has had in the last ten years pakistan has bit of a heavy price for that but it is also a fact that pakistan inhibits the region inhabits the region and will continue to have inhabit the street and this region has some serious problems the region has some serious problems but into terrorism and pakistan has always maintained that it is important to have collaborative joint efforts to be able to rid the street and rather than follow sort of unitary approaches. in how we want to rid the streets and you mentioned. the price of your involvement in afghanistan has been pretty high many thousand of your citizens lost their lives millions people have been very placed there estimates that it cost your country around seventy billion us dollars but we often hear criticism about pakistan's or all. involvement in afghanistan from the american side do you think the united states

treats you fairly. i would like to answer that question by saying that what is crucial to is solid robust partnership is that each able to live or operate within the bounds of what is. believed to be you know what has been agreed as far as treating fairly is concerned i think pakistan has in this particular case not been treated fairly by anybody for that matter because pakistan continues to lose lives pakistan continues to lose in terms of economic cost in terms of the social cost i think sometimes that is not emphasized on enough so we continue to lose in many many ways but some times the rule that is that is put on pakistan is rule which is understandable which defies logic so to speak because if the first country to benefit from is stable understands pakistan and the first country. to lose from an you know unstable understand is also pakistan so pakistan

stick a very high and that is what is commonly believed that yes pakistan sticks are very high but pakistan sticks very high in having stability in that one is to not instability in the understand so we have maintained and we stated very clearly that it is really for the one people to determine what course of action they want to take in any way possible whether they want to have strategic alliance with a country a country b. it's a sovereign country we must respect them as that but pakistan's rule in any way can only be there to support of i think seeing that pakistan is cause of the problem and is creating trouble is an imaginary solution it is an imaginary blame it is an imaginary looking for an answer but the real solutions to real problems have to be faced you know on the ground now as we all know that the united states has been taking on a lead role in this military operation why do you think with all its military power

and the resources that are invested into this campaign why anything. results are not that impressive as a few there could be i think i'm not the right person to answer that question it should be somebody from the us administration i want to question to be right i don't think it is important whether the u.s. is succeeding or is winning in the understand or not what is important is that of one the stand is winning or not because the goal of the u.s. and pakistan and the region and all the forty eight countries which operate in the understand is to make of understand when if i may come back to the issue of american criticism for just one question president obama said in a number of occasions that one of the reasons why the united states is using drones to file for your territory and to hit targets on your territory is because the pakistani authorities allegedly. are not in control of that own land and my question is. why pakistan

tolerating the use of military technology that are hitting targets on pakistani land that ultimately oftentimes lead to the. loss of life among the pakistani citizens this is one of the major problems that keeps us from achieving our successes in our view. not only completely illegal and under full and have north resolution to be used within the domains of international law but even more importantly they are counterproductive to your objective of getting this region rid of militancy and extremism because if one strike leads to getting a new target number one or target number three to be you're creating five more targets or ten more targets in the militancy that it breeds in the in. order that it gives to the militants to attract more people to join the ranks we are to be in

pakistan suffering from the consequences. of what you know many other powers of the world decided to do in that region to rid itself of. a challenge that appeared in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine which was soviet invasion of one star now in trying to deal with that we have created certain groups which are to be. a challenge to everybody. so again do we want to repeat the same mistakes again clearly pakistan doesn't think so and pakistan has categorically said that it is illegal under full counterproductive other any then your senior view reasonable vanny is that pakistan could take in case of drone attacks beyond forcing its concern or distraction my question to you is it just an issue of some countries allowing greater freedom and greater perth or off foreign policy

tools than others that would be a very unfair world and i hope that's not the world that we are moving towards and therefore the questions of illegality an unlawful. is an extremely important one and. we currently no compromise in pakistan about that if you look as i've said i think this is one of the media which is responsible for where we are today and pakistan as a country which. considers itself to be a sovereign country to do is to be an independent country has therefore decided to reassess the whole terms of engagement because for to us it is very clear that this is not part of the terms of engagement now if that clarity is required elsewhere i guess the parliament will be in its right to be able to define it but please mr approach that we do it in the approach that we taking is not that of confrontation the proved to be taking is that all for doing the partnership which is which is

