now if israel goes ahead and those bomb iran and if and that will lead to very negative repercussions including the economic repercussions and when it comes to oil that argument about israel being a strategic liability for a lot of sense of america will increase more and more and that will lead to huge public opinion outbursts inside america itself against israel don't forget that we are witnessing protests in america over the economic situation the occupy wall street movement which has even touched upon foreign aid and called for foreign hate to stop i knew you know that israel comes on top of the list when it comes to u.s. foreign aid so there are huge risks for his role which do involve its alliance with the us or for that reason yes there is a possibility that israel might act unilaterally however that possibility remains very slim that we're just getting some news in if we focus on the economy at all that iranian state t.v. is saying that it has cut in fact or oil exports to six european countries in response to e.u. sanctions first of all how true do you think that is there's

a real possibility and second of all what are the implications of that. yes i think that here iran is trying to send a message that it cannot be there you cannot deal with iran in such oyo iran has its own weapons while the west for example believes that it has weapons and ammunition represented by sanctions iran is also an important country which can also respond in the appropriate manner i think is also a warning. that if military action is taken if military action is taken this would eventually be small comparing to how iran could react in that case i think it's a small warning that if you. take action now economic action against us this is what we can do imagine what action we could take if you go ahead and use the military card against us so i think it's a warning to the west to keep also tied down and to prevent israel from going ahead with the unilateral move unilateral military attack trying to tell the west you better keep because we're all intact otherwise you might be witnessing the very

difficult period in the in the future i think as a military attack is what is launched all right on a risk expert on the middle east affairs talking to us live from beirut this hour thank you for your input. but promises of support that's all that high ranking e.u. politicians can get from china during their visit to beijing the asian giant stop short of outlining concrete steps in certainty comes as greece again failed to meet conditions set up by the e.u. which led to the cancellation of a key meeting between euro zone finance ministers jacob graves reports from athens is showing just how far reaching this crisis in greece and also the euro zone now it in terms of achievement for very least so you had quite a high ranking delegation heading there it was headed up by the president of the european commission the president of the you council as well as a manual but also herman van rompuy both of them despite that high ranking delegation didn't get any more guarantees apart from good and positive words

chinese counterparts so no fine. interactions nothing guaranteed in terms of financial stimulus is really what they want the reason they're in china it's because china has the money they need right now three point two trillion dollars reserve currency fund that could help stabilize the markets here understand why the chinese are somewhat wary of this investment because it can all make indicators are only really worsening also that to food at the moment which is default greek default and exit from the euro zone what's being talked about increasingly by greek politicians the public also boy those viewers own leaders and that can't be interpreted as anything else but real slap in the face for the greek government now they have passed another round of very unpopular austerity measures and hope to return their begetting guarantees today that another much needed bailout that is required to repay their march the debt they have been sticking their neck out alone

on this issue because it's one that's very unpopular the greek population is alienation which resulted in the clashes with police violence and injuries also disruption to the capital for the protest itself wasn't just restricted to the public we saw in parliament politicians well forty three the ruling coalition choosing to vote no to further their tea measure is this something now that really isn't that popular politicians all those. who do get the impression we speak to greeks here in the capsule a growing sense of resentment of how they're being treated what the be made to do by the euro zone by the e.u. and i.m.f. we've heard the head of public order here coming out today empty and saying that what europe is doing them over they're not really acting very responsibly. well over on our website r.t. dot com we're asking what's ahead for the eurozone not much optimism from voters so far we take a look happen if you think euro is doomed to failure thirty seven percent say

greece will spark a chain reaction of. faults about it think germany will save the crippled euro zone and the minorities see austerity measures as a way out what europe or counts jumped the line log on to r.t. dot com and vote. look now at some other stories making headlines around the world china's vice president has spent a day visiting top officials in the u.s. but did not see the warmest of welcomes american vice president joe biden voiced a whole list of disappointments from beijing's economic policies to its stance on syria criticism was also leveled at china over its copyright in force went and human rights record apart from the brief exchanges the day was largely ceremonial as american leaders sized up xi jinping the man widely tipped to lead beijing over the next decade. nato has admitted its recent airstrike in afghanistan killed eight civilians the attack happened a week ago in the village north of the in

