he starts on t.v. don't call. big withdrawals add britain's barclays bank three top executives have now quit over interest rate rigging of the scandal threads to consume the u.k.'s entire banking industry. syria's president also denies clinging to the leadership and said he'd go if it brought peace findings raging nationwide despite more global efforts to end the. russian foreign minister warns the syrian opposition not to destroy the results of the geneva conference saying it's a prime chance to solve the sixteen months of conflict here in the country and what it tells on that just ahead. and iran says new western oil sanctions will cloud future negotiations nuclear negotiations this is the country conducts

the task of long range missiles capable of reaching american bases in the region. as a result of this tension oil goes above one hundred five dollars per barrel in the russian market rallies to and choose the session on the very impressive gains i'll tell you more about that in twenty minutes. it's seven pm in moscow this is r.t. coming to you live from noosa now with our top story in just one of britain's bankers thought the worst public vilification was behind them the c.e.o. of one of the world's largest banks has been forced out bob diamond from barclays has bowed to all around pressure after his bank was caught fixing a key interest rate which overcharged customers when the financial crisis struck and the chief operating officer has also quit the third top executive in two days

to do so here's our london correspondent sara for. well of course this story absolutely dominating the headlines here today after we saw the resignation from barclays chief executive bob diamond he'd come under a huge amount of pressure. rigging the key interest rates known as libel and this was used to set the course for the millions of businesses of consumers of investors tomorrow we're going to see a lot of inflation between him and m.p.'s as he faces questioning but of course this story so much bigger than just bob diamond in fact is thought as many as twelve to fifteen other institutions could be involved in this already questions over whether we're going to see more top level resignations affair really that there's much more to come from this and it's given us all a glimpse again you know that this isn't just a few bad apples but that really the rotten core of britain's banking system simply

hasn't been dealt with after the last financial crisis so once again this standoff has really called into question the culture and practices of the entire banking sector and it's not just barclays but of course the entire city's reputation really entices what the general public want to know this time is look what on earth is going to be done about it and you know it talks of an inquiry at this time aren't really going to cut it they drag on they take a very long time now we do know that the serious fraud office the s.f.o. is looking at the moment to see if any criminal sanctions can be taken against those that are involved but you know really a sense here that we're seeing history repeating itself and is also raising very big questions over the regulation of this you know why once again have we not seen the regulators stepping in and that's going to be another thing that we sort of going to see evolving certainly in the coming weeks but months and years as well

that really a lot of the people we've been speaking to his that this is something that really needs to change the regulation needs to be much more. interventionist you know this culture of weak corporate governance in the banking sector a loose morals isn't unique to barclays this is very very widespread and so what the what the public want to see here is a crackdown on the wrongdoing and that the people who have been involved in the lying and the manipulation going to receive a punishment that fits the crime we're down here more from economics professor bradley shakespeare in london on this side scandal that is developing quickly in the british capital tell us barclays most senior executives now gone it's one of the world's biggest banks falling apart over this is it now pretty rudderless out a vinyl time. it's not just the corruptly gained profit barclays and sixteen banks in the us in the u.k. and the usa it's not just the totally false picture that's been given of the

condition of banks when they're basically zombie banks and it's not just the fact that nearly a thousand trillion that's perhaps fifteen or twenty times the worth of the global economy a thousand. of contracts have all been falsified the seriousness about this is that this latest revelation is part of showing that the whole system which is the stated to be always efficient and always having just outcomes is in fact false and failing the banks must firstly be controlled and that can be done by insisting that they lend only their own money and with permission the deposits of their customers and having done that you open up an interest free supply of money from the national bank which may be administered by the commercial banks charging only and administrative costs but it must be can administered on two key conditions that

it only goes to the real economy and not into the casino and the gambling and it's only for the spreading of the real economy now if you do that you can in fact start to create what is now alas the clasps of the western financial and economic system of which the barclay story is only a part great you're proposing a solution but what about the crimes that have already been committed what's your sense about how endemic the banking culture of profits and bonuses come first customers come back in the u.k. i mean people are outraged. in the early one nine hundred ninety s. in the savings and loan crisis in the usa one thousand two thousand people were in prisons this is a much larger scale and minds have to be focused and they must be focused around the criminal charge conspiracy to defraud and they should in fact be imprisoned so it's not just

