now says she would prefer snap elections to forming a minority government the coalition talks between merkel's party and the free democrats break down over irreconcilable differences. the united states is just dating north korea as a state sponsor of tours. present trouble raises the stakes over north korea officially branding pyongyang as a backer of terrorism. and the chief advisor to the turkish president calls on parliament to reconsider the country's nato membership tensions between the alliance escalated dramatically after president added one was depicted as an enemy during recent nato drills.

you're watching r t international live from moscow studio with me in india today welcome to the program. merkel now says she would prefer us not elections to the formation of a minority government after negotiations to form a coalition failed gemini's president frank fault in man has urged all science to redouble their efforts to form a coalition and not let down voters who cast their ballots in september's election . everything is now in the hands of the president if you know elections come i should see that's not something i'm afraid of during the election campaign i thought for a four year mandate my point of view is that new elections would be the better path certainly is a surprise to hear from chancellor merkel that she would prefer fresh elections we did hear from the german president frank faltered in my earlier in the day saying

that germany was facing a situation it hadn't seen in its modern i expect from all parties a willingness to make possible the formation of a government in the foreseeable future those who seek democratically given responsibility must ensure a kuwaiti when they hold it in their hands or the reason that this is all out to come about it follows the collapse of coalition talks on sunday evening those talks fell apart after the free democrats the pro-business liberal party here were. trying to put into a coalition along with the environmental greens and her own christie in union well the leader of the free democrats christian linda he got up and walked out but said that he wanted it was better not to govern than to govern badly as he put it well the green got up and walked away just a leader martin schultz he said that there was no chance of a rekindling of the grand coalition he did also say in his statement that if they

would have him he would run as the s.p. days candidate the social democratic candidate for chancellor in fresh elections he also said that a minority government wouldn't be strong enough to reflect and represent germany on the world stage considering the status that germany holds so it seems that angela merkel has somewhat agreed with him on that point and she's put her well her weight behind fresh elections here in germany the best guess on when they would be probably the end of february beginning of march next year. as peter just mentioned the free democrats walked out of the talks because of opposing views on several key issues one stumbling block is the migrant issue in particular whether to limit the number of asylum seekers and whether to allow their family members to reunite with them so let's discuss this issue further and cross live to stephen lies now an independent political observer thanks for joining us on the program stephen merkel she says she'd prefer a snap election to the formation of

a minority government. what do you think about that would not be a step backwards. there will be a step backwards for her i don't think it's really any chance that she's going to be able to make the thirty four percent that she made in september i mean her momentum is clearly down. the populace will be voting populations i think will be fairly disappointed in the outcomes here of her negotiations and my guess is she's basically standing has been hurt and she's on the way out i said this or if you recall. on the election eve that her days are numbered and it's becoming more and more apparent to other observers that her days are numbered. she will probably if she if they have to go through another election i would guess hazard a number something like twenty nine to thirty percent is about all they will do in other words it's she's going to be in even a weaker position than she is right now i mean ideally the c.d.u.

before they go into election should have a new candidate and start out with a fresh face but they're not going to be able to do that very quickly even if you'll put down correct you know and she's obviously advised is why is she. had action that she's likely to. not win perhaps less a majority. she's between a rock and a hard place and where is she going to go her this jamaica coalition has basically not been doable. minority government in germany on a federal level has never been done and nobody really thinks that that would work or would be stable and in other words within a year or two it would probably collapse anyway and you'd have reelections so she doesn't really have any choice other than you know if she had any real on or as a leader she would have stepped back on election night and she didn't so i don't expect her to step down now either but if she had any kind of real honor as

a politician as in other countries this would be automatic. she would step back and say i'm giving it up. new leader of the party and he or she will go into the election with better chances than she will for america was not going to do well in the next election if she loses three to four percent is which i would expect i would expect that those gains would probably fall fairly equally among the s.p.d.m. i probably gained a point the greens were again a point f.t.p. a propaganda point i think probably make a point as well so at the end of the day they're going to be in an even more difficult the same but even weaker position and they were after the last election what are they going to do then. that's the real question i think then we'll be inevitable that we will get another. so-called large coalition between. what the s.p.d. is going to be able to be in

