tv [untitled] February 15, 2012 3:00pm-3:30pm EST
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iran says it's been considering cutting the oil sales to six countries but wouldn't do so both at the moment because of a cold snap across europe. syria's president announces a vote on a new constitution that would have affected the nearly fifty years of single party rule the country amid rising turmoil. and rallies marking a year since the pro-democracy uprising in bahrain protesters face yet another harsh clampdown with police using tactics and weapons a. midnight
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in moscow tries a good to have you with us here on r t our top story iran has reportedly war in six states it may stop supplying them with oil in response to a series of sanctions including an embargo on terror on this key export iranian official also added that only reason they're not stopping crude sales immediately zero six stream lee cold current temperatures are he's jacob greaves has more from greece. the latest reports here what we hear is the iranian foreign ministry has cooled up these embassadors of these six nations concerns and told them that cuts will happen but not right away or they will face a ban on exports to their nations but they'll be given some leeway in that so into what they term humanitarian reasons the cold snap that's been sweeping across europe it 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
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those reported to be in the really thick of it when it comes this economic crisis we have the netherlands of france 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 e.u. can where you 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 r.t. for more analysis of the e.u.'s economic woes with journalist charlie mcgrath will
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join us later this hour. meanwhile toronto has reiterated its readiness to resume nuclear talks with major powers to discuss the country's controversial nuclear program as well israel has stepped up its stance against iran with prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying tehran's aggression must be stopped he repeated the claims that iran was behind recent bombings allegedly targeting israelis in india georgia and thailand israel says there are links between the incidents iran denies any involvement saying israel is waging a psychological war that many fear may pave the way to military action but it all analyst chris bambery from the international socialist group explains why he thinks israel is acting as if. 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 firstly it should be said israel has a long record of using assassination as the tool i think it might be better of
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originals to turn around and say in response to those that it's going to stop its assassination policy and with other nations like iran to superheat but i don't think israel's going to do that because used assassination so often i think what it is really 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 the increase of iran's influence in the in the region the rain is of constantly said that they're not going to me nuclear weapons international atomic energy inspectors have just been to iran they came came by 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
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a lot of hypocrisy about iran's nuclear program i am no fan of nuclear energy. indeed nuclear weapons i do one but it was ok for iran to have a nuclear program in the one nine hundred seventy s. when britain france and america would queuing to sell the shah of iran you could say it was ok then because the shah of iran was one of the guys it's not ok for the iran to have nuclear weapons no undue islamic republic. has more on the other kinds of pressure iran faces over its nuclear program on our website the us plans to take to iran from a financial group that would hurt the country's oil sales but could in turn have global consequences click on r.t. dot com for all those details.
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syria's president bashar al assad has ordered a referendum on a new constitution to be held in eleven days it could put an end to the one party rule of the president's bath party which is a tried in the current constitution you know one came amid reported violence in the cities of holmes and hamas some of the fiercest in the months long on rast maria an ocean reports from damascus. date 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 a 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 involved 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
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to the country's key law the wake of violence that followed in the show demonstrations peaceful demonstrations many opposition leaders have been only demanding president bashar al assad to go and they will not be satisfied with these particular reform with this particular month random this news it's how 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 and we've also been receiving reports from another troubled area from the city of the homes where reportedly there have been explosions at the oil pipeline activists have been reported four hundred people dead in the last two days since almost all these rich culture have been coming from one source from the opposition they has been
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a feeling that another part another side of this conflict in syria has been kind of ignored. since the beginning of the uprising in syria last march the regime of bashar al assad has been accused of refreshen torture and killing but with a bad month of homes blame has since focused on assad forces attacking civilians and shell in residential areas. in a beautiful yard called himself a member of the opposition and intellectual not through aleutian every one his stresses from a social democratic group originally from holmes he blames assad for mistakes which allowed bloodshed at the start but he just defies what the regime is doing in his native city now he is the who i am he is trying to to to. protect civilians i think that in homs there are many gangs you know there is a title and everyone can claim that he belongs with this title and no one can ban
