the presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen is thrown into doubt after the latest killing of civilians by american forces. moscow pushes for an equal role for iran at this month's international peace conference on syria as the russian foreign minister hosts meetings with his iranian and syrian counterparts. and as the n.s.a.'s mass surveillance antics draw unwelcome comparisons with this sea of east germany r.t. talks to veterans of a feared and revered cold war spy service to find out just how much the two have in common.

you're watching r t international live from our moscow studios where it's just after one pm i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me relations between the u.s. and afghanistan are in jeopardy after the latest killings of civilians by american troops in the war zone the afghan president says seven children and a woman died in a u.s. airstrike on wednesday and nato claims the incident took place during a counter terror operation and admits that it least two civilians were killed by mistake it's the latest in a series of collateral damage scandals that have shaken u.s. afghan relations kabul has repeatedly demanded an end to night raids and airstrikes in civilian areas some analysts say it should be taken a step further by ensuring that justice is served for the innocent victims. that's always the argument that the foreign powers make they always make it sound like they're invading a country just because they care so much about the people that are under attack but all over the world you can see the fruits of us foreign intervention these kind of

massacres are really built in to foreign interventions you can see it wherever this happens whether in the middle east africa asia anywhere the result is poverty misery suffering they've never improve the lives of the people of the people have the right to run their own country a president karzai if he represents the afghan people should be demanding that reparations be paid to the people of afghanistan for the so many crimes that have been committed there for all the people killed for all the lives lost for all the poverty and misery created by u.s. intervention and those reparations shouldn't come from ordinary working class americans it ought to come from halliburton it ought to come from general electric and all the military contractors that have made so much money off of the destruction of the people in afghanistan and so many other countries in the world that collateral damage of rao has cast fresh doubts on whether kabul will sign a key security pact with washington the deal would see thousands of american troops remain in afghanistan for another ten years after the nato withdrawal by the end of two thousand and fourteen the afghan government has so far been reluctant to agree to the pact which would also make americans immune from afghan law if the agreement

is not sealed washington will have to order all of its troops out of afghanistan. when leaked files from the us national security agency revealed that the american spies had been keeping close tabs on a key ally germany the government there was furious comparing the practices to those of their stasi the east german. secret police artie's peter oliver met with a veteran of that service to find out just how similar the two really are. that the united states attempt to prove that mobile phone call confronted president boma with this claim. formal offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars of a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to

a nation's problems who quote if it's good even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services cheering the cold war disk and now it's the elite this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stars are used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it edward snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance show in germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again. on top of the common of three named devil's mountain life the remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or its abundant now but back in the day this post with ears to listen in normally private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the fifty

then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged with them electronically mukesh the way they do it now is much more intensive your web browsing history credit cards they can build a profile on you way easier than was ever possible in my day. didn't have access to this type of technology they rely on developing personal contacts indices even those who are working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said it we were pretty good even then the fear of being listened into is taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us human those fires my superior office. is there any technology that they can use to stop eavesdropping on my calls yes just don't pick it up these veterans of the spy game might be

impressed by the capabilities of the n.s.a. but they're cautious about the quality of the information collected for lessons yes they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their calls it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation dubbed two point zero by critics except to continue for some time yet peter all over germany. let's get more perspective from a former senior intelligence operative for east germany right now. mr rove if you could if you could tell us the n.s.a. has been compared to star in its methods as a former intelligence and intelligence officer what's your take on that. well i think the whole issue has been exaggerated because it was a political game the vase truman's plates to present easter in me as

a spice state sitra of course the east germans were very concerned and they had good reasons for being concerned if you think about all the the undermining subversive activities of based in particularly the history and the cia even playing on. i have to meet there was a spying activities also going on against their east german citizens but. nation doesn't happen so fact is i needed the vista in the city to big numbers and fold activities. it was doing as a result of. the show for the cleaning ladies the canteen workers a bowl of stars you operatives and as a result the school system goes up out of all proportion but.

