this is r t headlining right now the u.k. foreign office to the british experts had found the nerve agent used in the poisoning case was produced in russia. rejects russia's proposal for a joint investigation into the poisoning of former spy and. the moscow refused to cooperate with. russia turkey and iran agree on a joint effort to rebuild syria but warned about militant attempt to sabotage the peace process with chemical attacks. and the american photojournalist who was once held by al qaeda in syria says he was betrayed by the f.b.i. . agents tracking terrorists instead of trying to rescue an.

international from moscow not to get through a lot of updates in the past few hours or so first off the british foreign office has deleted a tweet saying experts at a british lab had confirmed that the nerve agent used in the script was produced in russia let's bring you up to speed on that now our correspondent in westminster. with this appeared to be a little bit of damage control where you are. well certainly calling this does seem like a little bit of damage control is indeed under way here in westminster as a game of he said she said continues and certainly the plot thickens when it comes to this script send these russian accusations that have been so consistent throughout this whole month indeed the foreign office has deleted a tweet that it had initially posted on march twenty second which read that analysis by world leading experts of the laboratory at porton down made clear that

this was a military grade novacek nerve agent produced in russia now a couple of days before that boris johnson the u.k. foreign secretary also said that there is no doubt that russia was behind what happened and you are there. in russia how did you manage to find it out so quickly but when i look at the the evidence from the people whom important they were absolutely categorical and i asked the guy so i said are you sure and he said as they don't well it seems that all of that was going well until yesterday when the chief executive of porton down came out and said that not only were the scientists not able to prove that the nerve agent came from russia but generally speaking they didn't know what the source was. we of north verify it to say source but we provide it to the scientific information to the government but you have not

been able to establish porton that this was made in russia as i said it's our job to provide aid you know the scientific evidence that i think of for the particular and their future is but it's not our job to see we're actually was manufacture typically you will not tell you to look cool down to say where it is from we haven't yet been able to do that. well following those statements from porton down it seems to many who've been were following the story very closely quite coincidental that the foreign office went ahead and deleted that tweet that puts russia at the source the next day now at the same time the foreign office is saying everything is still the way it was and nothing is inconsistent they really have they've said quote the foreign secretary was making clear that porton down were sure it was another charkha point they have reinforced what the foreign secretary said then and what porton down have said recently is fully consistent with what we

have said throughout it is russia that is putting forward multiple versions of events and obfuscating the truth and quote well suffice it to see that on social media things are not so clear to anybody who's been following this and there have been quite a few tweets posted here in the u.k. calling for the resignation of boris johnson we also know that the labor party has challenged the u.k. foreign secretary to explain himself in the situation and opposition party leader jeremy corbyn has said that he sees an inconsistency and that boris johnson now has some questions to answer. boris johnson has serious questions to which he claimed on german television this was a russian produced nerve agent porton down examined it unsaid. if i was a snow patrol they couldn't say where it came from. well now it remains

to be seen whether or not johnson is going to be answering any of those questions given the vigorous ness with which accusations against russia have flown very early on in this case pretty much and soon as the name of the man who isn't paul keim out into the spotlight for more on this let's now go to the report of my colleague out of the. scotland yard said it first they need. this was a professional assassination attempt whoever did it made sure to leave as few traces as possible and it was a geisha of this complexity and size will understandably take some time and we ask for the public's continued support and patience the media didn't need much time pundits for when the whole boring you know investigation part but that's the media no surprise they need their ratings politicians they only needed a week it's highly likely that russia was responsible russia culpable culpable

culpable for the attempted murder is k. is culpable our quarrel is with putin's kremlin and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision what's remarkable is the detectives silent technical experts silent no details at all russia is asking for some any information in fact a sample of the nerve agent perhaps so far nothing instead downing street gets down to the punishment with its allies keeping the whole innocent until proven otherwise likely is good is guilty. we are with doubts that russia is responsible there is no plausible alternative explanation need two hundred diplomats expelled by. britain with sour lies and russia diplomatic relations hate rock bottom and then we get the chemical expert