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him the danger posed by the armed forces was seen in the killing of a french journalist last month and he says when he went to homs he put in his mind that the syrian opposition is very peaceful in the trying to frame them so he he was like a pioneer in the call and he was killed by the some gang attacks on government targets have become increasingly bloody themselves with twenty eight people killed and scores injured while an attack on a military base in aleppo last week an f.s.a. free syrian army representative at mit its responsibility before the organization later denied it claim and government forces claim ridiculed by regime. insurgents and terrorists have committed this attack only an insane person could see that the government is killing its officials and officers and destroying its
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own administrative buildings these armed terror groups were created to commit these crimes and they have committed them in the past and will continue to do so if the were. then they support them last sunday the arab league votes still for food political and financial support for the opposition to unify its ranks it is similar call from the leader of al qaida muslims to unite efforts to help overthrow bashar al assad recent reports suggest iraqi weapons qatari troops and libyan rebels a role in syria on the opposition side this makes for a volatile and highly dangerous makes. many western powers interested in fomenting unrest and syria and so they'll turn a blind eye to extreme weapons coming in through borders like lebanon in turkey to create the very militants i won't call them terrorists but very dangerous armed groups but the west has its eyes wide open when it comes to the reported death toll
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to come of the no un figure of more than five thousand employees civilians only but that's bigger leaves out any mention of pro-government forces killed in the conflict some say the numbers are destroyed to lead to political objectives. our number so for six of them i don't see expose them but you would be supposed to know that over two poles of it hundreds of. this is the good the common to foreign pressure has focused on the assad regime but the syrian government and its international supporters say there's been a total failure talk moments of violence from opposition forces which has been a key factor in the country's present turmoil they warned that find it a solution to the country's crisis isn't possible without recognizing all its causes written off now t. damascus syria. continuing to put pressure on syria's president assad to step down
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confirming new sanctions against the country are underway political analyst dr obama xabi thinks western leaders are sending the wrong signals to the opposition who should be encouraged by the announcement of a referendum on the new syrian constitution. the way forward is to have dialogue and i think in order to have dialogue there must be a second feis is on on on both sides here is the president making. a huge move forward by presenting a draft of the constitution and i think that that should be in his view in many people's view sufficient 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 say this so many people. the city and opposition is calling for reform what is the best way to get
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that done is it through cutting weapons and shooting at government institutions. and having a civil war of course not i think all of the city and. however many of the groups who are fighting today in cities they actually are not ready for dialogue they have they have working according to western agenda in order to remove that is there is a legal problem or foreign interference in sit in affairs. greek party leaders or senate written commitments to brussels saying they'll stick to the agreed austerity measures even after the general election is set for april are still demands athens has failed to fulfill which led to the cancellation of a key meeting of eurozone finance ministers greece continues to struggle to secure a second ballot from its international creditors which is due to default next month for more on this i'm joined by charlie mcgrath founder of wide awake news so the greek finance minister tried to reassure the people saying that the country needs
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to stay in the euro zone for the sake of future generations after all the protests that we've been seeing do you think there's any hope left of among the greeks for a better future. well for the citizens i do not i mean it's pretty obvious that the european central bank and the cabal of banks toure's that are currently running the global financial system have put their puppet in their path to demas and he will do everything possible until he is. let go of his tenure as prime minister to ensure that they will have this onerous austerity being implemented on to them so for the people of greece you know that the prospect of future is not bright at all all this is being done of course to make sure that banks don't realize any losses at the expense of the people of greece and there's been a lot of criticism pointed at greece as it keeps delaying decisions demanded by the e.u. when the greek president or her spawn did to the attacks rather emotionally taking on the german finance minister saying quote i don't have to x. i do not accept having my country taunted by the finance minister and as
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a greek i don't accept it how wide are these political cracks that seem to be forming in the e.u. . well they're very wide and it's important that the fracture continues because what's at stake isn't debt it isn't the big banks of europe being paid off what's at stake is sovereignty for the five hundred million people on the continent of europe you know greek greece is the first domino once they read a cape a sovereign nation in greece which they are trying. to hand over fist to achieve over there by neutering their parliament by dictating laws financial loss from brussels once that's achieved in greece you know it is not going to stop there and i think that's what a lot of people don't realize you know even the day that this greek deal was announced moody's came out and downgraded austria france italy malta portugal slovenia slovakia spain and the u.k. they are not going to stop in till they can eradicate representative government
