from their mothers and given away and forced adoption to this day, mothers still search for grown children for their parents breaking news this hour being killed in tehran. that day was one of the country's foremost nuclear experts. calls the killing of its official nuclear scientists, an act of terror country's top diplomat implies israel is involved. israel is yet to comment on the iran nuclear deal. after 4 years of worsening relations under donald trump. u.s.

president joe biden has hinted he wants negotiations with iran back on track. but with friday's development has his chance before he even reaches office. just after midnight here in moscow, international pleasure of your company. we begin with breaking news, a scientist labeled the father of the nuclear program as being killed in tehran. a local reporter told me more about what's known at this stage at the deadly incident, which is being called an assassination and terror attack by iran. senior iranian scientist was killed on a highway near tehran. there's not much detail about the number of people involved in the attack, or number of people killed in the incident in the skirmish,

but the tack to place some 75 kilometers outside to iran, north east of tehran, near the resort city. that, you know, apparently did it, traffic was quite less day usual in comparison to the other days. and the terrorists apparently caught into the vehicle of the scientists. newsmedia, stayed out there was an explosion, and then there was a gunfire. berridge of gunfire been the security officials and sasan tactic, which is killing on the roll is a similar attack to those attacks that carried out almost a decade ago. there was the result of such assassinations on a rainy and scientists big claim fly over top. iranian scientists,

iranian officials have already pointed the finger of blame very much at israel. there has been no comment as he had from israel. prime minister benjamin netanyahu had previously though accused the late scientist of being the driving force behind iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, which to iran has constantly denied, was ever in assistance. i spoke to our correspondent about that and indeed the entire story a little earlier. well, we're getting all indications that this was a well coordinated, complicated attack on the man that some western intelligence agencies have flagged . as the person behind iran's alleged covert nuclear weapons program to rand firmly denies wanting anything like it. so this situation is nowhere near something in which the killer just points a gun at the victim and then shoots and kills here it was much more complicated,

like i said, because explosives were used and there were even reports that this could have been a suicide attack. then gunfire followed the explosion, which left the vehicle with the scientists ball marked. so this explains why the iranian defense ministry called this a terrorist attack from the very beginning, but all of that couldn't kill the man. immediately he was taken to hospital where he died. so once again, here, we're talking about a prominent iranian nuclear scientists. he had a team of bodyguards trying to protect them, but that couldn't save his life though the world i think is waiting to see what to run is going to do. has to be any clue as to what the reaction, the initial reaction from tehran, senior officials, like, what have they been saying about this? who did this? what's going to happen? while the iranian foreign minister is making it clear once again that iran purely

treat this as an act of state terror, jawad zarif is pointing the finger at israel, and also he is demanding international attention to wrists, murdered an imminent iranian scientists. today. this cowardice with serious indications of this really rule show desperate warmongering of perpetrators. iran calls on international community and especially you see and their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror. well, so far there has been no response from israel and charlie at this point. we cannot make any conclusions about possible connections between this murder and also the rhetoric that we have been hearing from israeli officials on iran's nuclear activities. but the fact is that 2 years ago and $28.00 taking the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu called up the name of the murdered scientist and accused him not only of being behind the alleged military element of iran's nuclear

program years ago. but also he accused them of continuing to covertly run the program up until present times. remember the main focus of the so here's director right here. and this is the generally is to announce the closure project. but then the special activities, you know, what is special activity will be carried out under the title of scientific know how developments. and in fact, this is exactly what iran proceeded to do. work in a series of organizations over the years. we just put this in context, the story of the iranian nuclear program, at least in the past 2 decades, has resembled a game of nonstop ping pong. if i may put it this way, that is to iran, constantly repeating and trying to convince the international community that its

nuclear activities are purely of a peaceful nature. and then also the anti to ron international law, be led by israel, constantly repeating that iran is only trying to fool the world. however, it seems that a bit more than 5 years ago, israel and its political allies, started losing this game of ping pong because the most important international players, including the u.s. and russia, were able to hammer out the so-called iran nuclear deal. and in fact, international observers were let into the country and they didn't find any proof of military activities on iran's nuclear sites. though at some point the status quo was broken because of a decision by the donald trump administration to quit the deal which led to a situation in which to iran decided to abandon some of its commitments. there you have that tension and an extra wave of the sort of say iran's nuclear crisis. and

