he used seeking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president assad through a u.n. draft resolution blocked by russia and china. russia's foreign minister calls western reaction to the veto indecent and hysterical ahead of his trip to damascus which is aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister putin laying out plans to upgrade russian democracy a day after mass for a way to anti-government rallies sweep the country. and pressure on all the greek coalition government deadlocked over adopting

a new austerity measures needed to secure a second bailout of the e.u. says times bring deal was running out for after. midnight in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story the e.u. and us want further toughening sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime the decision came after russia and china vetoed the latest draft resolution of the u.n. on syria moscow and beijing say the wording took sides in the conflict as it solely blame the government for violence without mentioning armed extremist groups in syria opposition leaders claim at least fifty have been killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homs the government denies the assault amateur footage showing the alleged shelling can't be verified as r.t. sarah ferguson hordes and absence of. credibility and video evidence from syria

raises questions as to exactly what's going on in the country a warning you may find some of the images in this report disturbing. video and social networking sites have for the past ten months been one of the activists he means of offering the world glimpses of the violence this tool in three syrian activist groups reports how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the person of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. was the i think they think it. was a. head of the u.n. security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seemed to reach fever pitch with activists reporting a massacre in homs that was all of the headlines and watched with horror by people

worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred you see there could be as many as two hundred dead just in the last hour or two part that was later significantly downgraded strict access policies they have made it difficult for many foreign networks to get their correspondents into the country to collect evidence at the end of last year i leveled this criticism at the foreign minister's spokesman we've never banned the media by the way. because objectivity we've been filtering you how can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you tube and broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube you have also atrocity committed by the elements it's true that to a large extent mainstream coverage of the trade of the canned has been pretty sparse this graphic video of him. to show everett. being hanged with the eclipse picture

of exactly what's happening in syria right now to know what the western allies that the u.n. basing their assertions which is not really about genuine human rights and democracy this is all about regime change dissatisfied with the wedding at the resolution in china v tahj the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya pressuring china believes to do rape in the foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but a miss is in place slim a bold to try to put an end to the violence again has to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya. backing one start. looking like civil war. are not. indecent and hysterical about so

russia's foreign minister described the criticism by some western countries of the russia china double veto sergei lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where he's scheduled to speak with syrian authorities tuesday or he's peter all over has more. this was continuing on from that decision by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow so he laughed it off saying that russia had asked the un security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr leavitt off to complete his trip to damascus now they were that request were turned down by the u.n. security council heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president dmitry medvedev a message that's believed to request the assad government make strong democratic changes in the country now the foreign ministry very unhappy about this the russian government very unhappy in fact going as far as to call it disrespectful to allow

the not allow the vote to be delayed until. it completed that trip now. with regards to the comments that it be made from around the world following that the session by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution with condemnation from the united states from france from great britain the foreign secretary in great britain going as far as to say that this meant there was blood on the hands of those that had vetoed it well so very unhappy about these comments he was speaking at a press conference alongside the park here in a foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments made from abroad some western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council syrian resolution vote sounded decent and almost hysterical in this connection as i recall the old saying that those who are angry are really right why does hysterical statements attempts are being made to blur what is really happening in syria and what's really happening is that there are several sources of

violence in syria not just one it seems that the resolution cool authors who rushed the vote despite the odds are more interested in simply finding somebody to blame drawing attention away from the armed group. they're receiving weapons and other kinds of encouragement from abroad but with regards to why russia vetoed the resolution over the weekend well russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the assad killed and the the opposition and want them both sides to put down their weapons and come to the table for talks now as far as russia will come soon the resolutions on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any requests from the the opposition to lay down their arms and as far as russia concerned that's not acceptable when it comes to a u.n. resolution on syria. some perspective on this i'm joined by jim brann from the stop the war coalition joining me live from london so why do you think there was such

a rush by europe and the u.s. to put the resolution on the table even though russia had asked for a delay until minister lavrov met with the syrian government. i think they got the strong sense that. they would not actually russian and chinese support and they decided that there was probably no point in. delaying i think that's probably because this. stretching of international law really the breaking point has been going on for a long time and i don't think it's surprising that russia and china. had to veto it under those conditions now one of the reasons cited for blocking the resolution was the text didn't offer a chance for a dialogue between syria's conflicting sides why do you think the west denied the notion of those talks. we know for

example going back to two thousand and one we know that they want to rearrange the middle eastern region as a general thing in this you know abundant evidence of that and we know that the intention to affectively overthrow the regime in syria goes back at least to two thousand and five when george bush gave the state of the speech so that i think things are becoming that the clearer. and stands have to be taken. the us are suspended its embassy in damascus the u.k. has recalled its ambassador to syria why do you what do you think these actions signify. will clearly they're ramping things up the british foreign secretary said they wouldn't actually necessarily close the british embassy because it was good to have is on the ground

whereas i think the united states has given the reason though of insecurity but i don't think that that's probably the journey and i think that it's also simply an escalation and. there's a whole continuing. series of escalations of which these are just a part the closing of the recording of the ambassador. so far russia has taken most of the criticism from the west for the double veto but also china vetoed as well why do you think reacting to chinese the decision has been less harsh. i think probably because. they see russia and china differently and if you attack them both equally you tend to create a united bloc so this discrimination is probably because they think that they can.

