a declaration of war that tells syrian officials have described the latest israeli airstrike and when a tree research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets overnight the arab league has condemned the strike demanding action from the u.n. the u.k. calls for an end to the arms embargo on the opposition saying peace in the region is now under threat. and in bahrain a quarter sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing four bombs during and regime riots last year.

with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. syria says israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed targets in damascus the second airstrikes in as many days syria's state media says that israeli rockets targeted a military research center on the outskirts of the capital video footage an eyewitness account suggests the attacks hit weapons dumps triggering large explosions syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league has condemned the strikes and demanded the u.n. security council to act to stop any more. t.v. station run by lebanon's hezbollah militant group showed images of what it claimed was the site of an israeli air strike in syria this unverified footage was reportedly taken at the site of a military research facility. after the attack at the center itself appears to have been hit the strike apparently left a major road filled with

a brick and shell casings middle east correspondent paula slit has more. tension on the ground is increasing and increasing by the hour the syrian information minister on one alza will be said after a special cabinet meeting that syria will not accept a breach of its sovereignty all of its security and that all options were on the table syrian officials say that they've turned syrian artillery also to face towards israel the syrian deputy foreign minister finds a law that said the alleged israeli attack on syria is addictive ration of war now make that has said that syria will retaliate against israel in its own time and in its own way meanwhile iran which has a defense agreement with syria says it will respond to alleged israeli airstrikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to israeli aggression we haven't heard anything so far from the israeli government the israeli military also continues to refuse to either confirm or deny the reports that are

detect syria in the early hours of sunday morning israel however has declared the north of this country a no fly zone to the civilian flights this is a precaution that's also a way of defusing the situation and for allowing it to be allowing for the defense missile system to be put into place the iron dome is being deployed in the north of israel it's aimed at protecting northern israeli cities from short range missiles that could be fired from either levanon also both the mayor of haifa which is israel's largest city in the north is also taking steps to potentially increase the level of readiness of the cities citizens meanwhile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu held an emergency security cabinet meeting that meeting adjourned without any statements in fact the only statement we've heard from the israeli prime minister was after his weekly cabinet meeting on sunday morning and he did not comment on the strikes the only thing he said was reiterating his

commitment to israel security they were earlier that a senior and named israeli official conversion confirmed that tel aviv was responsible for sunday's strikes that would be the third strike inside syria that israel has carried out since january this year. egypt has condemned the israeli air strikes in syria with the arab league also demanding action from the un security council the league says there's been a dangerous violation of an arab state sovereignty article two of the united nations charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state a u.s. white house spokesman we will said the bomber feels israel is justified in its concerns over the threat from hezbollah but he's got a chart in washington and london told us earlier more about the reaction coming from the u.k. and the u.s. . the u.k. foreign secretary has said that this latest israeli air strike is making the case

stronger for lifting the e.u. arms embargo on the syrian opposition according to william hague this recent escalation of the conflict shows that there's a real risk that the violence could spread outside of syria and into the wider middle east of course this isn't the first time that the u.k. has called for an end to this e.u. arms embargo in fact it's become somewhat of a regular occurrence this is just the latest reason that they're citing for providing extra assistance to the syrian opposition and we know that germany has to provide extra weapons to provide weapons to the syrian opposition we also know that yes the united nations have big reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many international observers have been keen to point out that arming the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for the wider region and for israel of course as well

a lot of people are still very wary of what took place the new libya the libyan scenario when weapons flooded out from gadhafi is army and into mali and algeria into neighboring countries there's still a lot of problems to do with that so it's a lot of countries are very fearful about making that mistake again guyon so you know are there any indicators that the you are about israel's attacks in advance the u.s. and israel according to both governments work very closely in terms of intelligence gathering so it is difficult to believe that washington didn't know anything about israel's plans to bomb damascus the question that is very much unclear at this point is whether the strikes were really about has a lot whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the sources in the u.s. government on the officially called for in the strikes just as they did. days ago when said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon the meskins sees it differently they see the strikes as an attempt to boost the morale as they

