the arab league has also decided to enforce the economic sanctions of previous resoluons of the arab league and agreed on a meeting of friends in syria to take place in tunisia on the 24th of february. we welcome this development. the meetings will provide a timely opportunity to build an international consensus area and put forward urgent proposals to stop the killings and seek a peaceful outcome f the current crisis. there is no doubt that the e.u. and the high representative will take an active path in this endeavor. the high representative has also offered theiexpertise in the area sanctions and has expressed the need to coordinate closely and a dialogue with opposition groups through the work ofhe u.n. frot must go on. we continue to see supportive part is said that the security council can come back to this issue in due course and aree on a strong resolution in syria. the high representative is making the case rapidly with members of the scurity council and regional partners to achieve this goal. the e.u.'s message for us in china is clear. they should not be on the wrong side.

is intensively engaged with the league of arab states and other players to find a peaceful solution. the higher the percentage high stress a key role of regional involvement inarab league leadership. on the diplomatic front ashton has been seeking to secretary general to discuss next steps and express our political support to the efforts that the arab league has undertaken to solve the searing crisis. she is also spoken to secretary general of the u.n. bonking man, turkish foreign minister and several other leaders at the same object days. the e.u. welcomes the league of arab states as efforts to increase international pressur on the syrian regime. leadership of the arab league is key. due to the escalation of violence against the syrian population the league decided on the 12th of februa 2 and it's observation mission. the u.n. secretariat council to issue a resolution to form a joint area you in peacekeeping force to supervise the implementation of the cease-fire. the arab league has also decided to enforce the economic sanctions of previous resolutions of the arab league and agreed

arab states was established. it was also a violation of article viii of the charter of the league of arab states stating the league of arab states requested the syrian government to extend the mandate for to extend the mission of the observers for one month. damascus agreed. however, will be of arab states soon contradicted itself when it ignored the report of the mission and tried to transfer the crisis from an arab country to the security council and hosted the work of the mission of observers later on. mr. president, unbridled tendency by some foreign states to interfere in our internal and external affairs is neither sovereign nor novel. it has systematically occurred since 1916 and for a declaration in 1917. let alone the incidents provided to is really aggressive hostile policies and occupation of arab land. mr. president, we all know that the international legal framework in whose parameters states work is based on respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs these two principals were consecrated in the charter of the united nations and not article lii of the charter to which dr. nabil e

this we have the arab league report which was a very and as you said earlier the arab league blame both sides for violence yet the arab league itself is saying you know that they that they support the opposition possible forms of assistance and so the one how they're trying to pretend to be honest brokers on the other hand they're not on the facts opposite. foreign powers are now mulling over deploying a peacekeeping mission of sorts to syria how feasible do you think that is well first of all to have a peacekeeping force you've got to have peace and why haven't we got peace in syria over the last eleven months that the government has said they would make concessions the government's been open to talks but the opposition has been egged on by irresponsible west powers and its allies and i think they would have had a peaceful solution to this months ago had the opposition not been egged on by the west they are being encouraged to take a very hard line the west has been denouncing the government violence but it hasn't been denouncing the violence by the opposition and until it does does th

such vetos are a betrayal of syrian people in deploying them they have loet down the arab league, increased likelihood of what they wish to avoid in syria, civil war and placed themselves on the wrong side of arab and international opinion. by contrast i thank the other members of the security council for the principle stand they took, in particular nonmembers of the council, moroccan azerbaijanan, germany, guatemala, india, pakistan, portugal, south africa and togo, all of whom voted in favor of the resolution. pakistan's representative to the council spoke for all of us when he said this resolution should not die by being active and engaged we should give hope to those expecting it from us. mr. speaker the syrian regime may have drawn comfort from events at the security council but we will do everything we can to make sure that comfort is short-lived of in is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime. there's no way it can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people. fail to agree the resolution does not signal an end to our efforts to end the violence in syria and

arab states. ladies and gentlemen, the league of arab states requested the syrian government to extend the mandate -- the mission of the observers for one month. damascus agreed. however, the league of arab states contradicted itself when it ignored the results of the reports of the mission and tried to halt the mission of the observers later on. mr. president, this unbridled tendency by some foreign states to interfere in our internal and external affairs is neither sudden nor novel. it has systematically occurred. the hostile occupation of arab lands by israel -- mr. president, we all know that the international, a legal framework in whose parameters states there was debate and respect for sovereignty -- these two principals were consecrated in the charter of the united nations. also, in article 8 in the charter of the league of arab states, we stressed the exclusive responsibility of the syrian government in the preservation of peace and security, in protecting its citizens from destruction and sabotage undertaken by armed elements and not peaceful demonstrations. in accordance with syrian law