now we have the smarter of the rainy and nuclear scientist which will definitely have international consequences for trying to speaking to me earlier in the aftermath of the killing. i spoke to a number of guests in both israel and iran for some of their early initial thoughts . we can take a listen. of course, this assassination is illegal and it's an act of war. he was a high ranking iranian official when they see a spires arrested in iran. a terrorist is arrested in iran, immediately western human rights organizations, governments, the media pundits, experts all say that they're innocent as if they have some sort of insider information. yet when these attacks are carried out, these attacks are carried out with the help of spies with the help of terrorists, and they gloat over it. and instead of condemning it, they go and you know, they try to make him look as if he's evil. so this is the hypocrisy that we see in

the western media and among western governments. these laws will respond. so you cannot put the blame on israel. everything is possible in the middle east and in present these bodies and then to fade them. and if the israelis behind it, let's see if those people are really israelis right now, i doubt very much, we know a lot of the names of gauged in this project. their names were published in these really press a few times that this doesn't mean that this will is behind this assignation. but we do know the incident comes as a reunion. relations with the united states are essentially at rock bottom, the trumpet, ministration pulled out of the hard, fought nuclear power. struck back in 2015, and future talks are growing ever more complicated ortiz killam up and outlines the

tense relationship between washington and tehran, as it stands. well, the trajectory of u.s. iran relations over the past few years has been quite negative. things have been moving in quite a bad direction between the 2 countries. donald trump has presided over a situation where the usa and iran are moving further apart. and prominent iranians have been killed. back in january, donald trump ordered a drone strike directed against qassam solomonic that resulted in qassam somani death. and that caused outrage throughout the region. he was a leader of the islamic revolutionary guards. he ran military operations against isis ill, to protect christians in syria, and in iraq. and he was designated as a terrorist by the united states. now when he was killed, there were protests throughout the region. there was, there were protests in the arab world in pakistan, and yemen in turkey. there were also protests in response to that killing by donald

trump. a huge amount of outrage. many voices internationally spoke up and felt this was a very unnecessary escalation of tensions between the united states and iran. and we also recall that prior to that assassination, donald trump had withdrawn from the iran nuclear deal. he pulled out of the jay c.p.o. away and he said it was the worst deal of the century. this is donald trump. i recruit from the last administration disastrous. if i didn't terminate that stupid, the deal was a disaster. the agreement that was, it was a disaster. now the escalations haven't only been directly between the united states and iran, but we've seen an embracing by the united states of netanyahu. and his feeling that there needs to be an escalation with iran in the region. you know, we saw donald trump move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, and recently we saw mike pompei oh, go on

a tour of the middle east and, you know, tout the fact that at this point, there are some governments in the arab world that have recognized israel and it seems like the effort of the united states is to mobilize and polarize the region between israel and iran. take a listen to my palm, pale thanks to president troop, the u.s. to go to the nuclear review with the wrong place. crippling sanctions on the reunion regime and the move to go some soon or record speaks for itself. during the trip administration, america stands with israel like never before. now, many were hoping that things may change with joe biden in the white house after all, joe biden was vice president under barack obama, and it was the obama administration that negotiated the iran nuclear deal, which donald trump pulled out up, however, and then are many, are looking at what's happened since the signing of the iran nuclear agreement in 2015 and seeing the united states pulling out of that agreement more sanctions

being placed on iran, the killing of qassam solomonic. now there is the incident which took place today with the killing of this nuclear scientist. and many are wondering if that is really possible. is there really hope for the united states and iran to sit down once again and make any progress in, in bettering the relationship between the 2 countries? it will certainly be difficult for a biden ministration. if indeed they intend to take these moves. you know, a lot of points about there by our correspondent. let's try and delve into them a little further. very happy to say that joshua landis, professor of middle eastern studies at the university of oklahoma, joins us live on the program. joshua, always good to see you as are reports last week. and indeed, in the build up the last few months suggested that donald trump had to be talked of a military strike on iran, which he sought to do before leaving office. no,

we have an instance such as this on the stature of an instance such as this, do you see any connection? yes, indeed. the iran has been refining much more nuclear material than they were supposed to. according to the agreement, the united states left in a band and, and of course the close relations with israel. we know that israel has sas needed for nuclear scientists, iranian nuclear scientists in the past. and so it's very possible that the 2 countries put their heads together and agreed that this could go ahead, possibly using the same intelligence and capabilities that israel used in the past . which countries led which country helped with intelligence. it's hard to know just the point. israel have said themselves, there are suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of a really

a nuclear scientist some 10 years ago. but i very much take your point on not just iran is blaming israel for the killing. there's a lot of allusions about what's being spoken about by top officials, iran. israel has been used in some of the, at twitter messages being put there. there's not a, there's not a lot of gray here. it's essentially black and white for iran. if true. could that suggest that israel is of some sort, doing the bidding of what washington, what you've just been talking about before what donald trump wanted to do before he left office. again we, we have to be careful, i suppose, with connections. but there does seem to be a road that's leading all the way here. well, it's not clear to me or anybody else i think who is leading in this. we know that israel has led israel has the capability that they have the reasons to do it.