compares the style with what three and a is doing now it's basically comparing. a peeve with the with the earth or the sun. so what you're saying is the n.s.a. is doing this on a much grander scale obviously a president obama's expected to impose on letting up. it's a country on a much much grander scale hello is doing it on a much much grander scale into much more depth than. even the most sophisticated stasi operation would ever have been able to do. at president obama's eye as i was saying is expected to impose new limits on the national security agency's activity . do you anticipating any drastic changes or is this you just rhetoric

well. this is one would call vindu addressing the two preteen something is happening but if you look at the composition of the committee of the advisory committee vidual is supposed to suggest changes these are the same guys who. are operating the system and we've been participating in the construction of the very system that they are now supposed to modify or to emasculate. nothing to be expected from from this and if you look at the details and the pits and pieces which have been coming out of washington or from the in the say or from . keith alexander in the two to senator sanders just a few days ago where he quite open to the. need not only admitted. that they're continuing to spy on congress is bill in the plate and

well i mean kind of. all right reiner reply from berlin thank you very much sir. now moscow is stepping up its mediation efforts to bring keep power players to the table at their spawn tenter national peace conference on syria ahead of the summit the russian foreign minister is hosting his iranian and syrian counterparts for talks to get the latest from. paul there's only a week left until the geneva two conference it's much awaited by a lot of people what's being said in moscow ahead of these key events well russia have really reiterated their desire for iran to take part in next week's peace talks on syria in geneva moscow believes that tehran should be represented as an equal member of the discussions and should not be participating from the sidelines as has been suggested by the united states now these syria peace talks or geneva

two they're going to be nine a shuttle to start on january the twenty second moscow helped broker those talks and russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says that successful discussions are in the interest of the entire international community. and we will. we stand in support of syria's sovereignty and its territorial integrity we want the equal rights of all ethnic religious and other groups that live in syria to be secured so that the country can exist in peace with all its neighbors and like the syrian people and the people of iran we want to eliminate the hardwoods of terrorism on serious territory so this is our unified position but it's not a unique position it has been stated by the united nations security council we do not have a hidden agenda and we have nothing to hide our stance is shared by the whole international community where this many round of diplomacy is set to last for two days with lavrov set to meet syria's foreign minister in moscow on friday all right

our party's pasko out there in moscow for us thank you now iran's foreign minister zarif is with our sophie shevardnadze right now on her talk so sophie and co we can cross live to them right now. sophia over to you. yes highly and say yes we're here and the president hotel in the heart of moscow with iran's foreign minister mohammad. foreign minister it's really great to have the on our program today good to be with you so you just came back from damascus you've spoken to president bashar assad have you talked about and see concrete have you come up with any concrete solutions. you have i just come from the middle east basically i was in not only in syria over there was in lebanon i was in jordan i was in iraq and i see a common thread among everybody speak to that is the concern they have about the spread of whalen's spread of extremism and the sectarian tension that is brewing in

the region and the need to contain it now the heart of syria but there is no guarantee that if we do not take of the situation in syria a lot spread now we see the consequences of the conflict in syria. spillover into lebanon we see the situation in iraq which is really. into syria because the same group who still make the so-called islamic state of iraq and the levant is. creating difficulty making terrorist bombings in iraq at the same time as it is it is engaged in syria even the infighting within the opposition. groups in the opposition are fighting each other with the greatest degree of inhumanity so this is a major threat we see the consequences of the same thread in russia today when you see terrorist bombings in real use places we see the consequences in iran when we

see. attacks we see the consequences all over the region and it can go even beyond the region so everybody that i talked to was committed to dealing with this issue but in syria i see the president and. i see the syrian government ready to engage with all syrians in order to reach a commonly accepted. solution which has to come out of the public opposition it has to be all those who want who are interested in the future of syria everybody in syria to get together this is a decision for the syrians to make really the international community need to help facilitate this process at the end of the day the syrian people should determine their destiny through the ballot box and i saw everybody that was confident that they should go to the ballot box and ready to go to the ballot box in the the syrians to decide their destiny and we need to find the mechanisms and modalities

for doing so and i think everybody can work on those bases and i hope that if people set aside their agendas. which have nothing to do with stability in syria so that sets aside those previous positions that has ruined syria basically over the last few years so. that there can be a military solution in syria if they said that those evolutions aside and allow the syrian people help the syrian people facilitate the syrian people start talking to each other which i hope will happen in geneva two then i think. there can be a way forward going forward that contains this very dangerous phenomenon of extremism and sectarian let me ask you this i know that you've read terry to many times that it is up to syrian people to decide in the ballot box what happens to the country and who governs the country but the solution has been climbing the last three years if president bashar assad stepping down before the election is the only

