saudi arabia says saturday's drone attacks on its oil facilities were unquestionably sponsored by iran claiming that the minutes were made in iran. israel is on course for yet another election stalemate with prime minister netanyahu liking one seat behind rival benny gantz lengthy coalition as neither have enough for a majority in parliament. in the coming days will convene negotiations to assemble a strong zionist government i intend to speak with everyone starting tonight and work to form a broad unity government. and the new york times and faces a backlash for publishing an excerpt from a forthcoming book about the alleged sexual misconduct of us supremes called

justice leaving important details around. it's midnight here in moscow and you're watching our international live from our studio with me in a direction to welcome to the program saudi arabia is claiming to have proof and thought iran was behind the bombing of its oil refineries at the weekend and that the attack was not conducted from yemen iran swiftly with the defense ministries claims as lacking real evidence can more pin has the details. but we heard the press conference from the saudi ministry of defense earlier and we also understand that at this point mike pompei o has arrived in saudi arabia for his working visit and he is referring to the attack as an act of war in blaming iran but at the press conference that we heard they announced that they had carried out a thorough investigation and come to some pretty specific conclusions. the attack

did not originate from yemen the attack was launched from the move and was unquestionably sponsored by iran it's not in the range of yemen's capabilities if it was them who. the attack this is one of the missiles we have recovered and we have information that leads us to the source that these kind of components were made in iran as the saudi officials were speaking they had scattered parts of the missiles to route the rule and they pointed to these scattered parts of the missile to make their point that iran was responsible. and the i.r.g.c. are trying to hide any evidence of the components and the technology i'm sure we will support the launch site we're working on whoever is responsible about to take the accountability basically as the saudi officials were speaking they argued that the components of these missiles were iranian made they said that iran is

attempting to hide evidence interestingly when they were pressed for details about the location from which the attack was launched they gave some rather vague answers this is saudi officials responding to questions from reporters asking when when is the breaking point what is the red line where you feel you will be compelled to respond militarily. that we are working right now to move launch point and when we have it we will have evidence the decision is not on my level now the islamic republic of iran has responded and said that this is simply not accurate and they said that saudi arabia does not have real proof that iran is responsible for the news conference from the saudi arabian defense ministries press secretary is a catastrophe for saudi arabia they've shown they cannot prove or know exactly where the cruise missiles and drawings were made from exactly with that attack was launched or why ed defense systems could not prevent that attack. well we can now

bring in hooshang amirahmadi president of the american iranian council thanks for coming on to the program. now. they presented images of drone and missile fragments as definitive proof of iran's involvement i've read a lot of speculation about whether that is definitive proof or not how convincing in your opinion is this so-called evidence. i really don't know but i am fortunate yeah i have to tell you want to. at this point it is really irrelevant what the short to the war the saudis have already decided that iran is behind that united states has already decided that the us that iran was behind the support you know today actually very openly said that this was an act of war by this law mix you know in international relations perception is reality you don't

you don't go on a proof that 2 times 2 is 4 all you have to say is that there is 2 times 2 in there but that is 4 or 5 or 6 is irrelevant so again it's on the abortion and that 'd no matter what you don't doesn't think it is our appointed to iran and that international community sooner or later it will become come banstead caught in code that iran is responsible and i think in the coming general assembly the u.n. they will make a mess but iran. they will gather a lot of people behind this this issue against iran how. do you think this is actually true because you know there is a lot of speculation within the international community and you know not many seem

to be in favor of any potential military action. yes of course i mean again war against iran it cannot be. limited cannot be chipped limited that is to say it will expand inside and beyond iraq very quickly and i think if and when it can but to ever. a military attack on iran it will be done maximum force are certain that these americans are not going to attack iran by some the hitting here and there leading make their public a bit the capability to retaliate that is completely out of question so the americans will have to decide whether to i calculate our food and complete and destroy the country into 48 hours or stay put and use sanctions

as in the past to kill this damage to the public and they said so again that's a decision that is going to be very hard to be made in the in washington think this decision it will not be made in soviet it it will be made in the u.s. yeah i mean you need mention sanctions that given the order to substantially increase sanctions on iran could this be a possible find that military action won't be taken. well i think i don't think that in the very immediate reaks there will be military action what i am concerned about is that new sanctions that press that trump has spoken about for example iran could be a blockade by through the sea they could blockade iran in the persian gulf

