall of far part of the european union as partners so farand is waiting kind of the same time to say this why should we it's a board this region or if we are still having a lot so for problems i. in the end we understand the same time. you know i was. in. august a professor at the assad a business school in barcelona thank you for coming on r t today thank you. still to come on the program here on our whistle blowers final appeal it is the last chance for julian assange is to win over the u.k. supremes court to stop things of extradition to sweden where he's wanted on allegations of sexual assault also ahead for you. for it was

a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos find out why the careless comments of u.s. politicians could be costing america credibility on the international stage. the un's nuclear watchdog says it's on track to breaking the deadlock over iran's atomic program atomic agency monitors plan another trip later this month after what they described as positive talks with tehran washington though continues to label iran as a threat in time investigative journalist robert perry says tehran wants to cooperate but america's domestic politics blocking any progress. i think the iranians have indicated in the past they would be willing to make a number of concessions as you remember it was a year or so ago when the brazilians and the turks worked on a negotiated deal with the iranians agreed to give up about half of their low

enriched uranium that proposal was first baber by president obama even sent a letter to the then president of brazil to recommend they go forward however political pressures inside the united states including inside his own administration push instead for tightening of sanctions against iran president obama and defense secretary panetta they'd rather have the situation calmed down rather than accelerated but there are political forces in the united states there are quite powerful including on the republican side in the terms of the presidential race that wants to ratchet up the pressure a many people in the west do want regime change in iran they would like to see the removal of this islamic republic there is an opportunity here for ran to achieve some openings but that may not be enough to satisfy many of its critics who would like to see real change in government. more analysis on the situation around iran have always available twenty four seven not all web site on dot com also a study by few online right now pros and water but the pipes inside japan's

crippled fukushima nuclear plant causing a pretty massive leak at all despite reported warnings that this could happen as early as last summer. class go visit the easel the appetite for contemporary art grows as a leading auction houses an ounce of rising profits from sales with pol pot being the most lucrative. egypt is mourning the victims of violence following a football game which saw more than seventy people killed in post match violence fans are rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port siad after the home team beat egypt's top club setting off clashes at a stampede cairo base right bell true things the vents could in some way be linked to the fallout from this year's revolution. it's very difficult to work out exactly what happens but essentially the security forces who usually act as

a barrier between the two sides stepped aside and actually opened the gates to the pitch which allowed the two fan clubs to come on to the pitch and basically fight each other in addition i read a saying that the exits were blocked and so they are the fans who were the ones targeted actually couldn't escape and therefore in the ensuing stampede many lost and i have some. instances of knife wounds as well we believe they can't side whoever they were carrying knives as well we've definitely seen an isolation of protesters in the last few months asking for the miniature regime to step down we've seen an increase in formal street violence against protesters in fact the national council for human rights which is the state led organization and published reports two weeks ago saying that the kidnapping that's been happening on the streets and as a form of the state intimidating the activists i feel that the vents that happened in the football stadium made an extension of this in the form of the discrediting

the revolution. a quarter past the hour here in moscow this is our last chance for the world's top whistleblower at the u.k.'s supreme court julian assange is appealing against extradition to sweden where is wanted on allegations of sexual assault a song denies the accusations and insists the case against him is politically motivated parties laura smith is out of the supreme court in london standing by for us right now. so when can we expect to hear a final decision from this ongoing saga to nothing. but we're not expecting to hear it a station today we have heard already from documents released by the supreme court that although this is day two of the two day hearing they're going to be reserving judgment for what they term a number of weeks which storyline then could mean between two and eight weeks so we will have to wait to find out the birth dates this is day two as i say into the nostalgia right this morning about how the full proceedings started again looking