say of the rebels whether or not the strikes were actually intended as an intervention into the syrian civil war they may affect it anyway there is another concern the strikes are based on some secret information and actual so what is heading somewhere you can tell will be if not washington have officially confirmed anything and many worry that we're stepping into the spirit gray area or worse right against another country can be carried out in absolute secrecy strikes come days after the u.s. defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on or mean the rebels for defense secretary did also say he personally has not decided whether he would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels he said the administration is looking at a range of options at the moment as you can see there is nothing definitive in the administration's remarks at this stage but put together the events of this week which now include the israeli strikes may have created

a certain momentum and this kind of momentum could actually bolster the forces on the ground and result in more violence in a country where it's already devastating for more on this i'm joined by asia times online correspondent escobar he is in london at the moment but we just heard from the u.s. saying that israel is justified over its concerns over the has been a threat so what israel is done in self-defense is reuters news. look let's recap actually first of all this is an act of war and then provoked act of war and provoke ation at the same time y. happening now starts with chuck hagel head of the pens have gone through of the middle east and israel through days ago remember that chuck hagel was against arming the rebels in syria then he changed his mind he said that the rebels actually used chemical weapons in syria with no evidence at the same time the rebels to start losing ground inside syria the syrian army has been making

adventures in that how my home scored their dispatched a few weeks and at the same time we also know that all these diversions friends of the free syrian army they're basically the ones that are really fighting on the ground they are jihadi obama cannot arm jihad in syria period so what is his fall back plan a kind of mini shock and all but will the us start shock and awe in syria no it's by proxy it's via israel and this is actually what paygo and the israelis were discussing only a few days ago so you're saying that israelis go ahead and release opinions so you're saying israel is go ahead with this with us blessing it didn't act alone myself question look if anybody believes that any seeing israel does in the middle east it does not go so the americans later you know group back to play in the

garden go back to kindergarten it doesn't work like this in the real world they did it because they were concerted with the obama administration which is in a bind at the moment they cannot intervene directly in syria they know that the support for the so-called rebels the different strands of the rebs is going nowhere because their elected retreating instead of advent sing so israel with this provocation they're willing for a response either from syria either from has blocked. all or better yet from the point of view of the obama administration and israel from iran so if iran and syria don't do anything for them and they just wait you don't this will be seen as it is just a provocation but if there is you know this slightest bit of a response from either syria or iran that's the perfect prick text for what you need shock and awe against syria so what sort of response then are you expecting from syria it surely can't just choose a conflict bearing in mind its circumstance of the moment and it wrong with that

really respond militarily to what's happened in syria with regard to what you know is that exactly but that's the point the hardliners in washington and the hardliners and as well they are expecting exactly that. non the measured response from iran it's not going to happen the run is might calibrate their response for months from now in fact different targets maybe not even in the middle east israel interest outside of the middle east the syrians they're moving some of the missiles to the north and part of syria we still don't know what they're going to do about it but pepe to bring out just how dangerous is this situation now is this really a sign of what everybody be worried about is the sparking of a regional conflict just briefly. yes absolutely and in fact this proves among other things how desperate this so-called coalition of the willie us brits france saudi arabia qatar and turkey are with what's going on inside syria they were

expecting of government to collapse in a few months it's over two years it's still in place there are no major defections you know they still control the business classes in damascus and aleppo it's still there it could fight for a long time and they want a quick resolution so they use israel as a proxy it's the perfect foil you know and they can blame israel in fact the arabs the arab league which nowadays is the manics of all the other blaming israel saudi arabia is into it as well because the u.s. the saudis that israel is they are actually arming the rebels as well they see that it's going nowhere ok let's activate plan b. let's start bombing syria and see if they respond. live in london times correspondent thank you very much indeed for your thoughts on this great to get your perspective thanks for joining us live on r.t. well earlier my colleague researcher spoke to me at all and he's a correspondent for israel's had its newspaper he even easier strike is justified

as a preemptive attack to ensure the nation's security. this is part of the israeli policy which you can describe as pownce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer surface to surface missiles and surface to be so stupid paula but don't brag about it so while the reason no official confirmation you can take it almost as face value when you hear the us side confirm it officially what about the legality of israel bombing syria like this without even a un mandate i mean how do you expect the international community to react to this well be israeli and syrian governments have been paying a fragile cease fire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon on the lebanese government does not control hezbollah and has well i want to take these arms from syria and position them with eleven and while you may

