technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. this is our life and the russian capital i'm. here. to pass the deals and not stop selling arms to syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups from abroad that any despite being bought by russia is out of money for the meantime it will blog any un resolution which doesn't rule out military intervention. the german leader takes euro eastwards as she tries to convince china not to write off the e.u. . is also urging beijing's support for an oil embargo against iran calling on china

to use its influence to persuade iran to abandon any atomic weapons. and egypt to mourn over seventy football fans killed in post match clashes rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port after the home team beat egypt's top clubs setting off clashes on the stampede and investigation into the tragedy is under way police action. i do stay with us here on r.t. as we next talk to the senior editor of the new statesman magazine. he tells us that finding a solution to the crisis in syria will not be easy and will not be seen as legitimate without a u.n. resolution this is art. 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 may have found 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 their mandate i did a very good given to 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 the lot of syrian opposition groups 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 and i mean 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 a resolution in a few months ago since the mission has been criticized for among other things the personalities 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 what have they got on it 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 will 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 itself from the people who've done nothing wrong and i 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. illegitimate without a u.n. resolution and more and more innocent people will die than 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 and 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 rebels everyone who's dying and let's talk about the opposition for a little bit ok to be three some distinct blocks that the free syrian army has a kind of external opposition that's people in the streets do you think they'll be able to form any kind of last one of the objections that 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 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 or because hundreds of thousands of iraqi refugees fled into syria they know the consequences of a kind of ill ill timed ill thought out heavy handed western intervention which is successful but it's 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 out. it's a trickle and they're exaggerated there are strengths in order to again justify 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 which you go back to kosovo 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 a in afghanistan you have the northern alliance and actually it turns out that these groups tend not to have as much indigenous as they claim to be not to 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 some of the number of casualties well again without wanting to overdo the composer did libya and syria one of the things you see when you do support rebel groups sometimes i'm say very 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 started for and the f.s.a. of course if you consist of defecting soldiers from an all me that's carried out

human rights abuses that a lot of those defectors will be part of those human rights abuses and that's just a horrible reality of the world we live in and in times 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 where as with all these conflicts you know they're great and they're murky that libya does live it's groups fighting in libya finished fighting in libya have transferred over to help some of the syrian opposition groups and do you see an external 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 asked to enforce a no fly zone to enforce some kind of safety corridor or look which which would be would be lost until they were protected rights all will. 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 i wanted to take a 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 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 will definitely weaken iran and all roads in the middle east right now do seem to lead back to tehran and saudi arabia's relationship with iran is increasingly hostile and it is iran of supporting create this protesting 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 if you take the arab spring the saudis are throwing their weight behind the syrian opposition to us and yet have done their utmost best to stop the arab spring to stop the revolts and all of the other countries in egypt in bahrain where saudi troops went into bettering are still in very suppressing protests in bahrain and in syria they're supporting the opposition if that's not one side of this i don't know what is and that shows you that saudi arabia's own interest of nothing to do with human rights with democracy of course and how could we be interested in such issues it's about trying to deal with iran that 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 iran has been threatening recently to block the straits of hormuz which of course we know is the main export gulf oil . do you think the political consequences back mean are you. genuinely worried about what will happen if the iranian 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 that the islamic revolution is failing to receive the green movement 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 year are forced 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 i'm going to israel by not acting sooner without see 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 to libya didn't put boots on the ground the idea that you would then kick off a conflict with iran but not as one american general put it you know if you loved iraq if you liked a 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 others or for strategic purposes they certainly can't about israel or election we're in very shaky economic times globally it may. 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 analysts say even a record high above 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 radiance threatening to block the strait of hormuz with the flood of the world seaboard oil passes through people start to go away to the what the hell is going to happen to all prices and i think that's a factor the american government's raising as well perhaps less i mean these are any governments reasons that he has very much thank you. i am. shot four times i'm told. there's a. series of boards are still. should

be allowed to the polls. are now. you know the public comes out here and this makes you go back and if what you hear is going to. that's all the training. and. hopefully we will never use the weapons for self defense but we should keep. they are not full class including the teacher i think it was. seventeen students. and one of seven boys the lot of.

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the headlines are on odds he promises to honor past deals and not stop selling arms to syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups from abroad despite betty in barbados and russia is adamant it will block any u.n. resolution which doesn't rule out military intervention. the german leader takes euro woes eastwards as she tries to convince china not to write off the e.u. . is also urging beijing's of support for an oil embargo against iran calling on china to use its influence to persuade iran to abandon any atomic weapons ambitions . and egypt mourns over seventy football fans killed in post-crash clashes fans are

rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port after the home team beat egypt's top club setting off clashes understand an investigation into the tragedy is underway amid claims of police in action. and more more on the story with you next with a sports. thanks rory gripper have you with us let's take a look at some of the stories are across this hour. tragedy on the field more than seventy fans are killed following a football match invasion in egypt. net game maria sharapova trains in moscow ahead of a rare steak cup i think progression. dreams are teammates one of vs big medal hopefuls for the soft she winter olympic games. three

days of national mourning have been announced in egypt after more than seventy people lost their lives of a top flight football much on wednesday violence flaring up in the game between al musri and i laughed when supporters some apparently armed with knives ran onto the pitch the visiting team were chased into the changing room but players were kicked and punched as they fled officials say the death toll could yet rise with more than two hundred injured and violence at football matches in egypt is on the increase since political unrest swept the country more than a year ago at least deputy health minister has described it as the biggest disaster in the country's footballing history. ok let's move on to english football where newcastle have got back to winning ways in the premier league moving up to fifty in the process terrific three of our block burn on the moving up of liverpool on are still in the table the gunners themselves held to a goalless draw by bolton before the aston villa q.p.r.

