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russia's foreign minister says the libyan scenario will foreign intervention or risk being repeated in syria as a cases built against the assad regime to justify external military action. a fresh wave of downgrade sweeps the struggling euro zone six nations get their debt ratings cut all while greece faces further bailout hurdles from the e.u. despite its latest harsh austerity plan. and russia's military predicts the west might decide on a strike on iran before summer as clouds gather over terror on calling israeli accusations the islamic republic was behind monday's attacks on diplomatic personnel.

midnight in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story moscow says there is significant risk the libyan scenario of foreign intervention could soon be repeated in syria russia's foreign minister warned the cases being built against the regime in damascus that could be used to justify external military action sergey lavrov was speaking with journalist during a trip to the netherlands artie's igor piskun reports from the hague. criticised the idea to put together the so-called group of friends of syria which could meet as soon as by the end of february would include several western nations including the u.s. and france some arab countries and representatives of the syrian opposition and said you are better off says if this group will not include representatives of the syrian authorities it would mean the international community is taking a certain side in this internal conflict for syria while russia and china they

stand for peaceful dialogue between both sides of this conflict especially with the syrian authorities saying now that they are ready for this dialogue the russian foreign minister also said that right now it's very important to establish who controls these heavily armed militant groups within the syrian opposition and the other issue touched upon by the russian foreign minister is the recent proposal by the arab league to deploy a u.n. peacekeeping contingent into syria and according to the russian foreign minister there are several issues which may be off concern the first one is that such a peacekeeping contingent would have to be welcomed by the receiving side meaning by both sides of this conflict both the authorities and the opposition which brings us to the desperate need for dialogue between them and secondly with the aim to protect civilians this contingent would have to be armed as well which also causes concern and also the no fly zone operation in libya also initially started

with the aim to protect civilians but ended up with the international community also taking a certain side in that conflict of sense that perhaps instead of looking for new missions the arab league should resume its currently frozen monitoring mission especially with the syrian authorities giving the green light for having more observers in the country including in the most hostile areas. patrick a is a reporter for online magazine spiked tells r t what he believes that the west is using the pretext of so-called humanitarian intervention to promote its own agenda . what's happening is this kind of intervention is really looking at down you know the removal of diplomats from syria. the desire to arm the free syrian army from the west and to basically support them to give them kind of sectioned off training areas where they can develop an open strong opposition apart

from the kind of threat of assad's all suggest that you know the west isn't willing to have you know encourage any kind of dialogue or discourse and to ultimately they want to you know they've now polarized the situation they've now said you know i saw these evil we need to get rid of him they use those kind of terms evil you know the. ogre all bogeyman and you know the syrian people are vulnerable victims who need to be protected by the west now i think we saw the same thing with good at the end it's always very striking that you know it was only two years ago that assad was seen as the group's reformer in syria the west were basically queuing up to talk to him and engage in dialogue now they've been in now he's completely been frustrated as this absolute this absolute figure of evil that needs to be kind of tackles and i think the west has this tendency to polarize the situations and again that can cause massive problems later on syria's opposition says the rest of city

of homs has come under some of its heaviest shelling yet from government forces rebels claim around four hundred have been killed and several days of an intense assault syrian authorities blame violence on armed terrorists operating in the city with al qaeda now adding to the increased turmoil the country there are fears syria could soon plunge into sectarian chaos sara for if it's planes. the predominantly christian town of milly lies up in the syrian mountains it's even here in this hauntingly beautiful place and the signs of the polarizing conflict that is tearing apart much of the country right now creeping in and the sense of foreboding hangs heavy locals tell us they don't travel out of this area much longer feel it's safe we speak to the nuns at the monastery here they tell us about the town's preservation of the ancient aramaic language and like their cherished tongue they hate the fine balance of religious groups in the country can be kept

even in these difficult times we have been living here with all people regardless of their religion ethnicity in peace for a long time. back in the center and damascus is known as a melting pot of religions south alloway sector a minority in the country but despite making up around just twelve percent of the taito population heloise have occupied elite positions in the government and the military for decades and now there are fears that resentments among the majority muslim sunni sex could erupt the country that until this crisis breakout was religiously divesting tolerance now the calm increasingly polarized genuine fears that just where those divisions my laid his a sectarian tensions being further exploited have been staked by the emergence of an al qaeda video link the holy war illustrate the assad regime violence is just

