violent clashes persist in syria as the u.n. admits the peace plan is being broken by both sides while moscow steps up efforts to find a diplomatic solution. one hundred billion euros of playing out with dread finally admits it cannot save its pretty good banks on its own becoming the largest economy so far to seek aid from the eurozone. also boosting trade and tackling the crisis in the middle east russia and china strengthen their partnership as president vladimir putin visits beijing.

with it back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the week leon. u.n. observers in syria are continuing efforts to determine how many people were massacred in hama province on wednesday and who was behind the slaughter top u.n. officials admit the peace plan is being flouted by both sides of the conflict dozens are reportedly been killed across the country over the weekend while foreign calls for intervention up being ramped up as reports. duquesne body is lain side by side we mean to do and among them death was indiscriminate and bloody the pictures from syria this week have brought shock around the globe and also a worry in sense of deja vu just weeks before any other massacre came to light this time in the village of houla and the world was quick to pass judgment the american british and french push for military intervention in syria is absolutely enormous we've seen hague of course william hague the british foreign secretary calling for

intervention we've seen the new french president saying the same thing the americans obviously taking the lead the specter of a military solution returned before an investigation into who was responsible or even launched they're all saying that their side regime is committing human rights abuses and they repeat this message obsessive like i am confident to predict that indeed it will remain fixed in people's minds and could well be used as a pretext and you don't have to look back to far to see where hasty jokingly saw a rush to take up arms because of a war and not exactly what happened then i would have a massacre which was the village of russia you have a u.n. inquiry that was severely bullied by the u.s. ambassador it was leaving your observation mission on the ground your claims that it was a row as a group of innocent civilians by government troops serving it was when presented with. back then the yugoslavian government just like the syrian

one now condemned militants for the killings in this case blaming the ban in separatists from the cost of a liberation army an investigation was launched to find out whether the victims were innocent civilians as the international community claimed or whether the country's army had been battling professional fighters two out of three forensic inquiries proved most of the casualties died in combat the third report. by any you team has never been made public interesting we know about we have been reports of syrian rebels whoever they are. with the. course of the liberation army the people who were basically the agents of mido in the course or. basically training they were saying they were training in democracy and human rights but the only training that they could have ever given anybody is how. stage a war exactly what's happening now. but even with hindsight after the nato bombing

of yugoslavia ruin the alliances are used tribes in libya last year history isn't been prevented from repeating itself again and again with this seven images coming from syria and making world headlines everybody agreed those who are guilty must be punished but the reaction from the international community has been so sweet and so quiet in ated the reason is that punishment will come before even those who are truly responsible are exposed and that could mean not just a loss of justice but also huge loss of life. for a financial i r t reporting from syria. well with international calls for military action in syria getting louder its neighbor israel has once again spoken out in favor of intervention a senior israeli minister has accused president sat of committing genocide during the fifteen month long uprising demanding a libya star campaign well let's get more on this from his job or from the center for middle east studies joining me live now from beirut well israel hasn't been too

vocal over syria so why has it now stepped up its calls for intervention. yes or of course israel has always been cancer about what's going on in syria but for more than one year israel did not take. any clear position. opposition in syria or to support the opposition in syria for many reasons first they believe there is a deal like they said many times that. you know it's better than anyone you don't know they were talking about president assad. despite that it's state of war between israel and the syrian regime but we don't have to forget that there is a ceasefire between the two countries which has been respected and not violated for almost forty years and israel has always fred and awarded

about. power in syria some extremist groups for example. and. harm to israel. specially in the border and now i believe that it's time to decide maybe a day received some signs some sometimes some guarantees from united states which of course support the opposition in syria or directly from the syrian national council or islamic groups like the muslim brotherhood they will not against israel surely surely that's the reason why israel would want to keep the status quo in effect to keep assad in because of course if there is a regime change there is every chance that an extremist government leadership could

take control and threaten israel after that. yeah i think. the israelis maybe. they believe that they have to support the opposition like. they believe that they will not against the forget that president assad is the first to their birth. syria now and. for the hezbollah which come from iran and any regime may come to syria now i think they believe there is a believe in this and the regime will not be a light and it's a point maybe it will be neutral but it will not be allowed to. give israel some get on the road. to provide what.

