nato marks seventy years since its creation but the alliances birthday bash was marred by members feuding over budget contributions from buying russian weapons. u.n. experts as atrocities are on the rise in the west african country of mali ethnic communities massacred despite a strong presence of french and us troops. and the rights activist claims of western visitors to the country who dawn. saying they undermine efforts to abolish the law requiring women to wear the head covering we debate the issue. i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to comment when they come into a country you do justice to. inside your mind there is a role and there's a lot and. unless you change the whole system. you're

watching r t international bring you your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. nato has marked its seventieth birthday with a lavish bash in washington d.c. but a feud between two of the alliances members dampen the party mood a little as the u.s. threatened to uninvite turkey this flirtation with russian made weaponry has turned rather more serious though is standing its ground insisting it will go ahead with purchasing the s four hundred missile defense system. as for hand the deal is a done deal and we will not step back from this in any case we have been always. trying to improve and strengthen and deepen our relations with allies particularly united states and be valued by that sort of nations if turkey completes its

purchase of the russian as four hundred missile system turkey risk expulsion from the joint f. thirty five program turkey must choose. does it want to remain a critical partner the most successful military alliance in the history of the world. or does it want to risk the security of their partnership. turkey's vice president hit back over twitter saying it was the us that had to choose between friendship with turkey and continued support of the kurds in northern syria regards as terrorists but turkey wasn't the only alliance member ronna don at the nato birthday party. the us vice president also lashed out at germany saying berlin didn't cough up enough for nato especially given the size of its economy shortly after germany and it would contribute one point two five percent of g.d.p. by two thousand and twenty three still short of the two percent minimum set by nato . we go live now to argument bag

a former turkish minister for affairs welcome to the program now mike pence i think heard me said turkey has to choose between being a nato member and making reckless decisions as he put it could turkey be sidelined within nato or even potentially forced out if it refuses to back down on this. i don't believe so you have been stylish member of the nato alliance since the korean war in the fifty's we have both together with our allies in every international conflict since the korean war in korea in bosnia in kosovo in somalia in iraq in syria everywhere and we are now the second largest military force within nato and we're not the first to buy that canary from russia. currently in the process of purchasing as four hundred but our neighbors and our

allies are over three types purchased as three hundred s. . and i don't understand the u.s. logic because they're mixing apples and oranges they're threatening. to be excluded from the f. thirty five why did planes project but we have been landing fathers on this project have been good meeting for the last. twelve years. that have. got together who built the plane and we are actually building some parts of the plane and now they're threatening. not to keep us in the programs despite the fact that we have spent more than a billion dollars into this project. now as we also mentioned turkey has hit back saying washington had to choose between friendship with ankara and continued support of the kurds in northern syria do you think that america will comply with those demands. well united states has

a lot of expectations from you but not to leave you also have a lot of expectations from them there's still housing the leader of a terrorist organization who's responsible for the failed coup attempt in july of two thousand and sixteen the terror organization that. was a known terrorist and who's responsible for hundreds of lives and. has been enjoying a safe haven in the state of pennsylvania and has been demanding music solution along with the exhibition also is. there is congress but united states has not even further than investigation on that issue similarly regarding by p.g. and e. which is an extension of the. we are hoping to see more cooperation from our american allies unfortunately the terrorists who are responsible for tolerance of live. allies claiming that they are helping them in their fight against.

but it. is proving to be the most successful against. all the radical elements in the region so nice it has to make a decision. and what value they attach to their allies and. so if the us is unlikely to change their policy when it comes to the kurds why do you think that they feel comfortable in demanding that turkey change its policy and not buy these weapons from russia. i guess it's just they want to do it their way but no longer a country that's going to be. part of any other country. to prioritize for national interests the sensitivities of citizens and the.

sensitivities of the region that is located and we have. against our security we need. defense system. to protect our. beat want to get that from the. we could not some of the weapons that we want to purchase from the united states have been blocked by the congress despite the fact that we paid for them from abroad. burst in the day with. the sun but at the end they failed to do so we thought it negotiations with our chinese friends but we couldn't really lead to a conclusion however russia we brought the negotiations we did agree on we did agree on the financing and b.