based on mutual respect and based on mutual interest just last week. and her report was leaked to the media that pakistani security forces and maintaining contacts with. terrorism and extremist organizations that are operating in afghanistan as far as i understand there was. an allegation that they're supporting them financially. is this true first of all this is not a new to report we were told by need to at least that this is a. single person not in need to report but is thing the country and a single person. pretty much. in a bottle because this is not a new accusation or allegation it to be made on part of the specific context of the mentioned were with the taliban of all to intelligence agencies i think every intelligence agency in the world particularly the ones which are working in of on some indian style with one group or the other and all of them at some level and

these guys are now pretty much out in the open because people are openly talking about talking to these so i think just creating you know this is this is something which is not even worth a comment quite frankly the united states is expected to withdraw its troops from afghanistan and a matter of a few years is pakistan looking forwards. that. pakistan you see again the game here with some goals and objectives we would hope that most of those goals and objectives are met at least partially met and we would hope that when the . understand of one son is a better place than when they first came but the long term presence of foreign troops in the region is always always counterproductive. yes but we would also be very very mindful of what is the situation on the ground when they leave because instability more instability is clearly something that this region cannot cannot

afford i'd like to switch gears a little bit and ask you about iran you know the west is now piling its pressure on that country which is your neighbor and longtime partner. how would pakistan respond in a case of military strike against iran we would strongly all countries to desist from any option which is military. because this region has already seen too much and we do not want any further destabilization. we feel very strongly that these things can be you know in the settled on the negotiation table that there should be flexibility shown and that dialogue should be considered to be the only via forward and it would have disastrous let me go to pakistan feels it would have disastrous results for the region what about syria do support the military intervention against assad's regime we support no military intervention against in the region because we feel that the independent sovereign the

teetotaller integrity of the country are important aspects and there in trying to many many places now what we need to ensure the international community is is that violence from any side is not given lunch is not allowed to. move forward thank you very much for a time minister thank you. if . it is easy to.

see. the if. i am. elite.

coming. to a. committee. i am a. the

headlines on r.t. now the u.n. is considering a joint mission with the arab league to end that the bloodshed in syria but with ever conflicting reports on the number of casualties it's proving hard to get a true picture of current events. iran's policy is under fire on every level as international pressure mounts over its nuclear program president ahmadinejad is facing a battle on the home turf as well he's wanted for questioning by the parliament over his handling of the country's plummeting economy. and several high profile al qaeda militants have been killed in pakistan in a recent series of u.s. drone attacks the london based the bureau of inverse because of journalism has found that hundreds of civilians died in similar strikes the fact of america seems

to ignore. time for the latest sporting action here on r.t. here's kate. hello welcome to the latest sports and here are the top stories. taking time there's no rush to replace fabio capello at the helm of england of the football association name stuart pearce as the interim manager. while stay in touch. greece to stay on at russian champions the need for another three years. in fashion victims russian side in the next taste their first defeat in euro league's top sixteen with a narrow loss to armani in milan. football first time in england under twenty one coach stuart pearce has been named as the interim manager of the national side following fabio capello's sensational resignation on wednesday night pearce will be in charge for england's friendly at home to holland on february twenty ninth after

sixty five year old capello quit his post after final four years in charge the italian was due to leave the three lions at the european championships in june but stepped down after a meeting with the football association his decision came after the f.a. failed to consult him last friday before taking the captain's armband from john terry to face trial in july over allegations of racist abuse while british prime minister david cameron regretted seeing capello go. well i'm sorry to see go i think he was a good coach and a good one i liked him i don't think he was right about the job terry issue you call be captain with that question that needs to be answered but england needs a new coach and a new captain and i hope we can get on with it and make sure we make the best of the opportunities this summer meanwhile the f.a. says a british man would be preferable and harry redknapp has emerged as the favorites to replace capello the path apparently cleared after the top manager was found not guilty of tax evasion by

