this saying that there is foreign intervention already playing at hand here and he did say that there was some military support coming from al qaeda fighters and mostly on the outer regions of syria and there was some iraqi intelligence which did support those claims they did say that the al qaeda fighters were coming into syria from its border with iraq of course all of this is also coming right when washington is pressing hard on assad to step down and it's railing for anybody willing to join the coalition the so-called friends of syria who are going to meet in tunisia on the twenty fourth of february russia did. the arab league play and for the observer mission but they did believe that sometimes the mission was not entirely successful as the morning during mission of that i believe was there and as the situation was of warming everybody saw the the government troops were pulling out of certain dollars or sort of quarters an ensuite is that door to door he was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the armed

confrontation will continue and escalate a russian delegation was in damascus for talks with president assad just on tuesday and after those talks president assad has emerged saying that he's willing to come and join the dialogue with the opposition the unfortunate thing being of course the opposition is not willing to carry out any talks with the current syrian government again russia's main point being that the diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis in syria is the only way out of the bloodshed and author and journalist action returns he told me a little earlier that the u.s. and all kind of fighting side by side in syria to protect common interests. the arab league is being used presumably as some kind of proxy because we know the united states and the european union have all but. eventually. could happen should have some sources even saying british just question forces

already in the ground so maybe there is already foreign intervention we have heard about al-qaeda in syria now and they could police the guns and weapons going into syria now that would be a great thing the un could do all the tourists once again the united states and european union states as usual supporting al-qaeda as they did in afghanistan prior to nine eleven u.s. troops and al qaeda side by side fighting against the us and of syria this really shows what exactly the americans are up to they are north protecting the interests of u.s. citizens and or european union leaders are weary statement to back any attacks we saw with lethal consequence in aleppo twenty eight dead in december forty four dead in damascus this is this is getting out of hand it is getting dangerous. he told him he did learn it well but the u.s. critical of state supplying military hardware to damascus there are now calls from

washington to opposition groups and syrians on his marina portnoy reports the conflict told the region's already flooded with weapons from the u.s. . at the united nations security council america holds one permanent seat but when it comes to weapons the world's largest arms exporter is often seen as sitting on two chairs they say there isn't an international embargo on arms preventing them from doing that that is a fact but that doesn't change the immorality of supplying a dictatorial regime that is killing its people in massive numbers every day and we are are deeply concerned about that as u.s. officials continue publicly scolding countries over relations with syria critics say the accusations are being thrown from a tremendous glasshouse the us is a hugely difficult in this regard because they've long been the largest arms dealer and most of those weapons the us sold the store really more than four hundred

billion dollars worth of since the one nine hundred sixty s. have gone to the middle east and you can't argue. seriously that it's made that region any more stable in the past few years nearly fifty percent of u.s. weapons exports have been flowing to the middle east many countries with the biggest appetite for american weapons have also made headlines for carrying out brutal crackdowns against dissidents and opposition groups if you are you're ok friends there are thugs you're not i mean this is for all of us who have been overseas the duplicity and. of american foreign policy is painfully. evident according to congressional figures america has sold one point four billion dollars worth of weapons to bahrain since two thousand and america struck its single biggest arms. deal when saudi arabia ordered sixty billion dollars worth of arms

the us has long subsidize the israeli military and recently supplied them with bunker buster bombs experts say this strategic arming of middle eastern countries is aimed at iran and extending u.s. dominance in the region. is going on. against your own. you know human rights. it's all about some geopolitical f.b.i. whistle blowers sibel edmonds has accused america of playing particularly dirty while leading a campaign for regime change in syria but it's not some kind of. simultaneously op rising situation where people are a ballet and then suddenly they are mysteriously armed and mysteriously arms are being smuggled into syria from turkey well who who is providing this arms nobody is asking in the us media well these are u.s. arms shipped to turkey this as the u.s.