a village northeast of kabul and has outraged afghan officials become in the wake of the latest un report indicating that the number of civilian casualties in the decade long war rose last year compared to twenty attacks. and villagers in romania have had to be rescued by emergency services after heavy snowfall chop them inside their homes the country's winter death toll has now reached seventy nine which authorities are using helicopters with authorities using helicopters i should say and army trucks to deliver food and medicine since the end of january hundreds have died across eastern europe and tens of thousands have been housebound by record snow levels with moldova and all they need also about the affected. let's get the latest now from karena at the business desk. it's twenty four past four pm here in moscow welcome to business with me korean

american it's good to have you with me the latest short term drops of russian gas supplies to europe spurred discussions on how to secure consumers from possible cuts in the future ahead of gas bombs expert brush alexander medvedev says one of the ways is to increase storage capacity in the region. is a key. security of supply for extreme situations like. repros a program to. experience . between two hundred to three hundred million euros for a few years. the destiny of russia second. to europe will be decided this autumn the country's gas monopoly gas problem says it will confirm a final investment decision on solve stream in the vendor the pipeline will deliver gas to europe bypassing transit countries such as ukraine and is currently expected

to be completed in two thousand and fifteen. looking at the markets now a first in the last few minutes iran announced that was cutting export to six european countries in the response to the e.u. threat to use threat to impose an embargo against iranian oil imports good prices were already up on the day as worries over supply dominated concern about weak can on the growth light sweet is currently trading at over one hundred one and a half dollars per barrel while brant is at one hundred and eighteen dollars about . the euro's gaining a bit against the dollar after seeing some losses on tuesday and the ruble is high against both the european and u.s. currencies following gains on the russian market. most european stock markets advance on well received earnings from heineken n b n p power about markets are also positive due to a pledge from china that it will help the eurozone tackle its debt problems the fourth c. is a quarter of

a percent in the dax is gaining over one percent this hour here in russia the markets are also in positive territory yes minimizing adding a percent plus check on the index movers on the rise x. most of the blue chips are higher this hour and bank is no exception it is expected to finalize a deal to buy each european focus bank international later in the day all majors are on the rise supported by stronger crude with. most a percent and bucking the trend as truck maker come us that's after unexpected thirteen percent jump on tuesday today it's losing one percent. moscow could soon restore mass car production in the city the capital's authorities say they are negotiating with italy's fia and a number of korean carmakers to set up production at the plant of truck maker zille city hall plans to turn the facility which used to produce armored cars for soviet leaders into an innovative production platform. well and last but least if you

fancy a promotion or a pay rise then you might be better off working for a russian company but if stability and good benefits are more of a priority then a multinational company could be a better choice now according to a poll by staffing agency and tell russia the pluses of working for a russian company include more responsibility faster career growth and better pay but the disadvantages include grey salaries lack of benefits and a weak corporate culture. well that's that's all for this hour but we'll be back with more and then less than one i was time. that.

any man. ever. is going to thank you. for ever.

you're watching live from moscow our top stories syria's president announces a vote on a new constitution which would effectively end nearly fifty years of single party rule in the country and made us go late in turmoil. at rallies marking one year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain protesters face yet another harsh clampdown with police using tactics and weapons from the u.k. . bus ramping up the rhetoric israel's prime minister calls for

a stop to what he says is a rainy and aggression despite a lot of evidence linking tehran to the recent bombings in india georgia and thailand. next artie's laura smith talks to mideast expert tariq ali on the turbulent situation in syria and the implications it could have for the entire region. i'm talking to tara alley who's a historian and author and writes mainly on subjects to do with the middle east of course we're talking about events in syria tariq ali thanks very much for talking to us now president assad seems to be clinging on to power in syria do you think there's any chance of him stepping down in the near future well it looks unlikely as if he'll step. of its own accord i think he has to be pushed out the syrian people are of course doing their best in the country. what is more dangerous is the

