the stories that shaped this week western nations are inching closer to military intervention in the syrian conflict with plans to set up a no fly zone and threats to authorize a strike on the country live analysis on this story very short here on r.t. . norwegian mass killer and the grave because declared sane and gets twenty one years in jail on his anti islam agenda serves as an inspiration for even more radical groups. and a scandal that unites muslims and jews in german run by those charged with performing a circumcision despite a recent controversial court ban on the practice. and britain withdraws its threat to go into the ecuadorian embassy in a restroom in the sun by force after block of south and north american nations side with tito in the diplomatic row.

but in the back of the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly. foreign powers came a step closer this week to engaging in syria's internal conflict as the u.s. and its allies dished out fresh threats france suggested that western nations could consider setting up a no fly zone over the stricken country without a u.n. security council mandate a little earlier president obama for the first time said he could authorize military action on the syrian territory when a porno reports from new york. as the violence in syria continues increasing western countries may be inching closer and closer towards military intervention this past week the us britain and france all separately signaled when or why they

would take direct action u.s. president barack obama said that washington would intervene if the syrian government deployed chemical or biological weapons against civilians britain echoed america's sentiments while france called for the consideration of a partial no fly zone to be imposed over syria's airspace and that is a suggestion that u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton previously made now the syrian deputy prime minister who was visiting moscow this week for talks has accused western countries of reaching for any reason that would lead to direct intervention he also said that president obama's threats are linked directly to the u.s. elections damascus also drew parallels between western focus on syria's chemical weapons and the invasion of iraq where the existence of suspected chemical weapons were never confirmed now this uptick uptick in talk and threats

over military intervention into syria comes as the u.n. security council is scheduled to have a ministerial meeting on syria on aug thirtieth that meeting was called for and will be chaired by france reporting from new york marina porter r.t. . syrian opposition activists have accused pro assad troops of slaughtering two hundred civilians in a town near damascus the reports a difficult to verify but the government says it has carried out an anti terror operation in the area the rebels claims are the latest in a series of previous similar accusations that will come just as international powers were about to decide the next move on syria let's talk to dr kevin barrett he's a radio talk show host bill who specialised in the developments in arab countries joining me live there from montana before i also my first question i should just want to all of you is all of the graphic nature of some of the footage we're about to show you here what do you make of the timing of all of the rebels accusations

kevin. well once again as with the houla massacre we have a very interesting set of circumstances where right before this u.n. meeting coming up on august thirtieth we have a big orchestrated p.r. event designed to smear the government in damascus and the western leaning in syria. very suspicious i was asked about this shortly after the a massacre and i think we need to wait and see what really happened and there are some indications that much and perhaps most of the killing in the whole massacre was actually perpetrated by the rebel forces and the same thing might be true this time so we really need to resist this intense psychological warfare campaign which is mainly based on lies and distortions that's being waged by the western countries i think led by the hardline zionists who want to break syria up into

a bunch of squabbling little mini states but that's their long term strategy but also the aim to encourage foreign intervention military intervention by depicting the scenario in the way the western media is exactly that's that's precisely what they're doing and i'm not sure that they're really in a position to men are being very effective. area in libya they were facing a country that was relatively helpless against their so-called no fly zone which is really a euphemism for an aerial bombardment of the country in syria however i'm told that syria has first rate air defenses and that it could escalate into a pretty serious fight if they try it so it might be that they're actually once again waging psychological warfare without plans for actual large scale intervention let's hope that's true because it's so it's edge of dangerous situation what would military intervention achieve because it's not

a clear situation is not just pro a sad fight is against the regime fight is here we've got now religious ethnic and tribal tensions something that surely couldn't be controlled by some form of foreign intervention couldn't. absolutely not and i don't think they want to control it they don't want to stabilize syria they don't want to bring peace to syria they want to destabilize syria they want to break syria up and they couldn't non-viable state that was the same strategy with the attack on iraq we know that right after nine eleven the wolfowitz came out with a plan to basically destroy all of the leading middle eastern states that could be seen as threats to israel and syria is on that list so what what happens when you create a normal state what is the exact and. what does one achieve from doing that well the there the israelis have been hoping to break up the middle eastern countries into smaller pieces because none of the smaller states would ever be able to pose a threat to israel and likewise the us empire has designs on continuing to control

