was i. was am. i. headlines in are to you around it makes it accidentally shot down ukrainian passenger jet on wednesday thinking it was a cruise missile the country's president says it is a forgivable mistake. meanwhile iraq's a runs foreign minister has blamed washington's adventurism for the tensions that led to the downing while the us secretary of state is grilled by reporters who demanded justification for the killing of iran's top general meanwhile the german chancellor is in moscow where she's held talks with touch money issues from the iran crisis in libya to energy supplies to hear. her. i. torched in paris where riot

police have resorted to take gas as a protest against pension reform get sacked and how. low they get even just going to the clock here in moscow you watching r.t. international now the senior commander of iran's elite military units the islamic revolutionary guard says accepted full responsibility for shooting down ukrainian passion plane on wednesday he said the boeing 737 was mistaken for a cruise missile. were not heard that the flight had been shot down i wish there was as i never wanted to witness such a terrible incident. he also added an air defense system operator had faulty communications and had just 10 seconds to make what he described a bad decision the commander added that they. had requested the establishment of

a no fly zone before the incident but it wasn't approved for some reason earlier to run admitted its military unintentionally hit the jet despite days of denials of any involvement in the downing don't call to discussed what happened with jacking the we heard from ukraine's president vladimir selenski who said that he expects he expects iran's take full responsibility and for the investigation to continue without any obstruction earlier today we did hear from iran's president who promised just that and called the vent in an forgivable mistake the armed forces internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired you see human error caused the horrific crash of the ukrainian plane and the death of 176 innocent people investigations continue to identify and prosecute this great tragedy and unforgivable mistake now iran's president also promised compensation for the families of the victims and the country's supreme leader has called for the

for the findings of this investigation to be made public now earlier we also heard from iran's foreign minister who gave actually highlighted another reason for why this crisis took place. a sad day preliminary conclusions of internal investigation biome forces human error at a time of crisis caused by us adventurism lead to disaster profound regret apologies and condolences to all people to the families of victims and to of affected nations give us a bit of background here what exactly is the foreign minister referring to oh well just last week a u.s. airstrike killed a high ranking high ranking could command. soleimani and that brought tensions in the region to a level that we haven't seen in decades this guy was considered a hero to many in iran as he was instrumental for the defeat of isis in syria so the government promised harsh retaliation for his death and that came in the form of several airstrikes against u.s.

military bases in iraq that happened just mere hours before this plane went down so at that time the iranian military was in to supply some sort of possible u.s. response to those strikes which explains why they thought that this airliner could have been an enemy aircraft they said that it was approaching a military installation clearly tensions were very high are there other cases of countries shooting down planes by mistake yeah unfortunately when tensions are this high like you said accidents are more probable for example during the cold war in 1903 the soviet union mistakenly shot down korean air flight 007 thinking it was a spy plane the plane went into soviet air space at the time that a u.s. reconnaissance mission was going on as well and in 1908 u.s. navy shot down and a rainy an airliner killing all $290.00 passengers because they thought it was in the rainy and fighter jet now at that time then vice president george h.w. bush said he had nothing to apologize for and that he didn't care about the facts

regarding the shooting of the plane down arounds admission of guilt has shaken the public mood in toronto with some questioning why the government didn't come clean so you know. that mistakes can happen given the tensions in the region. unfortunately when i 1st heard about the plane crash it was said to be a technical issue but the announcement came without any preliminary investigation is led to doubts around the world but now they've done the necessary investigation and it was clarified that the plane was hit by a missile we've been really sad since this morning when we heard the news and we were all angry that people told this line about the russian why didn't you get after flies should have been cancelled and planes shouldn't have taken off from any air force and that just about all of our country was in a state of war and this mistake could have been made by any country america itself hit our air bus and made a similar mistake after iran hit the u.s.

bases we were in total readiness and that's what led to the mistake. well we have heard a pin from various experts to you on this developing story. in the times before and the so-called 4 go for unfortunately the reasonable rate there are yet able to pierce this fog unless the reason be conflicting mechanism so again one can talk about blame and responsibility or accountability the blame is iranian but the responsibility lies on other shoulders too so iranian defense systems were on alert and they were expecting attacks by u.s. planes as stated in the armed forces the statement there have been reports that some hostile objects flying objects have been appearing on radar screens in some of some parts around the country so soon as they saw

a plane coming to a sensitive i.r.g.c. base they have you know rushed to jump to the tank luzhin and fired pretty ticked at us become tactical blunders the strategy off by that regulating or closing down the a.s.p.'s under extreme circumstances could have avoided this whole. nagell whenever we have our volodyovski in that you'll be and we had bound to have mentioned raised guns cog coolidge's ready to fight the good will be said that you wish we had we have to be the case and the big picture to how to do use this and that you know how to be escalated this i believe did on ian's have taken the 1st step by the initiation process of this horrible accident in which one $176.00 people were lost was done by the americans at the video and yes that is true.