many. support hezbollah will be cut and then let's talk about iran and of course. and its relationship with damascus it seems to be the main regional irritant for the u.s. in israel especially with iran in competition with western states over its nuclear activities do you think damascus could be a stepping stone to regime change in iran the question of course many people. no i don't think iran will change at least in the near future its position. that. iran is committed to support the syrian regime today but iran. at the end of the day it's nation. concerned about its interests and. so far the syrian regime in my opinion will be supported by iran. and iran would be

against any external. military operation. against syria and. remember this one is for military and that eventually this suppression is not clear if we're talking about military intervention is different and military operation from outside the military on. syria. when you provide weapons to the insurgent military operation when wrong you'll ensure that training. you send them back in other countries to syria to fight the government it is a military operation. the military but talk about military intervention israel saying they'd like to see some sort of intervention that they saw in libya where we saw obviously nato taking sides with the opposition do you really think that the talk coming from washington as well that intervention military intervention is likely in syria quite soon very briefly place. no i don't think i thought that

russia will be against any resolution from the security council and if the americans will do it behind and outside of the military council it will not succeed in my opinion at all as syria is not libya and also then it all said mr rasmussen money time is that the nato is not concerned about any military operation against syria on the security council resolution or out of it that means that united states may prepare your military and convention in some way or another and not like in libya to support their ascension to syria but in my opinion it's not the neutral at all like provide the weapons to the answers and it's not the solution that will make the situation much more complicated in syria has your job i thank you so much for your thoughts thanks for your time live there from the center for middle east studies in beirut thank you. the struggling eurozone has been dealt

a fresh blow spain has become the largest economy so far to ask for help as it emitted it needs one hundred billion euros to prop up its beleaguered banks the cash will be fed directly to a special fund with madrid ultimately responsible for the money however this plan let spain avoid committing to additional cuts imposed from the outside as happened in the case of greece and portugal the spanish prime minister has praised the loan as a victory for the single currency is credibility but investment advisor patrick young has questioned its effectiveness and even the euro's future as a currency. all of the politicians have basically left the people stranded the new government in spin went into denial mode from the wall and they came into office and six months later they suddenly realized what anybody who was remotely financially literate could work six months ago two years ago even spanish banks are lost and ultimately there needs to be a way in order to manage to rescue them but the conventional be like mechanisms are not going to work and that's why ultimately it's very difficult to see tragically

whether or not there really is a future to the euro was a currency the greeks when you talk to the one side they don't want austerity and they don't really think they should have to pay their bills for the deaths that have been grown by the government over the years at the same time they think they should be in the euro it's automatically a little bit like going out and pulling a group of eight year old children no matter that they may say that they realize they have to eat sensibly they're going to demand ice cream and jelly for their next meal and for every meal there after as long as they have influence the problem with greece is ultimately it doesn't really matter what they vote for in the course of the middle of june because they haven't actually been taking their medicine and greece ultimately is returning to the drachma i think whether it likes it or not because it's completely untenable as a conventional modern democracy it's simply sadly does not function as one. and now the fact madrid is getting that huge turned out with no

a sturdy strings attached has led to calls in dublin for it to renegotiate its bailout deal but one small town isn't waiting for the government to sort things out as or smith reports people there are looking back to help move forwards. it's a blast from the past this customer uses the irish punt to pay for some every day purchases in the town of closeness islands joined the euro from the get go in two thousand and two but crisis hit business owners here have revived their old currency to try and desperately claw some cash back into the community if you bring in point it was twenty point whatever you spend or fifty pounds whatever you spend we will give you a change of tone his tone voters which you can then go and spend cross the road and supervisor you are in the clear or go for a drink up the tone it's it's a great scheme for the time it means all the money remains within the town as for the euro here it's been reduced to a novelty item printed on tissues and toilet paper and customers come from miles

around to spend their points often stopping by for a haircut while they're here. a lot of people come from from about fast especially around from people from the phantoms and so on us have an obligation month women can have it but if i want to get out there's an estimated two hundred eighty five million tucked away in draws and under mattresses forgotten about or kept to souvenirs when ireland joined the euro a decade ago they're no longer legal tender but would have a value of around two hundred forty million euros just a fraction of which would make a massive difference in crisis hit. the permit scheme has undoubtedly boosted the local economy but the ravages of the economic crash are still all too evident the main street is lined with boarded up shops with around fifty percent of premise is empty it's