not going to end we see it happening and iraq neighboring iraq sectarian violence that is catastrophic and nobody is reporting on that the reporting on syria and they're not focusing on the potential problems that syria could lead into another iraq on the streets through an increasingly desperate population has called for help in whatever form it comes as long as it stops the violence there's little time for them to think about long term sick carrying risks was many of the more worrying about daily survival anyone who. we are ready to hear to say yes to anyone over there so for the sort of. yes only one in syria right now the split still largely remains along political lines but there's concern that as this increasingly bloody conflict continues it could turn into a sectarian one as well surface r.t. damascus syria. chinese vice president xi jinping has met with u.s. president barack obama in washington an effort to smooth out the country's

differences tensions between the two nations escalated recently with the u.s. criticizing china's currency policies and washington bolstering its military presence in the asian pacific for more on the current relations we're joined by paul craig roberts who served as assistant secretary of the treasury during the reagan administration so both china and the u.s. have said they want to clear up their differences how far do you think she jinping visit can go to address these concerns. the main problem with the chinese united states relationship is washington's drive for world has generated and that makes it very difficult to have a real relationship. the reason for the american nato attack on libya was to deny the benefits of its all investments in eastern libya and of course iran is now in the western sights and iran accounts for twenty percent of jonathan's oil so it doesn't make

a lot of sense for washington to go to china and say look embargo yourself look from the iranian oil and let us go to an american puppet in office in that country as well so we can prevent your. economic development from catching up to us too quickly i think that's what the real game is the united states is trying to. slow down china's economic prowess with goes it sees a rise as a threat to continuing american has enemies that you keep making this point about had germany but is that making it one step too far i mean doesn't it just seem that the united states is actually just looking at the world as it is and trying to make the best geo political decisions that can given the hand that had its dealt basically. no when the soviet union collapsed and this gave the neo

conservatives a chance to come to the forefront it took about a decade for them to develop their doctrines and to maneuver themselves and to employments and then with the so-called terrorist attack of september eleventh with the bush administration this gave them their chance and the wars for his enemy began and that's what. is going on in the middle east and in afghanistan for a decade and has now expanded into africa and syria and iran are also in sight so the argument of the neoconservatives is that. with the soviet collapse there's no check on american power and so is the united states is the indispensable nation and as its social political economic system is the only

one that works. we have a right and a responsibility to impose a system on the rest of the world it's kind of like a replay of the french revolution two hundred years ago so. it's it's age and idiology. and the expansion and that is come up i mean why in the world does united states think it should put marines in australia i'd share it i don't have interrupt you here but i want to move on to the next question one area of dispute is china's trading currency policy something many americans blame for a job loss and our country's manufacturing sector do you think that's warrant it. no not really the reason china originally pegged its currency to the dala was when it was measuring its transition out of a communist country and to a capitalist country and it wanted to assure the world that its currency was good

as the well off as the reason in fact it now the reason for the chinese i train service with united states is not just simply the chinese currency being undervalued it's all the american firms that took their own production for american markets off shore to chat so when you produce all sure for your home market when the goods and services come back into united states they come in as imports so the trade deficit with china is at least fifty percent due to the all sharing of jobs and production by the american corporations now china is the us the largest foreign creditor so how much leverage does washington have to make. does have sorry how much leverage does washington have to make demands on beijing. well

that to that question i think used to be clear that the largest creditor had a certain amount of influence but you see what's happened is the federal reserve has been. monetizing the treasury debt and yet the interest rate stays in a row so if the federal reserve is able to finance washington's deficits without some sort of hyperinflation breaking loose then the united states no longer needs china as a creditor it has the federal reserve and so for the past several years we have seen quantitative easing on quantitative easing two and essentially it's continuation now because the federal reserve is buying enough bonds to keep the interest rate zero so we have the central bank now financing united states government so it's less dependent on chinese purchases never the less the trade surplus from china has to be recycled somewhere and it appears that china is still