see from britain's own laboratory we have not verified the precise source you have not been able to establish at porton down that this was made in russia as i said it's our job to provide eight you know the scientific evidence that identifies what the particular an arab legion is you'd think that would at least slightly embarrassed those shouting loudest about russia's guilt now really it comes down to one particular job certain scientists now porton down say their job is to work out what the substance was never stablished that it is not a chaka matter is by definition of the translation of the name which means newcomer part of the program in the soviet union in the late seventy's and eighty's the movie talks dozens and dozens of different nerve agents have been synthesised not just by russia the head of porton down refused to clarify whether his own lab

oratory had its own stockpile while the snow we have anything like that would never have come from us or you know leave the four walls of our facilities we deal with a number of very toxic substances as part of the work that we do we've got the highest levels of security and controls the nuvi chalk formulas have been available in public books for nearly a decade now and pretty much any specialist with solid knowledge of organic chemistry can create it you're going to jewel's to if it's really another truck we're dealing with it's not a real problem to synthesize that kind of nerve agent all the necessary components easily available in the open market this insists does not require sophisticated procedures any specialist nor can a chemist you would be. able to make it. the fact that the experts can't determine the russians did it doesn't mean that u.k.

authorities will change their mantra it is our assessment that russia was responsible for this brazen and reckless act and there is no other plausible explanation remarkable how quickly things escalated and all hinge on that faith based highly likely assessment. the other big development to tell you about on this the e.u. is rejected a draft proposal by russia for a joint investigation and a meeting of the chemical weapons watched over the o.p.c. also accused russia of being unwilling to cooperate and get you up to speed on that now at the hague our europe correspondent peter oliver is there i guess. not much to glean i suppose it was a close meeting but what can you tell us. oh yes this meeting is emergency meeting which is called by russia started with moscow's permanent representative to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons that's alex on the show. putting forward russia's proposal which was as he

put it for a inclusive constructive civilized investigation this was dismissed by the united kingdom and by the e.u. the u.k. representative saying that for russia to put this forward was well they said it wasn't going to happen whatsoever said it was a done to try and. to get people's attention away from the focus on themselves he also said that it was in poor taste for russia to put this forward on this day saying it was one year since the chemical weapons attack on a town in syria which left over one hundred people dead the u.k. accuses the assad government of carrying out that attack and accuses russia of covering up and stopping an investigation into that he said it was content for the lives that were lost that russia puts this forward on this day he was then followed

up by a representative from the european union he said the e.u. didn't agree with russia's proposal for a joint investigation saying that russia hadn't provided information it should have done to the u.k. already he also went on to say that the european union had concerns that raw. could pull away from the o.p.c. w. entirely well this was followed up with a statement from the russian foreign ministry and which they well said the things would ascending into the depths of lies. to achieve full and you can assure the trust to deny the u.k. information on the case was not willing to discuss the question and denied any possibility of cooperation this is one hundred percent. of the worst some positive responses we heard via social media from the organization for security and cooperation in europe the o.s.c. they said that russia remained in

a key role there more dialogue was needed we also understand from the russian delegation who tweeted during the meeting it was a closed meeting no press allowed but the delegates were able to tweet out every now and again they said that fourteen nations had backed russia's proposal we also heard from a senior figure in until a merkel's political party in germany saying that the onus was now on the u.k. to provide more evidence now that it had come out from porton down that they haven't been able to determine a link between the chemical agent use to try and poison the script murder the script russia however what we did hear from the german government itself though saying that they stood with the united kingdom also a representative from the european commission saying that that laboratory important down wasn't charged with the terminating where the chemical have come from only to tell me what chemicals are being. our understanding is that. the role of the

expert there was to identify the type of agent that was used not stay the source of the accident and that's also what the experts have found they did i think to try to know if the nerve agent was the overture to disrupt. and for the rest i would refer you to the marsh european council where you can see the sceptical of your position. while there have been hopes of un says to some of the many many questions from this meeting here in the hague and they really haven't been forthcoming we are expecting to hear again from the russian permanent representative a few hours time perhaps we'll learn more about what went on in this closed meeting of the o.p.c. w. here in the netherlands. the time for that for now peter all of the hague thanks for that update from the o.p.c. w. meeting that concluded a couple of hours ago we can get more now from believe a man who is the former vice president of the pan european security group the u. s.

