from steve she. starts on t.v. dot com. nations are supporting syria's revolution meet in turkey to thrash out plans to help the opposition and build pressure on bashar al assad's regime this while turkish police dispersed supporters of the syrian leader just outside the talks. also in the week's top stories a hot mike exchange between barack obama and dimitri may if you had it leads to anti russian rhetoric this among america's republican presidential candidates it's a trend moscow has condemned as quote cold war hollywood cliche. and spain adopts its toughest budget cuts in decades despite a nationwide strike and mass protests the result of in violent clashes and dozens

of arrests. but the headlines of today and over this week you're watching the weekly with me rule recent shape saudi arabia and its allies are thought to have agreed to pay salaries to rebels fighting the syrian regime the decision came as around sixteen nations all harsh critics of the syrian government met in turkey to discuss how to bolster the opposition and intensify sanctions against president assad the u.s. and its allies blame assad for all the violence in the country whereas damascus says it's simply fighting armed extremists sarah ferguson following the tolls in istanbul now joins us live on the program sara can you give us the fine details here of the meeting what else came out of this big conference here. well the final

statement saying of the friends of syria against the providing all possible assistance to the syrian opposition that spake technical assistance and direct assistance now while field position had called for the first time for neighboring countries to allow us to reach the free syrian army the armed opposition inside the country the focus is much more on non-lethal aid on providing funding and financial assistance there is going to be some sort of multi million dollar fund that possibly will be used to then provide salaries t. the syrian army to thank this and to the free syrian army as well we know a number of the gulf states has already pledged large amounts of money to that outside the conference that they actually saw or a small gathering of trade government demonstrates is clashing with the turkish riot police all seemed a little bit unnecessary to be perfectly honest as he went out see find out what's

going on there in the turkish riot police far outnumbered the amounts of the pro-government demonstrators they saw some sort of chaotic scenes breaking out by that conference and certainly i wouldn't have been a welcome distraction cause of course the friends of syria conference already coming under many criticisms from both the this pro-government syrians and also the opposition as well he really they feel that their representative all of the forty that's the full thing the syrian national council a representative of the syrian people that's very very interesting to note that that really is it's both sides that level that criticism of the syrian national council. seems to be to song possibly disorganized group of opposition members allegedly forty five different factions making of those who are against the assad regime the meeting over the past few days and particularly today have they had they put on a show of unity those different members among the opposition. well they've been

here in istanbul eight of the past week having meetings and trying really see how our other objectives to present a united front and they become some of these internal divides that have really hampered their progress it's been worrying to the international community and even those countries that have wanted very much to get behind them and of really planning now and the friends of syria conference listen to the rhetoric you know this is a group that is certainly planning for a post this feature and this is really the criticism that's been leveled at the friends of syria conference because remember russia and china absent from that caught conference eighty three countries in attendance today but the criticisms that have come from and from moscow certainly have been that this is very one sided and that there are concerns that the exclusion of the government of the syrian government really hampers rather than helps the diplomatic efforts that are going on at the same time to resolve this crisis and they did make note of the peace plan

and what was very clear today to come out of this friends of syria conference is it really highlighted a lot of the flaws in that peace plan another there are lots of questions that have been raised in the past week and were raised again today about just how that peace plan is to be implemented on the ground and also the sort of timescale for that to be implemented and then to be monitored and so that's going to be something that's going to be being looked at once again very closely we have the turkish foreign minister saying that is not an open ended process it's not an open ended mission and so really those are the questions that are being leveled and possibly will his nonces to more it from k.p.n. and when he delivers his state or authorities or service or life in istanbul. but i was mentioning a moment ago about the u.n. envoy kofi annan and that of a secretary of state hillary clinton referring to an and six stage peace plan clinton has already accused president assad of refusing to act according to the six staged peace plan saying it's just another addition to his list of in actions well

let's get some more details on the whole concept of what's going on a journalist and political analyst crystal forestalled live in berlin good to see you today or the friends of syria group pledged to give funding and communication a quick run to the opposition is this in your view possibly a shift towards military aid for the rebels. not at all it's just to show how much of the already flowing military aid to the rebels is being dealt with other table and to be clear on these so-called salaries they are being paid since a long time since the beginning and since we have an eyewitness now the ex lebanon correspondent of zero mr ali hashem winter away in disgust from jersey who said in april two thousand and ten it was two thousand and eleven sorry april two thousand and eleven i have personally witnessed hundreds of people crossing the border from

