digested. affectively say we are deterred we are not able to use our military force against the arab way labeled us which only militants shift in if you will in its entire military posture in the region cultural shift they culturally have been a used and. assimilated to the idea that they have complete domination of all of their arab neighbors guys and that they have the military right to use it and suddenly they're being told well you know maybe the there's a problem with the road coming in and of course i mean you know putin's given his warning so the israelis also have to think i don't know what missile was used. i doubt it was an s two hundred but it could have been but what also is there are s four hundred who are very potent russian surface to air missiles now if they ignore

mr putin smith it and say we're just going to take it all out. there's going to be a problem the israelis claim to have taken out most of the surface air defenses of syria i don't believe i don't play cause either because as i said it's an integrated system with russia it has a russian flag on it they're not going to take out russia's surface defense system because it would be unacceptable they know that so they took out a control tower or something like that but you know what do they do next does a except there's do they say well look the air defenses of syria in lebanon are only going to get better in the long term we must try and take an early preemptive action to destroy them before they become even better what are they going to do or are they going to say well we have to just come to terms with the reality much as we dislike it that we have a lot of our military how we got in there. except thing it did doesn't seem part of

their d.n.a. i think culturally almost impossible to accept i think they would try and find some means to avoid exceptions i think one of the let me jump in here we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the middle east stay with our team. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sport i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

you know. he's going. deep. crisis. came north from the outside noise from russia not from china. russia and. russia. while the real problem was. welcome back to our interview with alastair cook we're talking about the middle east before we went to the break we were talking about the a cultural shift and maybe a strategic shift in israeli thinking because of what's going on in syria but it's

always about iraq it's always about your man and i know that you know you're an expert in the region. there's a lot of bluster in the rhetoric that comes out and you know you have to kind of decipher it but we know that prime minister netanyahu is in trouble politically domestically because of corruption charges and allegations. and then we when we had this shoot down of this israeli plane the israeli media and the military talked about you know these. iranian death poses and supplies in syria as if syria really isn't even a sovereign country here how much is this shift that you were talking about and we have the hawks in the pentagon in the white house when it comes to iran is there something coming together right now that iran is always a target for these people as it moved up to another level. i think it strange in

a sense what i mean what you're saying about israel is you're right but it's not a consensus. yes and the security establishment of israel the prime minister and his father before him have been iran hawks and everyone knows it but there are the the the security establishment don't forget many of them said afterwards and have said subsequently when trump became president they said listen the j. c.p.o. is an israeli interest is our interest so it's not absolutely black and white in israel but where it is black and white is in the circle of the white house where you have iran folks from the head of the cia to the national security council i don't know how it's happened but trump is surrounded by people who believe iran is the source of all evil and of course netanyahu feeds this and is capable of using this and of course we have in saudi arabia another from iran for the

person and something happened before this u.n. security council sold meeting in in in new york this summer because there was a meeting and netanyahu had a meeting with mr trump and the next day he produced that extraordinary diatribe against north korea and against iran and labeled iran is the source of all evil i imagine that somehow that netanyahu promised him an israeli support for action like this and then what happened saudi arabia tried to contrive the circumstances for an attack on hezbollah by forcing saad hariri the prime minister of lebanon to unwillingly ritter and the security and the army of israel the dog didn't bark in the night they didn't go over a lot of neighborly michael or is going on here a lot of them and it's a very toxic mix when it all comes together you talked about. trump and his

generals he seems. just kind of abrogated his responsibility to this and that's the impression i have because we can we see rex tillerson the secretary of state he's overruled even publicly quite often when it comes from north korea to syria maybe even towards iran here i mean it seems like very much a military foreign policy because we've had these posture reviews come out security defense but i'm not expecting any diplomacy review to come out anytime soon you know i mean people have talked talking about caging the president and containing him but in this respect i think i don't think it was so unwilling i think he likes it and you know he keeps talking about my generals and i think actually i'm commander in chief and these are my generals i mean that's something that feeds into trump's ego and he literally feeding them with these immense defense