pressure being built outside especially in istanbul and by need to try and organize an intervention that i think would be disastrous and enormous bloodshed much much worse than what happened in libya. so i think there be a disaster i think the best way is for pressure to be put on him from without by countries who are not seen as hostile to syria which include russia china and others. and the pressure should be kept on home and he should be told in blunt terms that he has to go where his father shed a lot of blood in syria he is now doing the same and that this family's on acceptable in syria needs a nonsectarian national government to prepare a new constitution the arab league's reportedly calling for a joint arab league u.n. so-called peacekeeping force to be sent into syria president assad has already

rejected the idea do you think it's a good idea i don't think it's a good idea to send any so-called peacekeeping forces i mean first we have to see what is the arab league the arab league is essentially amaury bond organization which is brought to life when the west needs it too it has no active role for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region it failed to stop the war in iraq it back the war. libya and it's probably being used as a surrogate to try and push through foreign troops an intervention in syria which i'm totally opposed to i think that is the one thing syria does not need is foreign armies we've seen what's happened in iraq and we've seen what's happened in libya but surely the involvement of the arab league which is kind of a local regional group is better than the involvement of the un or nato as exterior

organizations well it's fine having observers from them if they do their reporting accurately but foreign troops i mean you know who will be the foreign troops there the arab league said saudis said cut through these these sort of big vote crews of democracy in the region i mean that's utterly ridiculous it doesn't make sense at all i think the pressure has to be kept up externally nonviolent pressure that he has to go and i think the chinese and russians are now. in a strong position to be saying we've effectively prevented any foreign intervention in syria but you have to go. and push through. a national government the other people of course who are people getting pressure on most of our be rainy and so on hezbollah in lebanon and i think all these forces should now see that it is impossible for syria to be governed by this family and

this sectarian clique that has ruled it and the sooner they go the better for syria in terms of external forces well the our police decided to halt all economic and diplomatic contact with the syrian government will that have any practical effect do you think probably not because the. other countries are not going to do that the reunions are not going to do that they are a strong creating partner and lebanon i don't think is going to get involved in that on that level so it's not going to have a huge impact i think the only language. the clan and the military around him will understand is very firm language from china and russia i think they are now in a strong position to push through change without violent action do you see syria as becoming increasingly isolated in the region and and what effect will that have on

iran in turn do you think well i think they are becoming isolated i think the iranians are such an independent state to me one of the few sovereign states in the region that they can look after themselves i don't think the fall of such will affect iran because it will be in the interests of the syrian government if it is a democratic representative government to maintain good relations with all these countries i mean you know i. have to say that when you look at what the west did in relation to the uprising some of the crisis in the yemen where killing still go on and what they're doing in syria it just sort of stand the former yemeni president is having medical. speak. so this double standards that operate make one who is suspicious of west motives he people pushing for the intervention in syria saudi arabia gutter essentially they would like

a syrian version of the muslim brotherhood to to run the country that is the new plot for the arab region and then the united states will do deals with them as it is done in the past and you say china and russia are in a very strong negotiating position now however. foreign minister lavrov says visits to syria recently seems to have yielded no results whatsoever well i think that you know if it carries on like this that the. family and clan refuse to budge and refuse to relinquish their stranglehold on the country sooner or later something disastrous will happen possibly including some form of foreign intervention and then where will they or do they want to end up like do they want to end up like saddam hussein lynched by mobs backed by western troops that is the

future that stares them in the face there is no a breach let's talk about the sheer complexity of the various forces that seem to be at large in syria at the moment we heard reports that british and cattery forces are operating undercover in syria do you think that could be train it's perfectly possible british and cut three forces were operating under cover in libya long before it became public now we know this is what they were doing intervening in these conflicts to bend them in their own direction so i have no evidence for this but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were behaving like this and what about the iranians we've also heard reports although they've denied it of fifteen thousand iranian troops going into syria well that i don't know i mean i would have thought that given the pressures on iran the moment from the west with the european union imposing sanctions the americans rocket playing the israelis threatening to