military complex flush with record revenue continues to lobby its interests on capitol hill arms manufacturers are some of the biggest companies in america there are some of the most powerful lockheed martin not only do they making so much for the defense department around the world they're a federal contractor in many other levels there are going to vote in elections this statue outside the u.n. headquarters is a symbol of global peace and nonviolence but critics say the idea has been twisted by the u.s. which goes around advocating peace while arming countless conflicts all for the sake of profit marina point ny r.t. new york. to greece now where police are far to gas and stun grenades into crowds of protesters who throwing stones and far bombs at them several buildings around athens have been set ablaze have been reports of injuries and arrests lawmakers are debating a choice between tough new code. or an imminent default the creditors want an unpopular new austerity bill passed in return for the one hundred thirty billion

euro rescue package the cabinet has cleared the plan but lost six ministers or deputies in the process some coalition m.p.'s of threatened to vote against it if it does go ahead the fifteen thousand civil servants jobs will lose will be lost and the minimum wage will be slashed thousands of greeks have been protesting the deal throughout the week well let's now talk to a load of unused he's a former belgian and paying an international consultant where thousands of greeks as i said have been voicing their opinion of the cause loud and clear that demonstrating there today in athens they clearly don't want them do you think that greek lawmakers will still clear the new austerity package tonight as they've done with the ones before well of course you talk about the question is will there be a majority of lawmakers doing shots i think so yes they're all tied to the old political process that was corrupt for the last twenty years so they're not going to change and when and the thing is the thing is so will they get away with it that's another question i mean once it is going to be voted it's not sure that it

will be in tune and when you say will they get away with it in light of what we're seeing with the protests among the greek people at the moment and of course we've got the looming elections later this this year in the spring well a bill of goods a greek people are outreached i mean c'mon let's cut all these digital legendary deals that would be in the last years of the greek greece as one of the lowest percentages of salaries on the gross national product thirty six percent that's lower than most countries i mean only eleven percent of the workforce is it increases in public service again one of the lowest and this country this country has only had some kind of social democracy and of the seventy's you remember this was a military regime before now did this douche people know what that does because that was the last regime and it's similar things i mean of course they're not going to take it there be that reached. and i think if they're resilient enough they will do good again and i mean the only real solution is not what the e.u.

is now imposing on the only solution is social democracy i mean there is money on it shipping companies they own sixteen percent of the world into down then ten their earnings went up forty five billion euros i mean i'm not talking the total sum there that's the amount that they went out in the in a crisis year and they bade almost zero axis this is not some kind of bailout reform or what i can honestly form or getting an economy back on track this is no more than a social experiment where there were do what era being commission is doing together with the e.c.b. and i.m.f. world bank is that attacking this one of the weakest country in the e.u. this is a social experiment how they found out what are the implications if greece does default now how will that affect the whole euro zone project clearly ministers there in brussels don't want greece defaulting leave the eurozone and yet law have

we hear analysts saying secretly they would like to ditch greek greece and get rid of it. well i'm sure the sound was not so good but if i got your christian right i mean what they're trying to do in brussels to me is not saving greece but they're trying to do is saving the euro zone which is not exactly the same now i think they're all some of them must have already made up their mind and greece is going to have to leave the eurozone but remember the e.u. so far the european commission this is not a social democrat. organization this is a neil liberal economic organization they have other priorities than the people of the ordinary people the ordinary working man or people who live from a salary. do not have any hope that we will see some sort of democratic process take place he said little earlier though they won't be able to push these a sturdy measures through because of the the public opinion and of course we've got those looming elections the technocrats do you think they will be replaced by

politicians and we could see the return to some forward to democracy there well in my work as a consultant i never predict in the future but first of all because i count and because what i can expect is only when our hope and what i guess will happen i can only hope that these measures will not be enforced on the greek people now because what this is is an experiment to make future elections be relevant to and that agree so much that what devan new party would have a new majority there will be they will have nothing because they will be bound by all these this is of this is war on democracy to you and i will leave it there thank you very much indeed for tom live an international consultant former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament joining us live there in from assholes where we're bringing our live pictures from athens at the moment you can see those on the screen where we're seeing now thousands of protesters they are gathered outside the greek parliament at the moment we've just been talking with over news to about that

debate concerning as a starting measures whether they got to be imposed on not we don't know when the results are jew from that debate in parliament but certainly. later on today in the next two or three hours or so we're streaming the events that live on our website so you can see more of that simply by logging on to t.v. dot com. well still ahead for you this hour a year since the toppling of mubarak. but instead of celebrations across egypt a general strike as people feel betrayed by the military rulers and want change that still hasn't come. group of politically active russians take the matter of election transparency into their own hands by organizing the voters believe. that story still to come iran says it will soon reveal some major advances in its nuclear program speaking on the thirty third anniversary of the islamic revolution president ahmadinejad said tehran would never stop enriching uranium iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes but united states and its