possible compromise with the opposition that's the only possible solution for ceasefire would iran agree to that. i think the premise of the question is wrong. it is for the. government and the opposition to sit together and to discuss the future of syria and i do not believe people should before you start negotiating decide about the outcome it seems that there is a great deal of insecurity among those people who are setting conditions for even the goetia. this should happen and actually happened this should be the outcome of the negotiations here that should be the outcome to negotiations if the people have confidence in their ability to attract the syrian people and if they believe that you present the business of the syrian population then they should be ready to go to the ballot box why do they need to set preconditions and i saw put it on the

side at the end of the day no country. other the syrian people can decide what will happen in syria and if they try to impose their wishes on the syrian people should later see the failure of that process talking about setting conditions u.s. secretary of state john kerry has said that iran could informally help from the sidelines. to the geneva two talks in syria well iran agreed to help from the sidelines. iran is an important player in this reach. it would be rather. ironic to have. those who support extremist groups participate in the conference invited to participate in the conference and then for some. predispositions say that iran should accept preconditions in order to participate in the conference iran will either

participate in the conference or as any other state that has been invited without preconditions under the scent same circumstances and others have been invited to participate. in the. main course of the conference on the sidelines or iran will decide to stay away if you are not invited. we will not accept anything that that is beneath our dignity that is our own the only condition we do not have any condition for participation in the talks we are prepared to participate if you are given the same invitation as anybody else who participated in the conference we believe we have a much more important role to play in this conference than many others who have been invited. but would not convening this conference or other convenience of the conference they will destroy. their own benefit on that are meant to vote or not so let me make sure i understand this correctly iran will only help advance

the peace process in syria if it isn't right as a full member of the difference iraq. we always help advance peace process in syria because peace in syria is in our national security interest that will happen and that is our policy but whether we will participate and assist the geneva two process will depend on whether iran is officially invited as a full fledged participant in the process or we will decide if they decide not to in voters then they should expect us to be there in the conference or on the sidelines if you're not invited we would not call damascus has told russia that it is actually prepared to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid i know that iran has great deal of leverage in syria let me ask you this it's a concrete question can iran help convince mr assad to actually allow a humanitarian corridor and stop bombarding residential areas. well i don't think

we need to do a lot i think it is necessary for all of us to understand that humanitarian assistance to people in need should be allowed to go in it should not be a pretext for intervention it should not be a pretext to try to help extremist groups that are fighting each other and fighting the people of syria and bombarding each other and bombarding the people of syria killing even their own prisoners in mass executions . this is not a way out of this humanitarian tragedy we need to send humanitarian assistance to syria be had been providing humanitarian assistance to syria all through these years we don't make a lot of fuss about it we believe that is our humanitarian responsibility and you don't need to make a lot of first when you are basically conducting yourself in

a way that is. appropriate as responsible states in the region we will continue to do the. and we continue to do that called a nation with the syrian government called a nation with others who are interested in sending humanitarian assistance through to syria we believe that is extremely important it is extremely important to address the humanitarian requirements of the syrian people but it should not be a pretext for other extraneous political agendas to be interjected into this where they don't continue to provide assad's government with arms and volunteers. we have relations with the government in syria as a government that is recognized by the united nations as a full fledged member of the united nations it's a legitimate government of syria those world supporting. others who are using extremist measures in order to. advance whatever political cause that they may have violated international law. the fact is that

there is a legitimate government seated in damascus in syria recognized by the united nations. because that is the case those who have relations with that government will continue to have relations with that comment but iran is not providing volunteers to syria we are all having relations with syria in accordance with our agreements in the past and that would just be your deputy foreign minister in an interview to russia today told us that iran was actually providing military expertise and help to syria how we have longstanding military cooperation with the syrian government has the government recognized by the united nations and those corporations within the context of international law within the context of our international obligations and restrictions placed within international law will continue i know that you have spoken to your turkish counterpart about a possible ceasefire in syria and they took countries have their differences but is