a pretty good bargain position at that point yeah i mean some would say that it doesn't make any sense because you know if there was a minority government as the president is calling for them to you know sort this out she's already in a weak position isn't she you know if she if she. were the greens for example that only give a forty four percent so how likely is that snap election to happen and what happens if she has to go ahead with a minority government. minority of i don't see a minority government with the greens it's just the stresses between the very and half of the c.d.u. the c.s.u. and the greens are so large. i don't think that that's going to work. the snap elections or reelection this is probably the most likely outcome because the s.p.d. i had thought up until this morning that the s.p.d. is now playing difficult to get tough to get and that they're going to step in and be the coalition partner and then we'll have this large coalition again but they'd

categorically said no which surprises me but maybe that's also just a way of playing hard to get and in the end of a couple weeks they do to decide to form a government with the s.p.d. in which case though the s.p.d. is probably going to ask for about fifty percent of the minister positions because they will be in such a strong position as merkel is over they've got america over a barrel she's got nowhere to go so that's my guess either either a large coalition now the s.p.d. where the s.p.d. really picks up a lot of important minister positions or reelection and then will have the large coalition because there's really no other nothing else that can be done and the p.d. will probably end up doing better than they were in the past and the large coalition will have more to say the more important position. it is complicated. that they do get to gather and go ahead with fashion. that you've talked about what you think

about that and the outcomes and what they could be let's go back to the negotiations of just happened why in your opinion do you think the free democrats out of those negotiations. the the details of the negotiations were as far as i know we're not really made public and you would sort of glimpses here and there of what the issues were. but we don't really know my guess is the. the the f t p they took a pummeling in the last in previous elections where they got wiped out and were thrown right out of the parliament i think really tired the lesson that what they cannot do what they used to do very often in the past was they would sign up for any kind of color just to get into government no matter what a bad deal it was tax increases all kinds of things that just went totally against the grain of the f.t.p. i think and then it resulted in the aleutian i think was two thousand and sixteen

there would've been two thousand and twelve. seventeen would have to as a thirteen story. after they got in iowa in two thousand thirteen i guess the they learned their lesson that they can't they can't in germany was swallow any frog so they just. swallow what's coming with the green party for instance. it's just it's just too far apart so they decided we're better off not to go that way in the past that hurt us terribly my guess is being tough now if it comes to reelection will will go well with the f.t.p. build sort of i think they had twelve percent or eleven percent now probably gain or percent or two because they're just showing that they have a backbone this time. they're going to laud it out. so we could talk about this for hours goodly but we've run out of time stephen meissner an independent political observer thanks for joining us here with your opinions on r.t. . the us president has officially declared north korea

a state sponsor of terrorism he's placed pyongyang back on the list of such states from which it had been removed by george w. bush in an attempt to solve his nuclear deal negotiations if the united states is designating north korea as a state sponsor of terrorists should happened a long time ago should have been two years ago. this designation. impose further sanctions and penalties on north korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderers regime tomorrow the treasury department will be announcing that additional sanctions and a very large one on north korea and this will be going on over the next two weeks it'll be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over two week period. time is now is human rights attorney and co-founder of noise the peace and demilitarized sation n.

korea erik's iraq can thanks for joining us on the program eric let's start with. what trump has said he's branded north korea a state sponsor of terrorism what do you think the basis is for him to have gone ahead and done this. well the banter about the term terrorism a lot because it gets people afraid it is the buzzword since the cold war to justify certain military actions and other actions but frankly the designation violates the very law that it's set to be based upon which requires there to be repeated support for state sponsored international acts of terrorism by doing that we're faced with a situation where there is not that kind of evidence against north korea we can disagree with their human rights we can believe in the nonproliferation of nuclear

weapons but in reality that doesn't meet the definition so i believe that the reason we're seeing this at this point in time is more connected to the fact that the united states is frustrated that it can't effectuate the change it wants to see in north korea with military action that military action isn't an option and so it wants to appear like it's taking further actions but this idea of additional sanctions is probably a bit hollow because there are so many sanctions now in place that i don't see it adding that much more to the debt to make a difference eric but you know you just said that you don't see any evidence that they've carried out international acts of terrorism repeated acts as you've said how is it that the united states has been able to come out and say. that north korea is a state sponsor of terrorism then and go forward with this. well the

