we're not going to talk about how we maintain european union unity, and u.s.-european alignment. >> in response to john kerry's remarks, any increase in sanctions would be counterproductive which would lead to exacerbations of tensions and coming up with an appropriate response. the west is in a dilemma here because at the moment it does not seem to be minded to use any significant military force other than possibly considering the supplying of the ukrainian army with defensive weaponry. the sanctions already applied don't really seem to have changed the kremlin's behavior in any way. so we're in a position where we're talking about giving the sanctions another turn of the screw to see if it has any effect. now that's not to say that sanctions have no effect. they've had a very significant effect on russian public opinion, and they've annoyed a lot of ordinary russians that make anti-western sentiment much more pronounced there. that's been played on maximum effect. you've had thousands and thousands of people out on the streets of moscow of what is being call

the hope is that this will bring about a government of national union unity. >> al jazeera. >> a television appears to suggest that a senior official in the office of president el-sisi was thought to be trying to interfere with libyan affairs. there was a meeting between el-sisi and a cousin of moammar gaddafi. he's believed to control large sums of libya's oversea's investment. the phone call is from more than a year ago when sisi was the defense minister of egypt. >>> meanwhile, hundreds of libyans have rallied to protest against the egyptian airstrikes on libya. the attacks of the brutal murders of 21 coptic christians by a group related to isil. thank you for being with us. how much is egypt's involvement complicated things in libya? >> it would be unreasonable to expect to stand by and stand by when a number of its citizens were brutally slaughtered the way the 21 coptic egyptians were slaughtered by isil. obviously if you get an outside power involved, it becomes more difficult, more complicated but it was already difficult and complicated, and there was unfortunately, i think too muc

we are going to talk about how to maintain european union unity and u.s.-european alignment in response to the breaches of that agreement. >> okay let's go to moscow talk to rory challands and get the russian point of view. does russia accept those people the russian separatists, do they accept that they have broken the ceasefire. >> no, of course not. they have been saying all along that it's essentially the ukranian army creating the situations that the separatists in the east are responding to. and it's - the government in kiev essentially is creating the war. so when we here from people like john kerry saying there'll possibly be a winding up of sanctions is that what we hear from the kremlin is sanctions would be counterproductive, exacerbate tensions and promote the kremlin to come up with a suitable response. the west has a dilemma, it is not prepared to consider a military force in eastern you cray other than the supplying of ukranian army with defensive weapons. the sanctions that it is applying don't seem to have noticed anything. we are in a pos

we need the unity of palestinians. we're all union need in our struggle against occupation, and against the worst terrorism in the 12thin the 21st century from israel. >> we thank you for your time. >>> the jailed leader of turkey's main rebel group has called on its followers to call on his weapons and ends it's 31-year struggle. they made the comments in a statement read out on television. kurdish rebels had been fighting for more autonomy in turkey decades. we have more from istanbul. >> the jailed leader of the pkk says that this is an historic call to replace an armed struggle with democratic politics, and turkey's deputy prime minister, well, he says that both sides are closer than ever to peace. so perhaps since the declaration of the cease-fire in 2013 this is the most significant statement since then. not cease-fire effectively brought to an end to an armed struggle in the turkish state and turkish separatists but had seen more than 40,000 people killed since 198,437 but that peace process has stalled because kurdish leaders

union foreign ministers are giving diplomacy another chance. postponing more sanctions on russia and the ukrainian separatist. >> they have also been displaying unity on not supplying kiev with any lethal aid saying the sanctions we have been talking about need to begin more time to work. >> holding back in hopes of a breakthrough. hoping to keep pressure on russia they give the peace plans a chance. that means no new sanctions. at least not right now. >> in principle, the sanctions are still in place. how they are implemented will depend on the situation on the ground. >> eu states are hoping towards brokering up progress with cease-fire. otherwise it will go into effect early next week. >> we will be able to see if there will be another meeting in minsk. there will have been talks and we will be able to see by next monday if a potential cease-fire has been agreed upon and is being respected. >> the ministers want to put an end to fighting in the ukraine. most a clear -- agree they will not agree to sending weapons to the region. >> arms sales are not the answer. >> some are still skeptical the talks will take place at all. >> i hope the outstandi

unity. >> the greek government is racing to finalize its terms of a debt deal with the european union. the new leftwing cabinet has until monday to convince creditors it can balance its books, as well as convince greeks it will keep its election promises, including making the civil serve service more effective and combating tax evasion. >> hollywood is gearing up for the oscars. this year, the top prize the best picture is between the dark comedy "birdman" and" boyhood." what about the big money making block busters? they aren't on the list. we look at why. >> the red carpet is ready. no not that one this one. they are all over town, in fact as hollywood prepares and fans go crazy for the oscars. parties everywhere. >> film is fuel for this case. it's all people are talking about as sunday evening approaches. there is a big night ahead. >> the oscar goes to. >> one of these here are your best picture nominees, eight of them, loads of choice. see anything missing? for years top grossing films that is what. transformers, age of extinction, a billion dollars worldwide made last year, simi