fairly relaxed just seated yesterday saying hello to a few his supporters standing behind me who have braved the at today's some theory temperatures in done to turn out to show him that they are still. rooting for him and that it's likely to be a slightly more difficult day today but you know i saw this because yesterday we heard his legal team giving their side of the story and this case here in the supreme court is no sit back out whether or not i suppose he is guilty of the allegations that have been made against him it's about the nuts and bolts of the legal system and specifically about whether the european arrest warrant under which his extradition has been requested is violates the his team to say that the swedish prosecutor who issued the warrant doesn't have the all thirty thousand do that because it's party to the case and therefore it's not independent and impartial so it can use against the funding fundamental principle of the rule but today the

swedish prosecutor's legal team will be arguing that that doesn't matter. and in fact the issuing authority doesn't have to be independent and impartial we are hearing from the inside that the argument of the swedish prosecutor's team is coming under a lot most recently an associate teams argument did the judges the much more question of it seemingly less impressed by it so that might give us almost some kind of solace during was bound to be quite difficult day for him ok so a little bit of positive news there for the future of julian assange though so on goes on the supreme court bearing went over at the end of the day though is there really no other when you of appeal for songs after this. i'm obviously if he wins then everything's to court and he gets to carry on his life just as it was before but if he loses at the end of this two day hearing then this is the final avenue for him here in england this is the highest court in the land that we're in now he

could then take his case the european court of human rights but that's by no means guaranteed but i see no reason that he wouldn't do that having taken it this far i mean news today then why not take it however the european court of human rights has struck back has been in the headlights recently i've been doing some reading and it turns out that there's a backlog in strasburg of up to eight years he could be hanging around in this sort of bizarre limbo if he doesn't win here for another eight years while he waits for his case to be heard in strides but probably it's not clear whether his the strict bail conditions under which he's being held would be relaxed but that's a month's time and maybe still have to report to the police station every day that kind of thing can't stay one place to see this really depends on him both because of allegations that he has always maintained a politically motivated the schools are sold his greatest fear is that he would be an extra scientists from here to sweden with his feet literally wouldn't touch the

ground in this week's events that. in the streets of america which of course had the best interest in the easel with the delegation. with the key where he he released a huge number of very embarrassing files for the u.s. government and other governments around the world and international businesses will have to wait and see what he does and how how he's going to pass the time and indeed he does decide to continue with this by. his endorsement of the supreme court in london thank you. the blunders of u.s. politicians have inspired jokes and parodies for decades and with the presidential election campaign heating up there's a whole new supply of ammunition but as artie's marina port reports some believe the comments are displays of ignorance and disregard for world affairs and are no laughing matter. every four years america's top job is up for

grabs. with each new election comes a new batch of candidates with compromising foreign policy credentials when i ask me who is the president of you becky becky becky becky stands banned i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border you can actually see why russia from land here in alaska africa was a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos geographically illiterate us candidates have supplied comedians with endless material but all jokes aside some presidential hopefuls vying to lead the world's most powerful armed forces know very little about america's military interventions so you agree with president obama libya. ok libya. forming a cohesive sentence on geopolitics can be

a struggle i do not agree with the way he did it for reasons. no that's that's a different one differentiating between friends and enemies is also a challenge obviously got to stand with our north korean allies in the case of republican candidate mitt romney mixing up presidents and prime ministers can become and i think that president bush represents a real threat. to the. stability and peace of the world the overarching ignorance on international affairs has caused american political commentator bill maher to conclude i think anybody could be president in this country ok sort of like at this point now where i think if you're going to be it when you register to be a candidate you also have to go take a test about foreign affairs and if you fail the test we might get you one chance to take it again. and then i'm say sorry go run you know for city

council in your little town in alaska if a country with the world's highest national g.d.p. is being represented by politicians with a deficit on international affairs the biggest consequence it is likely to be america's credibility around the world and even who we target and let me finish this i just get lost in a blizzard of words there this is where it gets really dangerous for united states of america it's like wait a minute how could they possibly be right about terrorism how could they be right about north korea going to be right about iran so-called nuclear program when their candidate doesn't even know that there's a north and south korea i think the us is why and so then the world has this very paranoid view of the united states because of the candidates not understanding basic facts or understanding basic principles of international law which unequivocally prohibit torture if i were president i would be willing to use waterboarding i think it was very effective. and the consistent streak of foreign