the whole premise of this act that provides for declaring someone a terrorist state is something that's been by a political football in the united states for decades presidents even republican presidents put four countries on and taken four off over the years it arose a lot came out of the wars in central america during the reagan administration where we were actually supporting the contras who were a group inflicting terrorise ism on a elected state in nicaragua so consequently this has been a political football back and forth i think that this administration has shown its lack of following the facts if you will and so it isn't necessarily something about the facts and so it becomes almost comical when you say

a question you know it's a propre a question under most circumstances is how can they justify doing this but they seem to want to have a particular result and will steer that way regardless of the facts this is the situation we find ourselves in in our country under this administration now and so consequently we're going to have to step up and demand the kind of proof that's necessary in that regard but this shouldn't change the approach that what are you going to do about this situation and without direct talks or without china and russia getting involved and facilitating north and south korea reaching a separate agreement on the side which is being discussed these days we are going to be left with the u.s. lobbying its labels of terrorism over because at that point it justifies the further isolation one would argue it justifies a type of dehumanizing of

a country to the. that it might support military action going forward so we have to be careful and aware of that but hopefully it can lead to some solutions and some talks and perhaps the u.s. is looking for another thing to trade off in these talks but really it isn't about state sponsored terror at this point it's about in action on the international community to force the u.s. and north korea to sit down at the table finally yeah i mean if we look back in time it was two thousand and eight wasn't it when north korea was removed off list in a bid to salvage nuclear talks you know talking about diplomacy here but we haven't really seen that half way from the trumpet ministration we've seen lots of threats of military action very harsh rhetoric going on what kind of reaction do you think they're going to get from pyongyang and he's taken another step. and some might say

the wrong direction. well the same response that we get other technical insults if you will that are lobbied against. the regime in north korea it's not constructive it doesn't lead to dialogue you don't do name calling and labeling and then say hey do you want to talk and so consequently it's an effort to demean and isolate and perhaps justify your not talking to them because we don't talk to terrorists and so it's a backdoor way to try to prevent dialogue and diplomacy the only thing that can one of the primary situation and to maintain the instability that's going on there but it's still you know hopefully the countries will see past that and they see the need to sit down but this just delays it it delays diplomacy it gives the

industry justification not to engage in diplomacy at a time that that is the only solution to provide a safe region and our way out of this mess ok eric serat can human rights attorney and co-founder of lawyers for pace and demilitarize ation n. korea thank you so much for your expertise and coming on to r.t. thank you. so his presence senior adviser has called on parliament to reconsider the country's nato membership. nato is behind all the coup de tars and turkey's dependence on others the difference here it is time for us to reconsider our motor membership there are growing voices from inside turkey calling to reconsider its nato membership now turkey has the second largest military inside the nato alliance after the united states but tensions reached a maximum in the last few days after

a military training exercise was conducted last week in norway now during that drill a poster was unveiled that had the names of enemies of the alliance and listed there it was the turkish president the one as well as a photograph of the founding leader of turkey ataturk now are in protest against that the turks withdrew their forty soldiers from the military training exercise in the turkish president has said that there was an affront on his nation. this is not a policy that it was carried out by an independent civilian conned of nato and an investigation is being carried out at the same time the defense minister of norway has also been but unclear as having none of that it has refused to accept these apologies and the turkish president as one has said that an apology cannot cover a matter a simple apology is not enough. the sudar suicide rate among

police officers in france has hit an all time high this year alone more than forty law enforcement professionals took their own lives increasingly poor working conditions and stress related to terror threats have been pointed to as potential triggers artie's charlotte spoke to an officer who's made not one but two attempts on her own life. i was considered as a troublemaker i also had problems in my private life and with my children i felt abandoned you spend your entire life to build your personal and professional life and one day you say to yourself everything would be better without me. o'hurley not her real name is an officer with moving two decades of experience having joined the police at nineteen she was very motivated and excited about the job but yes later the pressure of her work drove her to suicide attempts the latest just seven months ago our ministration is taking decisions on the people's anger is tending against

us we are suffering from the image our government created for us today many people are calling for policeman to be killed. the most important mission of the french police today is preventing terror attacks yet the offices themselves have become the primary targets of the hardest it's. how all of. an impact has the threat of terrorists and how to live police. we suffered enormously physically and psychologically from the terror attacks we worked extremely hard but that was our