lebanon into syria from there all experts know quite clearly there must have been pre-planned in prearranged from the summer of two thousand and ten and that kills the whole story the west and some of these corrupt arab allies including unfortunately turkey are making out of syria so what we can see now the sort of see neocolonial battle of the west against syria is in in a way stalled right now they are trying diplomatically they try in diplomatic bickering to go about god dealing with communication equipment this is a ridiculous show these people these are praises insulin i'm sorry for you call this you call this a ridiculous show here you say that this whole plan of the insurgency in the uprising in syria was engineered you know more than a year or even two years ago but point here is this group or the group the friends of syria it includes countries like your native germany they are all on the same

side we have you know the meeting today of representatives of sixty countries how we said so many or all on one side of this conflict. in fact if you look at these sixty so-called friends syria's government is calling them enemies of syria it's much closer to the truth they are divided among among many splits they are not all of them you know very brutal hardliners so for example germany is maybe not hundred percent on the side of washington here but they try you know not to make their grief showing too much and what we have in fact here is in any case trying to you know unite as much as possible with the one hundred times to splinter the syrian opposition as much as this group of sixty so you suggest that is the whole friends of syria group is more like the enemies of syria group but if i may president assad still has a lot of support back at home how much does this meeting today in istanbul and over

the past few days really reflect the interests of the syrian people as a whole. as a whole one can say this is certainly not in the interest of the syrian people in my latest article are pointing out that the syrian armed up with this opposition those who right now in a phase before the next the first free election in a long time who take up arms now they are not more than fifteen fifteen one five percent of the population and then there's another group. under this dr heath i'm a mallett who wants to be president who were several times in prison in syria and now it is a tries to you know have his life's dream fulfilled their group as i've already killed in the military field and they may be representing three four five percent and that is the real situation not very good for the west right now but let's see what happens after. you know finished his election campaign and let's face it this

battle will be won or lost in the western media in syria and its three main ellice a very you barely position to deal with this media feud they have little experience and little expertise to deal with these spinning of the western media that's a problem journalist and political analyst christophe's or thanks for coming out here today thank you. try turning our attention out about of libya where one hundred fifty people have been killed more than four hundred injured it's all the result of clashes in libya over the past six days as former rebels and tribesmen battle it out for power the nation's government has now broken a ceasefire but in reality it has little power over the vast number of armed groups left over from the revolution live years of former prime minister who led the uprising against a more market duffy believes there's a risk that libya may be taken over by extremists what would you feel also says it's the result of nato abandoning the country after the former regime was toppled in the next hour here in r.t.

our exclusive interview with jabril sharing his we want gadhafi is death as well as the future of libya. there are too many parties who have interests that it wasn't to be silenced for over with and who was killed by before and into europe the libyans who are libyans and they are from others after the regime fell down most of the country is that the mission has been accomplished they need to look for that libya is a stateless. political vacuum can be filled by anybody in the world and it's. legal for extreme isn't too good or. this is art to be guarantees or an arms race president eduard if delivered a clear choice to washington this week over its missile shield plans in europe that says the u.s. also announced similar systems for asia and the middle east to retrieve it and

barack obama discussed the issue at an international nuclear security summit in seoul and part of the private conversation accidentally went public. but. the computers exchange was captured by t.v. cameras word for word and it was seized on by barack obama's republican rivals with mitt romney even declaring russia as america's number one enemy but as more hawks landel the anti russian bandwagon he's garniture kind reports their war cries are not necessarily resonating with american voters in. the run up to the presidential election in the u.s. . a perfect time to drag down the good old cold war skeleton from the closet. russia this is without question our number one geopolitical

foe in the world of the presidential hopeful mitt romney russia is america's prime enemy while it's president elect you should remember. this. i think represents a real threat. to the. realty of the world. that seeing the world of mitt romney what about well america there is no evidence of any popular support for bashing russia for hostility towards russia so this idea that somehow or another russia is a concern for americans it just doesn't add up at all with a very small sliver of people asked about romney's comments president medvedev advised him to stop reverting to olden days hollywood steering types and take a look at the calendar. what it could mean but i would advise all u.s. presidential candidates to make reasonable statements it wouldn't do them any harm

to do so and. it's the year twenty twelve look at midnight and seventy's and even the current leaders of the two countries may have long delayed the cold. war to rest but for some it's just too good to like girl boy to return to those cold war simple days. russia is not the only foreign policy bandwagon the republican presidential hopefuls are capitalizing on the list also includes china iran's syria each candidate except ron paul trying to sound tougher than the other the strategies they put forward warming arming isolating threatening i want to be china i want to go to war with china these guys are ranchers and in and out of it and then look for ways to get it to work to harm a ship or should take military action it is unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon but what if all of what the trigger happy candidates suggest on