a question of sacking but that all of them complicit people don't realize that the politicians are complicit complicit because they think that the existing system only needs a few tweaks and a few corrections but that's not so they're all in it together but of course you have to hit those that you can pin with a criminal charge and that can be done with a charge of conspiracy to defraud but i think the question many people be asking is will it be done. the problem is the moment is no i mean those are great because you see it's not just barclays of bob diamond and he's chairman it's the consequences in everyday life which is at the moment the system and it's corrections are putting money into this that these zombie banks down a black hole and the money is not going into public capital works into clean electricity generation it into small businesses which have collateral into student

free student loans interest free is not going into housing which should be interest free as a result of all this employment is collapsing not just in the u.k. but right the way throughout europe and this is in the same isn't in the united states of america so you see there must be penalties there has to be a new paradigm thinking and frankly the whole ought to be cleared out and we have to start again but you can't do that but what i've proposed is in fact it's a method by which you can alter it for a new paradigm thinking in a very fundamental way but i'm afraid if you don't do this this is going on for fifteen or twenty years of a depression which would be worse than that of the nineteen thirty is. to say spear how embroil do you think the bank of england and the treasury are in this you talked about the complaints about politicians what about the banks and the treasury . yes i cannot comment on what will be revealed as the content between bob diamond

to show we see someone in the bank of england but the bank of england i know from correspondence i've had in the past and far from asking questions the bank of england thinks that the existing system is efficient and all its outcomes are just and there's just a few bit of trouble here and a bit a few trouble there the bank of england should be the source of an interest free loan supply the money to be put out and taken back and council for the real economy and it's spreading but all the governors of the bank of england so far have always sneered at that and have said oh there's nothing wrong with the existing system well i say to the existing governor mervyn king alas i can say he's a little bit better for them in his predecessor i say to him you're better wake up to this because it's a very serious matter your job is on the line and i think at the end of the day that the politicians jobs should be on the line because they also think they're smug self-righteous and complacent and they do none of them except that the system

is fundamentally flawed that debt has got to levels which are totally unreliable and that something very radical and fundamental must be done economics professor bob you say spirit talking to us live from london thank you for that thank you. in other news syria's president asad says he's prepared to leave his post if that's the will of his people and it brings peace to syria intense international efforts are underway to stop bloodshed provoked by clashes between government troops and the opposition if an ocean is in damascus. president bashar assad has syria is now ready and will welcome any solution to the ongoing crisis here in the country if only it guarantees the country's sovereignty commenting on the geneva peace initiative to create an interim government uniting the opposition and current regime the syrian leader has also stated that he satisfied that the documents trust

in that it's up to the syrian people to decide the country's future in another interview he had just recently to the turkish newspaper he has sat that he wishes that this downing of the turkish plane by serious never happened three days after the geneva meeting while the skepticism is growing that the peace initiative forged by world powers at the weekend will only remain a solution of paper we're only hearing from the russian foreign minister that this is a very good chance of prime chance to solve the crisis the sixteen month loan crisis here in syria. unfortunately some members of the syrian opposition started saying that the geneva proposals are only acceptable whereas some western participants of the geneva talks have come up with distorted interpretations in their statements we believe that the geneva communiqué should not be open to interpretation but should be implemented as agreed today is the second day of the syrian opposition mission

in cairo and the main idea of this meeting was to uni fi to hammer out a common vision on this syrian conflict in order to gain some respect some trust from the syrian people the syrian opposition has indeed been criticized harshly recently for being too fragmented to be trusted and the opposition itself has confirmed that it has. to be more united and has to have a common vision on how to end crisis in syria the opposition is divided and while the reason one part ready to talk ready to discuss this interim government initiative there is another part that only wants to can. new fighting and doesn't want any dialogue with anybody and also surprising to hear that just a day off to the u.n. has confirmed that both sides of the syrian conflict rick will be responsible for the violence here in the country and what is supplied to both the regime and the

rebels have been escalating the conflict. and iran says new western oil sanctions could impact negatively on future nuclear negotiations tensions are mounting around tehran as the new embargo aims to put pressure on its atomic program here's artie's mideast correspondent. we hearing from the radio foreign minister that iran wants a situation he says that the only other alternative is confrontation which is not in anyone's interest now this comes as the israeli as we really implement drafted a bill that calls for the station of the shipment of crude oil through the strait of hormuz to countries that support sanctions against iran and now this follows the call back by the european union they have called for an embargo on iranian oil that was passed back in january it went into effect this past sunday now also today tuesday the radio government announced that it had tested