allies the e.u. and israel suspect terror arm could be pursuing nuclear weapons piling up sanctions against iran but i'm with that europe's planned oil embargo will backfire in spain one of the biggest consumers of iranian oil says the same actions would hurt it more than any other european state. based journalist we go and human are who believes the embargo has been forced upon europe. what we're seeing here is not at the station that comes actually from european countries to spain never wanted this bargo to to pollute to be put in place this is something that comes externally from the united states pressure on the european union so it calls into question spain's tanami in making foreign policy decisions and he's not just to spain and italy also greece imports lots of oil from from iran it could be hard hit in a way that would bring them bankrupt in the coming future that would be

a complete disaster for the european union and for the euro and that can happen because of the political move. the european union actually had a very good relationship in terms of the economy and trade with iran it was retrieving the last twenty years the connections that had been lost after the iranian revolution and the situation was improving until we came to this new tension that has been in my view to a great extent artificially created. on the first anniversary of the sting of former president hosni mubarak egypt's activists have called for a general strike to ramp up the pressure against the ruling military council they want the council to step down immediately saying they are blocking reforms the military said it won't accept any ultimatum will transfer power in june when the presidential elections that many people fear they will remain in power beyond the state car a british journalist bill true says egyptians have every right not to trust the military. people are unsure about whether actually transfer power in gene so far

the military the ruling military council has yet to fulfill any of its promises that said since they came into power also just generally on the streets we're seeing massive human rights violations towards protesters where people are expressing their freedom of speech and we've seeing excessive use of tear gas and cartouche they call it here which is birdshot and maiming protesters has been absolutely no reform of the police. provide by the football disaster a few weeks ago which saw over seventy four people die so essentially we've seen very little reform since mubarak stepped down and people are basically anxious that nothing will change and that will just slip into a new new dictatorship i think most people here would say or they do say that the revolution never ended but it's called the continuance of the ongoing revolution really since january even after mubarak stepped down this time last year they've been continuous sit ins and protests and violent clashes with egypt's security

forces pushing the protesters pushing for change that they haven't seen yet. or to live in moscow with twenty four hours a day still to come this hour despite mounting civilian deaths and plans for an early withdrawal the number of nato airstrikes in afghanistan could actually be increasing we explain why in a few moments. here are some villain for others the u.s. army private accused by washington of treason receives a new. nation for the nobel peace price. those stories still to come but first fair and transparent that's how people in russia want to see the upcoming presidential election in march polling stations across the country are being equipped with web cams to avoid any wrongdoing but a group of proactive citizens as decided using technology alone is not enough you want to sort of explains how they're planning to secure honest voting. it doesn't take long to find videos of alleged violations during the recent parliamentary vote

in russia just a couple of clicks is enough and scores of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the allegations are still to be proven in courts tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets demanding fair elections with march's presidential votes just around the corner events are unfolding quickly with their vote not sure people want to vote responsibly and to know where their villages go their own political competition independent courts and media forming the voters' league is not our achievement the idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists and bloggers activists artists writers and other public figures and statements way g.d.s. clegg t.v. host and now activist but one of the ladies asked or the head of a charity fund and blogger he does any of the bianca also known as dr lisa.

or people from school martha cordoning or over the blue buckets movement fighting for equal rights on roads for everyone was moving as our league is an opportunity to gather people who are not indifferent to what's happening the more people with a civil position there are the better the league's main goal is to ensure fair elections is published a list of initiatives on the web divided into groups that everyone can be a part of public discussions and online votes are the key instruments and letters have been sent to all presidential candidates asking them to cooperate with the league and even though the project is less than a month old everyone has so far agreed including pledging middleton another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak you have to go on willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand league observers we've also arranged to pay. together unified database to keep track of the election through trickles according to its founders around ten thousand observers are needed to ensure

a fair election in moscow alone. it's great that the civil society wants to be more active but it's really important not to cross the line and observers not only are positioned it is serious so if limitations not to teach sides of the political process. the league's founders say they'll shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into a political movement there are keen to work with all candidates equally there's no doubt society has changed more people want to have more influence on russia's political life perhaps that's why it took less than one month for the voters league to establish ties with both the authorities and the opposition and with the help promise from candidates there we just may secure enough access to a fact that we monitor the vote in march as long as it avoids taking sides and protects its neutrality is going off r t moscow afghan president hamid karzai accused nato of killing eight children in an airstrike on wednesday officials

