i was going to tell you there wasn't a problem. with what was created. and exclusive interview with r t the syrian president slams foreign backing for the rebels as the main cause for the escalating conflict in his country. and targeting wrong and more crippling sanctions are planned all for iran on top of the latest restrictions approved by barack obama and his first foreign policy decision following reelection. and the selective trip of bias from tripoli libya is busy attracting tourists but visitors are being kept in the dark on tragedies like the violence season assault of bani walid.

a world news live from our moscow headquarters you're watching r.t. with me lucy catherine of well syria's president says the conflict in his country has escalated because western powers have handpicked him as their latest bogeyman that's according to him in an exclusive interview with r t where president bashar al assad warns that any direct foreign intervention in syria could spark a global disaster sophie shevardnadze spoke to the embattled leader in damascus. that he's not a western puppet he also denies to fuck that civil war is taking place in this country he's saying that it's not civil war it's a conflict where he has to five different fractions of terrorism. and the fact that the financing of this terrorist fractions was unprecedented and it was coming from abroad he told me that if the sinuses were to stop then he would probably need about two weeks more to restore peace in his country and he also said that if the

west were to intervene militarily it would have a domino effect from atlantic to pacific and no one would be a gain from that and he also said that west tends to create enemies for themselves like communism iraq saddam hussein and he feels that bashar al assad in syria is the new enemy not syria but he himself so he feels that the fact that conflict has ask elated it is because the west has created a new anime in the space wasn't it told that there wasn't a problem you know. it was. for different reasons you want to create a new. program that the president has to do first of all you have to focus on. listening to what they say i asked him it's not just the west but a lot of countries have betrayed you on the first occasion why do you have so many

so many enemies in the arab world he said well actually a lot of arab countries support me but they're afraid to say it out loud i asked him why and he said because they're all under the strength and power of petrodollars i also asked him about turkey and if the war with turkey was a real possibility and he didn't he doesn't believe that there's going to be an actual war with gore here but he also emphasizing the fact that the turkish people are the enemies of syrian people and they're always been a friendly nation it's carried on and his government that's the problem and that's against bashar and wants to all especially because god wants to reassure his and strengthen his political position in turkey. and in the region personally but when you. go to money and you can control as it was doing both many. different routes. which is. not to be ready for but do you go to think that if i ask him to regret anything what's your biggest mistake he says of course i have requests and of course i have made mistakes but

when i ask him what is your biggest mistake he wouldn't give me a precise answer he said it's too early to talk about precise mistakes and precise regrets because the war or the call think is still going on i also asked him if he were to turn the clock back to fifteenth of march that's when the protests started to escalate would he do anything differently and he said no i wouldn't because within the marches within the protest marches there were people who started to shoot innocent civilians and the government forces so the government army had no other choice than to respond with force do what i did exactly the same exact thing just. different for. and just against the terrorist group but i always thought you didn't thought you could because you will lose most of what would be in bill's most if you had militants who thought that the civilians. at the same time so he said he wouldn't change much about a year and a half ago when the protests started to grow and escalate he would do exactly the

same. well you can watch that full interview exclusive interview with syria's president bashar last night at five thirty pm g.m.t. right here on our t.v. and of course you don't have to wait until then to that interview is available right now for you on our website at r.t. dot com. i'm serious. i'm ready for you you know bosh are our side did our two exclusive friday through sunday on our two and our two dot com well let me has been described as many different things but have you ever considered to be a holiday hotspot well believe it or not it seems that many people do although there is one glaring omission among the catalogs and excursions that is the siege ravaged city of bani walid that's our first reports on the travel agents who are hiding tragedy from the tourists. we're here at the world's travel market

a trade show you taking place in london or people can come to look for holiday inspiration that scouts exotic spot for a honeymoon a one country you probably wouldn't expect to see being touted as a tourist destination and that's libya the places where the tourist interesting to the site is a political side so it's completely safe going there and today it's got to be saved more than even dollars to big donors like london new york but there's somewhere that's not mentioned in the guide bani walid a desert town this remain loyal to formally to colonel gadhafi it's just a few hours dry southeast of the traditional tourist destination tripoli but it's a world away from the safe environment the two guides the pitching. the town's become the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the libyan uprising last year but despite reports of indiscriminate shelling and gas attacks on the local population at the hands of the libyan army there's been an almost total media