but amid the heightened tensions between. in the u.s. and iran activists in london have held an antiwar rally it was organized by the stop the war coalition and the campaign for the clear disarmament demonstrators have denounced trump's recent military actions in the middle east as an act of war they marched through the streets of london converging on trafalgar square among slogan seen here on park placards were no no to trump and no to war on iran earlier the activists were addressed by the labor party leader to jeremy corbin the rival demonstration in support of trump's actions was also held by. now the u.s. secretary of state has had a hard time defending washington's decision to assassinate iran's top general during a news conference mike pompei did struggle to explain what imminent threat was posed by general seminar in salim arnie that is the state department chief was grilled by journalist has more. things got quite easy at the press

conference where we saw mike pompei o the u.s. secretary of state speaking alongside stephen the new shin the secretary of treasury and this comes just a week after the killing of iran's top general qassam solomonic and as the press asked questions got particularly tense mike pompei o seemed a little bit uncomfortable trying to answer the questions of journalists who just don't seem to buy his claim that the killing of solomonic was necessary to protect american lives let's take a listen to some of what went on if you have specific information about the internet and didn't have anything to do with our embassies. we had specific emanation information on an imminent threat and those threats from included attacks on the u.s. embassies what is your definition of it in that. this was going to happen in american lives were at risk the intelligence community is

not flawless we we get it wrong in this case the intelligence community got it fundamentally right there was an imminent attack it was an act of plotting is that right now gone with sort of money gone threats are never going now it wasn't just the journalists who don't exactly buy pompei as claims but american lawmakers also have their doubts we just saw in the u.s. house of representatives the lower house of the u.s. legislative branch a resolution was passed attempting to restore it to the activities of the trumpet ministration and trying to prevent them from further escalating tensions with the islamic republic of iran however these doubts about whether it was the right thing in order to kill qassam solomonic go well beyond legislators and journalists they actually go to the us public itself we have new poll results that have been conducted and it shows that basically 2 thirds of the u.s. public believes at this point that the country is less safe because of trump's decision to kill the top iranian general furthermore 69 percent. then to the u.s.

public believes that iran is more likely to attack the usa as a result of trump's decisions 52 percent describe trump killings qassam solomonic as reckless so a pretty solid opposition to trump killing and qassam solomonic among american people themselves while at the press conference mike peo and steve minutia laid out basically what these new sanctions will include the new sanctions are targeting high level officials in iran basically preventing any business transactions with them but when explaining these new sanctions a mike bomb peo used some rather interesting language to lay out what he argued was the ultimate end game of the united states when it comes to iran president said we don't want war we want iran to behave with your noble mission the reason that the secretary treasurer this morning is to continue this campaign our strategic effort to get to run to behave in a way that doesn't continue their 40 year long effort to terrorize the world if you

hear those words he refers to saying that he wants iran to be a quote normal country so essentially it seems the united states is ask a lady threats and carrying out more sanctions with the goal of forcing the islamic republic to conduct itself in a manner that the united states considers to be normal not exactly clear what that means but until that happens there will be further activities and sanctions and threats and what not now many are hoping that the current situation is in a state of deescalation but at the same time people worry about what could happen next you know the sanctions still remain iran still has the capabilities we saw the recent strikes that took place so a lot of nervousness in the global community at the moment you know i think air is still on sanctions at this point but i will get around to that again despite the fact that we dodged a bullet about going to war with iran our last few days were still in the same set

piece positions where we were before and. all these guys around the president can think of us how do we turn the screws more more back some pressure more and more in oh and this is the next thing i can do a lot of this foolish remember is aimed at the europeans i think a lot of this is toward pressuring the europeans to side with the americans in this full pressure campaign. meanwhile there is driving concern among iraqis that the country's becoming a battleground between the u.s. and iran as of people flooded on to the streets of baghdad on friday calling for an end to the presence of all foreign military in the country but the. demonstrators waving iraqi flags chanting no to america no to iran me ma iraq's caretaker prime minister has demanded the u.s. make preparations to pull all of its troops out washington has made it clear it's not intending to the but rather stay for good is more gas the reports. most of us