mainly recycling it into dollar assets unfortunately we have to end it there paul craig roberts former u.s. assistant secretary of the treasury thanks for your time. the debt ridden he has suffered another blow from rating agencies moody's downgraded the debt ratings of sixteen states including vulnerable portugal italy and spain this is the bloc struggles to prevent greece from default by offering ballots in return for more austerity parties jacob green's reports from athens. system on the seach m.p.'s drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of demonstrators amassed within a short passing another round of unpopular cuts. the results proved incendiary . that you got the protests turned violent as protesters including fringe and the kids clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. the day all this is

the remnants of public anger the glass isn't the only thing that's being broken as governments past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts will be left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures are very very tough part of the poor people especially and this is the reason that we feel. today i think more measures have been taken and they're not going to work and there will be another bill. bad and. oh i hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels berlin and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs slash funding for the nation's pensions a minimum wage but current policy appears to mainly expose those most vulnerable to crisis conditions is a mindset some feel is doomed to fail we already have destroyed the whole

generation of young people and their dreams destroyed. infrastructure of the whole country we know that it is. a dead that we have now signs that these illegal or old. we cannot continue like that because the policy that the government is following actually increases they did instead of finding a solution but the heart of activists claims is their search and they've known us there. he for the best part of five years now and the time taxes have risen incomes have fallen but the country's deficit only seems to grow. something sought by an increasing number despite the governor wallace would follow but what. is the exact date even more.

the only way out. is the default default is going to be very tough for us but there's going to be a better solution. for now relative calm has returned to the streets of athens smashed buildings have been patched up the signs of damage swept away but the simmering discontent hasn't been forced medicine appears to bring nothing but pain many. for terms of treatment greece athens. wednesday's meeting of eurozone finance ministers has been cancelled because greece hasn't fulfilled all the conditions set out by the e.u. demands include written assurances from leaders of the two main greek parties that the agreed austerity measures will be implemented even after the general elections in april economists are yo claimer says the default scenario is already on the table in brussels doing is slowly but surely sort of preparing the public is the

default is imminent and in the not too unavoidable we saw do you think commissioner already saying as much in the dutch media and so we hear it from even those sources like i.m.f. so i think this situation. is just unsustainable the greek economy is suffering too much the measures only seem to make it worse the greek and also living up to do agreements they signed this is not the system situation we're going to go on for very long but i think it's going to happen to these small countries who will direct you to europe frankly i don't it is going to cost a lot some of course that leaders will say to that we see with high and thats what they have to say to move reassure us that there is no question about the euro project but you can. see in science institute in certain circles there's real money on both how long they can keep the so as international

pressure on iran mounts russia's military has assessed the probability of a western strike against the islamic republic as being a high concerns of pending military action grew after israel blamed terran for it to bomb attacks on its diplomatic staff monday and today's blasts in bangkok artie's peter all over has more. the chief of staff of the russian armed forces said on tuesday that he thinks a plan for a western attack on iran could be in place by the summer of this year and he's basing that statement on the fact that since the arab spring started a year ago russia has been monitoring the area of the wider middle east very closely enough to looking at the findings from that monitoring this is what he's come up with now and this comes just a day after two israeli diplomats were targeted with car bombs in the capitals of georgia and india now the bomb in georgia was able to be defused however in india that car bomb exploded very very close to the residence of the prime minister of

india and injured several people now israel was very very quick to point the finger of blame for those attacks at teheran despite terror experts looking at the findings and coming up with saying well there's pretty much no evidence that it was behind those attacks this is all really part of the ongoing blame game between tel of the terror and the iranians claim that the israelis have been behind a two year campaign of assassinations on their nuclear scientists well on choose day in bangkok what we've seen is a rainy unmanned taken into custody by police after an explosion two explosions in bangkok injured several people there now it's really media very very quick to point the finger of terror towards that iranian man who's been detained there so this is all part of as i say a blame game that's ongoing between tel of eve and terror on. and some say the news

could be tightening around iran for more on that we speak with brian becker a member of the answer answer antiwar coalition interview coming up. thank you for joining us on r.t. thank you what does the united states want from tightening the sanctions i mean.

