breaking news in r.t. donald trump officially recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel the move is already fiercely criticized across the muslim and arab world. also to come after years of terror i saw no longer hold any territory in syria the russian military says the group has been defeated there. and after months of speculation president putin officially announces his bid for reelection in twenty. welcome you're watching r.t. international now our breaking news this hour donald trump has within the last hour or so announced that the time has come for the u.s. to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel there was already

a wave of criticism to the proposal across the muslim and arab world 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. so that was donald trump there speaking just over an hour ago and we will be getting a live reaction to you from new york and the west bank and jerusalem that's to come over the next few minutes. in the meantime the russian military has announced that syria has been completely liberated from islamic state terrorists as the if has the latest. the sioux called islamic state of syria and iraq is a state no more for all intents and purposes says the russian defense ministry it is being destroyed as

a fractured iraq still hot spots and isolated pockets with putin added but with the liberation of the west bank of the euphrates river isis has done seven hundred and ninety days off to russia got involved in september two thousand and fifteen when isis was arguably at its peak fitness the settlers. when the russian operation began isis held more territory in syria than any other faction two years in a few months on the caliph it has been reduced to clubs to villages and i don't have it to desert wasn't the russian air force saloon that did this the u.s. led coalition also played

a huge pot we've been covering the syrian civil war in depth before isis even had its name before jihad ists hijacked the rebels cause he had some of the more memorable moments filmed by my colleagues and i. are. this is the ad big enough akio from which russian jets. against this comic state targets here in syria. there it's. the pilots are ready to go at a moment's notice. it's quite incredible to be standing here in the pulse of the engine fifty of palmira

on people around the outfeed would be reduced to dust in this amphitheater laid down by the romans or most 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 the possession that has made the battle for palmira so tough we're extremely close to isis positions less than two kilometers away and.

we're it's a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial quarter of their resort the battle is said to be fear isis fired back as we filmed shells began falling well around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. life indeed as order is still far from normal but at least they won't be starving to death and the more. ultimately it wasn't russian or american jets that played the decisive role in this

these victory belongs to the syrians thousands and thousands who fought and died to defeat isis those who stood up to jihad even when it seemed nothing could stop them unfortunately it's unlikely that this will end here any isis fighters have escaped or god on the ground sleeper cells will terrorize the world for years to come but now they'll no longer have their caliphate to fight for. gas they're for porting well with russia saying that i still has been essentially driven out of syria the still the question of what to do with the remaining fighters in neighboring countries particularly iraq where we can go there now and cross live to you donna. good evening to you. russia has a proposal to you doesn't it about what to do with the situation in iraq.

well indeed the proposal is very tempting because russia has effectively expressed its outright willingness to join the u.s. led coalition against i saw the very same coalition that has been conducting air strikes against terrorists both in syria and iraq now of course russia has yet to hear back from washington on this but donald trump has already made a statement and a rather peculiar one in relation to the russia's announcement today the u.s. president. has said that it has the u.s. president has praised. the fact that quote i still has been knocked out of syria and knocked out of iraq and just geographically speaking this may leave one wondering where i still has been knocked out too because i still can't really flee to say saudi arabia or to iran or to jordan i still only flees either from iraq to syria or vice versa and we've already seen such cases for example when washington

was pounding eisel in mosul they ran over the border and became a pain in the neck for both russian and syrian forces and now with moscow and damascus giving i still a pounding well their only escape route is back to iraq or just to get to the border and so this i should say fluid situation kind of stresses the fact stresses the need of cooperation between the two militaries between the russian and the u.s. military and relationship but there is no love lost between them really the relationship was already very strained especially after washington bombing after the u. the u.s. led coalition bombing syrian troops on their home soil or one u.s. allies on the ground in syria would shoot down syrian jets and then the russian announcement about the almost full about the de facto victory over iceland syria

has already seen some disagreement as well because the pentagon has said the pentagon has said that russia that the pentagon has said that they choose to respectfully disagree with the russians and the russians have the russian military has responded with concern that this is just a pretext to leave u.s. forces on the ground in syria even after the operation even after the victory over eisel so all of this would really it's really to be really interesting to see. see how all of this unfold dispassionately with the u.s. state secretary rex tillerson meeting with the russian top diplomats regular. steve young a lot of them for disco to discuss that. thank god that was hugo should ask their forests in iraq. now let's return to our top story this hour because donald trump has announced that the time has come for the u.s. to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel there was already

a wave of criticism to the proposal across the muslim and arab world from also gave the green light to moving the american embassy to jerusalem from tel aviv well that came out how a show from the palestine solidarity campaign joins us live now for some reaction to this. good evening a controversial proposal to say the least do you feel for some a feeling that this could actually unify the arab world against israel what are your thoughts. but first of all it's an irresponsible act it's an illegal act and it's illegal because jerusalem is jerusalem is illegally occupied united nations security council resolution after resolution testified to that the judgment on the illegal israeli war testifies to that so here we have an american president sanctioning something that is illegal iraq acknowledging jerusalem as