launched an investigation later claiming foreign forces wrongly targeted civilians after receiving an incorrect report that armed men were preparing an attack in the area the bombing came just a week after the united states announced it might stop combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected but this strike could stoke already strained relations between karzai and his western backers over a mounting death toll from entry filmmaker clay claiborne's thinks that despite the condemnation civilian casualties in the country will continue to rise he has certain pretenses. to have any viability is legitimate to see as an afghan when something like this happens but he is basically a tool of the american occupation there so we can expect any real demands to change from here this kind of thing obviously doesn't win hearts and minds this happened in the same area were afghan soldiers killed french troops on ports and i think

because the u.s. is planning to pull out the movie next day for him because of our moving your troops out we can expect more airstrikes and more civilian casualties in afghanistan we already saw two thousand and eleven eight percent above two thousand and ten in terms of civilian casualties i'm afraid we're going to see that trend continue in two thousand and twelve precisely because they noted they have to pull out decisively because they noted again it's up. more expert opinion on u.s. actions in afghanistan is on the web site free dot com that's online all the time they can also find out about america's massive defense costs the u.s. congress has approved eighty million dollars to build a new. super bomb was the order from the pentagon marked urgent. but also on the web site a year of rebuilding has pulled japan from the rubble these pictures show the

streets immediately after last year's earthquake and tsunami what they look like today personal stories of survivors and more images available for you right now but. some other international news in brief israeli air strikes on the gaza strip have left one civilian dead four others injured and killed was a guard at the farm israeli army confirmed the police say they were aimed at sites belonging to terror groups and were a response to a short range rocket attack from gaza. malaysia has deported a young saudi blogger who is wanted in his home country for his remarks on twitter the journalist sparked outrage in the kingdom last week after he tweeted that he would not pray for the prophet mohammed. blasphemous the twenty three year old could now face execution.

pop legend an actress whitney houston has died at the age of forty eight a performer was found in the beverly hills hotel room on the eve of the grammy awards in los angeles her career was marred by marriage and drug abuse authorities have yet to determine the exact cause of death. the u.s. army private bradley manning accused of passing secret documents and evidence of war crimes to wiki leaks has been nominated for the nobel peace prize he's been put forward by a peace research center in the u.s. and an icelandic parliamentary group the twenty four year old is awaiting a court martial in the u.s. and faces life in prison and pete begin to your daughter who leads the icelandic nomination says exposing crimes shouldn't be regarded as one bradley manning. because the. criminal or long whistle on war crimes it is

not a criminal act to blow the whistle on one or to blow the whistle on any crime and we feel that. by these leaks for example the meaning of hello no no. no well. you know look pete you people that have. put their name to war in afghanistan in iraq through their governments need to know why this meeting going on there and by knowing what was going on there and we see this in can apply more pressure on our governments to be accountable for the crimes that have been put out in our names we do not. let the bradley manning case be the person appears in just treatment being a chorus of silencing of people the courageous people who want to do their civic duty by reporting on crimes who are it's state or military.

well that's all for me for now i'll be back with a recap of our top stories for you in just a few moments stay with us live here in moscow this is.

what i. strive for for the australia you know the leon there's no we're going to see the film on the screen if you want to have sex go and have sex.

here in the russian capital top stories now the arab league is calling on the un to create a joint peacekeeping force for syria as the group aims to pressure on president assad the free syrian army says expect official recognition from arab gulf states. at least five buildings were sort of plays amid mass protests in greece as lawmakers are set for a tough choice of more public cuts to secure one hundred thirty billion euro bailout. also reporting that iran's president promises major advances in its nuclear program saying tehran would never stop enriching uranium

iran insists its only pursuing atomic energy for peaceful purposes despite the long list of western sanctions imposed against. with another recap for fifteen minutes from now in the meantime we talked to pakistan's foreign minister who explains why she thinks that u.s. drone strikes in her country really making things worse stead of helping fight insurgency that's our special interview for you next on r.t. . she's the youngest foreign minister and of world that has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he not rabani khar pakistan's foreign minister is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time minister it's been more than ten years since pakistan joined the u.s. military operations in afghanistan do you think that was the right place to do you . think. you would you know things look very different but of course.