blackout in the. us he ran the story for more than a fortnight before anyone else picked it up back in london and despite libya being shake ace it seems that bani walid has once again being conveniently left out of the conversation when i. it was of course with surprise and they came to two hours of feedback of the situation at the moment in libya and if we have so many people it means our situation is they could be coming most and we can think for next season to do something with libya and it's a wonderful country so we would about what's happening in bani walid at the moment when you were lead do but do you mean what's happening as being happening there there's been fighting do you know about that no we went to confront the tour operator i saw you speaking some people eat telling them about what's been happening in bani walid at the moment. this is a club. that's come for the future. there's

a reason because it was deeply disturbing is that despite a growing body of evidence about crimes against civilians and increasingly vocal concerns from human rights organizations the same media and government remain resolutely silent they've got to sort of package nish as a success is very important for nato so we have the speed of these countries have been liberated in inverted commas as great places to go great places to invest and the reality for the everyday person in these countries is a living hell really pick up one of the travel information then you'll be given reasons to visit libya and undoubtedly there are many there's a concerning silence this being echoed by the u.k. media a seeming refusal to talk about what's been happening in places like banning where the reality is that the new government is struggling to control its militias and bridge the divides that remain in the country but none of that you're going to read about in

a glossy brochure surf artsy london when libya's government says bani walid is recovering quickly after armed militias left that city in virtual of ruins warty spoke to a man whose family lived through that horrific cvs he had asked us to shield his identity for his safety when he told us that there is still no peace in bani walid . sobota to google because of militias. attacking and killing innocent citizens in the city leave you. out of supplies no. this included minutes in food would undoubtedly life in the sixty's they had. with guns and bullets. over what he would eat this is a good definition of close. friends and know if i

do want to be a one night and this young fellow whom to i'm not going to. be able to do good he didn't do about the abuse in his league in the united states is was. a bit of a blow to cities with bombs and guns in food but he done that if it will be no no and i mean the government of libya. well more world news for you this hour turkish fighter jets and helicopters have bombarded a kurdish militants along the border with iraq killing at least fourteen people now the strikes were reportedly launched after security forces got a tip off from locals about a build up a separatist activity in that area now the kurdistan workers party also known as the p.k. k. is fighting turkey to try to carve out an independent state over forty thousand

people have been killed since the start of the insurgency in one thousand nine hundred four. next a series of explosions have ripped through a chemical plant and claiming the lives of two people injuring nineteen and more a massive initial blast was followed by several smaller ones raising concerns over talks six small contamination around that in just. planned to today to the cause of that explosion is still. well revelations of mass fraud and embezzlement involving hundreds of millions of dollars are hogging the headlines here in russia it's emerged that some of the country's most ambitious projects including the satellite positioning system known as us were plagued by corruption now there's also a scandal at the highest levels of the military here let's take a look at what andrew farmer has reported on for us at archie. this is part of the russian government's crackdown on corruption and to date. two major

scandal involving the first was a two hundred million dollar embezzlement of funds during the project that is the russian satellite navigation system that was meant to rival the american g.p.s. system but after two and a half year investigation the russian border has now come out and said they believe she one hundred million dollars was right on top of this they also found that you're in the apec summit last september how did not evil still. is thought it around three million dollars this embezzled through development the facilities there say to you. here this is also coming on a day that it was announced that a new man is to help reform the russian military and also stamp time corruption. and he was appointed incidentally on the recommendation. of a new defense minister who himself was appointed after the dismissal you called this week he was relieved of his duties in. corruption in the fraud of military

force it's a well below its market value so three major incidents this week i think the government is trying to show us is taking corruption seriously believe. that it is taking action. all right well prominent syrian dissidents an exiled opposition figures are meeting in qatar to forge a broader alliance against umask us the syrian national council which is the main umbrella group is leading those talks but not all opposition members of recognize the authority of the s.n.c. let's talk to one such. money joining us live from london she is with the building up the syrian state coalition dr thank you so much for joining us now we've heard president bashar al assad in that interview firmly stating he's not going anywhere it seems that he is really dug in his heels and also really seems that the opposition has sort of dug in its position in regards to do you see any way forward in this situation. i don't see any way forward i didn't hear anything new in his