the energy resources of the middle east and to do that it's easier to be dealing with very small states that's why they love these little gulf ship them. and dealing with such small states is very very easy the u.s. and the west have so much more leverage that way if they're dealing with a larger and more powerful state such as iran is today. for example it's much harder to leverage them and to control their resources so is iran definitely a target because some of saying that what's going on in syria is just a proxy war between saudi arabia iran and the course says iran and western nations absolutely iran was the prime target of the nine eleven in the series of nine eleven wars that followed it and the zionists the hardline zionist the wolfowitz crowd here in america are very unhappy that they haven't been able to go after iran they tried everything to win including stealing to clear weapons from the u.s. air force base in mind that north dakota in august two thousand and seven and so

far they failed to push the cooler heads in the u.s. military into a crazed perhaps suicidal attack on iran but they're still trying and that is kind of the end game here and it's really too bad that they've dragged the obama administration and its allies in the u.s. military into a situation where they might actually get into a big shooting war in the middle east is going to ask you about obama is that real political pressure for him to do something now serious blame the u.s. will monkey on its internal politics namely because of the election year for president obama as the under pressure by the republicans to do something now. well of course the republicans are going to try to portray obama as weak and they're not so much winning over the american public with this strategy but what they are getting is massive amounts of funding from zionists like billionaires like its name edelman they are adults and the mafiosi who owns half of the gambling dens in las vegas promising one hundred million dollars to the romney campaign these people are

the zionist fanatics who staged nine eleven here in the u.s. and won't be satisfied until we get a big war with iran dr kevin barrett radio talk show host author and specialise in the developments there in arab countries thank you very much indeed for your thoughts good to hear from me thank you. have a twelve thousand christians are trapped in a syrian village near the lebanese border besieged by rebels the two week blockade as cause shortages of food medicine and other crucial supplies but people can't leave the area due to the threat posed by rebel snipers we want to cross the border in lebanon the situation remains fragile following a spike in syria related sectarian violence these fifteen people have been killed and more than one hundred injured in clashes between pro and anti assad government troops were deployed to stop the trouble they replaced political analyst dr franklin lamb says there's growing dread among lebanese as the bonnet spilled over continues. the concierge of my building who is syrian sometimes hides in my apartment there's been round up of syrian nationals here in beirut in south beirut

even and it's a great deal of fear people are saying not since the civil war how things been so likely to ignite or that people are feeling so insecure as you know there are two neighborhoods in tripoli both for the the shia are aloysius and the babble to bomb is section right down the middle ironically is the name of a big street called syria street and that really tells the tale up there but we have seen in beirut and other parts of the country a similar division things are very much on the edge. this is the weekly life here on r.t. still ahead for you this libya marks one since the fall of tripoli but the celebrations anything that joyous is continued tribal violence threatens to send the country further into chaos. plus resentment on the rise in pakistan as the

u.s. continues to blur legal lines when it comes to its deadly drone strikes. but first this week the case of norwegian mass murderer anders breivik reached its conclusion critic who admitted killing seventy seven people was declared sane by judges he's been jailed for a maximum of twenty one years for his bombing and gun rampage in oslo and last year he smirked when he heard the verdict which he says he will not appeal to in his final statement apologize for not killing even more people he has insisted on his sanity and that the killings were part of his fight against the islamification of the way you countries were suffering a rise in far right activities before the tragedy but it's still reports braving side is a fueling even more hatred towards immigrants and islam. there's no doubt about his guilt militant unders brave massacred seventy seven people in norway thirteen months ago to show his rejection of government policies and immigrants and islam

all this case once again highlighted europe's deepening divide over immigration and integration and the subsequent radicalization of ideas. last week a twenty nine year old suspected brave exemplifies or was charged in the czech republic officers found weapons and police uniforms in his flat and they believe he was planning a brave extol slaughter. while in norway police are investigating a threatening e-mail sent to newspapers and politicians from a person who claims to be brave and in command i would my soldiers to give all due respect to our people our culture and our ethnicity and warn all advocates of multiculturalism they gave this war we are now so deeply in physical violence is. a line that we draw very clearly now multiculturalism in the sense that everybody could keep this culture well this idea which has been the official idea for over

for the last twenty years this idea is over there is a leading culture of the european values and european culture such far right fire has gained traction in europe but it's also angered the racism groups and proponents of the left there are some resorting to very public displays of opposition. while there's an increasingly vocal. and a rise in political extremes one step up the fringes countries are increasingly criticized for failing to properly engage people on what's needed to sort the problem out and so my social tensions are testing the limits of tolerance. yet despite the obvious threat of a deepening standoff between europeans and immigrants others say europe's tendency to walk on eggshells in the name of political correctness makes any real and honest debate all but impossible when you have the riots. we didn't