and, and they've done it before in the past, so it's very, you know, it's easy to assume that iran is correct. it is assumptions. but clearly the united states has been working hand in glove with israel and, and perhaps this is a parting shot on the part of both administrations. who are, you know, perhaps more interested in poisoning the well of diplomacy for the biden administration's comes in to make it increasingly difficult for president biden. and his team to fill their stated goal, which is to return to the iran nuclear deal that that was hammered out by by president obama in the past. much more difficult. do you think today's incident has made the well, i think it's made it more difficult. there's going to be the hardliners are going to be very, you know, are going to be very emboldened by this. and we heard foreign minister zarif who is

one of the there running foreign minister said only a few days ago. that would be very easy to return to the iran deal and that america knew what it had to do. and so for that, of course, both sides are insisting that the other make most of the adjustments. and that'll be, you know, it's not going to be easy because so much has changed over the last 40 years, the trump administration, because iran has many reasons to trust, distrust the united states. but at the same time, there's a lot of pressure for a deal. the united states and president biden in his administration are not going to want to get into a military confrontation with iran in its lunacy for the united states to get into another war in the middle east particularly. well, the country is powerful, is iran and, and secondly, iran needs to get out of sanctions. iran has to move forward. iranian people are fed up their poor,

the currency has collapsed. we have about 70 iranian students in our university, and they can't pay their bills. it's a terrible situation and that's just the tip of the iceberg for iran. so iran needs a deal. the united states needs a deal. this. this showdown in the persian gulf is, is, lucy, is the political will, to do a deal. and the world, as you alluded to,, it is in a different phase as it was 5 years ago. you know, u.s., european relations maybe aren't as good as the where it's hard to know. there was so much international diplomacy at the time was in there trying to carve this deal . do you think it can be saved? do you think they can get back to some sort of normalization, to get in a room together at this stage and say, you know what? there's too much at stake. this needs to be saved. there's a new administration, iran come to the table, let's do that. i think they're,

i think it could be done. united states wants to pivot towards asia is worried about china and, and both the new secretary of state, blake and others, are state if they want to move towards china, if they don't fix this iran situation and neutralize it in some way. they're going to be stuck in the middle east. this is a quagmire for them because iran is not going to put up with being starved to death . and, and the united states isn't going to put up with iran moving towards refinement of, of nuclear of eurabia. so the 2 have to make a deal. now, they've proven that they can do it, and trump came along and rubbish, the whole thing, thinking that he'd get a better deal on it. what we've seen now is that the united states in a much worse position than it was 40 years ago and,

and that the trump policy didn't work. so i think everybody is going to put their shoulder to the wheel and try to get back to some agreement with iran just to bring the conversation back yahshua to the the incident today, there does seem to be something particularly inhumane. whoever carried out the killing all day of a scientist on the point of all that as well. will another person not simply stepin of the same knowledge, the same education, perhaps even 10 more. so whoever was trying to, to kill that person is not going to kill the idea or the essence of what the person was trying to. well, you're absolutely correct. and iranians on social media, twitter, and so forth, have all been saying, you could kill a scientist, but you can't kill the science. and that seems to be the slogan. and of course you can't kill the science. there are many other scientists who are capable of doing this is producing an atom bomb is not difficult. what is difficult is refining

uranium and iran has lots of different. you know, iran is well on its way to refining uranium, the done it before and they can do it again. and this is something that will be very difficult for the international community to stop through using military means and, and this slip towards assassinating people using drones. targeted sanctions, all of this is slowly eroding national sovereignty and international law. it is that attack on all of these basic pillars of international law. and, you know, someday, countries like iran are going to turn around the start of assassinating american scientists and we're not going to like it. that's the thing is not the stark cold details, but this story is quite incredible happening some 70 kilometers from tehran. a probably the scientists most well known,

respected in the country known as the father of the nuclear program that bring so much energy and energy kristie to homes across the country. then we believe shelf in, in the streets, in his convoy with that in mind. how would you expect a country, how do you expect iran to actually respond to this? you know, i think, i think, i imagine, and i don't know this, but i imagine tehran will want to buy that slip despite the many calls that will clearly go up to take revenge. you know, biden is only a few months away. iran needs to get back into diplomacy and so does the united states and it would not surprise me if members of the biden team are reaching out to iran right now to, to try to assuage some of the anger. and to say, don't do anything, you know,