interview he broke no new ground for no solution he didn't even see a reason to reconsider his position or whether he had done anything wrong at the same time when we talk about opposition in the media it seems that the media is very picky about what it calls the opposition and picks up certain views. particularly that suits the. claim for example the us i was climbing. for dialup but there was nobody there to have dialogue with him this is completely not true there are so many democratic peaceful forces inside syria and they were pleased to have negotiations with the regime but instead they receive to be locked in. prisons i mean even on through recently we have young nonviolent activists human rights lawyers like. you mark to go to the all those are very known nonviolent activists they have been arrested recently by the regime which is claiming to fight

terrorism well you know you're talking about activists within syria but of course the main body is sort of leading these opposition talks as a syrian national council consisting of a lot of people who are out outside of that country it also seems that the opposition hasn't really grown more unified are effective in the past few months do you feel that this group has credibility with the people the rebels the activists on the ground in that country. i don't see he was critical of the for the student national council as a body but i'm not against many of the people who carry so yes it was formed with lots of external support maybe external. but for me there they don't matter a lot to it matter is the people inside syria people who are posing the regime inside the country this is where all the media should be focusing and it's quite obvious that most of those people don't want the syrian regime and the syrian. people are not islamist terrorist. and whoever is trying to claim that their

president them whether it's the regime or the s. and c. are just making false claims earlier you just mentioned external influences on this group who exactly are you referring to in terms of external influence on the opposition. it's quite obvious that there was turkish support it's not the secret. certain support but it also changed its position slightly the govt offered some financial support and this is again not a secret we've seen it in their balance sheets but all of this doesn't. rule in the flying regime actually what that russia is doing by supporting the regime plays much stronger role. as an external factor affecting this crisis or to blame the opposition for relying on external forces i would say well how

about this regime relying on china russia. iran and many other countries. to survive if you survive the cold without the support all on the other hand could you argue that considering the fact there's been so much bigger and by the opposition and the fact that the situation is getting more dire day by day i mean could you envisage vision a future where perhaps some of the out of as the opposition is blamed on the continuing violence the opposition is one thing but the opposition hasn't really been able to get together and move forward either. yes that's true but do you have any unified opposition in the entire world of course not and everybody is asking the opposition to come in one correlation and coalitions are always weak by nature and they fall apart in front of the tough challenges and we are in front of a very very tough crisis so i think the focus here should not be on unifying the opposition first of all we should stop the violence and that indeed those require

the to stop the smuggling of the weapon inside syria and stop the fight but also we need the international. players to reach international consensus around one solution to force the regime also to stop using violence against its people. have to say you're about this interview it was not tough enough the questions were very easy he was not really challenge i mean how about his use of air force for example to show his own people even if we believe his claim that they are terrorists and they are hiding among civilians does that give him the right to show entire civilian areas i lost so many friends and people in houses of my grandparents' house because of the ruthless shelling by this regime it's indiscriminate it doesn't tell terrorists from terrorists look at the same time there have been reports of extremist i'm not saying in syria but outside of syria infiltrating the ranks of the rebels whether as a result of the position or on their own initiative have also sort of ramped up the

attacks have been happening how much of a concern is that and what impact could that have on the revolution that originally began as a largely peaceful movement. it does have a very bad impact and there are so many parts of the opposition why are against the use of violence as a solution to this crisis but we also recognize that it is really the regime who for so many people despair or to. to use the army as you know there was no political solution the regime offered no point because it was tough. even the very end we can dial a call from the regime of conduct they reach a list of conclusions not implemented there was no hope there was no way out with i can sit and talk rationally about pretty good solutions but if i have an eighteen year old who have seen his mother very nice house being demolished i can't so you go he has no excuse to use