a scene that's repeated in small towns and bigger cities throughout. austerity here means business people are being hit with a variety of taxes and levies making it harder and harder to stay afloat let alone turn a profit it's not just the whole country has suffered with the measures with the. new water charges which are common shortly charge which came in this year with increase every year. there was a two percent hike up to twenty three percent in the point of sale tax which we have to do something something to improve the situation shopkeepers say going back to the point isn't a political statement it's a survival tactic and as the face of the euro hangs in the balance cloners may not be alone in looking back for its future nor a smith. island. polls have closed in france as people of course a vote for the new parliament only a figure suggested the outcome will favor

a recently elected socialist president francois hollande his party already controls the senate. is in paris. initial estimates of come out at eight pm local is the actual results you have the aggregate of the left now getting forty seven point one percent then you have the right thirty five point four percent that's in the. party who was trying to get seats in parliament for the first time since the one nine hundred eighty s. will they have thirteen point four percent so that is a victory for her in this sense and you still have forty two point nine percent that will go on to the second round those would be votes candidates that are guarded about zero point five percent of the votes are they going to go for the second round of for what he really wants is an absolute majority if not an absolute majority of all the socialist party getting more than fifty percent that would be a majority of the left at least he would support his policies but let's remember that during the presidential elections people would come in voted for socialist stuff and so long they had voted for change in a smart as they didn't want anymore so simply symbolically this is a test of

a long ability to get that support from the french people if he doesn't get the majority essentially you will have a president who is on the left and you will have a parliament that is on the right right now before this elections it was the conservatives that was had the majority in the lower house and this will certainly pose problems into passing new laws that he wants to get into place such as this proposal to add sixty thousand new jobs in education sector or tax the rich by as much as seventy five percent up front so a lot of it was going to be aiming on his anti austerity more growth measures and getting faster out of the crisis and then if he doesn't get if he doesn't get the support of the lower house he will not be able to go on the dispatcher and the conservatives are going to be more for this asserting measures now we see spain in trouble and you see my trickle down into france and if the french people get even more sturdy passed on to them they're certainly not going to be happy about it in front of a lot just in the beginnings of a stern does not want to see supports lesson for the socialist party well as far as

long as foreign policy is concerned the part of a military and defense years old supreme. posed to withdraw troops from afghanistan earlier a year earlier than planned and if you if he doesn't follow through with the promises he made during his election campaign he will need the support of the lower house he already has the majority in the senate and it's crucial that he does get the support of the parliament in france. has a little humility from paris well for more on the french election we're joined now by comedic role from the foundation for strategic research in paris should all and secure the majority in the lower house of parliament he already controls the senate does that mean france will drop the e.u.'s thirty policies and turn against brussels. you know most likely scenario is that you will get a clear left majority the big issue is whether it would be dismissed or it would be built only around a socialist. or do we need to support

a socialist. such as the communist party and the greens in parliament but. out of the three stars i don't foresee major changes you know learned a stance with the views of europe but haven't people voted for him as a president because of his a sturdy policies and you would think that perhaps in this parliament or election the sentiment would go his way as well. clearly the. left majority did it. including the mr on yourself or are more leaning towards a more relaxed body he wouldn't come to a story. then then because you were but all together you feel it is keeping its promise which is through to try to reduce the deficit by raising taxes not so much by only reducing government spending because you are proposing

looking at the results so far the national front you perform quite well in the presidential election seem to gather more than ten percent now how lame fluence the politics of this new government in parliament. the interesting thing is that given the french victory system. most likely scenario is that the national front will only get one two three members of parliament because it's a majority addiction and not. very fairly good results somewhere between ten and fourteen percent or does the national front we get nationally will not give them any significant numbers of seats in parliament so all together the outcome from that perspective is limited where we did way is that probably in the second round it would sing some of the national front and it would be in a position to run for the second around. the victory of

a candidate coming from the left so it is interesting is in the presidential election we saw a huge support an increase in support for the national front and now what we're seeing perhaps in france is indicative of what we could see for the future of europe a rise in socialism a return of socialism and indeed a rise of nationalism. well french politics are. interesting because they're not always go with the overall cycle in europe where we do see. the rise of those nationalist. all over the board in europe. if you. were in europe. because you can imagine that it is cross the border. when it comes to the right solution even. with clearing the recent actions in europe and the. parties in power dependency to the direction that happened in greece in.