russia says it will study an arab league proposal for a joint arab u.n. peacekeeping mission in syria foreign minister sergey lavrov says that a cease fire should be achieved before mission of this should be deployed or for the latest. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov was meeting today with his hero a counterpart they were discussing the ongoing situation in syria over the weekend of course the arab league called for a need joint un peacekeeping mission to enter the country now the first minister responded to those calls by saying that russia would consider that proposal but the implementation of that would come with a number of conditions because first in order to deploy a peacekeeping mission we needed the agreement of the host secondly there should first be peace which the peacekeeping mission will didn't help sustain you know the words there should be a kind of cease fire agreement but the trouble is that armed groups fighting with the regime's forces do not listen to anyone and are not controlled by anyone now one of the crucial points tonight

counterpart they were discussing the ongoing situation in syria over the weekend of course the arab league called for a new joint u.n. arab peacekeeping mission to enter the country now the foreign minister responded today schools by saying the russia would consider that proposal but the implementation that would come with a number of conditions. first in order to deploy a peacekeeping mission we need the agreement of the host secondly there should first be peace which the peacekeeping mission will then help sustain in other words there should be a kind of cease fire agreement but the trouble is that armed groups fighting with the regime's forces cannot listen to anyone and are not controlled by anyone there one of the crucial points tonight and what the foreign minister had said there was that damascus would have to agree to that plan and the arab league proposal was rejected by it and ask if he could it see one sided simply backing the opposition not taking into account all the sides and of course he's seen damascus very very wary about the u.n. being used in this way and indeed russia a

the arab league is expected to call on the u.n. security council to pass a resolution creating a joint peacekeeping force for syria the group also wants more international support for the opposition and hopes to pull further pressure on the regime where we hope to get some reaction from cairo a little later on the latest developments concerning the arab league meetings there but in the meantime let's now cross live to london and talk to author and journalist action returns see. action with the arab league now looking very likely to be calling for a joint un peacekeeping mission for an intervention is inevitable now isn't it. one module dictators talking about another dictator i think the arab league is being used presumably as some kind of proxy because we know that the united states and the european union have all but military intervention. could happen should happen some sources even saying british sure special forces already in the ground so maybe there is already foreign intervention we know there is some kinds of foreign inter

that is what the council is being asked to endorse among other elements of the arab league plan. and so that misconception, which has fueled some concern in various quarters, was certainly directly addressed by our arab partners in their meetings today and yesterday. and i hope that it has brought some clarity to those that are paying attention. >> suarez: the united states ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me, ray. >> woodruff: now, we look at one of the major economic problems on the minds of voters this year, including in florida: housing. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: florida may be known as the sunshine state, but like much of the country, conditions remain poor when it comes to the housing market. a national report out today, the so-called index shows u.s. home prices fell for a third straight month in major metropolitan markets including miami and tampa. in florida, home values have dropped by 40% or more in some areas since the housing bust. nationwide prices have dropped by more than a third. and the fore

general secretary of the arab league are in broad agreement about the way ahead on syria. e league is adopting a tough stance against the assad regime and has proposed sending a peacekeeping mission, including u.n. troops come to syria. >> what happens in a syrian now is something that we in the arab world now believe should stop, killings should stop. >> germany and the european union are reacting with caution. merkel did not refer to u.n. peacekeepers, saying only that germany would support the arab league's firm stance in a position to human rights violations in syria. >> the european union supports this stance, and we will beckett with further sanctions. >> the eu plans to impose a new round of sanctions in late february, including a freeze on central bank assets. martin. this idea of sending a joint peacekeeping force with the u.n. seems to be fizzling out a little bit. what kind of support is the arab league looking for now from its eu partners and germany? >> the arab league is looking basically for two things from germany. it wants support from germany for arab leag

