breaking news this hour the syrian army backed by russia reportedly three year long islamic state. russian president vladimir putin says north korea will not abandon its nuclear program unless it feels safe. to the media during the final day of the break summit. the north koreans would rather eat grass than give up on the nuclear program. speaks exclusively to the deputy chief of the lebanese military group hezbollah and its battle against terrorists in syria.

you're watching international start this hour with breaking news to you because the syrian army has reportedly broken. or in eastern syria that's according to local media after government forces united with a brigade trapped inside the city since it was besieged by terrorists three years ago with me now is trying to talk a bit more about this this is breaking news reports just coming in but what's the latest that we understand this happened andrew good afternoon well all these conflicting reports i should say because we still don't know for sure. state. has been programmed it's about the latest results in this ongoing push by the syrian army and also the russian air force to gain positions around doors or in to break the siege that's been out there for some three years right now so want to.

conflicting reports i mean that our sources imbedded with the syrian army are saying that the siege has been broken so that means they've gone beyond this point where the syrian government troops can reunite with their allies inside there was or but our sources in the russian military are saying that for now fighting and still going so at this point we are still waiting for more but in the lead up to this over the last couple of days everyone's expectation is that it is pretty imminent that they could retake series ill if that happened how significant would it be andrew well it is pretty straightforward i should say in this studio i have said many times that if the siege of terrorists or is broken that means the beginning of an end of islamic state in syria we heard this from the russian defense minister we heard this from many analysts why for many reasons of course because what i saw how it got around there was or they had some commanders there

some very important. munition depos besides this. we understand that of course the strategic importance of this cannot be underestimated because if the islamic state fighters are kicked out of the province that means the terrorists the jihad is in the last remaining stronghold of eisel in syria that is rocket they will simply have nowhere to go nowhere to retreat so again that is the massive comportment of this battle now if we talk about the latest things that were happening on the ground of course the syrian army the syrian government troops they have advanced massively but this was made possible thanks to the strikes by the watch an air force that is of course one thing but i just want to show you some pictures of the cruise missiles that were fired from the . for

a get out moral lesson that is awash in military ship that's currently in the mediterranean so these missiles were fired at terrorist positions near zora destroyed command and communication post munition depos and also a law which group of terrorists and what is very important in this case is that according to the russian army the washing ministry of defense these strikes rude islam and state plans to regroup their resorts so perhaps if they were able to regroup then they'd be able to keep the siege going for perhaps more days or weeks but in this case we understand that either the siege has been broken or otherwise it is very close to being broken now for you to get an idea of walked has been happening to the city of or in the past three years here's a little reminder that we put together for you.

the mini the only comes home so the bodies. are going to start out as you have the bomb. so in the you were saying that in the last days or maybe even weeks we have been waiting for this really important news when the blockade of their resort is over

and if you look at the map again you can see the advancements of the syrian army they are now so close to their resort that the only thing for us to wait for right now is the final confirmation both from the syrian army not just from sources and also the russian military that they are inside and they were able to reunite with sure what the soldiers inside that again for some how they were able to withstand this siege for such a long time ok question of watch this space thanks. for another key player in the fight against isis the lebanese political and military group hezbollah this year it's played a major role in battling islamic state fighters along the syrian and lebanese border hizbollah lebanon's shia military and political organization was founded with the help of iran back in one thousand nine hundred eighty two during these really occupation of lebanon since the beginning of the syrian civil war the group

has been deeply involved in fighting against various rebel factions including our nusra front terrorists hizbollah has also proven to be an important player in combat sing islamic state in syria the group has a strong anti western stance and has been listed as a terror organization by the us the european union and most arab league countries well r.t. if he's around he spoke exclusively to the group's deputy chief shake. following my previous trip to lebanon in order to follow the hezbollah group to the arsehole mountains where they had cleared out the area from terrorists we have managed to build up a connection with hezbollah media group these are the our sole mountains in the east of lebanon it's the latest scene of the victory of hezbollah hezbollah managed to capture this cave which was used by terrorists as a base and that led to us being given a unique opportunity to interview their deputy leader nineteen named

carson is one of the most influential men not just in lebanon but in the whole region and he's a man who is very well guarded and it's very difficult to secure an interview with somebody of his stature but we managed to do so. and when we went to interview him in beirut. we had a very long security procedure to go through we had to meet at a certain location in the capital we then were told to leave all of our telephones and our electronic equipment before being escorted to another location where the interview took place we also asked about the ongoing conflict in syria in the fight against extremist rubble on the third that they've been at the front of every battle they've been fighting against isis not just here in lebanon but also of course across syria so many topics touched upon between myself and share in costume

in what is really a very rare and exclusive interview with one of the most senior members of the hezbollah group. yeah. the west wants to see middle east divided in so we can trees so you can control everything the americans wanted to use islamic state against syria but then this monster turned against america so now they have no choice but to confront. america that sort of america wants a regime change in syria that was the main goal of the war but when they failed to remove assad through military means with the help of other arab countries the shifted to a policy of non confrontation with president assad because they know the islamic state poses as much of a threat to them as it does to the syrian people. assad

