little bit. from. the headlines tonight donald trump officially recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel the move is already facing criticised across the muslim and arab world. also to come after years of terror i still no longer hold any territory in syria the russian military says the group has been defeated there. and after months of speculation president officially announces his bid for re-election in twenty eight .

hello welcome she's gone ten o'clock here in moscow here watching r.t. international now donald trump has announced that the time has come for the u.s. to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel there were already there was already a wave of criticism to the proposal trump also gave the green light to moving the american embassy to jerusalem from tel aviv therefore i have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. now russia will not boycott the upcoming winter games in south korea that's despite olympic chiefs insisting russian athletes can only take part under a neutral flag following accusations of widespread doping president putin says he will not prevent anybody from competing if they want to but he did criticize the i.o.c.

saying their decision was based on claims from an unreliable source that being that gaudy chunk of the former head of russia's anti doping agency. which is the. most of this has been certain accusations that are not proven and are generally baseless they are founded on the testament of a man whose moral ethical as well as psychological condition is questionable there's nothing more. out of this privilege of. the process continues and there is the threat they will burn all of our best athletes one by one. what symbol will be left with not the team of the first but the team of the fourth and the fifth. what on tuesday the i.o.c. did ban team russia from the twenty eighteen winter games to be held in south korea however it does claim that individual athletes who can prove they are clean will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag. these you know i did ask lee so will participate beating

individual or team competitions under the name olympic else lead from russia. they will compete with a uniform the bearing this name of. the olympics. the olympic and several will be played in history. no one thought about what it actually means for the athletes to go to the olympics under a neutral flag it simply emerged out of our national sport. russian athletes won't give up on their country or their flag as this is always the hogs. deceiving the russian military didn't i was that syria has been completely liberated from islamic state terrorists in the studio and i with me is that

murdered with the latest on this. after years of conflict this is a landmark announcement isn't it is the islamic state of syria and iraq the so-called islamic state is a state no longer by for all intents and purposes as a as a state as a caliphate it has been it has been destroyed and as a fighting faction is a serious contender in the syrian civil war there are still hot spots and the odd the isolated pockets of blood to me a putin added but with the liberation of the west bank of the euphrates river in the majority the populated part of their sort of province which is isis heartland their last remaining bastion isis is darden and seven hundred ninety nine days after russia got involved in september two thousand and fifteen when isis was arguably at its zenith.

when the russian operation began and isis held more territory in syria than any other faction he seemed the times they seemed unstoppable two years in a few months song the caliphate has been reduced to a comp and villages and uninhabited dess it wasn't russia's air force alone that did this of course the u.s. led coalition its allies on the ground played a huge part in all of this but we've been covering the syrian civil war in depth before isis even had its name for jihad ists hijacked the rebel schools and he had some of the most memorably memorable movements filmed by my colleagues and i.

this is the ad base in life akio from which russian jets launching this against this targets here in syria. there it's. time the pilots are ready to go it's a moment's notice. it's quite incredible to be standing here in the power of the desert decades since fifty of palmira. people around the outfeed would be reduced to dust in this.

amphitheater laid down by the romans almost two thousand years ago that isis staged one of its sickest massacres the russian military considers it the crowding jewel of the operation here in syria. you can see had just some of the impressive military hardware that isis have in that possession that has made the battle for palmeiro so tough way extremely close to isis positions less than two kilometers away and.

were as a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial quarter if there is order the battle is said to be theists isis fired back as we filmed shells began falling wall around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. life even did as ordered is still far from normal but at least they won't be starving to death and the more. so remember how desperate it all seemed in the early days when russia go to involved nobody knew how this would end whether ice is would be defeated or whether they would you know they would be will timothy victorious there was so much.