take a shot of. everyone trying to find some excuse. but condition of life and if we don't send a clear message to everyone far right. muslim . it's become impossible to understand the police under is brave extra you may have reached a conclusion but europe still no where near to wending at all to whether the cycle of fear and hatred. yes are still your r t brussels the diplomatic spat between britain and ecuador over during the surge is asylum aziz does london retracted its threat to storm the south american countries embassy in order to arrest the whistleblower they were all came just a day after a thirty four member block of american nations sided with ecuador in the royal stressing the sanctity of diplomatic promises or premises i should say it means that journalists holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for more than two

months is safe at least until he steps out of the building the president of ecuador says the two countries are ready to return to dialogue over the weekend his future nora smith brings us the details of the meeting that prompted a break in the standoff. it was a meeting that lasted five hours but eventually ecuador got what it wanted out of the meeting essentially the foreign minister made a speech in which he condemned britain for what he called an an assault on ecuador sovereignty and eventually what happened was that these thirty four countries signed this resolution which rejects any attempts to put at risk the inviolability of diplomatic premises anywhere in the world and and expressed solidarity and support for ecuador in their offering of asylum to julian our sons but also urged to continue talks between ecuador and britain to try and sort out their diplomatic problems the usa and canada are members of this organization and they were very much against this meeting from the very beginning and they all say that expressed

reservations about the resolution that was passed in the end but it goes to show that particularly in its own region ecuador is not acting alone and it's now got huge international backing across the americas but we've seen no movement in britain stance so far they still remain committed to arresting julian assange to fulfilling this court order which says that he must be extradited to sweden whatever happens and in fact we've seen further proof in recent days that britain is not going to abandon its plans to arrest him we had a policeman photographed outside the ecuadorian embassy one of the many policemen who is guarding the embassy twenty four seven holding this piece of paper a piece of restricted information that says that julian assange should be arrested essentially at all costs whatever it takes even if he emerges in some way in a diplomatic car even if as some have posited he emerges in some kind of diplomatic crate or bag that is not going to put the british police off arresting him that

they're really very intent on arresting him and fulfilling this court order so that's a position that hasn't changed in the last few days and i see no reason that it will change as a as a direct result of this but as i say the international pressure is growing meanwhile do of course still in the ecuadorian embassy in london still very unclear how he will get out. commenting on the increased support for ecuador attorney in r.t. spanish host eva golan just says only continued international pressure could force the u.k. to let a sanj go and the pressure is very important to continue to try to sort out whittle away. those issues and it's stubbornness that england in this specific case and also to show each time that these types of meetings take place and that the resolution is happening we see the u.s. position in particular is showing that the united states government is behind all of this and is behind the persecution of the such and so it's really important that

comes out and people understand that governments understand that and that eventually hopefully the british government will back down actually. when all the twists and turns and you're in the sciences long running saga as well as expert opinion and analysis always available on our website is online all the time if you've missed our exclusive interview with the ecuadorian president rafael correa also there at r.t. dot com. as iran faces growing pressure from the west regarding its nuclear program there's also a significant display of solidarity towards the islamic state that it gets from over one hundred nations which don't consider themselves allied to any power block a company convening interim for a high profile summit research director of the national iranian american council in washington she says the government shows iran is not as isolated as the u.s.

wants the rest of the world to believe. there are one hundred ninety three members of the united nations general assembly and about one hundred twenty of them are going to be in taft run with some kind of diplomatic representation. because that's how many members there are of the nonaligned movement so you know it's a great talking point to say that iran's international isolation will continue but if you look at the totality of the world a large degree of countries maybe don't agree entirely with what the united states led sanctions are doing and what they're singing to accomplish the summit takes place just a few days after the u.n. atomic watch don't declare that recent talks with iran had failed israel claimed it to iran is speeding up its we're going to nuclear bomb while the islamic state insists it's only pursuing peaceful energy some experts believe the west's rejection of iran's right to the tonic energy could backfire but there's no doubt that iran has quite a bit of support among the nonaligned movement you know among those countries that are the nuclear have nots if you will. they do in fact have

a lot of support for the point of view which the spouse which is that they have a right to enrich uranium the western powers are essentially taking trying to take that away from them for political purposes essentially using a double standard or even worse. just to remind you can find all the latest stories comments and videos on our website harty dot com and here's some of what you might like when you get there clothes don't make the man or do they find out what a tart avoid when trying to board a passenger plane in the u.s. . still thinking what has been a weekend with your girlfriend the couple to give prince no more get your pulse racing bike on the trail of the dead. and his big bulging eyes and chubby little things have captured the hearts of locals but this baby seal is taken at home on a russian beach but online for more pictures of the college. well