c. assembly have a welcome to r.t. again good to see you judging by britain and the e.u. response there intent on giving the cold shoulder to russia yes it's been accused but is it right to entirely freeze russia out of this process. i think we should be quite aware of something bugs is happens to a private citizen and his own government would behave in such a b. as the british government is behaving i think we will we would cause this state a mafia because it is against all you will be an international falls into galatians was a british government behaved in such a criminal case with the guard to another country and when you do this under normal circumstances this is an operation which is

a major danger to international peace and that is exact what supporters are doing we have as your beans we have experience with the british. we only have to look back to tony blair are they lying us from one war into the next one and therefore as seeing as long as the british don't behave in a pop on legal international we i think we all should believe that this is another british lie at least to go for war against russia. but there's no denying that reason may has managed to rally and band together a lot of e.u. nations behind our own base but is that not in any way come to hamper getting to a fair investigation to get to the bottom of what really happened to those two people. i seek the apology of certain date or states and the european union you only can understand it when

your look on the normal behavior of these countries if a country. asphaug on solidarity and for support it is given by the us us because as a wise you can't run such an organization. you will be your only tall what's the british are doing the government of to those are my is exploiting this we of solidarity which is the basic foundation of your been union and need to all i think because of the experience all. these days was a british government so this is a blow to your being solidarity and this is a blow to all is your vote don't need to or they will never do it again. what about boris johnson's role in all this the british foreign secretary is coming under a lot of pressure from the foreign office is coming under fire for trying to

wriggle out of previous comments on camera over what happened to mr scrapple and his daughter do you expect boris johnson to do any backpedaling or apologising. i think it is strange for a country to have her foreign ministers are early like but with drones and i think no other country wanted to have made such a decision in is up to the voters to find to the result on that ok but for now believe in a former vice president of the us see assembly and former state secretary to germany's defense minister thank you very much for your thoughts on that this afternoon. reacting to the recent developments in the script president putin said that russia is not expecting an apology. euro news do we are not waiting for anything we just expect common sense to eventually provide. of the david speaking there a joint media conference and i concur three power brokers of peace in syria have

been meeting in an effort to reduce the violence in the country has been following the talks first and joins us live from ankara. what else to the presidents have to say. good afternoon well as you can see the guarantors of the syria peace process are meeting regularly and latest get there and the turkish capital once again shows that all sides are committed and that commitment is more than just serious we understand that all three countries have their own agenda they have their own bishops but they're definitely ready for compromise this is during that latest press conference it was type aired on who began speaking as the hosts and i can tell you that he kept pushing that same line that ankara has been pushing all along a quote from mr ed on is we will treat all terrorist organizations the same way

and terrorism in syria can only be defeated if that happens obviously he's report referring to the white between and these are the armed kurdish groups in the north of syria something else the turkish president said is that ankara will keep up its operation known as the all of branch until the white p.g. is completely neutralized now this operation and in general the military activity of turkey in syria's north could be a ticking bomb on the one hand but on the other hand moscow and tehran don't seem to mind so much as long as turkey is able to keep some of the syrian rebels at the negotiating table it was that. in time for the iranian leader hassan rouhani to speak what he did first was he accused the external powers including the u.s. and israel of destabilizing syria through using the terrorists to reach some of

their regional goals and then mr putin the russian president went on to say that the common strategic goal in syria for the entire tree of guarantors right now is fully getting rid of terrorists on the ground something else that lot of our putin was pointed out that currently when it comes to ways that can things that can actually hamper addressing that military conflict in syria russia is in possession of some intelligence that points to potential plans by the militants in syria to use chemical weapons as provocation. pushes through options for the. joint strategic goal is to eliminate the terrorists who keep trying to destabilize the situation on the ground and sabotage the peace process they are doing this in every way possible and we have obtained undeniable evidence of planned provocation by the

militants with the use of chemical agents. well the press conference actually began an hour earlier than it was expected and there were no questions planned but then suddenly type aired on and encouraged the audience to ask some things and then the first question came it was about the price that other parties not only the ones who are actively taking part in the syria peace process but also outside the region what's the price that there is to pay for restoring syria rebuilding its economy and so on and so forth and a lot of our putin said that all three countries feel it's their duty to. spend money on that and help syria recover but he also encouraged everyone else the entire international community to get involved in actually turn words into actions