we are supporting the work of an arab league. we are assembling the widest possible international coalition. we are not calling for military action or intervention and so i think you can be reassured and be supportive as he was to the first question. >> can i applaud the foreign secretary in the very vigorous way in which he and his colleagues are attempting to deal with this matter and may i join the staunchest of our diplomatic staff in damascus. but can he tell us what he thinks it is that animates the chinese government to support these butchers? >> the this is an intriguing question. as far as we can see and as the security negotiation started friday last week china has no objection. they could be easily identified to the draft resolution. when it came to the both the chinese senate representative was surrounded by air president urging him to vote for the resolution. however evidently his introspection as it were to vote to go to veto the resolution with russia. it seemed a design to act with russia on the security council o

arab observers was not sent to you. as part of the documents that were dispatched from the headquarters of the league of arab states. president, the decision by the league of arab states to go to the counsel is only an attempt to by pass the success of the arab observers, and an attempt to ignore the report. the report, unfortunately, came against the plans of some arab and non-arab parties who forcefully claim attachment to the arab role in settling the syrian crisis at a time when they worked by different means to abort the admission of the observers and waged a political and media war against it. some arab officials and some europeans have doubted the meaning of the -- the meaningfulness of the mission including the prime minister of qatar who visited washington and other capitols only two weeks after the beginning of the work of the mission making statements that the continuation of the mission of observers is useless and asked that the syrian issue be transferred to the security counsel. this happened when syria was fully committed to the provisions of the protocol despite the two-fold increase in the number of

peacekeeping mission could be deployed in the country that idea of the mission was put forward by the arab league at the recent meeting in cairo but damascus rejected that plan after arab states also supported the syrian opposition and hold all diplomatic ties with the country's government. from the syrian capital. lots of prize only the fischel damascus has got furious over the initiative pushed forward by the arab league to send international peacekeeping force to syria calling this initiative act and flagrant interference in the country's internal affairs president bashar al assad blames. the eleven month long bloody volatile crisis here in syria on the arab western conspiracy in support of the armed terror groups of great and here in the country and syria is the best of the to cairo where the ministers of the twenty two countries of the arab league will meet in test side has come out actually with a very strong statement saying that this initiative by the arab league mirrors hysterics over the countries of this alliance of the healer to secure the u.n. security council's interference in the c

league and the u.n. to the country more on this we're now joined live by going to live for us in cairo where the pan arab body is meeting reno what can we expect to come out of the league's meeting today any chance it will bring any change to the ongoing crisis in syria. well it is hard to say at the moment one one thing that you can say for sure is that the syrian national council may be a looking forward to some of the arab states here who are participating to recognize them officially at this point only libya recognizes this is see as they as an official body however it is hard to say again what exactly will come out of this meeting of course the the violence in syria has been escalating there are claims by the by the opposition for saying is that more than one hundred more than one hundred people have been killed just over the past week of course if you listen to if you listen to the syrian officials they are saying that more than two thousand officers from the syrian army have been killed since the unrest in the country began in march of last year and one of the claims from the opposition from the r

the arab league is expected to call on the u.n. security council to pass a resolution creating a joint peace keep. in force for syria the group also wants more international support for the opposition and hopes to paul more pressure on the regime or for more we cannot talk to her she is in cairo where the arab body is currently meeting why is the arab league calling for this action and what would it mean for the situation in in syria. well of right now there is no definite information of what exactly the arab league will say after they come out of their meeting but there are leaking roof there are leaked reports and they say basically that the arab league will will call on tightening of sanctions on syria they will also recall a stop for their mission there observer mission to the country and most importantly as we have mentioned they will ask for a joint for a u.n. peacekeeping force to enter the country now all of this is happening in midst of reports of growing violence in the country with at this point hundreds of people being

the reports about the report we've been seeing in the process i would say that i think the arab league has increasingly become an instrument of several key arab states particularly the g.c.c. states and cannot unfortunately be seen to be a neutral party in the syrian crisis so so so. the arab league monitors in syria there were only as you put it they report so european qatar withdrew their prisoners for the reason you just mentioned law i think if you look at arab states like saudi arabia and qatar i think from their point of view the arab league initiative and the sending of monitors and so on was never really about resolving the crisis i think it was about laying the groundwork for international intervention or at least the internationalization of the syrian crisis that came to an end with the russian and chinese veto of the united nations security council is for this reason that as we were talking earlier i think it's increasingly likely that they will now start to look at ways of for example sending arms to the syrian army. impression in general is like a period like twenty three