a number of missiles including long range missiles that potentially could hit u.s. warships in the persian gulf the situation on the ground is certainly intensifying the united states has said for minesweepers to the persian gulf to boost its fleet there and that comes amid renewed threats by iran that it is closing a wall potentially or could potentially close the strait of hormuz there have been three rounds of negotiations between iran and the six world powers and so far these have yielded no breakthrough there is a now the meeting happening today tuesday in istanbul it's a low level meeting that is looking at seeing whether or not there's any kind of common ground between the sides that could then lead to fully fledged negotiations but the expectation of today's meeting is rather dismal iran accuses the international powers of dragging their feet and says that it's not in their interest to reach any kind of compromise or any kind of solution at the same time

iran is insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes but we're hearing continuously from powers such as the united states countries like israel and other countries that they suspect that iran's nuclear program is merely a cover for being nuclear warfare. well iran says new western oil sanctions could impact negatively on future nuclear negotiations these tensions mounting around tehran its new e.u. oil embargo is putting pressure on its atomic program i join me now is lindsey german from stop the war coalition in london both sides are digging in here are the oil sanctions enough to make tehran concede on its nuclear program as the e.u. obviously is hoping. well this is supposedly the plan but actually these sanctions are very serious sanctions they are cutting nearly

a fifth of iran's oil expert exports it will put fantastic pressure on the people of iran for a very very high in food prices inflation i don't believe these sanctions will have the effect of stopping the. program i think much more likely is that they will increase tensions between the between the countries already we have american ships in the gulf threats to close the straits of hormuz. this is a very very serious situation as it is. by the saudis for example to bring oil out through a pipeline through iraq which avoids going through the straits of hormuz always the thought we are shaping up for more and more confrontations over the next few months iran launched a long range missile. which have the capability of reaching us bases in the region and israel given it an actor sizes but how do you see this developing in terms of

the challenges you were speaking about and progress. well it's obvious to be wrong on this testing these missiles because we may have to defend ourselves against. attack by israel or indeed by the united states this is a very dangerous situation when you have very highly armed u.s. ships in the gulf. military maneuvers between. between the u.s. and israel and there you have iran testing these missiles which can hit places in surrounding countries. this is dangerous situation which seems to me has been exacerbated by the imposition of sanctions i don't see the justification for the sanctions are right that the european union thinks it can dictate to countries in the middle east or elsewhere what they of course it leaves open the very very big question which is who actually does have nuclear weapons in the region the only

power that has them is israel in the seems to be absolutely no sign on israel for having developed for having of course the last number of nuclear weapons what about iran's threats to close the strait of hormuz of course a vital shipping route how do you think backward affect the dynamics of the situation. well if that happens it will have very serious effect on the oil price it will have a very serious effect on the international situation which is why the americans and the saudis are trying to. neutralize that in part by releasing more oil and by trying to keep the price low but the straits of hormuz are closed two things will happen one is that we're all price will go wrong and the second is an. exacerbation of tensions in the region and any conflict then over american ships in the

scene this iranian waters or any conflict between iranian ships and u.s. ships is must be a real possibility right when the german from stop the war coalition lie with us on the line from london and her assessment of these escalation surrounding tehran. france's new president risks riling the public because tough savings in costs are needed to head deficit targets even though he was voted in on an anti austerity taken more on this now with john laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation who this evening joins us live from geneva john france needs to save six to ten billion euros to reach its target how can francois hollande achieve that and keep his promise to avoid cuts is it possible. it's very difficult to see how it's possible the figure that you've given for these spending cuts are between six and ten billion euros in two thousand and twelve they come from francis of course

of accounts and the prime minister the new prime minister in his speech to parliament today basically has told the french people and the world at large that he thinks he can give france what the french call a part of the money for the button on the liberal it national debate in other words that they can have their cake and eat it he was saying to them today very firmly that he can't balance the books of the state in other words he can reduce the overall but do it not by simply cutting spending at the way that has been demanded of countries like greece and so on but instead by improving efficiency it's spent thinking other words by choosing the same results but with the less money going into the system whether he will be able to achieve it i don't know but let's not underestimate france's ability to govern ourselves well i think there's a lot of lazy talk about the superiority of germany and the inferiority of all of the countries what i mean by lazy talk is that when we look at the figures we can