shared the points in birmingham full of new russian signing public he was all available as his team also drew with west brom while knowledge is six game on beaten run came to an abrupt end up the hands of inform sunderland. let's move to basketball in the euro league top sixteen states. extended their lead at the top of group g. thanks to a home victory over a telly inside a seven the host taking the bull by the horns right from the off finishing the opening quarter twenty to twelve in front the next continuing to press in the second doubling their advantage to sixteen points by half time henry dahmer come top scoring for the russians with sixteen including this two pointer to make it forty two twenty two midway through the third period. because onside relaxing a little late on but it is seven woods never really come close fifty nine forty four the final. meanwhile in c.s.

gun law schools group. registered their first win of the top sixteen the greek seeing off on a dual f a's of turkey at home eighty three sixty five. this top scoring for the hosts with eighteen points perfect c.s.k. i meanwhile take on turk skeletons trying to. n.b.a. basketball now or indiana were sharp and shooting in the pick of wednesday night's action the pacers scoring more than one hundred points for only the second time this season against minnesota a tighter fir during the opening two quarters in minneapolis their visitors would start pulling away late in the third danny granger hitting the heights with thirty six points including this long range effort made it sixty fifty two in favor of the pacers granger then got himself involved in an altercation with kevin love but the officials managed to calm things down and avoid what could have been a messy altered cation granger later outing several crucial points as indiana runner one of nine points to ninety nine winners. the boxing

world is mourning the loss of one of its all time legends who are known trainer done to be dying at the age of ninety following a storied career helping the greats of the sport done d. perhaps most well known for his association with mohammad ali. he was in the corner for all but two of pro fights the united one last time during at least seventy fifth birthday last month sugar ray leonard and george foreman the other icons who benefited from sunday's presence the philadelphia native force treated for a blood clot in hospital shortly before his death simply a muscle loss to boxing sport in general. the biggest game on the american sporting calendar is drawing ever nearer the forty sixth edition of the n.f.l. super bowl kicks off on sunday with a rematch of the two thousand and seven title game between the new england patriots on the new york giants it was underdogs new york who came away victorious in the

one ruining new england on beaten season in the process the teams well they looked more evenly much this year with the giants also able to boast of a high powered off and snow days new york goal to retaining a few players from the championship winning defense they can't wait to get stuck in and. we are excited about. a couple of staunch off with a bit. better. to win the game on sunday. a lot of us we should have played today but wait till sunday to be your first but make still have to do your really sort of the game. while new england's tom brady still refuses to watch the tape of that seventeen fourteen loss to the giants in the decider for us back he's raring to go of course but one of the parts me an offensive weapons is a dart rob gronkowski who's had the best ever season for a tight end to date is nursing an ankle sprain with his fitness being tested on

a day to day basis cause he's never won at all before brady has three times on the significant all the clutch isn't lost on the california. we're not playing in this game it's such a turn on the t.v. these days because you know there's so much every channel you turn on is talking about this game of the players in this game and as a as a competitor you want to be here you need to be here in this is this is why we work so hard you know over the years high school college and even the pros who prepare for games like this. huge weekend coming up now a somewhat surprising funt is that russia have never won a limpid gold in women's figure skating male updates from the country have tasted success on numerous occasions with two years to go until the sortie winter games hope is high the double can finally be achieved our teacher robert downey meets the reason why. ladies singles this is the only discipline

in which an olympic gold medal has eluded such a big figure skating nation like russia a billion assad nicobar is one of the few offering major hope for the long anticipated ladies' ground in the sport first of all in sochi twenty fourteen at the age of fifteen so to go has already claimed the russian domestic title three times having also won the world junior championships in twenty eleven. she has already proved a strong will 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 now it's a fact. of that 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 as soon and kept moving forward step by step and the coaches knew that my mother and sat with strongly recommend that

you make her continue and that's how i started figure skating. according to the international skating union is rankings so it nicole is currently the world's number seventeen what has plenty of time to fine tune her skills with her coach five ten years to search him down million of a there is a what. have you seen that's come on you should have completed that element every single till and is destined to face tough competition offs and downs at the first ever youth winter olympics in is work back in january sort nicko was edged out by her teammate another russian hopeful elizabeth at the mission that i believe in be at the russian championships in innsbruck the outcomes opposite they always get compared to each other they can. pete against each other and that's ok it's just like the new pollution. in rivalry which only gave

a boost to russian men's figure skating as for the girls only time will tell who's better they're both still growing. we have a good relationship i would say we're friends of these olympics and ins brooke who live together in the same apartment but when it comes to the ice rink it gets tough which is do battle survival there is still a look to be done for. to fulfill her huge potential but one thing has always been there in her mind. which i can 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 the warm up and my coach tells me to leave some complicated elements out of my program but i always dare to do them i think to myself i'm strong and true that i can delete. this what nobody can teach and so to go ahead and. get well known.

brings us to football again where with one hundred twenty seven days left until the start of euro twenty twelve excitement is building steadily across the host countries they ukrainian city of trick a city which is not in fact hosting any games has dedicated its a new all ice festival to the tournament which takes place in ukraine and poland this summer the gala features several structures including famous for pulling trophies on players football fever most definitely in the air. this is a gathering vego zone every year they stand it's related to euro twenty twelve the theme is for the cups heroes and everything related to the upcoming tournaments. brings us to tennis finally where maria sharapova has held her first training session in moscow ahead of this weekend's fed cup quarter final. with spain the twenty four year old has only ever played in three fed cup matches but after

a couple of injury plagued years the world number three reached the extremely an open final last week where she lost in quite a one sided much it has to be said against victoria azarenka but she is raring to go this weekend. and i'm his all your support fell be back in just under two hours time with more world whether it's next year in twenty four or r.t. .

well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.