spain or in need to be so this is a situation where incumbents are in trouble and this is exactly what happened just like was just briefly talk about sarkozy and his foreign policy on land he's announce a troop withdrawal from afghanistan he's regarded overseas having a much softer approach to foreign policy compared to suckle see what other developments can we see now that he appears to have his position at home secure. well. evolution on syria which is the hot issue of the moment is broadly similar to that it was a year of both calling for a u.n. decision to. go on and then a clear vote in the u.n. security council on all destruction in syria. and iraq is broadly similar as well where you are more reluctant it's probably on the use of force and as we've seen with his role from afghanistan camille great to talk to you thank you so much your time camille grammer from the foundation for strategic research in paris thank you

. for your asia's two biggest countries have cemented their partnership this week as russian president vladimir putin visited china for the business deals was signed but apart from ensuring that trade is flourishing moscow and beijing have a number of pressing international issues to tackle and they have ski reports now from the chinese capital. who could have thought half a century ago when china and russia clashed over disputed territories that in twenty twelfth russia's president would be greeted by a red carpet in beijing during a lavish state visit. where we know that two years ago china became russia's largest straight party you know outstripping other nations in the former soviet union as well germany and other european nations you know the security cooperation in russia and china parallels you know that we can other forms of cooperation yes china needs and how i like russia or putin and hu jintao is alliance was reconfirmed by their unified stance on middle east issues in particular the syrian

conflict that are being some difference as a patron russia china and some by some that are up in countries and from china and the russians prospect have the key solution lysine. the implementation and that's plan rather than lies and whether or not we see the poverty. that exists in government that is now the committee so i think russia and china's position on syria so it's a small responsible and they signed a prominent on the final solution to the sea of references and putin splendid to boost their already strong military ties so to be pleased beijing in light of us major war games in the region and the recent tour of the us defense secretary to the asia pacific china is strengthening its armed forces at any predicted rate the united states invaded the philippines in one thousand nine hundred in one thousand eight hundred and invaded the asian part of russia to stop the russian revolution it fought most of the war in asia then it went to korea vietnam the united states

has fought many many battles in asia so a pivot towards asia should be considered something of great alarm for the people of the continent russia and china were also joined in beijing by iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad who supported their stance on syria the leaders also agreed that only diplomatic and political. approaches should be considered when dealing with the issue of tehran's nuclear intentions condemning any international talk of aggression towards the republic the chinese and the russians probably you know don't want to see an overly domineering us which i think is understandable coming from moscow and beijing and i think what the u.s. i think does and to some degree the u.s. with europe with europe does you know does seem to be strongly in the middle east. as the. russians and the chinese you know have their interest which are not necessarily congruent with those or the u.s.

they would probably want to protect those interests important talks in difficult times and dozens of multi-billion dollar business agreements signed three day visit all but concerned that the countries have kickstarted a new era in their relations and the fact that putin chose beijing as one of his early priorities since returning to power indicated that's in the far east where moscow has one of its most important partners more than half a century ago the chinese describe the u.s.s.r. as the elder brother by the time the soviet union collapsed these sentiments were long gone decades state visit to beijing suggested that the two countries may not feel like a family just yet but have definitely moved much closer to each other. reporting from beijing in china. tens of thousands of people are gathered in georgia second largest city of see in support of one of the country's major coalition groups the georgian green party has been set up by local billionaire and is expected to

provide the main challenge to the ruling party of president. actions later this year director of the eurasia democracy initiative i spoke to one of the early here in r.t. he says if history is an indigo by the government's response to the rallies may not be a peaceful one. no the opposition has criticized the tissues increasing authoritarian tactics and unfortunately that issue has not gotten enough traction among voters president suggested his government has been known to do with opposition protests quite harshly in that one particularly brutal crackdown if you remember occurred in two thousand and seven ironically the fourth anniversary of the rose revolution yet the opposition sticks to its peaceful methods and it has so far as government will not have a good enough excuse to crackdown and it will have to rely. on the peaceful methods in dealing with these demonstrations maybe deny media coverage to the opposition and i also believe that it is still quite assured. in

october. demonstrations breaking the protest regulations in russia one after pay several thousand euros all due up to two hundred hours of community service president putin stressed the new rally law is in line with european standards in france for example protesters breaking the law could be fined up to forty five thousand euros and even face several years in jail the new deal will be put to the test next tuesday when the opposition plans to stage a million man march scuffles broke out as the last large anti-government run in may after which activists staged several unsanctioned sit ins. that brings up today for the moment here marty i'll be back with the headlines for you in a few minutes from now followed by our interview with syria's minister of information stay with us from this is r.t. .

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