duty what was really bad is that we were not given the tools to fight with terrorism someplace men received new weapons some received training but not all of us the measures that they have introduced were minuscule. all highly tells me this suicides amongst police she'd by no means been to as isolated cases. they always say that these the personal issues we will stop saying that please some of the hits traumatised by their work they decide to commit suicide more easily than the others why not because they have weapons on them how many of them hang themselves throw themselves on the trains take pills my female colleague forty nine years old killed herself last week with a hunting rifle. or. is one of the lucky ones dozens of others have succumbed to the extreme pressures they face she says there was only

one reason why she pulled through and that was her children. i realize that my child will come home that day and it saved my life but the lack of humanity in place nowadays leads to the situation when many of my colleagues prefer to die instead of fighting. charlotte r.t. . france. tensions in the middle east have prompted an emergency meeting in cairo of the foreign ministers of arab league nations the gathering was convened at the request a society of eight wanted to discuss iraq iran backed lebanese has been and. connects the dots in a regional power struggle. the background to this begins with the latest attempts by saudi arabia to really escalate their attempts to isolate iran which is very accuse of being aggressive in the region they say iran is supporting a number of regional players groups like lebanon's hezbollah and they accuse the

iranians of trying to interfere in arab affairs and it really comes against the backdrop of those rising tensions it comes in the wake of even more open admissions for example by the israelis and we heard from the i.d.f. chief of staff guard the isen caught saying that israel and saudi arabia were in complete consensus on the issue of iran and what they see as the threat by iran and also with the israeli military figure there saying that he was willing to share intelligence and israel's willing to share intelligence with saudi arabia which would be something quite remarkable considering that collaboration between the two sides is now very open and so this meeting held by the arab league of foreign ministers yesterday was set up in the light soup can both iran and also hezbollah in lebanon. the silence over the brutal attacks of iran through agents in the region will not make any arab capital safe from ballistic missiles. that the

iranians will change their policies and that they received the message over arab but not every arab country sent the foreign minister iraq sent a deputy qatar. surprisingly perhaps considering very tensions with saudi arabia they also didn't send their foreign minister in fact just recently the saudi foreign minister accused cuts out of supporting what he said were terrorist groups and lebanon as well the foreign minister here he didn't go and attend that meeting either so an indication that those countries while they don't want to have any conflict with saudi arabia they also don't want to be coming out and openly condemning iran because many of those countries are allied with iran so it's not the same page that the spark for all of these tensions in the region in particular in lebanon was the resignation of the lebanese prime minister saad hariri he

resigned on live on television but he was in saudi arabia when he issued that resignation leading many to question exactly how free he was and whether it was his own decision or that of his saudi backers he's expected to return from paris his trip to tomorrow evening just in time for the lebanese independence day celebrations he will meet with the president michel i own. oblique confirm his resignation but there are those who say his children and his wife who has returned to saudi arabia so how free is he exactly to operate when his family are still in riyadh. analysts and commentators sharmeen believes the scene at the foreign ministers' meeting in cairo will only deepen in the future. the enemy of my enemy is my friend even if the enemy of my enemy was my traditional enemy or in my normal it'll be at some point in the past that is the situation the idea of it still is

shameful as many other countries are still a shamed of coming out in the open with that relationship such a push one between saudi arabia and israel i don't think it will be useful for the whole region and it will help in the prosperity and stability of the region because it's not based on. you know just to show of the main problem in the region that is the arab israeli conflict. at least twenty two author docs have been arrested in israel after protesting the jailing of eleven men of the community accused of dodging military service. this was just the latest demonstration against

a recent court decision to lift an exemption for ultra orthodox jews allowing them to skip israel's mandatory army draft several members of the religious minority have been arrested and jailed as a result including eleven students sentenced this week to a ninety day prison term failing to report to medically service serving in the military has long been a controversial topic for ultra orthodox jews they argue that their religious studies are more important. of our top stories this hour i'll be back at the top of the hour with more. r.t. america was required to register as a foreign agent i have prominent media outlets and civil liberties groups largely silent also making sense of saudi and lebanese politics and about american football

. i'm after a time here we're going underground just twenty four hours away from m.p.'s checking their pockets and going through the books as they announce the details of last month's political donations coming up in the show we are asking wiki leaks lawyer if despite denials the u.k. crown prosecution service on the key a storm of purposely deleted e-mails and breach did so.