say that flying over a lebanese space is not exactly according to international law and this is nick beaking and while there are many reasons on other aspects to be critical of israeli policy he does see that this time around he's white balance he's only trying to prevent and preempt. complete the race so i'm sure you talk about the israeli airstrike massive explosions you call this a balanced reaction to unconfirmed reports that the syrian officials are moving surface to air missiles to hezbollah which they are denying at the time you call it balanced ok let me clarify first of all the reason of course and regrettably so a massacre going on in syria has gone on for the last two years with many thousands of people being killed others perhaps in the hundreds of thousands being

uprooted and now being refused use across the border and what israelis trying to prevent. the lebanon war this is perhaps a minor our price to pay. in order not to pay the bigger prize of the killing and we have our which will be read by another lebanon war. well let's see what you have to say about these recent air strikes on syria always good to know your thoughts on the big stories of the day we're also on our home page on our website r.t. dot com what you think is behind all of this and indeed one of the implications so far the response is we can see forty four percent believe that israel is carrying out plans by the west to help the rebels we can see that thirty three percent believe this is simply an undeclared war and the war on syria slightly few believe that this is not just sending a message to syria this is actually a wider regional implication with a message being sent to iran and finally just seven percent believe that this is

a case of israel defending itself against the threat of has been are well out to war activists jim brann says israel won't face any repercussions from the international community due to america's influence in the u.n. security council. any intervention of that kind is going to make the situation worse as well as being a violate basic violation of international law which clearly israel strike today and the previous ones have been as well but william hague is justifying his favorite method of intervention which is arming the one side in the in the fight on the basis that israel is pursuing its favorite method of intervening which is bombing and it's completely unacceptable syria will be very careful in the west because i think it's probably an israeli provocation anyway it may well be that israel is trying to get syria to retaliate or it's trying to provoke hizbullah into

retaliating and remember that israel has a very serious court of circle with a smaller because twice once in the year two thousand and once in the year two thousand and six hizbullah inflicted a very serious defeat on israel so israel certainly wants to get just one or the united states has a vetoed i think forty four united nations security council resolutions concerning israel when they get anywhere near. cramping israel's ability to carry out the strikes that we've seen lately so at the end of the day i'm sure that the united states would simply veto any u.n. security council resolution with teeth and in a way you can say that perhaps some of these voices in the region know that perfectly well. closely monitoring developments in the region online at all dot com you're watching a weekly here in r.t. a little later this hour find out why dozens of bahraini protesters got fifteen year jail terms that after this break.

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that. look at this beauty who did it but i paid for what i've done that would never stop a. weekly continues here naughty of course in bahrain a sentence thirty one protest is to fifteen years in prison each they're all aged between sixteen and thirty four and have been found guilty of carrying out for bomb attacks during anti-government protests which engulfed the kingdom last year one of the lawyers claims his client was tortured until he gave a false confession the market's been widely criticized for its fondant suppression of protests rallies where he's coming off as more. this group of thirty one protesters as you said is aged roughly between sixteen and thirty four so you can imagine for the sixteen year olds this is an incredibly hefty sentence they all

come from stitcher island in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked since early twenty's and levon now these protesters have been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on a flyer protesting possession of petrol bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters denied these charges they say that they're innocent and they in fact claim that they were coerced into confessing in order to get these charges now the background to all of this is these escalating protests that we've seen in bahrain that as i mentioned began in two thousand and eleven basically what you have is ongoing unrest with the majority of shiites in the country demonstrating and demanding a greater voice in the political system that has been ruled by the sunni monarchy ruled in many ways with an iron fist these protesters allege and so what began as peaceful gatherings people taking to the streets to protest has really transformed into what we've seen in many cases brutal crackdowns by the police with tear gas

being used mass arrests of protesters in fact one of the most best known cases of the regime essentially cracking down on some of the protesters with the case of libya where job who's actually interviewed here on our t.v. by julian our song and in august twenty twelve he was actually sentenced to three years in jail for participating in one of these protests so a lot of human rights activists say that this and i'm tenable situation that these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so of course continue to watch the see how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh arrest in that country. well for further discussion let's not talk to mohammed also for his government activist joining us from well these jail protesters as young as sixteen facing fifteen years in prison why do you think this was such a harsh sentence. because it's

