meeting. be ready for tomorrow or the opposition. political ocean. or the dialogue with the opposition our approach is based on a clear and simple goal to stop civilian deaths the region needs peace syria needs peace it is clear that efforts to end the violence need to go along with the start of a meaningful dialogue between all political sides today we've received confirmation from the syrian president of his readiness to participate in that process we will continue to work with various opposition groups but anyone who has more influence on them than russia should also work with them another important issue. forty four years between like so well before modern turkey following arab league or in fact the. most violent violent for good pete who are all married. to each and every issue there are four hundred there

are mention quality here for that and. we would be commissioned to begin working on what we think our little community will be garnisheed people to meet with the commissioner need a new computer according to the works of the foreign minister. of aviation like little to write me that there are going to be analysis also quite short we. are over a hundred blogs. are you sure. constantine cosa charged deputy chief of the international affairs committee at the state duma says today's meeting in damascus sends a very important signal i should be recognized by all countries wanting to see peace there. during the talks to do with the russian foreign minister and we still love rule that this far as i can see has again confirmed the political dialogue possible there. it is really due to. a

referendum on a draft of the new syrian constitution and there on the basis of this constitution new. large scale political reforms make take place this is a very strong message and they believe that these messages message should be heard should be taken into account by the syrian opposition unfortunately for the time being the message of the received from abroad is completely opposite because the messages they receive not from the united states from the union countries from the arab league countries is that there is no space for further political dialogue that mr should go should resign and that the opposition should not accept any proposals for this political day look at this in message is completely wrong this message means that the countries we stand behind this should take their part of the

responsibility for what is going on in syria including bloodshed being. in syria and i believe that the outcome of the talks today in damascus should be acknowledged recognized and supported by any count to reach. good progress and calmness to the people of syria gulf arab states along with spain france and italy have withdrawn their ambassadors from syria saying the government there has failed to end the bloodshed that decisions were made just as foreign minister lavrov was visiting damascus gulf nations also said they were expelling syrian army boys from their countries as a protest against the regime the u.k. also recalled its ambassador from damascus monday and the u.s. closed its embassy there for more insight on all this we're joined by omar walk half a member of the syrian social club in london so first of all as a syrian what's your view of russia's diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict in

your country. well basically the diplomatic efforts you know. put into two segments a the segment who wants to be proactive who wants to find a solution to the segment who is interested only in regime change now what we have called for from the very beginning is that you know the regime or the syrian government is strong by the way president assad still commands a comfortable majority in syria according to a recent opinion poll by conducted by hugo fifty five percent of syria said they did not want him to go now faced with that fact you cannot force a whole country like syria to change its president so the only you know constructive way he's is to be proactive about the will we have factions and let's see how we can mediate and let's see how we can guarantee that no more bloodshed all little league is going to be allowed so i think the russian approach is the basically the right one because you know raising the finger or rick

sharing syrians on how to conduct their business and how to go about running their business is not going to help at all it is only when you mediate i've heard. opposition figures key syrian opposition figures call for the entire position to go actually to moscow and speak with the russians they have some concerns that if they go to damascus and speak face to face with the syrian government the syrian government is going to stipulate certain conditions and they would feel that they are in a better position to negotiate so perhaps you know the you know the russian was coming into the framework could allow the opposition to feel a little bit more secure that this is going to be you know a neutral ground there is going to be a guarantor of negotiations and things can do work. now what do you think of the diplomatic signal that it gives arab and european powers undertaking the diplomatic withdrawal while at the same time russia sends a minister lavrov to the country to try and bring both sides to the table. well

basically the the countries who have failed in their attempt to impose sanctions or sorry to impose measures that could lead to intervention for intervention in syria are going to continue basically with their efforts to undermine any diplomatic effort that is conducted either by the syrian government or any diplomatic or political initiative that is set by the syrian government or any diplomatic effort that is said or launched by by the russian government they want people underground in syria to feel. sorry the only the rebels in a sense or those who have opposing the regime to feel that the. hope is still there that a foreign intervention or a military thing could actually happen and that they are backed by the outside and this could only lead to complicating the situation even more actually. why

do you think this dialogue is so important for the country. why do i feel that what's already this dialogue is so important for the country. well basically according to the to the political latest political initiative set by the president launched by the president some four weeks ago. you cannot basically syrians all syrians whether they support the government or they support the opposition know that there are no way of going back to the pre march fifteenth one party at all situation it's unpractical it's not going to happen basically so what you need to do is to bring people back from the streets you have to give them something that they have in their opinion hard fought for and they have to have some game and also those people who have stuck with the regime only for fear of the worse but they also have some reservations about the current or the previous conduct of the regime