it's immense and they feed him by i think america's got to be respected and america's got to be powerful and he says absolutely right you know this i agree with so i think i think it's voluntary what is particularly significant is the move from if you like the ban on which we're in a different philosophical view who said america house to be america is culturally. american but it also implied that russia could be in russia as it was and that was a basis where you could have a foreign policy we have now a group of generals that are a vision as generals who believe in fighting the vietnam war to prove the vietnam war was never lost by the americans we have nikki haley is there as they're born on the world stage i mean when it comes to israel when it comes to around them in this

this is as she just perpetuates this this echo chamber. you have to see the language was very important in the second statement to begin with russia and china were competitors and rival the second statement their revisionist past now that has a very specific meaning it has a meaning that those powers will do use military force to undermine the status quo of the world order after the second world war in other words is saying russia and china are seditionists against the excepted global order war or just challenging american hegemony and it's in a polar moment and giving a different interpretation i will tell you that the argument there will be quite different and then they go on to say so these seditionists have taken advantage of us so we're going to have to rebuild a whole nuclear deterrence submarines missiles new weapons and we're going to build the whole ending of the monitor of mutual assured destruction is eroded more than

it's worth in a road is more than that because what we're seeing is the blurring of the borderline between nuclear war and on nuclear war i mean when they talk about you know using tact kasia using tactical nuclear weapons on iran bantering conventional setting then the border goes if a comes blurred and even they've just given a contract to for having cruise missiles with nuclear weapons well if you're a state and you know people fire cruise missiles how do you know whether it's going to be nuclear or going to be conventional it's a big blurring of the whole president's aegean there in that posture is if you read it rationally detached in a detached way it is a justification for the united states to use the spread of weapons but it's not a deterrent to russia in china it's explicit right it's explicit in it that it will use it and even the preemptory action is is possible where against that might be

likely to acquire nuclear weapons. they were this past year here because it focused on russia china of course north korea but it it almost in a dismissive way start talking about in remarkably considering how these two words the war on terrorism that has been degraded i mean it's a term that was invented by the united states to read have it unbelievable have it in the middle east in and beyond and now they're walking away from it they are and were and this is really i mean what your point you know who's really significant because what we have in its stead and they are very explicit about saying it these are forever wars generational wars our enemies we will fight them by coin which is any means information wars cyber war any type of war regime change over a generation or more and for russia iran is they don't really feel it's theirs and

i guarantee that there will be perpetual wars and the just it will take really quite circular of course of course it does yes you're i mean and of course we're already seeing russia reading this china reading it i'm not you know i don't when i say war when it comes to iran i don't think there's going to be hot for i think we're going back to twenty fourteen and they'll be financial sanctions will be attempts to undermine it by counter-insurgency messages and then they'll be financial war on russia sanctions and on china no will be tariff wars china is the one thing that they can bring everyone together with in the democratic the republican party airlines agreed we must have economic war on china we must cut china down to size and of course it means that there is no foreign policy debate at all in the united states is willie quite remarkable in two thousand. three when the

united states was about to illegally invade iraq there was a huge anti-war movement now it's gone let's change gears. during the cold war it was a open agreement between the united states and the soviet union the you don't kill each other on the ground you can use proxies all you want. that's changed in syria and i don't think a lot of people understand that because there is every reason to believe that the u.s. out of self-defense that's the new justification for regime change now targeted russian contractors and killed them that's something that didn't happen during the cold war so i think it's a you're right it's a very serious escalation and i think that it's likely to. continue because. iran and syria i think both made it

certainly iran has made explicit that i think americans do not leave voluntarily they will be made to leave syria they've said the same about the american presence in iraq i think that in the northern part of the middle east there is a clear determination i don't mean. this is a conspiracy i'm just saying there's a clear consensus a view that the american presence in syria and in iraq is going to be disturbing to the stability of the. it's upcoming in this temple we're going to have the the russians the turks in the iranians now those three parties had their differences when it comes to syria but they are all united on one issue they do not want american presence illegal under international law presence in syria is that enough to keep them together no i mean it's more complicated but i think the relationship