they may even put limits on flights to and from iran look exactly the same way that they did with iraq i think these are the 2 major developments that may very well come to be reality year in the near future so again i think the united the sis is still has lots of options on this are on our lists nonmilitary side to punish iran and i think by the time to go to military it will take some time and mr peres the president out is not you know ready for a minute and yet act now almost 15 months before his election or reelection if it ever wanted to larger what against you know it would be very close to the election time before that they would try their best to trip put it

out completely to you know the the what the block a block a new or other forms of sanctions and so on so again this still have lots of options against iran ok i am here i am not the president of the american iranian council thank you very much for coming on to the program. with 95 percent of the vote counted the fate of israel's prime minister hangs in the balance right now in any case neither has enough allies to form a government which means yet more protracted coalition talks lie ahead our middle east correspondent paula slayer has the details. well it certainly seems as if you've read the situation wrong this is the 2nd election in 6 months and it's the 2nd time in 6 months that netanyahu has lost he is being placed 2nd to the full the army chief benny gantz who heads up a center left party now the race has been tight it's only 160000 seats that is the

equivalent of that one parliamentary mandate so it's only 160000 seats that separate the 2 leaders but who is running out of coalition partners he hasn't got any new partners to approach to put sides his traditional ones and he's also making a desperate attempt to try and present this in a positive light he's made an appeal which he says we will fight on to form a strong zionist government without the arab parties many people here interpret that as the disparate words of a desperate man they need guns is not going to be tossed presumably with forming the next government he says he is prepared to potentially work with netanyahu so we could party but only if netanyahu is not there and who of course is not going to accept this but there are questions whether or not in the future the party might actually osc him to step down so that they can form that unity government and still remain within the ruling coalition that doesn't believe him and he really is the king the king maker here and he is expected to have between 8 and 10 seats now and

he and netanyahu have a lot of bad blood between them so on the one hand they'll need to put their personal differences aside and then on the other hand the time yahoo is committed to the orthodox parties and lieberman is campaigning on the ticket of secularism he wants nothing to do with the orthodox parties so it seems almost impossible hunters are not who's going to be able to form a coalition with lieberman on the one side and the orthodox parties on the other so so this is the problem in israel is just too many political parties with too many different agendas the sense one gets here is that the country really is in a position of stalemate almost in the same position that it was 6 months ago and that's why increasingly more questions are being. as to whether or not it through the election is going to be held which is just essentially going to cost the country more it's going to create more and more frustration amongst israelis. political analyst mitchell barak believes that for now mr netanyahu doesn't have any viable options for a coalition the ironic thing is the last election which was

a few months ago and then you know had really all the options in the world he could have formed a right of center government a narrow one with about 61 suits or he could have sat down with benny gantz and had a unity government with 70 and added more parties he chose to do neither he wasn't successful in either called for new elections now what it appears is i would say it's the final countdown to the end of the career of that and you know he's talking about a narrow right of center zionist government you know a narrow government and many gods is sounding like a leader unifying the people the will of the people he's going to talk to all the parties most of the parties that have run from the left blue and white to the labor party to the democratic camp party all of them as said will join a national unity government with the likud even we just won't do it with it and you know it's and you know for most israeli politicians and many and many of the israeli people is damaged goods. and show support and defiance well known figures

from russia's film and t.v. industry of voicing their solidarity with the young actor who they say was wrongfully convicted of resisting arrest list enough was detained during a protest rally after last month's national election in moscow he's now paling his 3 and a half year sentence as medina coach and explains. the moscow court has sentenced a young up and coming out. of to 3 and a half years and prison for attacking a member of russia's national guard during an unsanctioned rally that took place on august the 3rd now the officer who arrested villa testified in court and he said that he was an active participant in the rally that he was shouting on to government slogans and that he during the arrest he dislocated his shoulder meanwhile there is a video footage. rast and many were outreach saying that on the video puddle simply stands by the metro station looking at his phone and not shouting any

slogans himself says that he did not intend to use force he stumbled backwards and denies that he is guilty of any wrong doing now the judge read refused to review the video footage of the rats ruling that avodah introduced by the prosecution was sufficient this case sparked an outcry and attracted the attention else maney different people from well known journalists to a number of high profile figures and of the a world of culture here in russia all offering support for. regarding the standoff i have to repeat literally what i wrote a blog it's not a matter of solidarity it's about justice injustice is what destroy states this iteration in which the action. himself is a blatant injustice it's impossible to ignore it's all keep silent. no the point is

