iran says it's been considering cutting oil sales to six countries but wouldn't do so quote at the moment because of the cold winter striking europe. syria's president announces a vote on a new constitution that would effectively end nearly fifty years of single party rule in the country amid escalating turmoil. and at rallies marking a year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain protesters face it another harsh crackdown with police using tactics and weapons imported from the u.k. .

nine pm in moscow i matter as a good to have you with us here on our team our top story iran has reportedly warned six countries it may stop supplying them with oil in response to a series of sanctions that include an embargo on terra is key export an iranian official added the only reason they're not halting crude sales immediately is europe's extreme cold temperatures are he's jacob riis reports from greece one of the countries believed to be the subject of the oil cut by terra. the latest report said what we hear is the arabian foreign ministry has cooled up these of basses of the six nations be concerned and told them that cuts will happen but not right away or they will face a ban on exports their nations but they'll be given some leeway in that sewing said what they term humanitarian reasons the cold snap has been sweeping across europe but will no doubt if implemented preempt somewhat those sanctions imposed by the e.u.

back in january and due to be implemented in july six nations in question here well those reported to be in the really thick of it when it comes this economic crisis we have the netherlands of france but also portugal italy spain and greece is well there's already been questions raised here because tehran says that he can find other people to buy its exports that's the likes of india and china where is this down to being raised as to whether or not the place that good and quite cheap supply of oil to those who have been so stricken in recent times greece in particular is in a sticky situation right now failing to guarantee another bailout plan even though they push through further popular austerity measures just on sunday and this really raises a bit of a concern of the moment that those imposed sanctions on iran back in january by e.u. member states could surely come back to bite them. stay with us here on our t.v.

for an in-depth discussion of the e.u.'s economic woes as m.e.p. nigel farage joins us later this hour. meanwhile tehran has reiterated its readiness to resume nuclear talks with the major powers to discuss the country's controversial nuclear program this why israel has stepped up its stance against iran with prime minister netanyahu saying tehran's aggression must be stopped he repeated the claims that iran was behind recent bombings allegedly targeting israelis in india. in thailand israel says there are links between the incidents despite authorities in india and thailand saying there is no such evidence and iran denying involvement terrine in turn says israel is waging a psychological war that many fear may pave the way for military action political analyst chris bambery explains why he thinks israel is acting as it is. i have to take israel's claim that iran is behind the attacks on its diplomats in georgia and india with a pinch of salt forcefully should be said israel has a long record of using assassination as the tool i think it might be better of

original to turn around and say in response to those there is going to stop its assassination policy and with other nations like iran to reciprocate but i don't think israel's going to do that because use assassination so often i think what it is really are trying to do is trying to up the ante and so the americans will do something they aren't capable of taking out iran's nuclear program they don't have the means to do it at best they could memorize a hit and run and run attack i think it actually behind the rhetoric about nuclear weapons the reality is what they are worried about is the increase of increase of iran's influence in the in the region rainier's of constantly said they're not going to me nuclear weapons international atomic energy inspectors have just been to iran it came back it seems a good visit they're going back to iran they're getting cooperation you wouldn't know this from reports in the western media so i think there is a ratcheting up of my opinion is the ratcheting up is not by the iranians it is by

the israelis and by the americans and i think there is a lot of hypocrisy about iran's nuclear program i am no fan of nuclear energy or indeed nuclear weapons i don't want them but it was ok for iran to have a nuclear program in the one nine hundred seventy s. when britain france and america would cueing to sell the shah of iran nuclear technology it was ok then because the shah of iran was one of our guys it's not ok for the iran to have nuclear weapons no and islamic republic. there's more on iran at our website as washington get to news pressure in tehran over its nuclear program u.s. plans to take the country from a financial group that would hurt its oil sales could in turn have blowback consequences put on our dot com for the details.