uncertainty and the pundits said that this would be russia's second gonna start of course didn't play out that well but ultimately this wasn't russia's victory or the u.s. led coalition's victory it was honestly it was the syrians it was the thousands and thousands who died who gave their lives to defeat isis those who stood up to jihad even but it seemed that nothing could stop them fortunately it's unlikely to end here many isis fighters have escaped or gone underground sleeper cells will terrorize the world for years to come but now they'll no longer have their caliphates to fight for. the thank you that was. there well with our through essentially driven out of syria as we said the still a question of what to do with the troops remaining fighters in neighboring iraq were from there we can go live now to negotiate down after reporting on events. we were just mentioning there about the prospect of. in iraq and the chances of

meeting them there. the chances of that happening what sort of time scale. well indeed the chances are could be pretty big given giving moscow a giving moscow's very tempting proposal to washington now most who has outright suggested has outright expressed its willingness today to join the u.s. led coalition that has been conducting air strikes both in syria and here in iraq now we are of course yet to hear from the united states back on this proposal on this latest offer of moscow but there has been a rather peculiar reaction to this story from donald trump the u.s. president has raised the fact that quote i still has been knocked out of both iraq and syria and this may leave one wondering just. graphically where has it been

knocked out too because i still can't really flee to say saudi arabia or iran or jordan no this doesn't work this way with ice or it either flees from iraq to syria or vice versa and we've already seen these such cases for example when washington was bombing eisel in mosul the remaining terrorists the surviving terrorists would flee into syria over the border and really become a pain in the neck for both russian and syrian forces and now with moscow in damascus giving them a pounding on the syrian soil well i still just doesn't really have anywhere else to go but back to iraq and this i should say fluid situation over the border really underlines underscores one one fact one need the need for the cooperation between the two militaries the united states and russian because the relations between the

two the two forces have been quite strange very strange i should say especially after the us forces u.s. forces occasionally bombing u.s. troops on their soil or when u.s. allies on the ground in syria would shoot down syrian jets so this would really all boil down to washington's response which could come as soon as tomorrow because on thursday the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is meeting russia's top diplomat sergey lavrov so really interesting story and really interesting to see what would come out of those talks on thursday sure ok thank you go that was you go she done a fair for us in iraq. and other news this evening fatima peyton has officially announced his bid for the twenty eighteen presidential election in russia with more on this his. it was widely expected that lattimer putin would decide to run for reelection next year however he has played korea on the topic so

many times i in recent months and one can help but wonder whether he was genuinely conflicted on whether to run for the presidency again or whether he was just being really good at keeping a secret and playing the media nevertheless we were put out of our misery when he said this but you grams of frank you for your support yes i will present my candidacy for the president of the russian federation. my super bowl sure thank you for your reaction but first of all for you. and i was rumored that this big announcement would come earlier in the day when he attended a volunteers forum here in moscow in fact i was here ready and waiting to bring you the breaking news of his decision however he played quite a once again and also seemed to seek validation from the audience there and they seemed very clear on what decision he should make. sure you remember if i make such

a decision. and the people close to you support it. but it still should prove to be an interesting race over the coming weeks and months with quite an eclectic mix of candidates throwing their hats into the ring one of the most prominent being a stop child who's been gaining headlines around the world she's the former reality t.v. presenter she's also a poster playboy amongst other things that she's considered to be the russian paris hilton and what's also quite interesting about her is that she and t. putin she's attended opposition rallies and she's promised to unite people against vladimir putin one other interesting thing about her is that she happens to be the daughter of the former mayor of some. petersburg a man who vladimir putin himself has referred to as his mentor in those early days

so that should prove quite interesting but it girls aside there are an unprecedented number of women entering the race for the presidency next year which is quite extraordinary because it's the first time we've seen any woman enter the race for the presidency in russia in fourteen years and of course there are the usual suspects as well including the liberal democratic party head of lady mia she were not scare the communist party is again r.d. zyuganov and the liberal yabloko parties grigori yavlinsky up five also business on but boris titov who is from the party of growth he has pledged to champion the rights of entrepreneurs so quite an eclectic mix there for the russian people to sink their teeth into ahead of the elections in march next year mickey and reporter but we also spoke with adam garry about this he's the man of the managing editor of the news website the dot com. president putin will be all too aware of the unfinished challenges that remain ahead and that will certainly remain after march