not in community solidarity but in the fact that this directly concerns me to the monstrous injustice and cynicism with which this has been done come affect everyone right now and there is a number of one man protests taking place in the capital the president said ministration building to another defendant facing similar charges was released from prison and pleased under travel restrictions so all these cases the track now a lot of attention. and he says pakistan controlled kashmir should be considered part of its own territory the indian foreign minister also expressed hope that one day they would have physical jurisdiction over the region pakistan and india have been at loggerheads over kashmir for more than 70 years since they failed to agree on the borders drawn up during the british partition of india. it used to be one country under british rule where communities of differing religions live side by side for generations but 70 years ago independence or the region split

into india and pakistan in a process that went down in history books as the partition and so did the man who hurriedly through the border the year 1947 the dying days of the british empire weakened by the 2nd world war india became a burden london was also unable to counter the growing independence movement led by matt mackenzie to fix it britain appointed lord louis mountbatten as the last viceroy of india he made it clear it was not his dream job. i am prepared to accept the job only on one condition india must be granted independence by july 948 and i will not stay there a day longer. once he arrived though he decided he couldn't wait that long it needed to be sorted more quickly in just 5 weeks to be precise and to lord cyril radcliffe

a british lawyer who had never set foot in india he was tasked with drawing a line between the most cohesive muslim and hindu populated areas just like mountbatten radcliff 2 found india not to his liking. it was impossible to undertake the field survey in june because of the heat so how does anyone who's not familiar with the situation on the ground decide where the border is going to be well studied the maps obviously it's all in there the demographics the religious majority it's also simple isn't it put the areas where the majority of muslims in pakistan and the hindus in india problem solved right if aspirations of some people had not been fulfilled the fold must be found in political arrangements with which i'm not concerned the ratcliffe line was only revealed to the people the day before independence and. scenes of celebration were replaced with fear and confusion as millions woke up on the wrong side of the border the partition on the radcliffe

line unprecedented violence resulting in up to a 1000000 deaths so how did it all go wrong many areas had equal numbers of muslims and hindus radcliffe also didn't take the sikhs into account and he'd never even heard of kashmir. i was not even aware of kashmir i heard about it long after i returned to london both lord mountbatten and lord radclyffe made a swift exit from the heat leaving millions of people to deal with their quick and toxic solution for generations to come. today in india controlled kashmir a communications blackout is being enforced making it very difficult if not impossible for people on either side of the disputed region to speak to each other and he says it was put in place to potential violence and prevent the possibility of separatist rallies we spoke to a family unable to call their relatives on the indian side of the border. since

last month we've been unable to get a hold of our relatives in india held kashmir but we keep trying the air is totally disconnected i've seen for myself this kind of atrocity back in 2010 when i went to india and how kashmir the situation was and. we're dying to know their condition we're concerned something isn't right we have no idea of they have food to young children are going hungry you've. got out. and does it do that the whole time. and yes it is like this when they were trying to reach down we pray for them constantly our hearts are bleeding we just want to see them again. kashmir is split into 3 parts administered by india pakistan and china which all. so has claims to part of the territory tension escalated recently after new delhi stripped india minister casimir the only muslim majority state of

its autonomy in august pakistan rejected the move saying it contradicts international law on choose day india's leader narendra modi announced that the kashmir region would get a development boost including foreign investment he says the region is to be made prosperous and negotiations are already underway meanwhile india's top court ordered the federal government to restore normal life in kashmir as soon as possible. we are some regional analysts where the blackouts and other severe measures were necessary in kashmir. exceptional situation requires exceptional measures and. implementers i'm sure the government will vote. you know very sharp bit of pain is our. lot of things here we relaxed what example . was britain's of all been most of the but i think it's open to public and the marilyn connections of us all of course some restrictions on their. brain those

instructions would also be removed so those who are gay will be released in the hoodie dupers are very little except those who house some criminal charges or charges against them and the cases are going against them in the us or it's clearly the some of the confusion and the restrictions on the communications restrictions especially our. telephone and on internet are working because a lot of the cross border terrorist attacks have happened through coordination or were these means and also through. and other such things which are in our you know which are encrypted and not easy to crack for the intelligence agencies so i think some of the restrictions will remain but 90 more than 90 percent of kashmir valley which is a muslim majority part of john one kashmiri are already did time. dictions have