take advantage of dividing the two countries. jim brann from the stop the war coalition thanks for your insights. with less than a month to go before russia's presidential vote emotions are running high and campaigns shift up a gear following a day of demonstrations in russia prime minister and presidential candidate of lead in your putin continues to lay out his electoral program this time it's more about web shape democracy with initiatives allowing people to suggest their own laws online or he's eager piskun off reports. well the main idea of the sort of go is that civil society in russia has grown and developed and become much more active most importantly compared to say ten years ago and what comes to the state well it's a lagging behind at the moment people do want to be more active and have more influence on the political life and one of the mechanisms providing them with these opportunities is the internet and this is not only about the tens of thousands of people who now take to the streets for this or that rally is about millions of

internet users in russia who over the past few years have been very active there is stories of blogs and forums and videos of all internet wars between political movements and all of them are going on on the web and the prime minister wants to see the role of the internet is influenced increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper bases for public discussion and not only on initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft law and if it gains say one hundred thousand approval signatures from other users it has to be reviewed by the parliament the internet also gives another opportunity to evaluate civil servants for example if locals of a district of any city are not satisfied with the way the head of the local police department works or a judge or even a principal of

a local school they have to be able to voice their concerns on the web be heard by the authorities so that the civil servants can be substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on other initiatives like reintroducing the elections of local governors was initially put forward by the president supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering new political parties which should make waiting for more competition now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries. in exchange for their complete transparency and put together a list of corrupt jobs. people wanted to become although. they're aiming for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money and. it's time for that to change as well. on our website the kremlin wants a more competitive approach to russian politics president medvedev saying russia

needs a strong liberal party to break the mold of current politics more highlights of what he had to say a click away at r t dot com plus three thousand meters beneath the sea russian scientists make a unique discovery to find out what they found and its impact on the future of science by clicking on our. president barack obama has been ordering new sanctions against iran hitting its central bank and giving us agencies the ability to freeze assets linked to to run at the same time u.s. battleships are running naval drills off the country's east coast with a war game scenario reportedly depicting a potential conflict with the islamic republic let's get some discussion on this with your insurer of the school oriental and african studies joining us from london she's also representative of the campaign against sanctions and military

intervention in iran so we know where she stands in recent days not a single new threat has emerged from tehran and we see the u.s. president ordering new sanctions why do you think that is. not just the recent days and though its fate has demands from there on iran has never actually threatened the u.s. its. policy has been always defensive but in terms of threats coming from the u.s. mission at this distance is sanctions against iran since went by i think that they're mostly. directed. at the mystic consumption in the united states as we get closer to the presidential elections in the u.s. we see that each side trying to. as being more as being tough. on and this is another move by president obama to satisfy. either is rivals or supporters of his campaign that he's actually taking the tough stand. for

the worse continues claiming sanctions are targeting iran's controversial nuclear program tehran has those stepped up cooperation with the nuclear inspectors planning a new mission in a few weeks so why not wait for the outcome of the checks before new sanctions although u.s. problem has never been about iran's nuclear program it's really as i said an excuse for for the u.s. to create more confrontation with iran and this is really sad to see that the u.s. is undermining the work that. fantastic work that the i.a.e.a. is doing with iran and iran itself is trying very hard to keep the environment we professional in the face of the recent assassination of the reigning scientists this really. was a big blow to the relationship between iran and. iran is trying to keep the environment professional in the face of public pressure coming from iran. officials

to be more strict with the so the u.s. is really undermining the. international organisation of the i and if there is going to be any peace will they out of this conflict i is going to play a crucial role and it's not it shouldn't be on their mind when response to or of the oil embargo iran has vowed to stop crude supplies to some immediately not naming which ones they were you think we should expect from tehran in response to these pressure american sanctions. well as i said i think design shows are more for american domestic consumption and i don't think that iran is going to be provable into a reactionary position in this press are coming from from the us because if iran were to respond to every every threat that is coming from there we should have had ten times you know ten ten wars until now between iran and the u.s.

and iran is more interested in negotiations and diplomacy and is following a part of logic and diplomacy to resolve the issue that exists between itself and the list so i don't i don't see any threats coming from iran. in response to this new science of research by the way not very new day they were declared in december is just president obama signed them into force today and in the atmosphere of confrontation and sanctions how what do you think it is a search party talks with iran may resume. that's an interesting question i mean yes the u.s. is trying to poison the negotiation. negotiating forums that exist between iran and the west but i don't as we move closer to the u.s. presidential election so on the one side i don't think that we are going to see