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government inside of europe and have everything controlled financially out of brussels and if you control the financial the financial aspect of these countries you control these countries now many people are pointing to the fact that the greek economy is uncompetitive and simply won't survive in the euro zone what's your take on that. well you know if the western media the mainstream media would have you believe that this is all brought on greek greece and it's their own fault they want you to believe that these folks retire when they're twelve years old they get every benefit under the sun and they contribute absolutely nothing to the eurozone if that is the case fine let em default that's what happens in free market capitalism if you can't pay your bills as a person or a nation in free market capitalism you default you go bankruptcy bankruptcy is a very important part of free market capitalism unfortunately that is not what we have we have a disaster capitalism we will use disaster use crisis in order to implement its austerity and make a whole entire nation's debt slaves these european banks they took
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a lesson from what happened in this country the united states in two thousand and eight and this time instead of asking the people of the continent of europe to bail out the banks they're demanding it so wouldn't the best thing then be for greece to simply default do you think and do like argentina did default go back to their original currency and then build the economy up from there. i would agree with that one hundred percent the people of argentina the people of iceland you'd say the banks i'm sorry i can't live up to my obligations i'm going to use a common practice in free market capitalism i'm going to default i'm going to declare bankruptcy and we're going to start all over again that would be the best things for the citizens of greece just like it was the best things for the citizens of argentina and iceland it won't be the best thing for the international globalist banks there's. charlie mcgrath founder of wide awake news thanks for your time. last year pro-democracy protesters and another arab country bahrain thought they got what they wanted after being promised reforms including among the police force
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but twelve months later activists trying to mark the anniversary of the uprising found a crackdown was as harsh as before only difference this time was the same tactics and arms police use where this time brought from the u.k. those supposedly there to help bring democratic change artie's ivor bennett has more from london. 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 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 behaving despicably their latest trick is to throw cans of 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 any british police officer
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or overstimulate retired to be associated in any way with that is this is wrong yes resign from scotland yard last year in 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 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 said this isn't organized protests it's just vandalism rioting on the streets claims hotly disputed by london's bahraini community i mean when you get thousands and thousands of people protesting demanding their rights and you call that vandalism. you seem to forget that there are sixty five or sixty five people actually died from police brutality activists in bahrain insists their protest was
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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 or from. this previously but it's been extended through the. use of poisoning. mr john contributing we should see a positive things at the ground what we're seeing as. acceptable in may not just be british tactics bahrain's easing 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
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i'm talking to tariq ali 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 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 nato to try and organize an intervention that i think would be disastrous and lead to 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 concrete who are not seen as hostile to syria which include russia china and
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others. and the pressure should be kept on at 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 say 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 is played no active role for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region but surely the
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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 sort of big vote roots 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 capable of putting pressure on most of our the really uncertain hezbollah in lebanon and i think all
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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 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 us as 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 i have to say that when you look at what the west did in relation to the our pride seeing some of the crisis in the yemen where
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killing still go on and what they're doing in syria it just sort of stands out the former yemeni president is having medical treatment from the united states. so this is double standards that operate make one who is suspicious of western motives 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 and 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 end do they want to end up like do they want to end up like survivor messiah lynched by mobs backed by western troops that is the future that stares them in the face there is no other breach
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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 model a moderate islamist government is the best model for the arab world i disagree very strongly with 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 into this year like it has in egypt and then one has to deal with it i mean i regard these groups a.
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