even beyond tightening the sanctions now indeed it is the united states government has created an artificial crisis that's first and foremost it's a manufactured crisis iran is complying with the i.a.e.a. iran does not have a nuclear weapon iran is not threaten its neighbors iran has not started a war with any of its neighbors israel on the other hand has hundreds of nuclear weapons and unlike iran refuses to sign a nuclear nonproliferation treaty does not allow. inspectors into its country so there's not really a nuclear menace or a nuclear danger from iran and so what is the cause what's the cause of the crisis of the artificial crisis the real goal is the united states government has embarked on a course of extreme economic aggression against iran with the hope that by creating economic suffering economic isolation economic misery that part of the population will rise up or become. disenfranchised with the government so that the u.s.

can do as it has in history carry out regime change they deny that the us tonight that it's trying to carry out there was a change in iran right i mean we have to take that with a very very big grain of salt because we know that since one nine hundred seventy nine the united states refuses to have relations with the islamic republic of iran why is it because iran is a dictatorship well it's actually a democratic government it has democratic features far beyond some of america's most foremost their allies in the middle east such as saudi arabia for instance since one thousand nine hundred eighty nine iran became an independent government before that between one nine hundred fifty three and one thousand nine hundred seventy nine when the shah was there the shah basically is a proxy or a puppet or a client of the american power and so the u.s. says they're not carrying out regime change but in fact everyone who's watching knows that indeed is the u.s. policy to create pressure on iran carry out overt operate covert operations

economic sanctions and now these new sanctions are not really even a like the old saying they are saying to the rest of the world if you dare do business with iran central bank if you buy iranian oil which constitutes half of iran's g.n.p. if you have any business with iran whatsoever you will not have access to american banks to american corporations to the american market this is in fact a blockade something like an economic blockade of iran and by international law in economic blockade is an act of war and so we should understand it just like that so what do you think iran's response is going to be well iran so far has been very prudent even though they said that they would consider closing the strait of hormuz that six mile stretch of the persian arabian gulf where. twenty five percent of the

world's oil supply goes through. and even though much was made of that in the western media in fact iran has not done anything to give the us. pretext an excuse a provocation so to speak that would allow the united states or israel to trigger a set of military actions. i think is also telling its people that we are not panicked the iranian government are not panicked that they're trying to show that they have a serenity and a calmness and a confidence and that they will weather the storm but in fact economic sanctions are taking a bite on the iranian economy right now we think sions the tightening of the sanctions the. coalition that the u.s. is trying to build against iran but what is iran going to do with a face all of this pressure well iran has certain allies to iran has russia and it has china increasingly it has venezuela and cuba another words those governments in

the world in addition of course to syria which has its own problems right now but the countries in the world that don't want the entire world to be dominated by one power the united states of america they recognize that the existence of iran as an independent government is something that is positive meaning that if the united states were were were to be successful in carrying out regime change in iran they would be emboldened to carry out further destabilizing efforts against other powers including russia and china by the way even though there are great powers that presidential elections have any say in what's going on in what's going to happen with iran in terms of washington. i think the presidential elections in the united states definitely play a role in u.s. policy towards iran that by the way has been the case ever since the iranian revolution in iran has factored into american politics in this case the republican candidates are sort of baiting obama in. suggesting that if obama is reelected we

will have a nuclear armed iran someday soon well i might do something just to counter their statements because it's an election year i don't think so i think that it's not out of the question that obama could opportunistically up the ante or even escalate tensions or even allow some sort of limited military attack against iran in order to show how tough he is and how why he's not a liberal or something like that but i don't think so this is a very big project for the pentagon for the cia for the us establishment i think it goes beyond electoral politics and i think the obama administration and the pentagon are having a carefully calibrated approach that won't again with regime change the republicans and democrats share the same objective one is more demagogic lee militant against iran they both share the same objective which is to bring iran back into an americans fear of influence.