of next year these include further consolidation and cooperation of the one by one road project of which russia is incredibly important it includes finalizing the peace process that russia has instigated for the syrian arab republic finding a loss peaceful solution for the free people of donbass finding a peaceful solution to the our. car bar conflict as well as using the momentum of the brics and other international bodies like the shanghai cooperation organization to the rise the rising east and south as people tend to call them this will include making the gold system more centered in asia rather than in europe and north america it may include increased trade will certainly include i should say increased trade in national currencies between partners in southeast asia and your asia and even africa in some cases especially if we're

talking about metallic standards we're talking the russian federation is going to introduce a crypto ruble next year joining venezuela being the only two countries to officially have the crypto currency and then of course there's the matter of increasing people's wages without damaging inflation so all of these very important things are on the table of any president and it seems that for dimia putin wants to ask the russian people for their trust so that he can continue to work on all of these incredibly crucial matters now within the last hour donald trump has recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel we'll have reaction to that just after the break .

if you trust the mainstream media well then you're in the minority sadly a great deal of media today is not designed to inform but rather confirm political biases this approach of the news is not only polarizing but it's also lowering journalistic standards this is why readers and viewers seek their news elsewhere. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to the press this is what will before three in the morning can't

be good. i'm interested always in the waters in the. first six. it has. the. earth. and the earth. welcome back you're watching r.t. international now donald trump has announced that the time has come for the u.s.

to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel it was already a wave of criticism to the proposal trump also gave the green light to moving the american embassy to jerusalem from tel aviv therefore i have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. while artie's more pain and i twenty four news correspondents giordano miller and mohamed al kissing joined us a bit earlier khalil is in new york and jordan are mater injury slim and the west bank respectively. he is recognizing. as the capital of israel and he's talking of you moving the us embassy to the city of jerusalem in compliance with that decision now he says that he is fully committed still to the possibility of a two state solution he says that he's looking for

a quote good deal for both the israelis and the palestinians this is how he put it when speaking to the country this decision is not intended in any way to reflect a departure from our strong commitment to facilitate a lasting peace agreement. we want an agreement that is a great deal for the israelis and a great deal for the palestinians now there's been quite a reaction internationally we've heard from a longtime u.s. ally saudi arabia criticizing the decision we've heard from turkey another longtime u.s. ally and member of nato also criticizing the decision now we've also heard voices from europe we've heard to recent made from the u.k. we've heard leaders of the european union as well as the u.n. secretary general all reacting to this dramatic move. be used at final stop those issues. must be resolved through guided legal situations between the two

parties a way must be found through negotiations to resole the status of jerusalem as the future of both states the status of jerusalem should be determined as a negotiator in a negotiated settlement between the israelis and the palestinians and jerusalem should. form a shan't capital now the move has also been controversial here in the united states we've heard a lot of criticism of donald trump for taking this move but we've also heard a lot of praise from him for a forum for doing it from supporters of israel here in the usa so it seems like no matter where you go in the world this is quite a controversial decision that donald trump has taken. sculler but we'll get some reaction from the ground around the world because we're joined by militias in the center there she's based in jerusalem at the moment and i twenty four news correspondent the reaction from israeli officials has been one of their sound resoundingly praise for this decision by the u.s. president this is a historic day president's decision is an important step towards peace for there is

no place that doesn't include jerusalem as the capital of the state of israel overall this is a decision that israelis have been praising now if we look at the israeli arab lawmakers of course a very different reaction there the head of the major party here that serves in the israeli knesset releasing a statement saying that trump is a quote hater that he is not interested in any kind of peace between israelis and palestinians by making because he's made this kind of move which really destroys he said the chances for peace in the west bank the same question to you mohammed what's been the reaction we just heard from the palestine liberation organization just moments ago that said that your state solution is dead right now after the announcement that was made by president we also heard from the house movement

in gaza that said that this announcement will open the gates of hell in the region we also heard from cairo president address that sisi and egyptian government said that it strongly rejects the announcement by president and it condemns it at the highest level. just picking up on something that donald trump said earlier he said that you know america is not taking a position on any contested borders by making this decision but looking at the reaction of the people certainly don't see it that way. they don't see it that way at all day saying that despite the soft bedding. of the language and then now survivors present trouble he is in fact is taking sides he sided with israel and that's why they are rejecting him as a mediator they are saying now that the united states is a dishonest broker in trying to revive the stalled peace process and they cannot accept the u.s. to be the mediator in trying to revive the peace process and get to

