for to convince the other side to sit down on the table. and to have a serious dialogue. that would save syria the destruction and save so many people live lives because of the way things are today in cities it seems that the country has had to two words. total destruction and and that's for sure it is not to the benefits of the city of the third to all the nations who are truly friendly to the city of peace and not just want to use the trouble in syria to advance their own political objectives so that dialogue will have to move forward yes there's a significant number of syrians who still support assad and his reforms do you think that's sufficient enough reason for the opposition to lay down their arms and engage in dialogue to finally reach stability. well i don't think if perhaps if it was up to the to these persons themselves i think yes it would be

sufficient but apparently. as we have seen in the past weeks and there is ample evidence to show this many of the groups who are fighting today in syria who are. bringing in weapons to this indian territory wm in gunmen they actually are not ready for dialogue they have they are working according to western agenda. that is set up by an imperialist forces in order to remove the regime of assad and that is apparently a decision that has been made not inside syria but a broad city and the true syrian opposition is calling for reform and that is fully legit imet and. it's backed by. reasons because in syria many of issues that need to have the form

and there should be more freedom of expression freedom of political activity freedom of expression yes these are all fundamental and basic rights that should be dealt with by the government and it should be provided to the people however this can how what is the best way to get that done is it through carrying weapons and shooting at government institutions and targeting each other and having a civil war in syria of course not i think all the city and agree to that however there are some groups in syria that are being financed been pushed by the western powers especially from turkey and from the united states from france from the european union. there is a real problem often and. fear and sin city in affairs and well one one when one says this one one can read in some media outlets that the u.s.

and russia and china are also interfering by vetoing a security council resolution well vittoria security council resolution that is not in the direction of dialogue is not cannot be considered similar to interfering in syrian affairs by sending in weapons and money and fortunately and by actually disrupting the situation for generally we have to end this here dr omar ashour a political analyst thanks for your insight you. last year pro-democracy protesters in another arab country bahrain thought they got what they wanted after being promised reforms including among the police but twelve months later activists trying to mark the anniversary of the uprising found the clampdown was as harsh as earlier the only difference this time the same tactics and arms the police use were brought from the west by those supposed to bring democratic change parties ivor bennett has more. tear gas and stun grenades supposedly the work of

a reformed police force but one year on since the first anti-government protests were crushed in bahrain it seems not much has changed the only difference now the crackdown has been planned by one of britain's former top cops john the ates used to be assistant commissioner of london's metropolitan police he now works for bahrain's monarchy which says he's there to oversee police reforms the police have borrowed or behavior despicably the latest trick is to throw cancer tear gas into homes of people they don't like shut the doors and people have died choking to death to just sort of use out of doors and i think for the british police officer was to retire to be associated in any way with his it's his role resign from scotland yard last year and early fix him of the phone hacking scandal he popped up in bahrain in december as part of the regime's p.r. campaign to clean up it seem it's a campaign push hard it seems by yeats himself he recently told the daily telegraph

his new charges had a well rehearsed plan for the anniversary of the uprising adding the concept of reasonable reaction to provocation has been reinforced. as for the uprising itself he said this isn't organized protests it's just vandalism rioting on the streets claims hotly disputed by london's bahraini community i mean you get thousands and thousands of people. demanding their rights. vandalism. you seem to forget. that sixty five people actually died from police brutality activists in bahrain insist their protest was peaceful their aim to reach the iconic pole roundabout in the capital manama they say they were met by tanks toxic gas and rubber bullets what we witnessed on the ground as not. the front of. this

previously but it's been extended through the toxic gases and use of poisoning. mr john contributing we should see a positive things at the ground what we are seeing today is nothing acceptable it may not just be british tactics bahrain seizing but weapons to government figures show the u.k. sold over one million pounds worth of rifles and artillery equipment to bahrain from july to september last year long after blood was spilled that despite insisting all licenses had been revoked as for yates his contract runs until april by which time he hopes to put in place concrete reforms on this evidence that seems a long way off either bennett r.t. london green is up next with our latest business news stay with us. how are welcome to our business update this hour as we've been reporting iran is

denying reports it's cut supply to six european countries earlier iran's state run press t.v. said the country was holding supplies to spain italy france greece portugal and the netherlands this caused a process to jump to a six month. let's look at the figures now crude oil futures rallied to the best level in five weeks light sweet is currently trading below one hundred two dollars a barrel while brant is hovering between one hundred eighteen and one hundred nineteen dollars a barrel the euro is gaining a bit against the dollar after seeing some losses on tuesday the ruble is high again both against both european and u.s. currencies following gains on the russian market stocks in the u.s. are mixed hovering between mild gains and losses the dow jones gave up an early gain and was down thirty five points after the opening bell the major indexes had been poised for gains until reports emerged that the e.u. finance ministers might postpone at least a portion of the next round of aid to greece. because europe where most markets