give us a chance, hold off till january. and that's, you know, that's what i would imagine i hope is going on so that this does not spin out of control. it's going to be interesting, isn't it? if president elect biden, when he takes office, who one of his 1st phone calls is going to be where, remember, 4 years ago, the saudis were donald trump's 1st, he did that huge at weapons deal, and iran and saudi arabia of, well, they've heard quite some number of issues for quite some time, do you expect president biden a biden ministration to almost immediately put out the hunter friendship to tehran or will to play it more moderately? you know, there's going to be tremendous pressure on president biden, not to just repeat. the obama deal, but to put it in some broader regional context. and i presume that they'll be desire to do that. we're just reading in american papers this afternoon. that part

of the reason with pump ayos sector of state pompei is visit to saudi arabia and, and we believe netanyahu, or at least israelis attempts to go to saudi arabia and, and form some kind of deal with mohamed bin. so man, the crown prince, in order to recognize israel that fell through and in american so far are speculating. and it seems to be that that fell through for a reason. and that's because president trump lost the presidency and, and the crown saudi crown prince is waiting to is holding fire because he's waiting for the new biden ministration. and he'll want to put recognition of israel into some kind of mix in order to get a better deal out of this iran deal, which he knows is coming down the pike and biden has already said he's going to try to return to it. so, you know, i think that there's going to be a lot of negotiating, both by america's allies, israel and saudi arabia,

as well as by iran. and, and there's, we worry about china because china's been opening up relations with, with iran. china's not just sit around twiddling his thumbs in the last spring. iran was only exporting a few 100000 barrels of oil today. today. it's exporting 100000000 barrels a day, and that's largely to china and allies who are breaking the sanctions that america is trying to impose. and, and so there's a lot of pressure to come up with some larger deal that everybody can live with. joshua, thanks for going into such detail on a number of issues there really appreciate your time. joshua landis, professor of middle eastern studies at the university of oklahoma, pleasure cric recapping of what we've just been speaking about are our main and only story today. as scientists labeled, the father of the iranian nuclear program has been killed in tehran. his car was

reportedly targeted by a bomb on friday. before coming are they really in defense ministry has called it a terror attack. while tehran's top diplomat has said he believes israel was behind it, there's been no response yet from israel and no one's claimed responsibility. yet iran's foreign ministry called on the international community to condemn the killing. broadcasting live from moscow. this is r.t. international council, latest updates with me at the top of the hour. hope this human, you know, millions of years to build up. an emotional one. communication happens with 10000000 syrians inside because it's 60

milliseconds just now when you get to the same room, you know, this emotional bond between us is a very different breed, is joining me every day on the alex salmond. and i'll be speaking to the world of politics, or i'm show business by recommending what i call go out. or yours will pull you out of bed and him out the museum. what about and i didn't do? it will always be the good. is it also home on a promise to keep it or done or don't let you. people

come up with you through. you can see them have a better game and the money come to something bad with the internet, but oh, november a bit of icing. on the down, a little point about nanami, a matter of advil means has it and is about a low end welcome. the cross-talk were all things are considered on peter lavelle

as and drug administration comes to an end. well, those who dreamed up an executed the russia gate hoax ever be held accountable. will the media ever be held accountable for the role they played? and should we now assume the deep state is truly above the law? to discuss this and more, i'm joined by my guest jim garrison washington. he's a retired u.s. . diplomat and former and eyes are in the us republican, senate leadership in raleigh. we have 3 mcgovern, he is a former cia analyst who led the cia's soviet desk. and ohio, we have reprocessed. you all are a boy eric. he is a professor emeritus of bowling green state university in ohio, as well as author of russia gate and propaganda, crosstown praise. in effect, that means you can jump in anytime you want, and i always appreciate it. ok,

let's go to ray in raleigh rey, i ask, i guess rhetorical questions in the, in my introduction here, we have the german part still to be released, but we're in the, the last days of this administration. and there's very little interest in it. but we're interested in it, but it's not getting much public focus because obviously other things are in play. do you, will we ever find out really the origins of this and will people ever be held accountable because they, they basically took capture of an entire administration and they are unapologetic about it. well, as far as focus is concerned, and they mainstream media, russia kadish too big to fail, it's like those banks in 20082009. there's too many people committed to this legend . and so the mainstream media is not going to admit it. now, the only chance.