see there's until very recently the capita g.d.p. in france was higher than it was in germany this was the case until only a few years ago so france is an intelligent country and the people running it are intelligent i'm skeptical but i'm not it would rule out their chance of success for the time being farai with that said the france pm is also quite optimistic he wants people to rally behind the government in cutting the quote unprecedented debt crisis that's how he's to get at that's what he called that how is that going to go down with the public that voted against austerity and tax hikes on the street some talking about i know they did but again let's. get the reality in perspective the. was of the previous government in other words it was the previous gov. racked up the amount of debt and now the incoming government as would be the case for any government at whatever complex has to try to put some it's house in order now i repeat when you look at the prime minister's speech read it

carefully and listen to it carefully as i just have the you will see that he is promising a completely contradictory things he says he is not against speculation and he said he he says he's against a banking speculation which is a popular thing to say in france but at the same time of course he says he's in favor of the various bailouts of banks or again he says he's against illegal immigration and on the other hand he says if they prove given the vote and it did give it citizenship to illegal immigrants so he's saying he's speaking out to sites this is basic goal in this speech i think was to reassure the bond markets and of course to reassure the french lecture he doesn't want the cost of borrowing to go up as it has done in other parts of europe and therefore it's an exercise in expectation management and in propaganda knows what we've seen today it's not actually to be taken seriously how long do you think our land has to have people see results he's been an op a sense may what are the people waiting for and and how long will they let him kind

of try to get there he is seen as five years i mean politics is about power and the left has very decisively in france it now controls all three organs of state the presidency the national assembly and the senate that's a concentration of power which we have never seen before in the fifth republic not even de gaulle had so much power in his hands so they've got five years that's because barring some terrible social upheaval which france is perfectly capable of dealing with this we know i think we have to say that this government will be with us for the next five years without any difficulty whatsoever right john marquand from the institute of democracy and cooperate and thanks for that. now for julian assange has been anything but a quiet fortnight the u.s. bank for blood and sweden intent on his extradition for questioning over alleged sex crimes he is currently seeking asylum inside ecuador's embassy in london

asuncion suspects a swedish extradition is a cover for america to seize him for blowing the lid on military crimes in iraq and afghanistan but recently his attentions been on the plight of freedom for others with his talk show airing here on r t in the final edition of the whistleblowers program which airs later this hour as launch talks to malaysia's opposition leader of the violent struggle for free elections in his country which is to meet the wisdom of the people you have the. government sources every night in the national media abusing me and still increase marriage already but was is to use this is a political ploy jump up judges use the police and finally when the judiciary or will find their legal and i was acquitted but never said it was independent. right through the entity that was just the most disgusting you when you use

these for. democracy democratic elections judicial independence and you abuse the process. let's check in with what's happening in the financial world to me three joins us russian stocks have been very much indoor enjoying that recent oil market volatility hasn't it they haven't it's one of those days when russia's dependence on oil and gas is a good thing really let's just take a look at what's happening with the oil price right now now just an hour ago we saw brant coming up above one hundred one dollars per barrel is a bit lower than that right now but still up more than three dollars per barrel that's as of course tensions escalating around iran as reportedly conducting military drills and that's kind of worrying about causing worries about supplies in general from the region and also we've talked to experts here in the day and they've been saying that russia in case of disruptions will not be able to provide

additional supplies that's the job of saudi arabia but it's a recent shift of focus over to asia is potentially going to give it a market advantage in that region. russia is exporting more oil to the far east through a new pipeline to a part of the world which is really heavily on a rainy and there is a potential the russian oil heading to the far east will gain market share from the iranians and that might be a permanent shift of purchases such as japan korea. and china switched increasingly to take in more russian oil so there might be a permanent benefit from the situation. right here is the figures for the russian market as you can see there the r.t.s. is up almost four percent my six. too well for sense. but moving the my six actually the biggest gain is the most liquid stalky on the market that's burbank

it's up almost four percent lukoil among stocks was actually weaker than the market a bit of a surprise there up one and a half percent given the support from the world price it was getting and gazprom is up more than two percent as its managed to conclude all of its differences with the on its gas company all know the price of gas that it's getting actually for the fourth quarter of two thousand and ten so that's really post-fact up and on the currency market the russian ruble got a huge boost provided by that price hike and it's up more than one percent against the basket of both the euro and the dollar. in the u.s. markets we see factory orders coming in with the growth of point seven percent the month of may that's up to two months of decline so that's a good sign and therefore positive movement and in europe the continues over from last week. but also pretty much in line with the american markets half

a percent there and barclays are still in the lead as it's chairman is stepping down. so that's what i have for you this hour all right thanks for that. now coming up is the final and latest edition of joining us on his interview show but first i'll bring you our top stories after this don't go away.