are familiar with the situation you invite someone over to stay a while say a friend they stay and stay and stay you drop a hint you know it's getting late kind of todd but they just don't get it america is a force for good in the middle east any delegation sent to iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership not to discuss troop withdrawal what complicates things is that your unwelcome guest is heavily armed and has a tendency to how do you put this kill your other guests you call make this up americans kill an arabian general in iraq iran then shoots back a bunch of ballistic missiles in revenge out of iraq i mean these poor rocky guys they've done nothing and everyone's bombing them so you can understand if they're

a little sick of it all and point to the door we want to restart the civil war again among the shia we don't want this to happen we are not a battlefield between the usa and iran so whoever wants to heed the usa should do that outside of this country. all of these troops must leave because they have turned iraq into a battlefield and it's astonishing the americans are saying no we don't care that you voted for us to leave we won't and just in case that wasn't enough of a slap in the face actually going to call more of their friends over to iraq nato and then you have any middle east you know they told me i said what a beautiful name nato personnel in the region to know you're supposed to us to be honest with you because this is an international problem today and need to delegation is at the state department to discuss increasing nature's role in the

rock city. you ation is absurd it makes a joke a mockery of international law and simple decency and as does anything absurd has the internet buzzing america is a force for good in the middle east and will start a civil war to prove you need our protection given military forces the against the wishes of the people who live there it's called occupation when we said we wanted to bring new democracy we did not mean you can't use it to make your own decisions iraq asks u.s. troops to leave the country but president pompei o refuses instead his state department issues a statement the 1st sentence reads america is a force for good in the middle east remember if you say i am so cool then you're not cool there's a lesson here i suppose you can't be friends with

a superpower they'll call your friend patch on the head but when push comes to shove you are just another poor bombed out nation that's going to do as you're told . middle east writer abdel bari atwan and political analysts should bear it as if he gave a stereo into the increasingly messy 3 way clash. the pretext is you know without fighting there or isis in there are we don't want them to come back but this is completely fabricated excuses to be honest because this is that. it is it is that i shammed it is they are iraqi it is that it really is a holy spirit. and this is their very completely you know i don't believe there is a chance of this i mean. unless you have one bill to come back and one to climb as them this is the only the only way for those that say to come back. i'm going to

pull out. here today iraqi parliament is the lucian. problem this is all part of the ratcheting up trying to show that iran is the one line that state iran is doing things which are not really in the interest of the public and you know usa is is is good for the world but really i would like to say that you know what mr. trump was saying that they took every but i think what would be a really good titan is that i r. and b. islamic republic middle east without the usa there then all of the problems that we have will disappear and then we could get to some truthful conversation and having a narrative which has some bases and a logical basis to any communication. to have been more protests against pension reforms in france rallies in paris and other french cities to have been joined by members of the yellow vest protest movement in the capital things

have turned violent police resorting to take gas. i was. i was. i was i. was. i. was. i was according to a local labor union 150000 demonstrators gathered in paris people are angry about its government plans to raise the retirement age and unify the pension system on friday the government introduced its bill but said it was open to alternative ideas

the unions they are continuing their strike action over the issue. of course the r.t. still to come feel about this our camera man who did contribute to r.t. has been shot and killed in iraq we'll have more details on that just after the break. you know world's big partners. a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic development the only really i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. again you have. been holding talks with in moscow it is the german chancellor's 1st visit to the russian capital in 5 years i'm one of the key topics discussed was the iran crisis. almost

a 1000000000 euro russia and germany support further implementation of a joint plan for deal with iran the iranians have the right to realign the support of european countries that promised to create a special mechanism independent of the dollar for trade with iran. as the site of iran's in aus to date was a big error and it's good news that those responsible have been named i think now everything possible must be done to find a solution together with the countries whose citizens were on board that plane to clarify it all. the situation in iran was indeed in the spotlight during the meeting between angela merkel and vladimir putin even though this meeting mine the 1st one in the kremlin between the 2 when the past 5 years had been prearranged back in december so way before the tragic events in iran but these events they have brought into the spotlight the reality of a major conflict in the middle east as how it has been showcased so vividly by iran