a london court just hours earlier the sixty four year old and his former chairman milan and rich have been accused of concealing. really three hundred thousand dollars of transfer bonuses one in charge of portsmouth so redknapp is the front runner for the england job but newcastle manager alan pardew has ruled himself out firstly as. you know i'm proud to be in that sort of frame but it's not for me you know might not quite clear or even in the running this rolls on concerned very very happy here. we're on a little project here that's going really well and we want to and i want to see it for the passion and everything about his plugs as well want to stay here well meanwhile harry rushes in a cage match on a spell as he has signed a deal to stay at the st petersburg side until twenty fifteen the news is a boost for the russian champions who are preparing to face benfica in the last sixteen of the champions league next week this is the furthest the type of ever reached in the competition and continues the success but he's had since joining from roma back in two thousand and nine winning the domestic title in the second

year in charge so the to currently six points clear at the top of the table with the league set to resume on march the third thursday was football and the africa cup of nations final will be between favorites ivory coast and surprise package some also striker gino scored the ivory coast winner on the stroke of half time as the elephants beat mali one nil while some other guy who missed an eight minute penalty for got out and zambia then beat them one nil emmanuel my yuko with a strike to hand his team makes a dream final. i think this is the best thing you know was it popped into play in the final thing for the players i think this is that this is moving to play off and on top of mission for you know this is fun just people we are happy everybody is happy we proved that people wrong. we are a good team we win today so i think we were the best today despite whatever they want to see we are in the final and we are well meanwhile either in spain barcelona have reached the copper del rey final for the third time in four seasons after

a two no home when i would tend the length here or go in h.r. from sex fabregas and. ensuring fossa go through three one on aggregate sufyan figure eight was sent off for the visitors with fifteen minutes left but guardiola side will face athletic bilbao in the final after the basket thrashed made and that is. while in england stefan sesson you are scored deep into extra time a sunderland won the f.a. cup fourth round replay to one of local rivals middlesbrough to set up a last sixteen times at home to austin while it was also a cup night in germany where the country's most decorated side by when reached it got two male to move into the semifinals and staying in the hunt for red treble toni kroos twice came second izing to close to break from the deadlock in the twentieth minutes but it was france winger frank rebury open for buying the hof and walk thomas feeding in the cross and the love was once again the provider as mario gomez added another right after the restart the prolific striker keeping his call and using his left foot to cover in the rebound and condemn his form assigned to

the team no defeat by a second in the german league and will face basel in the champions league round of sixteen. two winter sport now and the russian city of sochi will host the winter olympics and exactly two years time and its newly built by half long course has been described as one of the toughest in the world the course of the ana is set to host its first serious test event this weekend and the president of the russian biathlon union believes the athletes will find it tough when any help rockall of inspected the venue ahead of the russia cup and warned that height differences of up to sixty metres between peaks and troughs will make it exhausting all the climates will also take its toll. at the start of the road but it's the most difficult course in the world the temperature differential between the snow in the air is only four degrees celsius we don't have this anywhere else in the world for the ski lubricator for the people who prepare the students this is a huge problem with this big the competition all the more unpredictable. cities

moving on to basketball now and russian side uniques have suffered their first a feat in the early top sixteen after losing sixty three fifty eight. two emporio armani in milan because on team defeated armani in week three but this time the italian outfit was unstoppable an impressive three point zero from. being the home side a twenty eleven league late in the first quarter will you next fall back in the second didn't pull the deficit back to four points by half time but it was not enough to stop amani from claiming their first win in the top sixteen again sixty three fifty eight the final result however in an external top group with three wins and just that one defeat. that switch to boxing where emerging russian welterweight and their manes unbeaten off the ceiling when number sixteen of a colombian in that film and those are in moscow on wednesday night and ringside for us michael crushing. many here are saying that the fight between their beer and windows is going to be a big case in the first rounds simply because both have