the fine is still the s four hundred has already been purchased and we have started to pay for them so asking turkey to cancel this decision is a day late and a dollar short it's too late given baggage former turkish minister foreign affairs thank you so much for joining us on the program today thank you for having me. now the key focus of nato the latest gathering in washington has not been relations with turkey but russia with moscow again painted as a major global threat the nato secretary general got an enthusiastic response and the u.s. congress as he outlined countermeasures against moscow in the future and go has more. he might not even have had it in mind when he was doing it but the greatest businessman of all presidents made sure everyone in the club open their wallets for nato's seventieth anniversary the clear message from prison term. help

is having a real impact we see that many more than a dollar meet the two percent god on the spending two percent of the g.d.p. on defense can there be a better gift than money oh yeah but let's keep in mind if you will that vladimir putin is the greatest gift to nato since the end of the cold war and it has provided a new reason for living if you will for nato that's right there needs to be an excuse for the existence of the gigantic cashed of warring juggernaut and for keeping on getting new members on board weapon making firms need customers the biggest ones happen to be from where this man is in charge if you know what i mean though since to soviet union collapsed almost three decades ago even within the alliance there were some doubts about why nato still needs to be out there in research sponsored by the bloc you may have found stuff like this if they too was created notice to act as a deterrent to soviet imperialism and to counter communism and the perceived

nuclear threat and what is its relevance today there was a point when a former nato spokesman gave lectures on how the alliance was struggling to find itself when the cold war was over even russia's nukes were no longer taken as a big deal for the first time in almost fifty years the us stands on the verge of attaining nuclear promise e when mitt romney called russia out while he was running for the white house he was trolled by barack obama after all you don't call russia our number one enemy. not all qaeda russia. unless you're still start going to cold war mind war. those were the days if you think of it nato was big failures like afghanistan or libya kind of outweigh whatever the block would try to boast as its success anyway we even got to a point where someone from nato was daddy america the president i mean said they don't is obsolete it covers

a soviet union which is no longer in existence and nato has to either be rejiggered reaching a changed for the better it didn't take long for mr trump to be reminded of russia i mean the scary version and that more folks other than saudi arabia will have to buy garlands from his military industrial complex i said it was obsolete it's no longer absolutely happy birthday nato and we see a path behaviors consistent cyber attacks on nato allies and partners targeting everything from parliament to poverty it's sophisticated this information campaigns and attempts to interfere in the more crissy itself. oh you'll be all right for a very long time reexamination is cold or for the existence of nato so is the. union in nineteen only one made has been wondering

around without a purpose it's been looking for a purpose in the us it's gone out of the euro it's gone the try and. needs to find itself and what its relevancy is and it needs to remain as a military alliance. absent absent politics absent economic considerations because it's not the job of nato nato is strictly military the united states is trying to drum up the notion that moscow remains that threat in order to justify not only the continued existence of nato but actually to increase spending of their towards defense. russia's foreign ministry says it's open to dialogue with nato that the alliance hasn't shown willingness moscow also says it's ready to deescalate tensions between russia and bloc members. the

security situation in the west african nation of mali is worsening despite the fact that french and u.s. troops have been on the ground for more than six years that's according to a u.n. expert who spoke out following the massacre of one hundred sixty civilians in what some fear is the beginning of an ethnic conflict artie's charlotte devinsky reports last month hundred and sixty people were massacred in central mali. there are categories children and pregnant women the elderly and young people. why well they will follow any ethnic group who have been accused of having ties to a harvest of course mostly it's a number about three million right ninety percent muslim and a number of did join al qaida type groups as a result of the ethnic groups have told all of the same brush calling for the whole

community to be labeled as a terrorist group that's one of the. they are. and they have to be the un has also warned that the following are being sought out for attacks these people are deliberately targeted women men and children simply for being part of the full ernie community mali is a country which has been ravaged by conflict for seven years from six our eyes and the un all have a foothold but as part of a war on terror and to keep the peace but violence is multiplying not subsiding the threat from extremist groups has spread with a u.n. report outlining how attacks are going up often here so important is what's happening in the former french colony the president michel visited in his first week of taking office showing support for french troops are based there since