foreign policy actually happens i worry about the worlds in which romney became president because i think he would adopt a more militaristic foreign policy that is depicted in a miniature skitch. some kind of hedonistic cool and very own real view of the world if america takes up a much more aggressive stance towards lots of foreign countries it will be a much more dangerous world also be dangerous for america because we can't afford to do that mitt romney will most likely win the republican nomination and america will face a choice between him and president obama polls show the majority of americans disapprove of obama's policies but most experts agree that we were a veritable leeway in the election because too many americans are just plain scared of having someone like romney as their future leader i'm going to check our reporting from washington party. well as u.s.

republicans take a hardline stance on foreign nations presidential hopefuls in france are coming down hard on domestic issues still ahead for you here on r.t. in the wake of radical islamic terrorism on home soil a kind of push unquote to build on constitutional change with threats of arrests and deportation. plus fed up with street demos some muscovites launching their own protests against them we report on the anti rallies rally right here in the center of the russian company. some of the biggest riots in decades swept across spain this week mass rallies back to a nationwide general strike as millions walked off the job to protest against more staring dozens of people were injured in suing clashes and almost sixty arrested but the government remained under wanted analysing twenty seven billion euros worth

of cuts the very next it's one of the toughest budget strains introduced in decades which includes tax hikes and a salary freeze for public sector workers but economic analyst and michael ross things that aren't ultimately the measures they just won't work. if you haven't heard of a politician who's promises came true overclean we are latina future we not and what i can see is that to what this plane want to make the spanish government is not only visited is it's also impossible when you look at the private sector private sector is totally over that more or less bankrupt where you look at the bearings over there being quite central bank bankrupt government also mourners bankrupt how can you implement an authority package in these circumstances so everybody will see that this rule this won't work but what i what i see is that spain is the last nail in the euro zone coffin when politicians are talking about

adjustment adjustment is such a nice word what it means in reality the people there have to become poorer when you are a government and you have to tell it to the people of the people are feeling that they are becoming poorer you are in a big big difficulty this could easily lead to a domestic reaction and this could also trigger more problems in the other seven countries here in europe. and in addition to the deepening crisis in the e.u. there are also growing concerns over soaring oil prices of course following the west's recent sanctions against iran france britain and the us all considering releasing oil reserves on to the market to drive down costs jamaal be from the national iranian american council believes that sanctions were just a knee jerk reaction with the repercussions only now beginning to be felt the real problem here is that the us and the e.u. have passed these unprecedented sanctions without a real strategy or understanding of comes next we're sort of making this up as we

go along and we're finding that this nation that we put in place to try to restrict iran from profiting off of oil sales is really actually back firing on us and that iran has tremendous leverage against us if we're going to take this confrontation to whine to the energy so i'm skeptical of the ability of the united states and france and others to actually mitigate this the fear of a war with iran has actually added about twenty dollars to the price of a barrel of oil so this concern that israel may strike iran or that the united states may end up in a war with iran is one of the driving factors of why it's so expensive and simply addressing the supply issue is not going to mitigate they're. just not turning twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow a french police carried out a series of raids against suspected islamic terrorists throughout the country netting nineteen arrests the crackdown comes just

a week after muhammad french one of algerian percent was shot dead by police and to lose our officer he murdered seven people so it is tester are serious planes of fear of terrorism is playing a major role in the nation's presidential race. why mcnair was killed by police after a thirty two hour seizure and to lose his life may have ended that day but his story has given france's presidential hopefuls an excuse for electioneering with ever more radical rhetoric. that's given rise to a huge political debate and what's made it to the foreground of the discourse is mere hours background. from anyone who regularly consults internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison any person going abroad for the purposes of indoctrination in terrorist ideology will be criminally punished and that's in addition to psychos east policy of stripping

of foreign born criminals of their citizenship for their tightening border control saying there are too many foreigners in france who clearly advocating the political change and it's from his view it's not a crime we have freedom of speech in france and they don't see. the restrict it's. what the french citizen kane east family came to france a very long time ago so. obviously this kind of terrorism comes from inside france of society it's not just something that is imported from the middle east. and you cannot. take away french nationality from a french nation or this is not allowed under the french constitution and then there's marine le pen the far right national front party candidate having long pushed a more radical and immigration line call for the revival of the death penalty for