syria's president bashar al assad has ordered a referendum on a new constitution to be held in eleven days according to the country's state run news agency is could put an end to the one party rule of the president's bath party enshrined in the current constitution you know this man came amid reported violence in the cities of homs and hama some of the fiercest in the months long arrest artie's marie if an ocean has more. but they did for the people's referendum on the country's new constitution has been announced on wednesday it is expected to be held on the twenty sixth of february in eleven days the syrian government has been working on the draft for this new constitution for quite a while now and it has sad that the most important thing about this new constitution the most important change is that it implies the end of monopoly of the ruling party here in syria the baath party has been in power in the country for the last fifty years actually since the beginning of the uprising here in syria

last march protestors have been calling for democratic reforms and for amendments to the country's role in the wake of violence that followed initial demonstrations peaceful demonstrations many opposition leaders as well as international community has been only demanding for president bashar al assad to go and be with not to be satisfied with these particular reform with this particular month random but this news it's how it has come to me numerous reports about violence all across syria we've been hearing reports from the city of hama north of the capital damascus from the opposition activists saying that the tanks of assad's army have been deployed in the city we've also been receiving reports from another troubled area from the city of the homes where reportedly there have been explosions at all pipeline and heavy smoke and fires in the city throughout the

city so it's also kind of care is there and since almost all these reports coming from no one source from the opposition it's very hard to verify and it's very hard to get the truth about exactly what is going on in syria. remains relentless and putting more pressure on assad president assad to step down confirming news. sanctions against the country are on the way for the very first fact about this i'm joined by british m.p. barry gardiner a member of the opposition labor party so western states including the u.k. openly supporting the syrian opposition at this point demanding president assad step down of course russia and china accuse the countries of taking sides in the internal conflict what would you say to this. well look i think if you look back just a year ago to when the libyan conflict broke out. at that stage i was against intervention in libya. and i spoke with you on

number of occasions on russian t.v. to make that very clear. i think that if we want to have no intervention in syria there must be a much stronger voice coming from russia in support of the democratic reforms that are needed in that country speaking out against the torture and the extermination of civilians that has clearly been going on. and i think that is the way to allow the country to resolve its own problems looking to the arab league and that's one of the things that russia was very strong on in the libyan conflict first broke out to say that this is something the arab league that the immediate neighbors should be concerned about it's not for foreign powers to get involved it's not for them the way in and i think that is a good prescription too for syria the arab league are deeply deeply disturbed by

the government and what it's been doing in its own country and i think we should take note of that and we should be offering our support to those who are being downtrodden by their own government in this case now russia war is there is a major risk of foreign military intervention in syria as the case is being built against president assad how likely do you think is some form of intervention. i don't think it's likely but i actually think russia's position makes it more likely because the very obstructive nature of the russian and chinese veto at the u.n. security council when you heard the arab world coming together and saying look this is wrong here is a case of a ruler who is abusing power to oppress is peaceful this is this is not a russia should be in the international arena it should not be siding with the oppressor ingles it should be speaking out loudly and clearly on the side of those

people who've been oppressed this goes against in in my view all the traditions the russia has of speaking for for. the liberty of people. and i find it very strange that russia is adopting the position that it is you know a year ago you and i would make common cause against foreign intervention in libya and yet that intervention becomes more not less likely because of russia's stand here refusing to give the clear atrocities that are going on but we've had several guests here on r.t. and you stop other questions i want to get to but i want to throw one in here several guests on r.t. who have been taking a more sympathetic stance toward president assad and they are saying that the arab league is taking the west side with this being a tool of the west what's your response to that do you think the arab league is doing the west bidding. you know very well that the arab league is not the tool of

anybody. it is it is always been. it from the west point of view it's been very very difficult and recalcitrant on occasions i think the clear point is this that it is known that syria and iran are allied there is therefore a distinction between those from the community and those from the sunni community and on the whole the arab league is dominated by by the sunni community and therefore there is a clear distinction here where one would expect of course because of that alliance and the fear that many in the arab league have of iran there is a tendency for them of course not to support. syria but here i think russia needs to be very careful by backing a dictator persecuting his own people russia is taking