two thousand and thirteen and while he may have been hoping for an exit strategy france is becoming more entrenched this week the country announced a new base for its anti jihadist force. it is time to continue to invest in live chaco because a presence of the sea has virtuous effects that i think that the population is still happy to see the french army investing in this region not corn has demanded more victories on the ground against the hardest but as western powers focus that effort still rooting out terror many are concerned what's really happening i rise of ethnic tensions that some likening to a genocide is taking place right and the noose is a large amounts of salamis they don't understand this war they don't they're not part of it they're not even part of our vision on this mission but many of their women and children in large numbers have been killed by government forces in front

of u.n. officials in front of peacekeepers they have no way of getting out. out of this cycle of violence which seems to be between the government. that's usually supported by some elements of the full nine years i do is the wider fulani people who are being attacked in huge numbers as well they have been associated with they've been associated with them losing their loved ones by the government usually under the the umbrella of trying to attack. western women who wear the hit job when they visit iran are insulting the nation that's according to a prominent iranian rights activist she says that regarding the his job as part of the country's culture goes against the hard work of activists like herself who are trying to abolish roles on the head covering they say that this is a cultural issue with a very it out of respect to the culture of iran calling it discriminated law as

part of our culture this is an insult to a nation iran's mandatory his job requires all women to wear it in public the activist condemnation of western women has stirred mixed reactions online. while women in the middle is to fight for their freedom from this religious tyranny westerners think you job is a cultural good to. know they wear it because they're told if they don't they can't get in a state they're just being polite but everyone knows it's mandatory they know they have to otherwise they may never return as a woman fighting against a compulsory he japanese brand it's more than painful to me when i hear people say it compulsory he job is our culture it is not just look at the picture of the rand before deny nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution. we put the issue up for debate with journalist miriam solo and saudia hamid from the council of ex muslims of britain. well why do i have to respect the laws when i go to another country and

when for example even as a veiled person i am insulted i am stopped at airports just because i am a muslim woman because i choose to wear the his shop and this is something that is not mandatory for me this is something that i choose and this is part of women's freedom people who are standing against this only in order to i think promote the mass media. image of women as objects as sex objects is just. not for one moment she even considered the women thrown into prison tortures tortured raped by prison guards for choosing to remove you don't ever speak up for them you're not vul you have real value when you go when you are not forced to yes yes there was lots of proof but you're not going to take into account any of those women's voices because it doesn't fit your narrative

you refusing to you're just lying about the about you know being made to take off your veil it's not an issue of lying look i don't know if i have the chance to talk to top right now but you. as a person you are insulting at least half a billion veiled woman not inside iran outside iran as well it's not just about the veiled woman the point is they have the right to your example and they haue the right side of iran are your million o.e.m.'s if you are on either persecuted or removing there is no law and they have the freedom what i do know is that iran after the nine hundred seventy nine revolution everybody knows that it was a people's revolution they are it's all yours it islamic one of these guys that it was an artist rev out was that he la very powerful it wasn't this was slug of illusion but it was a people's revolution i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to

come in when they come into a country to justice and way you can't do the not only for women from you know my allah countries they then start using that as a stick to beat them with they say to them look at these non muslim women that are coming into your country and wearing your job when you're in your country you have to be moved and them taking away their choices those are the women we never ever talk about one people choose and majority of the people choose to be governed by islam a call one of them is to wear the her job and the job does not demean women it actually makes them become human beings and i'm not going to unveil we're not saying america now is human and women who are veiled i'm not saying that this is another issue but inside iran there is a role and there's a lot of good as a result unless you change the whole system the u.k. defense ministry is heavily criticised after claiming it has evidence of only one civilian death from seventeen hundred of its middle eastern bombing raids more on

that after the short break. what politicians to. put themselves on the line they did accept or reject. so when you want to be president. for something i want to. let you go right to the press this is like the three of them all the people that. i'm interested in the water. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy on sunday shouldn't let it be an arms race is on all sides clearly a dramatic development the only person i'm going to resist i don't see how that

strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. welcome back britain's armed forces minister is facing a backlash after some thought he implied that only a single civilian death was caused by seventeen hundred u.k. air strikes in syria and iraq mark lancaster rushed to clarify his position claiming that he was misunderstood. it was not our position that that has only been a single civilian casualty as a result of a military action what we are saying is that we only have evidence of what we believe to have been a single civilian casualty according to the british defense ministry royal air

force strikes conducted since two thousand and fourteen have killed more than four thousand islamic state fighters human rights organization amnesty international release team damning report earlier in march accusing the u.k. of being in denial of civilian casualties and mosul iraq. the u.k. is claiming to have carried out massive aerial bombing of densely populated cities with virtually zero civilian casualties this biggest relief and shows just how deeply in denial the movie actually is over its role in the mass bombing of mosul and raca peace campaigner russell wedding says it's impossible to distinguish when i saw a fighter from a civilian after an airstrike. let's not forget the ministry of defense actually only trained one civilian had been killed after months and months of claiming numb the idea that you can know whether someone is an arsenal fighter or a civilian after a bomb has been dropped on them the idea that you don't have enough boots on the

ground for one category of people to be identified but you do for another one i'm afraid there's just absolutely stinks of propaganda from our government i do think the figures would change and i do think any figure that we've been given about our involvement in syria afghanistan iraq libya have been accurate because we just don't know we keep rushing into these interventions with no idea about who retired getting the best thing to do would be to leave the people of syria to have their own destiny in their own hands and to british troops and british planes to come back to britain. the number of people killed in flash floods in the southwest of iran has risen to sixty two the daler which started two weeks ago has swept away key infrastructure and local aid organizations say sanctions are preventing vital help from getting through. to the helicopters we try to move to people from the vendor as area to the safe areas actually be set up the camps and we distribute

that the tents for that sort emperors jetsetting of the people and as well as a distribution of the relief items actually it is a living basis attempts were affected if they run their cars on society they have their partner one hundred ninety one national society that our partner and some have a receive some convalescence from them in in some cases like democrat girls we are going to receive relief bullets from generous girls and took us to a center because that person has sent their release items and that we have some some others if it's just feel that there's that they announce their readiness to. dispatched relief items we have not received any one any any in in our accounts you to decide actions against and so there are a lot of people brought that wants to help us and wants to donate their money

especially iranian people who are living abroad but the us are a foreign currency at. the iranian foreign ministry confirmed that sanctions were hampering relief efforts. since all the accounts of iran red crescent have been frozen by u.s. sanctions no one can send the financial aid from overseas that statement by the iranian foreign ministry came on monday the u.s. government says iran only has itself to blame for its failure to cope with the flooding and rather than helping its probably drafting fresh sanctions. these floods once again show the level of the iranian regime mismanagement in urban

planning and emergency preparedness the regime blames outside entities when in fact it is their mismanagement this led to this disaster they even jail environmentalists for attempting to help iran prepare for these very issues.

that's a news break down for this hour and that's all for me as well today but why not neil harvey will be taking over at about thirty minutes thanks for tuning in wherever you may be. breaks it killed joan. u.s. veterans who come back from war often until those same stories. were going after the people who were killing civilians they were not interested in the wellbeing of their own soldiers either they're already several generations of them so i just got

this memo from the circular defense offices we're going to attack and destroy the government in seven countries in five years americans pay for the wars with them money others with their lives if we were willing to go into harm's way and willing to risk being killed for a war surely we can risk some discomfort or uneasiness for. people in america have no money. and yet and house prices are skyrocketing relative to their wages but the government says that's not inflation health care costs are galloping ahead ten or fifteen percent a year influx. government says that's not in. other words there's been a concerted and decided excise ation of the workers in the united

states. is and so you tell you shims today arc watchers let us look to the sky as we take a plug. into the unfriendly world with the latest of all things drone warfare the beautiful technological gift from the heavens that i was brought is nothing but flowers and. rows of the battlefield drone starting with the news that the u.s. navy is apparently assembling a team of the vendors that includes engineers researchers and even hackers to take on the deadly scourge. of cheap commercial drones really yes defense one reports that james hunt hogarth's the out of the navy acquisition.