you know very well that the arab league is not the tool of anybody. it is it is always been. it from the west point of view it's been very very difficult and recalcitrant on occasions i think the clear point is this that it is known that syria and iran are allied there is therefore a distinction between those from the community and those from the sunni community and on the whole the arab league is dominated by by the sunni community and therefore there is a clear distinction here where one would expect of course because of that alliance and the fear that many in the arab league have of iran there is a tendency for them of course not to support. syria but here i think russia needs to be very careful by backing a dictator persecuting his own people russia is taking a stance in the international community that i think is deeply deeply unwise. it is important to have to some extent the moral high ground here. unfortunately we've we've lost our feed there apologize for that but that was barry gardner british m.p. speaking with us from london well in another middle eastern country

arab observers was not sent to you. as part of the documents that were dispatched from the headquarters of the league of arab states. ident, the decision by the league of arab states to go to the counsel is only an attempt to by pass the success of the arab observers, and an attempt to ignore the report. the report, unfortunately, came against the plans of some arab and non-arab parties who forcefully claim attachment to the arab role in settling the syrian crisis at a time when they worked by different means to abort the admission of the observers and waged a political and media war against it. some arab officials and some europeans have doubted the meaning of the -- the meaningfulness of the mission including the prime minister of qatar who visited washington and other capitols only two weeks after the beginning of the work of the mission making statements that the continuation of the mission of observers is useless and asked that the syrian issue be transferred to the security counsel. this happened when syria was fully committed to the provisions of the protocol despite the two-fold increase in the number of thos

i did say even in an interview to our teeth that perhaps the arab league isn't quite as effective at the moment as it should be. as the morning during mission of that i believe was there and the as the situation was evolving everybody saw that the government troops were pulling out of certain dollars or sort of quarters in the city is that door to door he was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the arm the confrontation will continue and escalate. and of course there is also the water there is also a washington which increasingly which increasingly makes its rhetoric little bit sharper than before they refused to have any dealings with the syrian president assad whatsoever so they're trying to get so they're trying to rally all countries in order to press on the syrian government for the president to step down of course with the recent developments with the support for all kind of this is becoming more and more dubious situation with every moment of while the violence continues people here including the arab league in cairo trying to figure out what exactly they

are you on the side of the arab league? are you on the side of the people of the middle east in north africa who have during this past year spoken out courageously and often for their rights? or are you on the side of a brutal dictatorial regime? each country will have to be mulling that over and making a decision. but certainly from my perspective, as members of the security council charged with the responsibility of trying to help keep international peace and security, it is absolutely imperative that we all be on the right side of history. and that means standing with the arab league and standing with the people of syria. >> the comments of the secretary of state hillary clinton, she was in new york yesterday back at the state department today pushing the u.n. security council to move ahead with that resolution that takes aim at syria by some estimates more than 5,400 syrians have been killed in recent months. an estimated 200 just over the weekend. and her comments today saying that russia and other members of the u.n.

the arab league is calling on the u.n. to create a joint peacekeeping force for syria as the group aims to meld pressure on president assad we go live shortly for an update from cairo where the league has been meeting . but these five buildings have been set on fire a mass protest in athens as lawmakers debate new austerity cuts in return for one hundred thirty billion euro bailout with a vote expected in just one hour from now. we'll be going live to athens shorty for reaction on that and iran promises to reveal major advances in its nuclear program which insists it is for peaceful energy purposes despite the long list of western sanctions imposed against it our top stories this hour. with a look back at the past seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly on r.t. the arab league is calling on the u.n. security council to pass a resolution creating a joint peacekeeping force for syria the group also wants more international support for the opposition and hopes to pile further pressure on the regime well for m

more over to get next point the arab league itself has said explicitly and it's january 22 planned the security council almost endorsed r russia and china they explicitly did not seek foreign military intervention by the arabs or outsiders and the thrust has been in a wide deal of reasons with political pressure and why the united states from the earliest days have imposed sanctions and ratcheted them up and the united nations is looking to tougher sanctions in the coming days and the arab league had as part of their original package they adopted towards the end of last year economic as well as political pressure. >> charlie: it is my impression prime minister cutter some international forces should go in as a peace-keeping force. >> well, i spent a lot of time last week with the prime minister of qatar and the arab league specifically excluded the plan of foreign military intervention. subsequent to the russian and chinese veto of the intervention there's ideas of what might come next and one of the ideas we've heard not so much out of the prime minister but he may be thinking this bu