it really possible to come up with a peace deal on syria on a regional level because you know we also hear wonder how come syria's destiny. decide between america and russia well i think it is important for syria's destiny we don't need be decided by the syrian people but it is important for the regional players turkey and iran included to play a positive and constructive role and in the past four months we've been trying since since i took office as foreign minister i've been trying in discussions with my friend and colleague the foreign minister of turkey as well as with the prime minister and other authorities in turkey to see how iran and turkey can help because iran and turkey have similarity of views on a lot of issues in turkey the fact that we should not allow extremists to reign in syria is a is a common position between iran and turkey the fact that we need a ceasefire is a common position the fact that we need to get humanitarian assistance to people in

need in syria that's a common position between iran and syria so iran and turkey so we are working together we have our differences obviously and we're trying to minimize those differences and hopefully work together in order to advance those common objectives if you have to have anything. concrete in mind of what the first step towards to cease fire would be. we believe the no need for anything to lead to a ceasefire can be just a cease fire the problem is in the situation in in syria because there are so many armed groups terrorist groups that do not even coordinate among each other the way that the so-called islamic state of iraq or levant is operating involved one part of syria is different from how it's operating in other parts of syria in one part of syria it is fighting job in other parts of syria it is aligned with so it's a rather very difficult and tragic hot podge of extremist elements coming from all

over the world trying to carry. this. in syria and in the meantime. losing their own lives and killing a lot of people on the side so i think it is important for for all of us to work together how that can come about it is a very difficult proposition it's a straightforward proposition to stop fighting but how you do it how you are the government that difficult but how you bring all these various forces that are all wreaking havoc in various poor parts of syria to stop killing and cop didn't go shooting table that's a difficult proposition but we are prepared to work. in good faith in order to achieve that objective but today you're in russia and there is a lot of talk about iran and russia negotiating oil for a good straight deal worth one point five billion dollars a month and this is something america isn't too keen on

a spokesperson for the united states and said that it could trigger a possible sanctions can you confirm that this agreement is being negotiated in moscow today and we're not negotiating any agreement between governments. we are here to discuss various issues primarily regional problems our nuclear issue and cooperation between iran and russia that expands in all areas you don't and russia are two neighbors we've had historical ties we've had traditional ties and our thoughts would be conducted as far as the governments of the two countries are concerned in accordance with our international obligations in accordance with international law in accordance with the frameworks that we have agreed. and it is only for the two neighbors to decide how they will conduct their operations but but what will happen between economic entities in the two countries is something that the government does not control neither on our side nor on the russia says this

particular deal isn't being discussed at this particular this particular days no particular deal to be discussed ok but the implementation. geneva agreement to curb iran's nuclear activities in exchange of easing up on some sanctions starts january the twenty s on this day will all the iranian nuclear facilities be open and transparent to spectrum. all iranian nuclear facilities are open and transparent to the even before that. since this. fiasco started ten years ago because i believe it's a fiasco in time money and energy of a lot of people it is diverting attention from issues with our primary concern to the international community and people are trying smokescreen to hide their own agendas and their own atrocities particularly in palestine against the palestinian people the continuity of the settlement policies conservations of the what actions of the rights of the palestinians are all continuing behind the smokescreen so it's a smokescreen. but the fact is that iranian nuclear facilities have been open to

more inspection more scrutiny more transparency measures and probably in the any other nuclear facility certainly in the region and maybe beyond so iran's nuclear facilities will be open on the twenty eighth but they have been open before twenty are you ready for surprise inspections. surprise inspections because there are daily inspections when you have the inspections is not. now that you are frozen assets are expected to start on blocking in february how soon do you think that geneva agreement will actually enable iran to sell crude oil again we are selling more crude oil. i don't mommie and i'm not in that business and that's not my area of responsibility but i believe the framework. the united states which you know really has been doing this legally anyway but prevents it from further restrictions on the sale of iranian oil. doesn't mean that

we agreed to do research into their place until now from our perspective. and from the perspective of many other countries what they've been doing has been easy now but we decided not not to look at the past and look towards the future they will refrain from further increasing and they will provide some sanctions relief but but the goal is not to get stuck in this stage of the game the goal is to use this as a basically a breathing space in order to get a fine of the and a final deal would mean that all sanctions would be eating. and at the same time iran will do what we believe it's in our best interest to clarify and to show to the national community that the purpose of our nuclear program is nothing but peaceful so we will do these two things. as the sort of final comprehensive.