between russia and iran although there are a long history of disagreements but it is a real strategic interest partly because of the financial war they need both russia and iran need if you like commercial depth in order to survive any sanctions sort of put on them so both of them benefit from that and. china as part of that axis turkey is more complicated more complicated sometimes it seems to do what was agreed in. sometimes things don't seem to work quite like that sometimes it's not clear what their ambitions are in syria sometimes there's a cooperation and at the moment when you read the turkish press you see they're angry at the americans they're angry do you either angry angry ality isn't really just playing it on the fly by me because i agree with you i mean what's turkey

think today you know i don't know we don't know because i think one of the great difficulty i mean. no one is not predictable and you know ottoman language in autumn one sentiments arising and the people who are with him let's make no. doubts about. he's got to win that's what the court of the and that's what worries me is because this operation of branch of all names in meaning in northern syria he can pitch it as being anti-american and he's his his base loves it yes yes and also he's somehow actually in a way managing to bring some sort of togetherness between the secular base and the religious pious base of the here that he believes killed in creating a gilded cage for himself as well because he has to succeed that's all the time we have that was wonderful having interview thank you very much with our thank you for

inviting me thank you. he's the war from gaza it was a lest. we dismantle the settlements what we got good neighborhoods we got to tell organization except launching a look at still i will feel it just seems i will keep it simple and dug tunnels so instead of having a good neighbors we have come a stun which is a tell all state. or similar for the spurs to the least of us and most of the snowball of them one of them. beautiful yes good good new bush and talking of bush

will see you pretty modem close down this month to move i do you know what the deal my mom goes with the story you know comes to. so from jim you know some guy in some is a woman you can split the video for the dog to us of us so us little. book of suits and you put jello to some openings for you at the motor show to cool pulls to the police but yes the street was still the most of them so just to take a well what you please yeah. that would usually beautiful the nation as we see would you do you see chelsea discuss those dollars to me and some to the test will diminish will someone to be so full of. hate everybody i'm stephen baldwin task hollywood guy will suspect every proud american first of all i'm just george bush and honored to do so this is my buddy

max famous financial guru just a little bit different i'm not a. you know with all the drama happening in our country i'm rude have fun every day americans. and we start to bridge the gap this is the great american people which. i. i. i. i.

see. the u.s. most powerful body prepares for another round of crisis talk tonight on syria's rebel held east and. the international community of double standards. led to the florida school massacre further polarizes american society of gun control and both sides just think radically different security solutions. if we want to introduce weapons and encourage teachers to carry weapons then i think there's a word for that and that's called the police state that is the only stat they could reasonably protect every kid in america today. we take it to around the olympics host city with none other than well almost donald trump and kim jong.

just said six in the evening here in moscow this is art international broadcasting around the world thank you very much for tuning to us this hour it's kevin i with you so then another big story developing again into this evening world powers for posing for another round of discussions on the situation in syria's eastern guta at the u.n. security council on thursday russia's amendment to a resolution on a cease fire called an all warring sides to end hostilities and work to bring stability to the region but moscow along with damascus faced strong criticism from other security council members distin matic targeting of civilians in disregard for human lives attacks against health care and hospitals constitute work crimes the regime wants to keep bombing and gassing these four hundred thousand people and the

assad regime is counting on russia to make sure the security council is unable to stop their suffering. there is a massive psychosis in the mainstream media which is spreading the same rumors day after day it doesn't help to understand the situation that's all they put forward the idea that their only hospitals in eastern guta which the syrian army are fighting against. are all across this again history repeating itself for a second like caliber komi expect from tonight's session at the un then do you think. well at this point russia is putting forward amendments to the proposed resolution that would call for a thirty day cease fire now the talk on everyone's mind is eastern ghouta now this is a suburb of damascus located to the east of the syrian capital and at this point there is a lot of fighting going on in that city and there's been a lot of reports in the press about civilian casualties and ongoing suffering

what's taking place and in response to that there's been a wave of criticism of russia and the syrian government from western officials they have been criticizing the russian government very harshly and we've gotten a response from russia insisting that the situation in ghouta is quite complex we have terrorists there they're essentially using civilians as human shields furthermore that area eastern ghouta is being essentially used as an area from which to shell damascus and to attack damascus so a lot more complicated than the western leaders are making it out to be these are the comments we heard from the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. that was an information war is now spreading in all spheres of life and western pontin's amount over reacting to all this very motions found amount within the u.n. security council will be trying to adopt a resolution establishing