a part of the track young on the bridge just isn't it it aims at the protest movement starting in two thousand you know event and haven't yet have gaining have been gaining momentum for the last two years and more than what it quelled your protests your anti-government protests yourself is it going to stop you know from protesting no we witnessed that have only just have only grown larger in the last two years we've witnessed that the more harsh sentences are the more and. it brings to the evil and the more reasons that it gives them to brought us but more the chance for you yourself facing a long term jail sentence do you think you're actually going to achieve anything with your protests. for now we don't really have any other choice but to fortress the damage has been done my cousins are and my friends are. and so for me it's the only educating twenty to do is to help them as me help me help me before

so you're not since you say your cousins are in jail we've heard of allegations of torture do you know anything about. there has been many allegations of torture. the decent thing would be to start a committee get a look into this of course there is there has been a committee before that upon the government accused are indicted are systematic torture systematic torture yet have been put out by nothing or by not accountability mujeres that have been followed by not change in the hierarchy of the commands and the situation is back where this torture took place in what was really believed that georgia is this will have been what we've heard about western nations taking a very strong stance against human rights violations in other countries while we hear. over this situation in bahrain because of the conflict of interest because of

the oil and behind because of the oil we divorced from because of the. poem was a straight that needs to be all been at all time to ensure that the floor is not destructive because we have and i can base here in bahrain which the americans rely on as a split to watch over the region all of that have taken its toll on the people armed grant it have to can install on the children that are being asked to fund their schools on the women that are that are being tortured in prison all of that had to because of discomfort different trust human rights. next to the political wrong than bahrain but all human rights organizations there in bahrain these matters being reported to them are they taking any action themselves. when you see

human rights activists. why does intervene and prison just mean that the human rights rules can't work and so they can't be evil and just finally the protests will continue and we'll see more violence perhaps more bloodshed in bahrain just briefly your speech was one peaceful activist like you're going to be called home for nothing but you. have been trying to control the and be able as an imprisoned then we don't really have the choice of. having a charismatic leader that would control you and this movement have been tossed the scene. we can't really control it and. activists in bahrain thank you very much indeed for joining us live here on r.t. . this week workers around the world are joined at the protests against unemployment poor salaries and violations of their rights a number of may day rallies in particular making headlines in turkey there was

violence with police resorting to tear gas and water cannons against angry crowds at least twenty eight were injured and dozens were arrested and these are pictures from barcelona where the rally there was also marred by clashes with police thousands took to the streets in spain protesting against austerity and unemployment which is at record highs made a protesters march in athens as well or part of a twenty four hour walkout following the recent cutback of fifteen thousand public sector jobs and it comes as the e.u. face the prospect of another year of recession and job losses according to latest forecasts well these are the three countries with the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone in greece over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job at the moment while in spain one in four in every four is unemployed portugal's rate is not far behind that seventeen point five percent the unemployment numbers are predicted to keep soaring. well that brings up to date for

the moment here this is the weekly here and auty would be thought with more than thirty five minutes from now the mean time to take a dangerous tour of mexico's rife with drug cartel wars and daily shootings that's a special report after the break stay with us for that if you can't. most people in the western world would agree that having laws that officially create second class citizens is totally unacceptable we can look at the way jews were treated in nazi germany or blackstar in apartheid in south africa and the slavery jim crow era as in the usa as examples of legally dividing society by necessity i think most people he you with their modern sensibilities would find these practices me bob baer american backwards but my question is that why is there

to this day officially sanctioned second class citizens in certain e.u. countries or to be more accurate i should say non-citizen residents of the two million people in last year around three hundred thousand of them are considered citizen residents who can neither vote nor hold public office these non-citizens are russian speakers of various ethnic backgrounds whose children also by birth bearer of the non-citizen status not happy being on the bad side of apartheid the non-citizens have logically decided to vote for their own parliament because they can't elect to participate in the left field what even if the parliament has no power whatsoever it will be their chance to shine a light on the issue which the mainstream media has been keeping quiet for years you know you'd think that people would be outraged over segregation but what happens to russians and russian speakers is just not cool or hip or trendy or convenient enough for the mainstream media to take notice. but that's just my

opinion. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy. global financial headline news to report. here you can feel it.