about some. lack of democracy lack of perhaps even. some corruption they will also want to have some change and you have to justify all these feelings but the issue is that the regime is not going to go for all sorts of subjective and objective reasons the opposition does not form a credible and reliable substitute the the what is being proposed to the people is very ambiguous we don't know what sort of regime is going is it going to be a puppet government that is appointed by riyadh or even though how or is it going to be an independent syrian thing is the syrian state going to be a secular state as it is right now where everybody feels that they are syrian or is going to be a religious state where people would have to be identified according to their ethnicity or religious affiliation so in a sense these are all questions that have led some people who might not be happy with the policies of the current government to stick by the cover of the current

government and say well this is the best option we have and you have to appease those people later on by saying well we have made some significant change and things are not going to be. going backwards again so there is a new constitution some multilateral sort of multi-party elections and so on and so forth and people could actually have a platform to engage in a new political life in syria and that has to be not theoretical that has to be very effective and that has to be very real and a superpower like russia china and some international community guaranteeing this could very much lead to people being convinced that this is a viable option it's not only a facade. that the government is only launching to keep itself in place we need a transitional period where we need to incubate some opposition because the syrian opposition now is scattered amongst figures and people who are very specific

objective when we run out of time but thanks for your insight i'm arwa car member of the syrian social order in london. stay with us here at r.t. will be coming back to the story later on here in the program. but first public anger again spills into the streets of athens where thousands of anti austerity protesters gather in front of the parliament police used tear gas to disperse crowds trying to break through a cordon around the parliament building this is greek trade unions are holding a nationwide general strike in response to fifteen thousand job cuts it's one of the concessions the greek government made to appease international creditors but the long delayed agreement on debt bailout terms still failed to materialize and the talks continue on tuesday greece desperately needs one hundred thirty billion euros from international creditors to avoid default in march had a job to surat as a lecturer at the university if you do have the aegean told r.t. the government remains out of touch with the public. they are only thinking in

terms of getting get another. load but the problem is exactly that o'grady two years into. the increasing that. bailouts bailouts than that the need to move the sense in an extreme that cannot be presumed to be more precise so instead of us there is no end in sight i think that it's high time for greece to default on its own terms we cannot since the great society cannot take any more bills this week that the needs of these told him and then tried to sort of reconstruct so since the day that this is so cool here isn't that something this country. remember you can see live pictures from the greek capital on our website as thousands gather in front of the parliament to protest austerity measures all that's happening exactly twenty years after the european union treaty was signed max kaiser and stacy herbert check out the e.u.'s record after two decades in

existence the full program coming up later here's a preview. the opportunity was last year to have a coup d'etat and get rid of happened and they could have been put in a populist government and they couldn't save themselves but they. they fail to do that so it's finished for them ireland similarly is toast no hope for them whatsoever portugal under the bus spain know it only they have twenty five hundred tons of gold if they can hold onto it they're in good shape but i suspect that the current government will sell that italy's gold deal with the i.m.f. because they are totally corrupt and this leaves only germany if at the end of the day. coming back now to our top story negotiations between negotiations in damascus between russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and the syrian president bashar al assad russia's ambassador to the u.n. commented on the outcome in the situation of the country in general for on this we

go live to our he's a marine a poor and i joining us from new york so marina one of the main points that ambassador vitaly churkin touched on. that's why russian envoy to the un vitaly churkin addressed the media just a little while ago reaffirming russia's commitment to bring a peaceful solution to the conflict in syria of course addressing the fact that russian foreign minister sergei lavrov is there right now and trying to hammer out an agreement in which syrian president bashar al assad and the opposition groups will come to the table and begin some type of dialogue and baster churkin did also underscored the fact that when russia made its amendments to a draft resolution that was voted on saturday he said that if the security council had worked two or three more days there could have been a consensus reached in this circumstance particularly relating to syria the council should not bypass any opportunity to act in the unity if

a chance had been given of course to consider russia's amendments which russian officials say are were not excessive there could have been some type of resolution and instead we saw that russia and china did cast a veto on saturday there at the press did one member of the press in attendance just a little while ago did investor churkin if he believes that the arab world is angered by russia's actions and he reaffirmed that there is no no kind of problems created between the relations of moscow and the arab world let's take a listen to what he had to say. there is a very good russian saying which they i think should keep in mind those in the arab world who may be upset about our positions in this case take them on syria but