a cease fire for thirty days but where are they going to use the jihadist show in populated areas there are no such going to use that's going to make this resolution effective we propose a framework which would make the more realistic. now the leaders of france and germany have coauthored a letter directed at russia urging them to vote for this resolution for a thirty day cease fire a russia has been very critical of this resolution so at this point it's not exactly clear what's going to happen in the security council chamber but many folks are anticipating a rather intense meeting. yeah indeed world will be across it with your help but to later on the satan when you'll be with you through the evening in the coming hours i'm sure a lot more about that thanks for now. well more than three hundred civilians have been killed in syria since the airstrikes intensified according to the u.n. the organization secretary general's described the situation there as hell on earth

for its part the assad government is saying it's trying simply to bring an end to rebel shelling attacks that has been killing civilians in damascus next our senior correspondent world looks at who the fight is controlling that in battle on clay actually. east ghouta is not a nice place to live in surrounded as it is under siege a constant war zone within and without. the army of islam holds most of east ghouta as the name may imply these guys aren't crusading for democracy and when they aren't busy killing each other they share power with nusra while qaeda in syria and the number of smaller groups.

these are ruthless people they cage civilians literally put woman and the elderly in metal cages and hoisted them onto roofs where they left them a literal human shield made of civilians to protect themselves their fighters from airstrikes these same people jihad ists who say they're fighting to free the country from as'ad then turn their guns on protesters when they day complain about the. jihad ists themselves. these infamous incident being one of them a crowd of demonstrators fired upon by rebel fighters john kerry himself once called the rebels holding east ghouta

a subgroup of isis and al-qaeda remember what the u.s. led coalition did to isis in mosul. what up they leveled and then ties city thousands of civilians dead yet they say there was no choice the terrorists were responsible by using human shields a sad fact of war two billion casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation do you agree that some of the the high level of i think ridiculous standard that we had previously is now created this behavior by isis that they now realize if they take human shields they're going to avoid being struck and that actually this is adding to the problem congresswoman i do believe they understand our sensitivity to civilian casualties and they are exploiting that and i do agree that as we move into these urban environments it is in become more and more difficult to apply extraordinarily high standards for the

things we're doing although we will try for some reason this time around they seem to be avoiding any mention of who it is that controls east ghouta all but the same job ists when these limits blindly shelled damascus every day and slaughter more and more civilians well that's war when the syrian army responds suddenly it's an atrocity remarkable isn't it how the rules change entirely depending on who's calling the shots. as to have you a state department spokesperson have a no it's also commented on the situation in syria and lambasted russia over a two plus she had some harsh words for us to you as well be shout to the russian government to implore them to stop enabling the syrian regime to do what is stealing to its own people is russia listener i'm not sure that they are but i

would encourage each of you to ask russia take these questions to vladimir putin take these questions to r.t. to sputnik asking them those very questions what are they doing to stop the devastation the deaths and the murders that are taking place in syria i think what she tried to say is that any kind of civilian deaths that take place in the course of the syrian government offensive are the responsible of the russian government because the russians are supporting the syrians so therefore anything they say the syrians are guilty of russia is guilty of to that same principle could be applied for example when the iraqi forces recovered a bosal from diane or one of the kurdish led forces the s.d.f. recovered rocka from di actually both cases with strong american air support which took a tremendous civilian toll in these areas but. it's going to have ups and downs to russia's limping athletes to the games of being gold and silver medals in the

figure skating a failed doping test two for a bulb the men's i saw through to the final and it trying to take says through it oh we'll. friday has really been a day of o.a.r. headlines here and began with the team's first gold medal n.p.n. chang and that was in figure skating fifteen year old alina is a gates of a got the edge over her teammate eve gagne amid video in the final standings after their points from the short and free skate programs were combined the two actually tied in the free skate a rare occurrence but of a performed better in her short program on wednesday this is also as each of us a limping debbie is her training partner and close friend and another moment that was really precious to watch as well was the reaction back home in russia's countryside from alina's each of us first coach her family and other young figure skaters from the same school.