is not an imaginary president is a real and highly effective leader and the choice of the syrian people has been last year and a project to remove president assad as an act against the whole of syria which we cannot accept at this time of war the syrian people reelected president assad as the legitimate had of the state this is a matter of choice for the syrian people an armada of foreign powers to negotiate. now the russian president has said that using sanctions against north korea is a dead end approach that any putin also believes that north korea won't abandon its nuclear program even under economic pressure he was speaking to the media at the bric summit in china from there his cape partridge. it was a very comprehensive post summit conference by president putin but of course one of those key points was about north korea and north korea he george curry well with

countries like libya and iraq where regime change had been opposed upon them and he believes that the north korean people are looking at that particular example and fear that threat of regime change being imposed upon them and he thinks that is the reason why that they're hanging on and they don't want to give up then you can't tests differential for mitchell processional everyone remembers what happens with iraq and saddam hussein he stopped the production of weapons of mass destruction regardless under the pretext of searching for those weapons saddam himself was destroyed along side his family members. if you were in the country the question is no to and they remember that in north korea do you think that just because of sanctions north korea will forget its policy of creating weapons of mass destruction russia condemns those north korean actions we think they are a provocation then you could hear shouldn't because all north koreans as i told one of my colleagues yesterday would rather eat grass than give up on their nuclear program unless they feel safe. president putin was pointing out that the u.s.

response towards north korea has been sanctions are good it seems likely as well with yet more sanctions but president putin was a pains to point out that he feels that this is a dead end approach he doesn't back to nuclearize ation of the potential in fact he and president xi of china i mean very much against it saying that he was unacceptable but he believes that north korea will carry on regardless they want the militarization they want the need to rise sation of the financial and therefore they'll carry on regardless of sanctions so president putin think that's therefore it's a waste of time he also finds it illogical whereby russia and north korea have been put on the same sanctions this before and therefore it didn't work and now the u.s. is saying that they want russia's help in trying to impose sanctions upon pyongyang really. it's absurd to put russia in the same sanctions list alongside north korea and then ask us to help impose sanctions against north korea from the sanctions regime has hit a wall it is not effective but it is also to do with the humanitarian side of

things no matter what we do to north korea north korea's actions will not change that millions of people will suffer president putin reiterated his policy him out of president years well in that they believe the only way forward is through diplomacy and get around the negotiating table once again. what with the crisis on the korean peninsula continuing to escalate the u.s. envoy to the united nations diplomacy is failing with north korea after pyongyang conducted its largest ever nuclear test on sunday the u.n. security council met for urgent talks following north korea's announcement that it had conducted a controlled hydrogen bomb explosion the impact of which triggered an earthquake in the region but so far it seems the united nations has been unable to come up with nor turn it into solution to the crisis. enough is enough i think enough is enough the stakes could not be higher the urgency is now time is short action is required our country's patience is not unlimited the policy of strategic patience

is over or is never something the united states wants the united states does not think conflict only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy all of our counterparts need to impose dissensions we will defend our allies and our territory the united states is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies so america's unwavering stance in the crisis remains then despite russia and china offering a potential way to reduce tensions. sears and it is all is totally you know comprehensive settlement to the nuclear and other issues plaguing the korean peninsula can be arrived at so me through political and diplomatic channels we reiterate our readiness to help this process through the implementation of the initiative proposed by russia and china. china and russia have proposed a new initiative for the denuclearization of the korean peninsula it is practical

and feasible and aimed at easing the tensions and preventing further escalation. while the so-called global freeze initiative mentioned there calls for north korea to stop its nuclear and ballistic missile testing and in return the u.s. and south korea will hold drills near north korea's territory however the u.s. is strongly dismissed the idea. the idea that some have suggested a so-called freeze for free is insulting. when a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an i.c.b.m. pointed at you you do not take steps to lower your guard no one would do that we certainly want a lot easier to do explores now what other options are on the table for donald trump the u.s. and north korea stuck in a behavioral rut neither seem willing to back down it looks so bad you might think a third world war was imminent but surely no one wants that so how does the world

tackle north korea what are the options well option number one twitter war. president trump has been dropping twitter bombs on pretty every occasion saying pyongyang is looking for trouble and threatening locked unloaded military solutions and south korea and i should point out that it's a u.s. ally is caught in the rhetorical crossfire question is how effective are these twitter bombs there's no reaction except from kim parading more of his ballistic missiles and even saying he now has a hydrogen bomb on to the next to the option number two. trade wars and sanctions the u.s. and u.n. security council have hit north korea with sanctions over and over again since two thousand and six and guess what they don't seem to care and to add more pressure the u.s. has been hinting at seizing all trade with any country that continues to do business with them the united states will look at every country that does business with

north korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions but how realistic would this be that means that approximately eighty countries would be affected and that's not to mention the economic consequences for the u.s. itself option three. the scariest of all which still exists actual all out war the us are the only party openly threatening a military response at the moment and it looks like they could find themselves alone in this fight as their leaders have been clear about not wanting to go down this road. i have to answer no to that i do not see a military solution for north korea i cannot accept it america's closest ally the u.k. is saying that even a conventional war could potentially wipe out the korean peninsula we keep hearing about the need for diplomatic solutions yet we hardly see any progress to resolve the deadlock so where are we now back at the beginning it seems but surely there