there is a very good russian saying my solution and doing wish it would be like this don't spit into it well you may well need it for a drink of water. there you have it words coming straight from russian ambassador to the you have a tally churkin again addressing the press just before noon in new york city reaffirming russia's stance on trying to bring peace to syria right now you have russian officials there are trying to get some kind of peace process rolling because as we saw after i had the closed door meetings and open door meetings among security council members western countries were not willing to consider the russian amendments that russia was asking for to be made on the draft resolution that was proposed on syria a draft resolution that many say was opening the door for regime change in syria and that is something that moscow has said over and over again it will not support

your attitudes marine important ally for us from new york thanks for that update. and don't go away because russia's ambassador to the un vitaly churkin will be in our studio in new york any time now we'll go live with him shortly. but first the former head of britain's m i six spy agencies allen is being sued by a pair of dissident libyans he allegedly helped capture and set for torture under gadhafi in two thousand and four investigation into the claims may have uncovered several other backroom deals between the u.k. and the colonel's fall and regime artie's over bennett explains. abducted imprisoned and tortured for six years all thanks to british government held those are the claims of two former gadaffi detainees who say they were captured by m i six and flown to libya in two thousand and four abdul haq is now libya's military commander along with sami el saadi he was part of the libyan islamic fighting group

they're suing a former british spy chief for complicity in their torture to me the most damaging aspect is that it is how much the british were involved in even two cases of sending senior people back to libya and then the potential damages how much they knew about the nature of gadhafi is regime and how he and his officials were tortured prisoners that were that should have been obvious documents found in tripoli by human rights watch seemingly expose britain's key role in the libyans rendition within m i six counterterrorism chief mark allen pulling the strings he allegedly writes in one letter sent to get daffy spy chief moose's. i congratulate you on the safe arrival of our last a deep mr hard this was the least we could do for you and for libya. the papers show the cia seized in bangkok thanks to an m i six tipped off al saadi was

supposedly snatched by the m i six in hong kong both men were sent straight to libya and the notorious abu salim prison where they say they were tortured there are statements from u.k. authorities saying. that they. are they do not wish torture to happen. in the context of the death of his regime those sorts of statements that western essence i mean everyone would have known that there was an extremely high risk indeed almost certainty that these individuals will and would be tortured but by that point the british government's love in with good daffy had already begun turning him from desperate to darling and it wasn't just good daphne you reap the rewards it's a mark alan was britain's negotiator in what was a two way deal it was in this exclusive london clubs to mark owen said to have met moosic you say get out his intelligence chief the alleged occasion

a top secret dinner to celebrate the end of negotiations libya gets a seat at the international table in return for scrapping its weapons program and giving britain a lucrative oil contract one worth fifteen billion pounds went to b.p. in two thousand and four the same company allan had just joined there even allegations the controversial release of lockerbie bomber mcgraw he was part of the saying shady deal to find them well and refuses to comment on the claims against him if b m i six hasn't denied complicity in torture but the government saying all actions had its approval a longstanding get out clause but maybe not now the secrets out so we know that ministers in the past were sort of sort of facts of complicity that those ministers themselves should face criminal prosecution it below georgia civil case against mark allen could be just the tip of the iceberg. what went on behind the scenes

between bruce and get down to the police have launched a criminal investigation to see just how far up the tree the complacency may have gone on to going to. london. and there's more on libya's alleged torture networks highlighted on our website r t dot com we've got details of the death of libya's former ambassador to france who died just a day after being detained under the new government that and more a click away at r.t. dot com. these are the images. from the streets and candy that. operations rule the day. there are turning now to our top story russia's foreign minister is a visit to syria certainly lavrov trip comes amid a raging violence within syria as well as an international diplomatic standoff over

how the an arrest should be settled for more on this i'm joined from new york by united nations ambassador vitaly churkin. thank you very much for spending your time with us now so western countries say russia and china have quote blood on their hands because they refused to back calls for assad to step down how do you answer those accusations. well our effort was directed at ending bloodshed those who are accusing us have been trying to fan civil war and conflict in syria so you know i don't want to mimic them in using this kind of hysterical language but we should have. they should recall the track record in dealing with the situation of syria supporting the opposition sometimes with arms with their goals of change so the history will show i think. russia has been doing everything we can and continues to do everything we can in order to put an end to while and sent to resolve this crisis peacefully without syria the