much coming out of these negotiations if in fact they resume because any diplomatic achievement iran for the u.s. is seen as a sign of weakness inside. us itself so i think that president obama would like to avoid that but at the same time i don't think that it's going to lead into more confrontation because at the same time president obama seems to be a little bit still a little bit worried about public opinion on the international community's response to any factor escalation of conflict between the u.s. and iran sure and sure fire from the campaign against sanctions and military intervention in iran speaking with us live from london thanks for your time. the greek prime minister is struggling to get coalition party leaders to buy into harsh new international bailout terms the talks have been postponed until tuesday but a massive fifteen thousand jobs cuts already been accepted this is pressure mounts on what the european commission spokesman saying the deadlines already passed the

country must now accept even more painful cuts if it's to get a one hundred thirty billion euro second the lifeline from international creditors if the deal falls through greece is expected to default by the end of march trevor evans' a professor at the berlin school of economics wall says more austerity measures will only make the situation worse. but at the moment it's a very close play they're putting great pressure on greece to make these cuts greece is having enormous political difficulties in making with cuts but furthermore if they do many these cuts it's just going to drive greece going to an even deeper recession which means it will have even less money to meet its foreign debt repayments. the only possibility of greece but also portugal or ireland repaying their debts is if they get long term financing that means that they can begin to invest in projects that have a future based on skilled labor not on cutting wages and driving the country into a recession with ten years of euro massive imbalances built up in europe germany

built up a massive trade surplus of two hundred billion euro the countries of southern europe greece spain italy and portugal built up deficits of between one hundred fifty to two hundred billion euro failing to deal with those balances is that the root of the problem and that's the european union and mrs merkel and president sarkozy address this problem they will not get to grips with the crisis in the wake of suggestions that military action against iran against iran is a growing possibility we'll speak with the former chief of the israeli intelligence service for an insider's view of the interview coming up.

with me i have mistaken for him heavy before we hade our intelligence agency the mossad mr halevi thank you very much for joining us here on our team a nuclear iran or war with iran is there a third option yes there is a third option the third option is a non-nuclear iran with. an agreement an understanding with the iranians that they will not become nuclear. and that they will be reintroduced into the family of nations from which they have been virtually expelled in recent months. under terms which will also take into account some of their interests and some of the anxiety is how possible is this option i think is very possible because i think the international pressure which is being building up in recent months is beginning to

have serious effects inside iran on the economic side on the moral side from the outside. and i think that the basic interest of the people in charge in iran put it that way is to maintain the position to maintain power do you think you run poses an existential threat to israel. in the region. i am on record as repeatedly saying that i don't think there is such a thing as the existential threat to israel because i think it is really strong enough to protect it so to take care of itself and i think that ultimately it's not in the power of iran to destroy the state of israel someone who does these weighted leadership insist on presenting iran as this danger i believe that the leadership believes that in order to arouse international public opinion in order to mount pressure upon the iranians it's necessary to impress upon the world public

opinion the national public opinion this is a serious international threat does israel have a nuclear weapon. i don't know and if i knew i don't think this would be the opportunity for me to say something positive and definitive on that but i think that there is in the world an assumption there is in the world a feeling that israel has something up its sleeve and i think that this is something which is important in the present situation because it is part of the name of the game now is deterrence and i think it's very important to deter iran and if you run. leaves that israel has certain capabilities where it has it or not i think this is a. positive card in the hands of israel as far as the most scientists concerned would you define if coming to a mission as preventing war weakening iraq in the case that war does happen i think that it is the mission of the mossad to do everything in. its capability to

make a. threat which has been posed to israel dormant what capabilities does the mossad have when it comes to iran where here again i don't think that it would be useful for me to list the whole list of capabilities i think these are the capabilities which every intelligence organization has i think it's important to say that we have been involved in what we call a clandestine war for quite some time with iran and what's interesting about this war is of course that both sides have more or less preferred that the details of this war the details of various events be not exposed to the public since you retired from the side you have been meeting with the reagans is there a genuine interest among some yway indians and some israelis to promote peace i mean the rain is in international fora not had private relations or private contacts with the radians there are many iranians the way i see it who would like

the present confrontation between israel and iran to gradually end and create a new situation the likes of which we have in from forty eight to seventy because iran and israel basically do not have bones of contention we know there are issues territorial issues between ourselves we don't have other kinds of issues between ourselves we have ideological issues between ourselves and i think it would be wrong for iran to enable ideology to be the main driver of its policies. and the calls of serious drawbacks which has been suffering in your opinion would it be good or bad for israel if assad's regime forces. let me first say that israel has no way of influencing the results of present. events in syria i believe that assad is going to fall and i think that ultimately assad will fall in

a way which will cause a lot of bloodshed. and i think that this bloodshed will have enormous effects on the history of syria and maybe of neighboring countries as well hamas is very likely to have a duty to soon how will this play into israeli palestinian reconciliation efforts if at all personally i'm not sure how most will have a new leader. secondly i don't think the mushroom has been the most extreme of the leaders of the hamas he's also on record as saying that he's temporarily to accept a palestinian state in temporary borders which is something which moves in its significance through a first step in recognizing the fact that the state of israel is here to study and find highly of me thank you very much for joining us here on our team thank you.

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profiteers have more power than people. a free trade bloc under threat from the greed it unleashed. the us twenty on our team.