bomb it it could be ordered to put it mildly if they started sending troops out of the country but we have no real evidence of either the british and the countries or the read me and i'm saying one is possible the other may be possible both are equally foolish we've now seen violence spread from homs to a second city aleppo and the us say that al-qaeda is involved in that if syria is substantially infiltrated by terrorists what do you think will happen will it give the west essentially an excuse to put up some sort of military operation in the country or on the other hand will they let the terrorists do the dirty work of overthrowing president has that themselves. theme i do that i mean the very weak force at the moment. the centrally to frighten the children that it has very little military strength its leader those who are here e has issued

a statement saying that he is barton pasok of. fighting alongside some group or the other but they have very little actual strength and i don't think one should take. all exaggerated ideas of the threat it poses to seriously i mean the fact is the overwhelming majority of people in syria of want the outside the family out and that is the key thing which we have to understand then which he should understand a lot of commentators have been saying about the arab spring in general that the violence and uncertainty in the aftermath will enable the muslim brotherhood as the only organization that is organized enough to take advantage of it to essentially step into the fray are you worried that that will happen in syria well i don't support them politically and i don't think it will be in the interests of syria to have an islamist government you know

a moderate or extremist the baton seems to be at the moment of saying that the model a moderate islamist government is the best model for the arab world i disagree very strongly that i don't think it's a good model for turkey either by the way. but the fact is if it's the only power in the land it will and there are elections that will come to power like it has in tunis here like it has in egypt and then one has to deal with it i mean i regard these groups as the roots of christian democracy socially conservative organizations but perfectly happy to follow the latest economic trends. which dominate west. do deals with the united states they've done them before the turks are part and parcel of that strong member of nato and these countries will probably follow suit whether this is what people really get is

a different question altogether but you make the muslim brotherhood sound fairly benign. do you think that christian minorities and other minorities have something to fear from that well i mean there's always within more group to slam is parties a current which feeling that they can't really offer people what they want which is a decent standard of living which is a social safety net to work then divert attention by targeting minorities the brotherhood has done it in relation to the copts in egypt and it's not impossible but sort of peers in syria will do the same so that is not a good thing i have told but you know we have to wait and see if this is what the majority of the people want then unfortunately it will happen sooner or later tara kelley thank you very much thank.

resistance politics but a culture. this could. cultures of resistance. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard. welcome to the big picture. the official location. from the.

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party's top stories syria's president announces a vote on a new which would effectively add nearly fifteen years of single party rule in the country amid escalating turmoil. at rallies marking one year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain the protesters face yet another harsh clampdown but police using tactic. and weapons from the u.k. . ramping up the rhetoric israel's prime minister calls for a stop to what he says is a rainy and aggression despite a lack of evidence linking tehran to the recent bombings in india georgia and

thailand. the sport is next here in r t with kate. hello and welcome to the sports update on this second big day of european football and the headlines. braving the cold injury they need prepared to face in their first ever knockout punch in the champions league despite freezing temperatures in some petersburg. while champions league of their own alexis sanchez was twice as possible out of one point in the quarter finals with a three one win i would violate it here's a picture of me. and still on top of double olympic champion your lane is seen by about picks up the pole vault victory of the season along the games and i just months away. the first a football and russian champions need to host benfica in the champions league this

wednesday night in the first leg of their round of sixteen time well temperatures are expected to drop to minus fifteen degrees celsius ahead of that match and they'll be a late pitch inspection at the petrovsky stadium well it was a much warmer wednesday trained on tuesday and one notable absentee will star midfielder danny who's out with torn really givens the russian league leaders will also missed defender the medical cliched so although top scorer alexander curricle is raring to go and thinks home support will be a big advantage. that we have played in such weather already probably more often than our pullets i don't think that's a major advantage for us because we also like it when it's warm we like playing when it's football weather and the current weather isn't exactly that but i think our supporters will come they will fill the stadium and it will be something that will help us. in the meanwhile benfica will be looking to exploit any as we consigned to the portuguese side has plenty of qualities such as forward as they are though so and from.