on the threshold of the first anniversary of the fall of tripoli libya seems to be marking the event with violence and chaos and the latest in a series of recent attacks on. some of the islamists were blamed for blowing up an bulldozing a fifteenth century sentry sectarian tensions in libya reached new levels after severe religious sites were destroyed by fits and government security forces this against a background of severe ethnic clashes which have spiraled since colonel gadhafi was asked to more recently at least twelve people killed and dozens injured after the fighting parties used heavy weaponry including anti aircraft guns political analyst and consultant peter rare thinks libya will only descend deeper into chaos. libya is following the same trend as all the other countries where there was of course regime we have the same scenario in iraq we have the same situation in afghanistan we've got the situation in libya which was again a force regime and as you would expect it will be breakaway groups because at the

end of the day although gadhafi was a fraudster in many ways brought that country from the doldrums into great prosperity and the wrong government got in and so the military is still trying to hold that the strain and of course that's failing very fast and i think we will see a natural rebellion kirk like it's ongoing in iraq like is ongoing in syria and egypt. time to update you on more world news in brief this hour at least thirty six people have died off the fuel tank when a passenger bus collided in northern china before catching fire three survivors were taken to hospital with severe injuries the latest wreck follows a series of road accidents in the country the death toll of more than seventy thousand last year alone. venezuela's president hugo chavez has declared three days of mourning after at least thirty nine people were killed following the explosion of the country's biggest oil refinery the government run plant was rocked by

a blast caused by a gas leak nearby buildings were also damaged by the explosive impact the accident is the worst to ever hit the south american nations on industry. the first man to walk on the moon and one of america's greatest heroes nearly armstrong has passed away at the age of eighty two his condition deteriorated after complications caused by a recent heart surgery only half a billion people had their eyes fixed to the t.v. as the former apollo eleven mission commander stepped onto the lunar surface back in july one thousand nine hundred sixty nine. pakistan is investigating a u.s. drone strike that reportedly killed by the county leader of the terror group the taliban claims he's still alive u.s. led attacks have long been a source of contention among pakistanis and explains it's episodes like this that fuel the insurgency. the u.s.

prides itself on the rule of law but on a number of issues the line between what's legal and what's not has kind of blurred in the last decade or so is wiretapping legal no but in the name of national security yes there are attempts right now in congress to legalize big brother on the web by making it legal for providers to funnel all private correspondence to national security agencies the law in the u.s. protects free speech but never before has there been such a hunt for whistleblowers that's in america but as far as u.s. actions abroad the issue of what's legal and what's not even murkier washington has expanded its target assassinations program in different countries essentially putting itself above the law now i'm joined by john feffer author and co-director of the institute for policy studies he has an interesting theory of u.s. foreign policy he compares it to dexter the t.v. show dexter is a fictional character who is a good citizen by day and a serial killer by night but he only kills bad guys mystified for what's so wrong

about being dexter i mean everyone loves dexter was a very popular t.v. show here in the united states and all across the world but it raises some difficult moral questions because of course dexter is judge jury and executioner and sometimes he makes mistakes and the united states too is in a similar position united states often says it only kills bad guys with some of the laws in other figures that have been attacked by drones over the last few years but the united states also makes mistakes there have been any number of civilian casualties associated with these drone strikes so in some sense they're in a similar moral quandary dexter and the u.s. government as you said you know this administration has expanded its drone program dramatically and the strikes in pakistan yemen and other places they end up killing many civilians we're talking about extra judicial killings and. the question of

pops out. you know when when someone does something outside the law they're usually afraid of getting caught but in the case of the us who is the police to catch them there is no police is there well there isn't any police of course there are international laws and there have been a number of reports on the implications of international law on the drone attacks and the un for instance report tour has condemned drone attacks as being illegal but i think the chief concern here for the united states in terms of getting caught is being caught by blowback in other words by the consequences of these drone attacks and those i think are significant because of course we've seen people here in the united states who have cited these drone attacks as the reasons for their terrorist activities for instance so i think it's this blowback which really represents the casualty or shall we say the consequences that are most direct the drone program. well had to bring it up today for the moment here in the weekly

coming up a leading middle east analyst describes how to solve the syrian conflict that'll be in our in-depth interview after our return with a summary on the news stories. you

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