union announced that it would sends in a regional force to fight the armed group. let's go back to the nigerian capital, abuja. the international condemnation and the unitye are seeing from some of the neighboring countries, those really there is no stopping i guess, the add vance much boka haram. >> well boka haram, itself boka haram is in a tight situation now. the camroonians and forces from niger are bearing down from the chad border and the nigerian security forces are also trying to mop up some elements of boka haram from the towns and villages they occupy in northeastern nigeria. the group is in a tight spot now. it is able to launch coordinated attacks. look at the attack this morning. it was launched on four different fronts on the city of maidguri. they have coveted the city. it's important and strategic for them as well as for the military. so, if they were able to take over maiduguri, they would have declared victory. they have been chased out. what's significant in today's incident is that use who have never had any training any military training supported vig lints as well as the military to chase out boka haram. what we are hearing now is

unity he will be deterred. >> reporter: justification of defense produced very high profile critics and among them the astonian whose aid to gorbechef had independence from the unionen that place in history his criticism of nato is highly significant. >> this is a kind of provocation for russia. i don't think it's provocation for russia attack astonia but doesn't increase astonia's security certainly because there is no way that russia is going to attack astonia for that matter because it's not in russia's interest. >> reporter: what about the russians in eastern astonia, do they see themselves suffering like the russians of crimea? no they do not. >> translator: they feel part of the european union and believe solutions to their problems will come from europe and looking for answers from brussels not moscow. >> reporter: the question is whether nato actions here might drive pro-european astonia russians toward moscow. a few days time american and other nato soldiers will be parading in this square literally on the russian border in celebration of astonia national day of independence. many western leaders accuse vladimir putin of paranoia of the advance and it's n

unity is the number one selling point. >> right. >> fbi director james comey said that he has open investigations in every single of the 50 states in the union. it's got to be concerning. >> sure, it's concerning. >> why are we more alarmed than the administration? >> oh, because i think that the administration is aremember la ed alarmed, but i don't think you want to blow these guys up into monsters. what we're talking about to me -- >> what? >> -- like, for example, what happened with the boston marathon bombers. >> we're just kind of looking at each other like what do you want, the easter bunny? >> i just don't see -- if you're talking about, again al qaeda, this is not al qaeda. this is a bunch of losers. this is a bunch of kids who are totally misguided, distorted. and, you know, this whole thing about the internet and the ability of the web to recruit them, we've heard that here at this table this very moment, that's on target. that's how these kids are going. >> very similar. >> they're not kids. >> well they're young people. they're 19 24. >> you're really minimizing it in a frightening way. they're crucifying children. they're behea

unity of germany and that led to my sitting here. things take long, but i am 100% convinced that were principal will prevail in the end. if after only two months in the european union we say one cannot see any effect on the sanctions, then i can only say that is not how you win the battle in the end. no one knew when the cold war would end at the time, but it did end. this is within our living experience. we should believe it. i am surprised at how quickly we lose courage that something may in the end come. [applause] >> time is nearly up. maybe you would agree to stay a bit longer for other questions. first question will be asked by someone from estonia and someone from human rights watch has been raising his hand for quite some time. >> good morning madam chancellor. if diplomacy fails and the situation we are in today if you have special operations forces using the most latest weaponry that requires sometimes years to learn how to use and on the ukrainian side you have volunteers using weapons from the 1970's and 1980's and sometimes the 1960's, it is clear what the end result will be. it will either be surrender or armed ukraine. that is the way it will go unle

union. if there is a split and that could bode well for greece because they may be able to exploit that. the message has been unity up until this point. they want to have one common point to ask greece to stay in their bailout program and continue reforming their economy. greece is not bluffing. they insist that this is an in humanitarian program and that they have an obligation to exit. >> we mentioned there are private economists who are ratcheting expectations that we will see in a sit from the euro by greece. what about the finance ministers themselves? do they call that hogwash? >> i do know if they use hogwash, but they may use a more elegant french version of that. what you get from the finance ministers is that there will be away, but they do not quite know the way. there is some optimism here. even though when you look at it technically it is very difficult to see how an agreement comes together if one side does not radically change their opinion. if one side does change their opinion, everyone is going to have to face their voters. that is true of the greek government and everyone of the new finance mini

unity of germany led to my sitting here today. i am 100% convinced that my principles will prevail. if after only two months in the european union we say that one cannot see any effect of the sanctions, then i can only say well, that is not how you win the battle in the end. no one knew when the cold war would end at the time, but, it did end. so this is within our living experience. so we should believe this after the end of the cold war. i must say that i am surprised at how fainthearted we are and how quickly we lose courage that something in the end may come. >> well, time is nearly up ladies and gentlemen. maybe you could agree to stay longer for other questions madame chancellor. the first question will be asked from the human rights watch, he has been raising his hand for quite a long time. >> good morning, madame chancellor. here in the west we want to see