been lifted and landline telephones are actually working and i don't want my own friends there who have been able to communicate with me to landlines so it's not that they're completely isolated or there's a daughter rakhal but gradually i think as the security situation improves i think most of these really believed it. now a new tell all book about allegations of alleged sexual harassment by us supreme court justice brett kavanaugh has been previewed in the new york times and the paper is facing a backlash apparently taking things out of context and has been reading between the lines. if you're kind of sick of hearing the same story all over again like the president called this or that media nothing but junk or you're glad you haven't heard the name brand cavanaugh and something related to his genitals for a while i'm really sorry i don't think they'll do it but they should for the good of the nation i call for the resignation of everybody here to do york times

involved. yeah which is once again one of the biggest stories in the land of trump and co vs the liberals here we go so 2 times journalists wrote a book and had a preview published in the sunday paper what's being teased are 2 previously reported alleged cases of sexual harassment by brad cavanaugh now a supreme court justice from his years at yale. a freshman named brett kavanaugh pulled down his pants interest his penis at her prompting her to swatted away and inadvertently touch it. a classmate masti or saw mr cameron with his pants down and a different drunken durham party where friends pushed his penis into to hand over a female student now that is gross if it's found mr cavanaugh was really up to all that surely he must face severe consequences although for now these are just lines

from a book not something put forward by let's say the folks from the justice department but if you pick almost any one of the democratic presidential candidate lineup they've made up their minds on what should be next for calve no confirmation is not exoneration and these news revelations that disturb him like the man who appointed him kevin all should be impeached he was put on the court through a sham process and he is play some to court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice he must be impeached. it is more clear than ever that brett kavanaugh lied under oath he should be impeached i stand with survivors and countless other americans in calling for impeachment proceedings to begin but dig a bit deeper and perhaps trump's latest rant at the n.y.t. isn't so wide off the mark there could have been a bit of a problem with their journalistic ethics you see some conservative folks got an

advanced copy of the book and realized something rather important was dropped in the times teaser. the book notes quietly that the woman max steer named as having been supposedly victimized by kavanagh in france denies any memory of an alleged event seems no significant it was then the paper's turn to do something about it after a while here's what they came up with an earlier version did not include want aliment of the book's account regarding an assertion my classmate to friends of brett kavanaugh pushed his penis into him of a female student and a drunken dorm party the book reports that if the male student declined to be interviewed and friends see the she does not recall the incident that information has been added to. the authors were bound to be asked why the central piece of the puzzle was missing and your draft of the article didn't include those words that have since been added to the article and to it so somewhere in the editing process

those words were no i mean i think what happened actually was that you know we had her name and you know the times doesn't usually include the name of rectum and so i think in this case the editors felt like maybe it was probably better to remove it and in removing her name they removed the other reference to the fact that she didn't remember that they could have done a good job at protecting the victim or they could have messed the whole thing up wildly because no matter what's not in the article they say her name is in the book or maybe mr trump was right and they didn't want to read the story of that extra spice and left out the crucial bit on purpose what if the woman doesn't even consider herself a victim she reportedly says she doesn't remember anything like this oh god. his genitals liberal media rob watch this space my friends. news i'll be back with all the latest updates in around 30 minutes time so stay with us

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money out. of. the form for syrian conflict mediation no house spoken with one voice but recently disagreements between russia turkey and iran has become so still could not even the leaders try to hide as the program run its course or is the friction really a sign that it's working. the tense situation in venezuela is still all over the news the problem in venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been only implement from the inside venezuela things are different we're going to announce sanctions against the truest of venezuela so it's you. have

a son. down. the whose story is a new nixon told in henry. kissinger to tell it would not be tolerated in latin america. terms of economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make. the chilean economy scream so wants to make the call in the event as screech.

and welcome to cross talk for all things are considered labelle again we stand on the brink of war we should not be surprised the fish will washington was quick to blame iran for the attack on saudi energy assets iran has denied involvement while the who have claimed responsibility will try to take the neo con bait and set the middle east on fire. and duran i'm joined by my guest mohammad marandi until then he's a professor at the university of toronto in riyadh we have brought him he is a saudi analyst and in miami we crossed a nickel.