a stance in the international community that i think is deeply deeply unwise. it is important to have to some extent the moral high ground here. unfortunately we've we've lost our feed there apologize for that but that was barry gardner british m.p. speaking with us from london well in another middle eastern country in bahrain we report later on how security forces cracked down on pro-democracy protesters with western help or he takes a closer look at why one of britain's former top cops lend his experience in crushing anti-government rallies. but first a greek party leaders have sent written commitments to brussels saying they will stick to the agreed austerity measures even after general elections in april there are still e.u. demands athens failed to fulfill which led to the cancellation. of a key meeting of eurozone finance ministers greece is still struggling to secure

a second ballot from its international creditors without which it's due to default next month and for more on this i'm joined by the leader of the u.k. independence party nigel farage so there are reports that the eurozone may delay the greek bailout until after elections in april how much do you think athens will be able to survive until then without some cash injection well i mean the big day comes up in march when there is a major repayment i guess the this new stumps taken by the user day is they'll make sure there's anough money to fulfill those short term dumond's but rather than committing to the whole package what the e.u. is now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general election i'm not satisfied with getting rid of the last democratically elected prime minister and putting in a puppet in the form of us to papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right policies unless you vote for parties that a happy to be subjugated do you control we will not give you the rest of the money

and you will go bankrupt and this is the kind of blackmailing game that we're now seeing from the european union anyone in the face of that that much of athens called far on sunday night now greece is already years into recession it's frequently missed its fiscal targets the bailouts don't seem to be working what makes the e.u. in your opinion so committed to the austerity bailout strategy that they've got going. well remember for five years in a row now the greek economy has contracted and we've just got the fourth quarter figures through from twenty eleven which show that that contraction is now accelerate saying it has actually reached now seven percent per annum so you know the economy's actually was on a downward deflationary desperado i had a meeting in november with angela merkel and i said to her look surely chancellor wouldn't it be better for greece to leave the euro to devalue and drag it some growth back into the economy wouldn't it be kind on german taxpayers for them not to have to sign blank checks in perpetuity why don't we let greece go and her

response was very telling she said look we cannot let greece leave the euro because if she does leave they'll be other countries that want to leave too and that will mean the end of the european project so the reality here is that greece the country of greece and its people are to be put to the sold sacrifice if you like of the oil at the european olds are all in the name of preserving the european project and this is a project that these politicians have been working on for over half a century and they don't even know it's failing they don't want to let it go now the rhetoric coming from german politicians shows berlin may be losing patience with greece but the german parliament will also have to approve a second belo do you think they're proposing they're preparing for the public no for the public rather for a no vote. i think that if you put it to a referendum in germany i think we don't know what the result would be now i suspect that despite the dissatisfaction that is felt by many german politicians i think the german parliament just as the greek parliament did last sunday will

continue to toe the line and continue to say that buy it out so the answer as far as i'm concerned it's rather like saving the cancer and not saving the patients now greek finance ministers have said some eurozone states one greece out of the monetary union accuse them of playing with fire how unified do you think are politicians in the union at this stage it's cracking it's cracking we saw one of the commissioners commissioners netty cruz said the other day that if greece left it wouldn't be a man overboard situation so even at the top there is now a crack beginning to appear and very interesting only what i've seen today in the european parliament is from the greens and from the left in politics for the first time in years we're hearing real criticism and the big socialist criticism is that these austerity cuts are damaging living standards to such an extent that they now want to acceptable so i'm beginning you know i'm not the lone voice anymore in this

place that these policies are mad now greece is not alone in this situation we have a double dip recession now in portugal italy back in recession is the e.u. ready or even able at this point to be able to bail out all the states that are in dire straits briefly what i think the point about greece is that this is the second bailout of course that we're talking about but she only constitutes three percent in terms of size of the eurozone economy if we get to insulate we get to one of the biggest countries in the eurozone and in the european union and i don't think then we can print or invent another money to bail out italy italy is where this will all end all right we have to leave it there nigel farage m.e.p. leader of the u.k. independence party thanks for your insight. let's take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe beginning in honduras a disaster at least three hundred prisoners killed by a fire sweeping through a jail tuesday night they were either burned or suffocated to death some inmates managed to escape breaking through the roof and jumping out from the building an