should be no limit on diplomatic efforts now dear tutor r.t. without the brics summit president putin also touched on the issue of russian consulates in america during his media conference he said that moscow could take the u.s. to court over the situation concerning their diplomatic properties in san francisco new york and washington d.c. if you're going to use them are you sure our american counterparts didn't let russia use its property it's a violation of our property rights i will tell the foreign ministry to go to court will see how well the highly praised you do shoot system in the us works. i reminded them that on thursday washington demanded russia vacate its concert in san francisco and also to commercial entities in this follows on from president trump's decision to extend sanctions against russia over alleged election meddling responded by demanding the u.s. reduces its diplomatic staff in the country to the same number russia has in

america. because in france a blockading. phase of its closure will have that story because of this to just after this break. public well. when the ruling class is project.

we can all middle of the room. welcome back to r.t. now let's turn to france because dozens of workers there are blockading a persian car factory against its closure police have been deployed there amid rising tension to mourn this cross live to perish so you charlotte been following events charlotte then what more do we know. well what we know is that these all the workers from the g.s.a. factory which is in the central region of france a place called. the city of tools now we've been following this story for

a number of months now and it's because their factory has been under threat of closure since it went into liquidation in december now these guys have again and again protested outside their own site down near the city of toulouse but decided now to take the fight to other factories and today they decided to protest outside that p.s.a. factory that's the carmaker that makes parts of cars and citroen there's been some scuffles outside that factory some of the p.s. and a workers actually joined the g. s. and m. workers in solidarity at that protest against the closure of their factory down west in central france and what we saw is the c.r.s. being deployed this special move force here in france and we've seen them using their muscle today visit lee forcibly removing some of those protesters who are blocking the site and that's because the remainder of the p.s.a.

workers who didn't join them on the picket fence are unhappy about the fact that their factory is now being blockaded today and they're working is being interrupted now the g.s. and then workers upset that they will stay there for an unspecified amount of time these guys are absolutely desperate and to give you a sense of what we've seen from them over the last few months because we've spent many days down with them side their own factory in lawsuit and these guys back in june set ablaze fires outside their factory they have been smashing up parts of the factory now they stopped doing that when they too were told that there was going to be a resolution to the situation this uncertain future of their factory when they were told the majority of the two hundred eighty odd workers who were facing the threat of losing their jobs might actually keep their jobs but it's. seems that they don't feel that enough concrete action has been taken now there is a court judgment in two days' time but that could again be pushed forward into the

future as we've seen many times in the past and what these guys are saying is they're just not happy they're taking action because they feel this is the only way that they can make their voices heard that people can understand that these you know more than two hundred men are likely to lose their jobs because they still don't have any resolution to what's happening outside their factory and instead of keeping the fight now outside their factory they're taking the fight to other factories including p.s.a. the makers of persian citroen and that's because g s n n workers are suppliers of persia in sichuan and they say that they want car companies like that to consolidate and to confirm that they will make bigger orders in the future to help save their own factory. like a shell of thanks that was a shot of dubinsky there thank you. in other news the founder of the red crescent in yemen has died in hospital in the capital city of santa he was unable to receive vital treatment as

a result of saudi arabia's blockade of the country dr. missy passed away at your age of seventy six after a failed heart operation he was prevented from traveling abroad for surgery and local hospitals lack the equipment needed to save his life a spokesperson for the red cross told us that he died the same way as millions of others. first of all i would like to see what you have. to grow cross and red crescent that don't mess us and then you who during his one life so complete me. and. indeed. producing reason millions of the brits suffer in yemen as we speak it is me. that is for going to. have no access to health care. well in total the u.n. has us to make that around twenty thousand people have now been denied crucial

health care to to the saudi bombing campaign and the blockade are kamisese son zubair believes that the saudi government is directly responsible for his father's death well executive director for the world food program david beasley has called on saudi arabia to stop its military activities in yemen. saudi arabia chiffon one hundred percent of the needs of the human crosses in yemen are the stop the war of the crisis option three to both of them. again told us that aid groups are unable to cope with the situation. we speak of a country where we have just reached six hundred and seven thousand suspected cases of kordic that has your job because they got you oh great we'll call it times unprecedented in the century in only four months we see the country well over half

the relation has no access to clean water again to where seven million people wanted as in close to seventy with millions of women and children. through it in my ne so many didn't need to know it best but we can not so good the crisis or do you believe it is. all of those who are good in this country and that many artists can bring about a lessening of that day but something that we see in human. there is no the. lot of i think it. is that if you put a sound card in the letter that has us about. there .

so that brings you up like the fence today here in our state don't forget you can keep across all the stories today at our website at r.t. dot com i'll be back in half an hour on news. that. i don't. want to do as of now but that little bit of corn i oh man this was i mean did i miss all my no. no no. this goes.

being. in these. school fees. mean i was. still. thank you not. having that i have. not yeah. you know why you have. i view.