the capital of israel when part of it is occupied will it unify the arab world well it should the whole palestinian issue has in the past unified the arab world but israel has been working very hard to try and create fissures between them that it's been working to try and convince them that it is not the most important issue the most important issue is iran. some of the new young leaders in the arab world seem to have bitten on that they're actually beginning to do some of israel's bidding proved donald trump in putting pressure on the palestinians to accept actions like this. so what can we expect then think over the coming days because just looking at the initial reaction a lot of it has been extremely hostile. well i mean first of all to the palestinian people and i'm a palestinian myself i'm from jerusalem myself this is what i call black wednesday

i will remember this date it will be etched on my memory the sixth of sept september when donald trump supposedly handed jerusalem to israel on a plate so to us it will be something unfortunately yet another anniversary of the palestinians will have it will make the pursuit of peace more difficult it was really quite laughable that donald trump said what he said about recognizing that the jerusalem as israel's capital and then said this would aid peace somehow but he didn't tell us how if it is to aid peace why is it the us state department has been warning the embassies to take care about the reaction if it was such a good move then it would have been received well by everyone but in fact almost every country around the world has condemned the decision the british government the e.u. . including of the including france have said that this is a bad move canada has said that it doesn't agree with this so how can this be in

any way helpful towards peace he's playing to the gallery the pro israel lobby that he promised to do this for when he spoke. a park during the campaign his election campaign he said he would move the embassy and he would say i'm acting on my promises well there are promises that should be broken because they're bad promises and this is one of them if trump was really serious about peace he would be telling the israelis to leave occupied east jerusalem the rest of the occupied palestinian land and making peace with the palestinians but he is surrounded by advisers who are themselves pro israelis that they fund some of them the settlement enterprise itself so you're hardly going to get them saying to him we should ask israel to leave occupied jerusalem. the american ambassador was appointed. friedman has thirds and independent american so this is what the palestinians face and what this

does do to the peace process is it says america can have no role in it because it not only is not an honest broker it is the pro israeli government it is the. very right wing israeli government that has no interest in peace but in expansion. appreciate your thoughts are going to have to leave it there that was coming from the palestine solidarity campaign thank you but we can get more global reaction now because we've got three correspondents at the ready artie's kind of modern is in new york we're also joined by our twenty four news correspondent mohammed saying he's in the west bank and also. in jerusalem khaled let's start with you in new york we're seeing army just over the last hour or so a lot of hostile reaction how did donald trump justify his decision. well we've heard from donald trump his announcement that the usa is recognizing

jerusalem as the capital of israel as well as moving the u.s. embassy to that city now and his remarks to it to tended 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 we've also heard from various allies of the united states in the region turkey a member of nato has been very critical of the decision has as has saudi arabia long time not long ago now we've also heard some reactions from europe now we know the french leader has called this an illegal action and said that it is a violation of international law we've also heard from leaders of the european union the united nations as well as to resume in the united kingdom of this is what we've heard from around the world. jerusalem eased

a final stop those issues. that must be resolved through direct legal situations to between the two parties a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of jerusalem as the future coffeyville of the states the status of jerusalem should be determined as a negotiated in a negotiated settlement between the israelis and the palestinians and jerusalem should ultimately form to share form a shared capital now here in the united states israel supporters are certainly jubilant but other parties are quite upset with the decision it's been quite a mixed reaction here in the usa as well so across the planet there's been a lot of controversy in response to donald trump statements but as he reiterated many times during his speech making the announcement he insists that he is still committed to a two state solution so we'll just have to see what further reactions develop ok things kind of let's get some reaction from the west bank because they're standing patiently is mohammed same from twenty four thanks very much for coming on mohammed

just tell us what's been the reaction in the west bank because donald trump has been selling this is a step towards peace but many people believe it's a step backwards. will soon after u.s. president don't trump concluded his speech president mahmoud abbas in a televised speech an angry speech to be quite honest with you. the decision by the u.s. president and criticize this decision saying that jerusalem will look for ever be an arab. capital of the palestinian future state and no one can change its identity let's have a listen to what the president had to say. in your head these deplorable and unacceptable measures deliberately undermine all peace efforts and proclaim that the us are abandoning the rule of sponsor of the peace process that they have played over the past decade. also the.

general secretary of. and the chief negotiator for the palestinians said that the u.s. by making this decision takes itself out of being an honest mediator that it's no longer someone that the palestinians can trust in terms of having them work out a deal between them and israel there has been minor clashes throughout the west bank and in fact we've heard that there has been some demonstrations in east jerusalem but the more in east jerusalem as well as in other parts of the west bank and gaza there will be general strike and calls for days of rage tomorrow and friday we've heard also reports of demonstrations in jordan and also in. the capital of in front of the u.s. embassy as well as demonstrations a few hundred turks in front of the u.s. consulate in istanbul white condemn nation throughout the middle east and the

muslim world with a decision that the president and trump talk by moving the embassy from the city of tel aviv in israel to jerusalem as well as announcing that jerusalem is the capital of israel ok thanks mohammed let's get the israeli perspective now because we can go to donna miller she's in jerusalem donna what's the response that we've seen reaction from the he's obviously very place but does this decision have unanimous support. i have to say that really across the political spectrum here israel.