electrical fault is that to have caused the blaze. in turkey police use rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a group of fifty people tossing molotov cocktails in the streets in the city of they're demanding the release of abdulla okolona who is the founder of the outlawed kurdistan workers' party or p.k. k. who's facing the death penalty turkey the e.u. and the us regard the p.k. k. as a terrorist group to turkish soldiers and sixteen kurdish rebels have been killed in the past few days as tensions rise on the anniversary of his capture. nato has admitted its recent airstrike in afghanistan killed eight civilians the attack happened a week ago in a village northeast of kabul and has outraged afghan officials this in the wake of the latest un report indicating the number of civilian casualties in the decade long war rose last year compared to two thousand and ten. returning now to the anti-government rallies in the arab world last year protesters in bahrain thought

they got what they wanted after being promised reforms including among the police but a year later activists trying to mark the anniversary of the uprising found the crackdown as harsh as before only difference this time around some tactics and arms the police used were brought from the west by those supposed to bring democratic change or 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 will crushed in bahrain it seems not much has changed the only difference now the crackdowns been planned by one of britain's former top cops john the eights 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 behaving despicably their 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 justice all the news out of doors and i think for any british police

officer or overstimulate is retired to be associated in any way with that is its role yes resigned from scotland yard last year an early victim of the phone hacking scandal he popped up in bahrain in december as part of the regime's p.r. campaign to clean up its image a campaign pushed 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 protesting demanding their rights and you call that vandalism if you seem to forget that this is over 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 witness on the ground as not. the front or from. this previously but it's been extended through the toxic gases and use of poisoning of. this mr john contributing we should see a positive things at the ground what we are seeing today as nothing acceptable it may not just be british tactics bahrain's using 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's r.t. london career joins us next with the latest business news stay with us here on r.t. . thank you matt hello and welcome to business here in a t. thanks for joining me as we've been reporting iran is denying reports it's cutting supply to six european countries already a iran's state run press t.v. said the country was halting supplies to spain italy france greece portugal and the netherlands they call this caused oil prices to jump to six months high let's look at the figures now quote all futures rally to the best level in five weeks light sweet is trading below one hundred two dollars a barrel brant is trading at over one hundred eighteen dollars per barrel the euro is 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 stocks in the u.s. are mixed hovering between gains and losses dow jones gave up an early gain it was down thirty five points shortly after the opening bell major indexes had been poised for games until reports emerged that the e.u. finance ministers might postpone at least a portion of the next round of aid to greece. and here's your promotes markets and balance on wednesday on better than expected growth data from germany and france and also amid signs of support from the region china and in other news the world bank president robert zoellick will step down at the end of his five year term which expires on june thirtieth. here or worse the markets closed in the black lifted by higher prices for oil both my six and it even let's check on the index movers of the my six as i've said most of the blue chips were higher oil majors were in the front line supported by stronger crude oil finished up under

a percent spread bank ended higher as well the company finalized a deal to buy east european called bank international truck make a buck the trend it stocks fell over three percent after an unexpected thirteen percent jump on tues. here's you getting rich was a full alpha kappa alpha was wrapping up for us. positive news today was chinese pledge to hold asses denominated in europe so it's ruled the positive for the markets however it doesn't still solve the problem as far as market movers are concerned with the rising by four percent today this is rule the top story in local markets 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 in the future they had of gas problems export branch is that a big if says one of the ways it's increased storage capacity in the region. is a key. for security of supply for extreme situation like this winter so that's where we propose a program to. experience . between two hundred to three hundred million euros in the next five years to secure top levels. and that's all that this is for this cell but you can always find more stores if you just log on to our website talk to dot com business thanks for watching.

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