after that came the question that we journalists here had been waiting for two days and it is about america being back and forth about their presence in syria and just take a listen to what we as a journalist mean by that machine will be coming out of syria like very soon very soon very soon we're coming out of saudi arabia. is very interested no decision and i said well if you want to say maybe you can have to pay we are in syria to fight isis that is our mission and our mission isn't over and we're going to complete that mission well this was the time when the iranian leader hassan rouhani who's obviously a massive critic on washington he took the floor right away and heads back at america for their lack of decisiveness. yes they're saying one thing one day in

a completely different thing another day so we cannot trust them you cannot trust their words their reactions and every day we see something new every day we see some different people same some different things seems they want to extract as much benefits as possible from syria and from others this looks like. we also heard from the other two leaders on this issue vladimir putin doesn't seem to trust the americans either but his response was you better ask the americans what their next plan as and type aired on the leader of turkey again used his chance to remind the audience that the americans are so. porting the kurdish armed units in northern syria and turkey is absolutely are they happy with that. and the three leaders very much wanted to show they're on the same page there in the trilateral

summit in ankara thanks very much for that we can get some perspective now from turkey in istanbul tom i was a professor and dean of political science it's temples momar at university thanks very much for joining us on r.t. how realistic do you think it is for these trilateral efforts to rebuild syria to achieve its goals they're not the only countries involved in syria at the moment. cantor's arguments important countries in syria iran and turkey is this. more important than janay one even you know americans or trump is saying that. americans would retreat from syria if you know how many consider a treat from syria and three countries that houston decisions are or will be of thirty important for the future or for syria because they are in the area and

they are from the region russia iran and turkey and they have something in common especially a unitarian syria. but you can see in this respect because americans support pure why do you why p g. p k k. it means that. if somebody comes from the country or regime or a turkey you will. have d.c. areas and then these three countries will decide the future of syria and also they can help to build up syria i think this is the. more realistic solution up to now our forces. yeah but in terms of u.s. presence there how much more complex does that make trying to rebuild syria or the president says he wants those troops out very soon well that depends on time of the month and it's as to whether american says it's staying or going. here. there are

really contradictory sayings from america coming back after turkish turkish success in operation another of syria and i think is americans can't leave the country because the now most crucial problem in syria this is the eastern part of. europe it's because the other parts are more or less and now is conservation. clear of their russia and iran and turkey did they can compromise they can understand each other and they can. make something new constitution new democratization in syria but the most crucial thing now is the american parties. if there are many conservatives i think this is the much better solution for turkey russia and iran also the regime but if they stay there more may be the solution will be more

complicated or the war will be. taller than normal or longer than normal. in the region now is that if you are rethink. the real decision of americans because up to now we don't know how americans decide. in syria and the three leaders talking very much in the same language as to what they want to achieve for syria now that's not always been the case do you see turkey changing its policy towards the kurdish population in syria as a result of these talks. as you know in the beginning in turkey and russia and iran at all. in syria now after the americans. attitudes in syria and leaving turkey along and turkey has decided to do on his

strong on so on and also you know now cooperation between turkey and russia is so big as a nuclear power plant. and also four hundred systems now that the decisions or attitudes of americans throughout syria and turkey. make makes you know it took this policy is very close to our russian flawlessly they're a turkey changes and changed its mind about the most crucial thing for tricky now in syria not the surge or are there things about the appeal why dear why p.g. tourist and. you know all tourist in syria should be clear from the. country i think this is three. country has decided to do that now. you hold the ball in the.

united states now just as we should wait a little bit how are americans will be clearly in the. us or for syria sure i appreciate that in the insight from your professor in istanbul thanks for your time. this is r.t. international just come out to twenty nine minutes past five in the afternoon here in moscow have your next world news update in thirty. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle words have consequences and threatening actions can be very dangerous this is the atmosphere engulfing the west's relations with russia the poisoning incident in the

u.k. has yet to be explained to the public but this is not stop the british and american governments from playing the role of judge jury and executioner. across talking toxic relations i'm joined by my guest charles shu bridge in london he is a security analyst and a former u.k. army and counterterrorism intelligence officer in brussels we have any michelle and she is a former british intelligence officer and writer and in washington we cross to james chatteris he is a former advisor to the u.s. senate republican leadership all right as always crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate any let me go to you first in brussels you know that you were only on last week but the more we learn about what happened with this poisoning incident there's only been one thing that has been consistent russia did it everything else can.