generating into full fledged civil war now diplomatic efforts have been going on for some trying time to try and settle the crisis politically but they failed to do so so far do you still think it's possible for these opposing sides to sit down and thrash out some kind of compromise. i do believe that this is the only outcome every conflict needs to be resolved through negotiations there are two ways really in my view one is a frontal attack against the regime something which i'm afraid the has been happening lately including from some international important international players the advocates of regime change they have been trying to. resolve the crisis through frontally the toppling of the government in damascus and but this is this would mean bloodshed and civil conflict and. conflict which would be spreading beyond the borders of syria but the other the more rational way the only way which

the international community should be supporting is. trying to put the parties to the table to bring them to the table and to arrange a dialogue among them in order to find a political solution with all for the bloodshed we of course are supporting the second option and this is that is on the. we have been the urging the opposition to come to moscow to talk to the representatives of the government of the moscow's or for that matter we have been urging them to enter into dialogue in any other venue which might be mutually acceptable to the two sides those speaking of the bloodshed activists in syria say there has been a surge in government assaults on the city of homes where most the opposition is based since russia and china blocked the resolution demanding the army stop the violence the opposition say hundreds of people have died in what they are calling the army's massacre do you think that moscow could be blamed for that could that be the blood on russia and china's hands well some some some some are certainly trying

to do so but that you know the latest round of military confrontation in syria started a couple of days before that resolution draft resolution was put to vote and the reason i'm here i am not trying to justify anybody but simply trying to be analytical is that as the money that a mission of that i believe was there and that as the situation was evolving everybody saw that the government troops were pulling out of certain downs or sort of quarters and in cities that was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the armed confrontation will continue and escalate and that was the reason for which were brought our amendments to the text of the draft resolution which would not only require the government to pull out its forces from from the cities but would also would also require the opposition forces to show restraint and not to exercise their military quote taking advantage of some

withdrawals by the government that was in fact the key issue over which our efforts to have a consensus in his aleutian of the security council failed in fact you know i believe having been thinking and analyzing the romantic events on the council on the third and fourth of february that. if in fact our colleagues in the security council did accept our proposal to extend discussions for two or three days we could phone a solution could have found a language which would be really. helpful and the violence in syria and which would give a boost to the political efforts of the arab league for instance i understand that there may have been some a lack of understanding of the pools which we brought in one of our amendments which would require the armed opposition armed groups to pull out of towns in conjunction with government forces withdrawal some colleagues of the security

council later on after the whole thing failed already chose to interpret it to mean that we were asking the armed groups to pull out first in conjunction that in my view does not mean that at all if they had some misunderstanding about the meaning of all words this is what diplomats are supposed to do they're supposed to discuss the language which is satisfied which would satisfy everybody that understand perfectly well what it actually means and it would then. pull out of forces and bringing about some tranquility and peace to those territories and towns in syria. city quarters which have been the venue of a bloody clashes and finally we're employee unfortunately that has not happened and finally briefly because we're running out of time why do you think some arab countries and other european countries like france italy and spain with drew their

ambassadors from syria while at the same time russia is trying to engage in this dialogue with foreign minister lavrov in damascus. you know i don't i don't see any connection you know it's their right to assess the security situation is the political situation and decide what they want to do so i think we shouldn't do much into it i hope we shouldn't read too much into it because of course it can be read as a prelude to some kind of a confrontational scenario on their part that the would be very unfortunate i hope that this is simply something which is done on the basis of security analysis of the situation for their embassies for their diplomatic missions all right vitaly churkin russia's envoy to the united nations thanks for your time. thank you very much. stay with us here on r.t. headlines coming up.

syria's opposition signals that it welcomes russia's mediating efforts in trying to bring them and the government to the negotiating table this after president assad assured russia's foreign minister of his readiness to talk to all political sides and promised a new constitution will soon go to a vote. in greek standoff clashes on the streets of athens as protesters voice anger at massive new job cuts what coalition members struggle to agree to more austerity measures to secure a vital second bailout. at iran slams new u.s. sanctions targeting terrans nuclear program falling apart of psychological warfare . up next going to washington for the capital account stay with us.

good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. have been day what a week the greek debt talks continue to painfully drag on and on new e.u. statistics meanwhile speak to the success of debt crisis policy prescriptions in countries forced to seek bailouts the debt grows in greece portugal and ireland looking back to q three two thousand and eleven some solutions those are we'll talk about where this is headed and the emasculation of wall street are we witnessing it come on we'd like to see financial crisis criminals face charges for their roles bailed out bank executives forced to give up their bonuses and hey knighthood like they do in the u.k. and get fired how about that so far we still see a lot of signs that the biggest firms are getting favors not punishment from the regulators who may have the power to emasculate we'll tell you all about those on.