policy blunders made by u.s. presidential hopefuls is quite humorous but it could also be considered a national tragedy if most candidates campaigning to be leader of the so-called free world simply don't know enough about the world outside of america's borders marina porter nile r.t. new york. or before we get to dmitri with the business or let's do the artsy world update for you some other international news in brief we'll start with pakistan where the supreme court has decided to charge the country's prime minister with contempt for his failure to reopen an old corruption case against the president it convicted. could face six months in jail and lose his office the court has long commanded a reopening of the case dating back to the ninety's or the government has refused insists the president enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. the united states has made the surprise announcement that it will hold combat

operations in afghanistan earlier than expected u.s. it defense secretary leon panetta said the country wants to switch to a role of supporting and training local forces before the end of next year afghan officials claim the decision to ruin the whole transition plan and force preparations to be rushed through one thousand seven hundred american troops and tens of thousands of civilians have died since the two thousand and one invasion. a ferry carrying three hundred fifty people his sunken off papua new guinea's northern coast rescuers plucked from the sea at least two hundred nineteen survivors but others a still missing the ship's operator said it lost contact with the vessel on thursday after a sense of distress call most of the passengers were students and trainee teachers all right as i said now it's time for the business with dmitri.

thanks rory a radical improvements in the business climates will be the urgent task of the next administration if letting a futon wins the presidency in much speaking of the troika dialog forum in moscow the prime minister says the country needs to jump from one hundred and twenty of to twenty of place in the raising of investment climates business out sees money in the cost of reports it sounded like a school reports a bright student but more excel bad must try harder not amir peretz and highlighted once again that russia has a lot of potential but it is failing to get their results he said most of them in studies place the country in that top five in terms of it's it's essential to get more investment but in reality it's investment promise please is russia in the one hundred and twenty eighth position something he called a shameful that he said that russia should become the type to long to be any facts

and not only when the comes to the bench he said that there's a different culture over business consumption and that's what as an example you mentioned creating an energy revolution which would be followed by a drop in oil prices and other hydrocarbons and one of the other changes to promises is set up and that's men do with their responsible to protect the rights of all entrepreneurs not just foreign investors and he couldn't help but mention the situation that is on traveling around the world and how it's affecting the country he's complained that excessive government that in the us and europe pose a real threat to the global economy particularly for the major exporters in the emerging markets and europe that by saying that the next ten years would see a transformation of the global economy which would see the emergence of new financial centers and goes up to miss that that russia would be part of those. now at the same forum acts of finance minister who has also been urging speedy reforms

he says without them grow food be kept even with a high oil price. russia is not ready for a bounce in economic growth for the next three to five years with lacking some legal states management and market conditions really if the new government decides to improve these it still means a transition period of three to five years say we could be ready for a barrel and a return to growth rates to six to seven percent. time now to move to the markets and european indices are flat after sort of performance in the previous session government is also trying to come to a deal with their creditors who are putting pressure on the e.c.b. to join the bonds were being negotiated. the russian markets are showing a negative dynamics of the two sessions of growth the r.t.s. is down half a percent my six point two percent financial stocks however some of them are gaining help to leave was the burbank is down by not to be tb is up two percent

that's on news that prime minister putin said a buyback from minority shareholders is possible the stock and energy majors are so strong promise of point six percent. to exchange rates now and the euro is coming back first as the dollar of the european union official said the block has asked the euro zone to help provide an extra fifteen billion euros for debt ridden greig's. so for now the headlines are next on r.t. with rory to stay with us.

means of protection can be used. in global supremacy. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine u.s. has spent fifteen billion dollars in the price to pay 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 budgets on things becomes the best for the defense.