child killers and the deportation of any foreigner who goes in a suspicious trip to places like afghanistan how many mohammed merah are there in the boats and planes that arrive in france full of immigrants how did marriage is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg it's time to wade. on this from the mentally ill it's religious groups who are killing our children in threat of islamic fundamentalism has been underestimated locally and i think all that's been announced after these tragic events are proposals put forward solely for the elections it goes to the one who proposes the most radical solutions which would aim supposedly at solving the problem but the problem is much deeper with our ever growing number of immigrants in france about six million of whom are muslims as being labelled as a problem by some prominent figures of all officials or throwing around what they call solutions to the question is whether any of these policy ideas on immigration are security are realistic and are addressing an actual problem or simply the

consequences of something more fundamental the core of the call a musical tribute if you can go through it because what is the goal of all the people and there doesn't seem to be much consensus on that either because are still here r t paris. well we always enjoy getting your feedback on the stories we cover here and see for example on our website we want to know what you think about the french crackdown on domestic islamists i hear the numbers for this hour from the website so far more than half of you believe it's president sarkozy's pre-election move to pander to voters nearly one fourth thinks it's the start of an anti muslim witch hunt ten percent say it's a kneejerk response to the to lose shootings or just a top percent this hour believe it's an attempt to finally address the threat of terrorism on french soil you can still have your say on our worldwide call just go to our t.v. talk. it's

good to have you with us on r.t. today but in recent months russia has witnessed all kinds of rallies from protests against the parliamentary and presidential election results to those in support of the earth origins but this sunday a whole new type of demonstration has taken place. went along to a protest against protests. they're angry tired cold hungry and they are mostly journalists who have spent the last goodness knows how many weekends covering the protests in moscow and whether or not they want to like other protesters and they couldn't just say no they have to be there they have to spend hours in the freezing weather and they have to listen to demands of people who have been basically saying down with everything there is so they organize this facebook initiative group and they got more than a hundred people in just under twenty four hours who all signed up to come to our

spot in moscow and protest the protest and understanding that hungry journalist is something you never want to deal with the broad cookies the broad flower seeds and they didn't last very long because you know journalists do have families and that was one of the main slogans at the rally they would hop down leads they want to see them is not just possible and they do not want to be outside again in the cold and snow listening to people voicing their concerns about something which they cannot really define that was their main point of the rally which ran down in moscow today and honestly i'm also kind of tired of it too so let's ride it out and i'm going to head home and do what i wanted to do all these weekends i have a lot of things to catch up on as. i do remember you can always look on to a website or two dot com for lots of other stories news and comment for example of millions across the world switch the lights off for our. grazing global environmental awareness more incredible pictures for you on our website. plus

correctness or just craziness new york bands over fifty words from school essays including dinosaurs don't. see that story and forward to. john yang has slammed into us over his decision to suspend food aid to north korea calling it an overreaction quote beyond limits provisions were promised in return for the communist state stuff. in nuclear and missile tests north korea has refused to hold back its plans to launch a satellite in mid april and courtly invited outside experts to prove it's doing it for purely peaceful purposes however the u.s. and south korea believe the launch is really a long range missile test erica cirrhotic co-founder of the campaign to end the korean war says washington is acting against international law by using food aid and it's a political standoff just

a week or two before we heard the administration in washington saying this was a good deal it was going to get food to the neediest people in north korea and now we're playing politics with food food as a weapon of war under international law has always been illegal to use and we really need to find a way back to the table not see individual acts as a provocation they certainly have a right to put a satellite into space as other nations do but let's demilitarized let's look at the base issues and let's look at getting a peace treaty to end the korean war finally and then i think these kinds of issues one runs. this is artsy a twenty year old palestinian was killed when land day protesters clashed with israeli security forces on the palestinian israeli border on friday and comes a fortnight after an egyptian mediated truce to stop the violence between both

sides was broken now with the details now as aussies pulled a slip. in the service and not mandate demonstrations turn violent with one protester killed in gaza several dozen injured across the west bank and at least thirty four people arrested in the event and marks the killing back in one nine hundred seventy six of the six palestinians enjoying a land confiscation policy of the venezuelan government palestinians complained that israelis took our blend and used it for building israeli settlements and since then visit and the event has been used to highlight the plight of the palestinian people the sooner coincided with what was dubbed the global march to jerusalem and its all some eighty two countries participating the attention was focused on the numerous palestinian cities and villages as well as arab israeli towns and the israeli borders along the it's all day new border some twenty thousand people gathered and while there were no reports of violence be even so he highlighted the

palestinian struggle. with the headlines in just a moment.