a lot at stake i like the idea has been undefeated until now whereas mendoza could lose his double in a bed that allows him felt we'll see indeed that was the case in the first couple of rounds mendoza spritely books and matched everything our d. of had to offer even seemed to be edging the fight through the judges' eyes but after seeing his fellow compactor it's when all of the bouts prior to the night's main event the russian light welterweight turned up the heat in the fourth increasingly mendoza was put on the back foot by some nifty flurries of jabs and punches from the of but it was the twenty nine year old russian who was carrying the open wounds and splashing the ring with blood at the end of the fifth round and then in the sixth the animal came out seeing an opportunity our great deal unleashed a vicious number of punches to put windows against the wrote. the russian fighter thought it was all over at one point raising his arms in the am only to be

brought down to earth by the bell windows and now look. half the man that had entered the ring and with another savage onslaught by his opponents had to be protected by the referee bring him in to the brout in a technical knockout. look via gladly received the w b a federal latin belts but seemed more pleased in retaining his unbeaten status and the manner of his victory that he didn't really know where the shelling blow came from and came on its own back of course they finished him off after being beaten opponents ignacio mendoza was of course disappointed with the defeat even though it was only his seventh loss in forty two bouts but the twenty eight year old colombian did offer reasons behind his downfall i couldn't when you saw the fight he was strong he had a great garden i really couldn't lift who. there were three other ballots on the night that also managed to bring the crowd alive ukraine's nichol occurred in your

spot up with russia's oleg lisi of but after a full eight rounds the bout had to be decided by the judges who were unanimously in favor of lucy if. in the second fight professional debutantes gave us enough made light of things showing no signs of jitters as he dispatched to make his former two time heavyweight title challenger owen back after four rounds. and the third bout involves rushes the board he draws challenge formidably be a light heavyweight champion richard hole but after eight rounds the jamaican could no longer and surrendered in his corner plenty of celebrities were also on hand to enjoy the thrill of the evening including russian boxing legend dennis limit if i came down here to support my friends my fighting colleagues i think this event is well organized and it will only get better also in the ranks were deputy prime minister alexander and renowned director nikita michael cook who seemed to really

appreciate the efforts of the russian boxes so one could say i like their deeds in fact when coupled with a clean sweep by the room. moving russian boxes must be a sign that books is alive and well in russia margaret genco. finally to formula one where seven time world champion michael schumacher put himself top of the time sheets ahead of the third day of pre-season testing in spain say it is they are one of the teams who gets to unveil their new car for next season so she like i was driving the one he used in last year's championship but he was still the quickest out of all the old models that were testing on wednesday however red bull have pulled off the covers of a new machine and that drive out mark webber showed they will again be the team to beat in the fastest time will he was followed by force in just called arrester while former world champion kimi reichen couldn't match his blistering first day and was fifth fastest testing continues until the weekend and. that's all the sports news like them.

well. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future are covered.

the closer has been to the whole bar of screeches where the country's little wealth starts its way across the ocean. now our team goes to the area. was named after lenin good looking to a different character to represent itself. for local businesses are striving to build the aviation capital of russia. that's where the four by fours are made and can be tested to the limit. welcome to the union of creatures. russia close up

on. syria's forces bomb the city of homs with reports of more deaths but with conflicting numbers of casualties coming from the country it is almost impossible to get a true picture of current events. iran under fire on every front while the e.u. sanctions that loom over the country president ahmadinejad is wanted by the parliament for questioning over the plummeting economy. plus u.s. drone attacks rained down on pakistan with hundreds of civilian deaths in collateral damage as the country's foreign minister tells us here at odds see such measures are counterproductive to the war on terror. crosses second largest lines of e.c.b. has decided to buy back it says from minority sell does double the market price more details on the situation in our business but it's an intense minutes time.

live from the heart of moscow this is r t with me will research the u.n. says it plans to team up with the arab league and restart a monitoring mission in conflict torn syria president assad's forces say they are conducting. our operations shelling several areas including the flashpoint city of homs but activists are accusing the government of a massacre saying hundreds of civilians have been killed over the past week alone but with syria under a foreign media blackout the reality on the ground is hard to verify and with conflicting opposition reports of casualties there are those who believe the figures are being manipulated to push forward a regime change agenda. that reports the.