and the united states of america sold leaders talked about all sorts of things like syria like libya and vladimir putin has talked about what sort of consequences a war in the middle east could have not just for the countries involved not just for the middle east itself but also globally to to believe look at us when you do i hope very much that we will avoid large scale military conflicts in the middle east if it comes to that it would be a disaster not only for the region much but for the whole world. for instance a lot of the putin talked about the potential humanitarian repercussions and consequences of a conflict in the middle east because while a refugee flow from the middle east to the rest of the world could be catastrophic if anything if a war on the ground was to break out also talked extensively about libya and about the fact how the hostilities in that country should cease in fact lattimer putin

has expressed hope. this could happen as early as tomorrow because this was what he agreed on this is what he discussed and agreed on with the turkish president again turkey obviously being a major powerhouse in the region but the middle east wasn't the only thing on the agenda another big point is the nord stream to gas pipelines to gas pipeline currently under construction from russia into germany to provide the whole of europe with the russian with the russian gas it was a major it is i should say a major bone of contention between germany europe and the united states because washington sees that washington doesn't want this doesn't want to see this pipeline it doesn't want this pipeline to be built so it has for instance european countries european contract is under sanctions it has threatened them with sanctions and longer pin contract is had to pull out in the face of this threat well of lattimer putin has stressed that russia is able and will finish the construction of this

pipeline owner joe you just said that while the finish the end of construction will be delayed by a few months because of that but also angela merkel that she has stressed how important this project for germany and from her standpoint to the whole of europe to here's what she had to say about it. this is 1st and foremost in a canonic project we consider it to be the right thing to do and after today's discussion with president putin i believe it's possible to complete north stream to despite those sanctions. the tone of the meeting was neutral positive i should say in fact angela merkel she repeated at least twice that it is better to talk to each other rather than about each other so this could be an indication that russia and germany could drift closer towards each other in the near future. because you donothing some sad news because

a camera man whose contract. to wate working in the iraqi city of basher of a shot dead on friday his colleague a reporter from a local news agency was killed in the attack let's get more details now from the roman coastal have roman just tell us more than about who was killed and what happened just so we're talking about 2 reporters one correspondent for a local t.v. channel his name is ahmed abdul some odd and camera man who also contributed to artsy that's. got both of the reporters were shot dead in their in their car by unknown gunmen as they were leaving the site of the protests in basra group order earlier that there are protests going on all across iraq and of course basra is just one of those places local reports suggest that there reporter. from a gunshot wounds to the head right there at the scene meanwhile. was it's taken to the hospital he was seen as

a gunshot wound to the body and that's where it he died of fortunately as well. like i said. works contributes to our t. he filed a 30 reports for our channel and i believe that we can take a look at some of those reports right now. ah the old way the meaning of the law and the law the law the law and nothing beyond the 'd the old so what sort of reaction is that being romantic these deaths well us so far we've heard from the committee for protection all for journalists international down zation they've called for they've called on the iraqi

authorities to investigate this as soon as possible to find out who exactly wore those gunmen and so why those journalists. to die. unfortunately this is not the 1st time an artsy contributor size i have after working of course back in 27 seen on 25 year old assyrian reporter hundreds of the good old so died after ice is let's act then with the rocket fire and of course we talked quite a quite a lot about that so fortunately in this day and age it's not safe for reporters to be working either prolix s. or in places soulful or old you know it doesn't matter where they you're at war or you are in the city and anything can really happen and of course i want to express condolences to the families to the loved ones off ols ahmed aboul some odd and

the cameramen suffer golly yeah very sad news to end on thanks to a man thanks for the night is still not over so i think the roman cost of that so that's how the new mrs mccain have a back again that is always at the top of the. reality has mandates of its own that go beyond what our wishes and preferences are. and our utopian visions maybe we're going to get a new deal but it may not be the green new deal that people are expecting will get the green new deal that we have we deserve rather think we are going to get a green new deal because the green you're dealing compas is things beyond just right infrastructure health care is in that new deal there are other elements if

you go back 20 started in 2006 that we are going to get and that are popular in this country. time after time called gratian to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important to accelerate transitions to sustainable transport sustainability stabler man at a more equitable and sustainable well. they claim that production is completely hama's. it's a compass and it does not the companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away this is something else this must be done to anyone and i need much. since i moved in unison we didn't dream and i'm strong theme that he understood so when.