a final resolution between the israelis and the palestinians. right where we can get thoughts now martin he's a journalist based in beirut martin good evening to you we're hearing the u.s. and israel say that this is an important step towards peace but listening to the hostile reaction it's hard to see how that can happen. yeah andrew i think i have to go along with that i don't think from what we've seen today from trump that he's remotely interested in putting his his weight behind a real genuine peace process in the middle east or they're just so many conflicting signals and when you've got sort of big players in the regional oh saudi arabia jordan egypt sent all lining up on all apparently traditionally u.s. allies but all saying that this is a huge mistake is going to inflame muslim tensions do it and you just turn your back on that and just pull all of your collateral into investing into

a centrally just the israeli government with perhaps some peripheral exchange with the palestinians then you have to question you know really what's going on are we witnessing something completely different here my my own take on this is that i don't think trump is really that interested in peace i think is more interested in causing crises in the region because that's one of the ways how he manipulates media through constantly finding subjects to form the basis of this constant almost hourly twitter fest which the u.s. media feast off who do you think will perhaps step forward as a pace mediator here because looking at what's happened over the last hour or so it seems that the u.s. has relinquished that position. well i can't imagine i mean what what we've seen is that trump seems to be showing the supremum ultimate almost blinded dogma of of respect and reverence to the israelis and something bordering along the lines of

borderline contempt for all the big players in the region i mean you know for him to go forward and expect any kind of movement on a peace settlement two state solution which doesn't include jerusalem. as the new capital of palestinian state i mean i think i don't know how you can do that without those big players i just mentioned i mean you know those turkey and egypt and jordan and you know they will definitely have to be part of the process and if he's already turning his back on them now one wonders really how we can go forward i think have to remember that the embassy itself will take a few years to get together and it's not as many reports have been today it's not the first time we've had embassies interest in the been quite a few of the years so we will have to assume that he'll be around in a second administration to pull this one off but i think he's already showing that he has a total utter lack of respect not only for the big regional players who could make

the peace process but peace process happen but also for the apparatus in washington the state department for example you know if this is really a guy who's gone off the scale and literally swallowed the israeli press release. is it fair to say martin he just hasn't got his finger on the pulse because he you know he says he wants to move towards peace in that we are not taking a position on any contested borders he says and we want the status quo to remain in jerusalem just look at the reaction. it might be it may well be that this is just another example of extraordinary ignorance on the point on the part of trump misplaced an awful lot of confidence in his son in law or jury question or two to handle these negotiations cushion or in turn has placed and given a free rein in the region to the saudis to more or less. go ahead with the rather irresponsible and i'm not very well orchestrated interventionist policies

threatening lebanon just recently for example with instability qatar blowing up you know but i think if we come back to trump what we have here is a is a leader who as i said earlier just really i think his policy around the world is just to create create short term spurts of excitement of crises which which keep on feeding this this twitter sensation of lazy american journalists who spend most of the time following his tweets an hourly basis the rather investigations story you know i think the real story in the middle east is trump wants to continue to create a crisis there and the bigger the crisis the better because we've seen the increase of ansel's we've seen lockheed martin's shares go through the roof it's all really about creating tension in the region and cleaning up in arms deals selling of sixteen's to all the neighboring states you know while keeping the what you consider to be amiable diplomatic relations and keeping the the middle east peace

process going but i think my take on it is the show himself in the foot right from the right from the off martin is always really good to get you take going to have to leave it at that was martin jay a journalist based in beirut for us thank you. thank you for watching we'll have more nice in just over half an hour. i'm afshin rattansi we're going underground is today a court in belfast holds a hearing into three dissident republicans charged with conspiracy to murder in their fight for a united ireland coming over the show to get whether it's a bit going bubble or the demise of the u.s. federal reserve we.