advance on better than expected growth data from germany and france and also meant signs of support for the region from china in other news the world bank's president robert zoellick will step down at the end of his five year term which expires on june thirtieth. here in russia markets closed in the black lifted by higher prices of oil both ts and mines extended even let's check on the index movers on the mines next most of the blue chips were higher all majors were in in the front line supported by stronger who would look under a percent bank finished higher as well the company expects to finalize the deal. finalized sorry finalize the deal with east european folks bank international and truck maker come out bucked the trend to its stock fell over three percent after an unexpected thirteen percent. on tuesday. from alpha capital. positive news today it was the chinese pledge to hold denominated tin euro so it's

ruled a positive for the markets however it doesn't solve the greek problem. as far as market movers are concerned. are you rising by four percent today this is really the top story in a local market today yesterday's movers like severstal. energy transmission companies are more or less flat the latest short term drop of russian gas supplies to europe spurred discussions on how to secure consumers from possible cuts and the future ahead of gas problems expert brian todd examine the data says one of the ways is to increase storage capacity which. is a key. for security of supply for extreme situations like like today's winter so that's where we produce a program to. capacity. experience

. between two hundred to three hundred million euros in the next five years to secure. that's a business update the song stay with us for headline news coming up next.

any match one snit is bound. to burn for evermore eternal fire is on think about what possible future. do we all want to see this on forever. the official. called touch from the. life on the. video on demand. and. now in the palm of your. question on the dot com.

eight thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines iran says it's been considering cutting off oil sales to six e.u. countries but wouldn't do so quote at the moment because of the cold weather hitting europe. syria's president announces a vote on a new constitution that would effectively end early five decades of single party rule in the country amid rising turmoil there. are rallies marking a year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain protesters face yet another harsh crackdown with police using tactics and weapons from the u.k.

. up next laura smith speaks with middle east expert terry cowley on the turbulent situation in syria and the implications it could have for the region stay with us. i'm talking to tara kelley who is 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 is if he'll step. of his 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 of 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's 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 a countries who are not seen as hostile to syria which include russia and 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 had a lot of blood in syria he is now doing the same and that this family's on acceptable in syria needs 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 a morri band organization which is brought to life when the west needs it too it is . broke for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region it failed to stop the war in iraq back the war on. libya and it's probably being used as a surrogate to try and push through foreign troops and 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 on the 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 the rain ians and 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 klan 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 is becoming increasingly isolated in the region 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 i mean 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 and 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 pride seeing 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 most. people pushing for the intervention in syria after saudi arabia gutter essentially they would like a syrian version of the muslim brotherhood to true to run the concrete 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 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 refused to budge and refused 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 the member face there is no other approach 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 catherine 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 uranium 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. team 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 this is why here e has issued a statement saying that he is barton pasok and one of. crow.

is 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 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 moderate or extremist the pattern seems to be at the moment of saying that the turkish 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 it 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. to 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 want is a different question altogether but you make the muslim brotherhood sound fairly benign really do you think that christian minorities and other minorities have

something to fear from that well i mean there is always within moderate islamist 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 they're sort of peers in syria will do the same so that is not a good thing to all 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. you.

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iran says it's considering cutting oil sales to six e.u. countries but wouldn't do so at the moment because of a cold winter strike in europe. syria's president announces a vote on a new constitution that would effectively and nearly fifty years of single party rule in the country amid an escalating drug war. rallies marking one year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain protesters there face yet another harsh clampdown with police using tactics and weapons from the u.k. . all the latest sports news coming up next with kate stay with us.

hello welcome to the wednesday night sports round up at the top stories braving the cold injury his n.h.l. getting ready to kick off against benfica in their first ever knockout match in the champions league this point the reason temperatures in some petersburg. while champions league of their own alexis sanchez school is twice as barcelona put one foot in the quarterfinals of a three one win at the pile a because i'm in germany. still on top double alembic champion again it's in via about six pole vault victory of the season at the london games not just five months away. but first a football and midfielder the man should all call for a start there's a need to about a quarter of an hour as russian champions and eight has been in their first ever match in the champions league and the first leg of that round of sixteen time well shock replaces injured danny in midfield after returning from his own injury

problems in time to play while the knee is out with torn the ligaments while the russian league leaders are also missing defended the medical can but star striker alexander cocksure will play in his first competitive match in four months and he thinks how much support will be a big advantage. that we have played in such weather already probably more often than our opponents 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. well meanwhile opponents benfica will be looking to exploit the eights we can save the portuguese outfit has plenty of qualities such as forward a spec of the also and midfield the public eye wall and finished unbeaten at the top of group c. this man's side are also carry five points clear at the top of their domestically coach george bush says the russian winter.