a. player who exploit those you know people and put their arms in their hands and send them money and weapons well and fortunately it seems that both internal external players as well as internal violence as aplenty i don't really see how that situation is going to get any better anytime soon thank you so much that was live from london syrian opposition activist dr rim turkmani. all right let's move on to our next story coming your way selling the holidays and wrapping up hostilities after a short break. a recently protests and demonstrations of any kind were banned until further notice and by crane a curfew as in you can't go out of your home when the government doesn't want you

to has already been in effect in the country since two thousand and eleven many of the protests which are now totally forbidden were related to members of the public demanding the release of political prisoners four people were also recently arrested for insulting the king over twitter wow a middle eastern country that has totally shut down any form of protest and hugs you down if you tweet about the leadership so it's pretty undemocratic to me i bet nato is already fueling up ready to take action bombs and freedom into warmer right well not really if nato really cared about spreading democracy you'd think they'd be more consistent with their targets but that's just my opinion. wealthy british style sun it's sometimes. these. markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports on r

g. m theory and i mean. maybe you feel you have to be student but. i didn't r.t. exclusive friday through sunday on r.t. and r.t. dot com. resistance is not the politics but the culture. is couldn't. six. so. of resistance. all right well u.s. lawmakers are reportedly preparing

a fresh set of sanctions against iran targeting its business transactions with other countries this is on top of the latest round of restrictions imposed by barak obama just after he won reelection to the white house the situation has also been strained by further claims that iranian jets fired at an american drone which was flying just off iran's coast last week with me now to discuss this and mohammad marandi a political analyst at the university of tehran thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us i want to get to my top question which is what does it really mean politically that the very first decision that president obama took upon returning to the white house was to slap more sanctions against iran. well i think really it shows that the united states is unprepared to think reasonably with regards to you ron the fact that the united states has been imposing an embargo on the iranian front told by a. business transaction in iran basically means that the united states is trying to

correct the iranian economy trying to prevent iran from importing and exporting anything and that includes food and medicine and. inside iran despite the fact that the americans and the europeans have not succeeded in anything to the degree that they want to but i think it has caused a great deal of anger and hostility in five year run and iranians to see a more barbaric side to western politics and it's really quite sad that often sanctions are meant to have a political effect are really affecting the people on the ground who really can't defend themselves much now when we talk about israel there's been such a strong push over the years from israel in terms of military action trying to convince the united states and washington to go along we haven't seen that take place and yet what do you make of the symbolic influence the symbolic meaning of obama again slapping these sanctions on iran is the first thing he does do you see this as sort of balance perhaps to israeli pressure. well the new sanctions won't

have any extraordinary effect they've already carried out as many sanctions as they can both the americans and the europeans and iran continues to move for the country continues to function it has caused trouble in the country there has been shortages of some medicine some medicines and i think some people have probably died as a result but in general the iranian government is now overcoming those problems and are finding alternative routes to deal with imports and exports and medicine and food and so on it does create problems but i think that the americans and europeans really can't do much more but the very fact that they're as you pointed out obama from the very beginning of this second administration is making such a gesture shows that the u.s. government is really isn't sincere in trying to resolve the situation and that its

policies with regards to iran are quite irrational and why is that why is that in your view. gets i think it really has to do with the revolution itself the united states basically iran was a client regime for the united states like saudi arabia today. but ever since the revolution and iranian independence i think the americans really have never come to the point of recognizing iran as an independent state outside american sphere of influence and the fact that for example the united states now sends a drone over iran and the iranians immediately respond and we and this itself shows iran radar capabilities and it's rapid response but the fact that the iranians respond so swiftly i think it's something that angers the americans they are used to having their own way and being able to intimidate other countries and iran but

the fact that the iranians aren't intimidated they take an independent foreign policy they support the palestinians as opposed to the regime which the iranians see as an apartheid regime is really completely unacceptable to the united states and i think that the american beer that other countries in the region will sort of try to become more independent of the united states and europe like an iran interesting views there thank you so much that us political analyst mohammad marandi thank you again for being with us thank you for having me well coming your way find out the secrets behind the world's most widely used assault rifle the kalashnikov. you can tell an ordinary russian siberian in the blink of an. anthropologist in those days siberians were different clothes different food.

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