the arab league is expected to call the u.n. security council to pass a resolution creating a joint peacekeeping force for syria the group also wants more international support for the opposition and hopes to further pressure on the regime to reports from cairo where the arab body is meeting. there are leaked reports and they say basically that the arab league will will call on tightening of sanctions on syria but they will also recall a stop for their mission in their observer mission to the country and most importantly they will ask for a un peacekeeping force to enter the country now all of this is happening in midst of reports of growing violence in the country when all of this also was washington continues to stress the importance of severe and old ties with president assad they have assembled a sort of a sort of a coalition which they call friends of syria basically anybody who wants can ensure washington and its allies primarily france and the united kingdom and their calls for assad to step down and to hand power over to

discussing the syrian crisis we had him responding to the press conference to the calls from the arab league gave the weekends for an arab un peacekeeping mission to be deployed in syria now his response today is cool's word that it would need further explanation and that also a number of points would need to be guaranteed before that could go ahead importantly that damascus would need to agree with that and also that there would need to be something resembling a ceasefire before any peacekeepers could be deployed in the country. first in order to deploy peacekeeping mission we need the agreement of the host secondly there should first be peace which the peacekeeping mission will then help sustain you know the words there should be a kind of cease fire agreement the trouble is that armed groups fighting with the regime's forces do not listen to anyone and are not controlled by anyone. that's a musket mediately rejected days plans for the further peacekeeping mission of the arab league announcement over the weekend of course the last time the arab league mission was to put the country again t

reportedly calling for a joint arab league u.n. so-called peacekeeping force to be sent into syria president assad has already rejected the idea do you think it's a good idea i don't think it's a good idea to send any so-called peacekeeping forces i mean first we have to say what is the arab league the arab league is essentially amaury by and organization which is brought to life when the west needs it too it is played no active role for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region it failed to stop the war in iraq it backed the war. libya and it's probably being used as a surrogate to try and push through foreign troops an intervention in syria which i'm totally opposed to i think that is the one thing syria does not need is foreign armies we've seen what's happened in iraq and we've seen what's happened in libya but surely the involvement of the arab league which is kind of a local regional group is better than the involvement of the un or nato as exterior organizations well it's fine having observers from them

the arab league is essentially a morri bond organization which is brought to life when the west needs it too it is played no active role for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region but surely the involvement of the arab league which is kind of a local regional group is better than the involvement of the un or nato as exterior organizations well it's fine having observers from them if they do their reporting accurately but foreign troops i mean you know who will be the foreign troops there the arab league said saudis said cut through these sort of big vote crews of democracy in the region i mean that's utterly ridiculous it doesn't make sense at all i think the pressure has to be kept up on the externally nonviolent pressure that he has to go and i think the chinese and russians are now in a strong position to do this saying we've effectively prevented any foreign intervention in syria but you have to go. and push through. a national government the other people of course who are capable of putting pressure on most of the me and so on hezbollah in lebanon and i th

well by the looks of it the arab league is running out of options as a matter of fact they have at one point postponed their official statements and there are some rumors saying that the reason for that is because l's year and lebanon have actually come out saying that they are against a u.n. peacekeeping mission that they do want syrians to sort things out on their own without any foreign intervention however by looks of it the arab league is going to call for u.n. peacekeepers to enter the country they're also going to call for tougher sanctions on syria and they're also going to abort the observers mission which was a hold to last month of course all of this is coming amongst the growing violence in the country which has been escalating by weeks essentially of course that the president of syria bashar al assad is saying that there is foreign intervention already playing at hand here and he did say that there were some. that there was some military support coming from all qaeda fighters and mostly only on the outer regions of syria and there was some of the rock intelligence which di

reportedly calling for a joint arab league u.n. so-called peacekeeping force to be sent into syria president assad has already rejected the idea do you think it's a good idea i don't think it's a good idea to send any so-called peacekeeping forces i mean first we have to say what is the arab league the arab league is essentially amaury bond organization which is brought to life when the west needs it too it is played no active role for the last twenty five years in any positive sense in the region but surely the involvement of the arab league which is kind of a local regional group is better than the involvement of the un or nato as exterior organizations well it's fine having observers from them if they do their reporting accurately but foreign troops i mean you know who will be the foreign troops there the arab league said saudis said cut through these sort of big vote roots of democracy in the region i mean that's utterly ridiculous it doesn't make sense at all i think the pressure has to be kept up externally nonviolent pressur

is debating two rival resolutions on syria the one between russia and china was proposed by the arab league the western powers. or the syrian president to step down proposing something canonic sanctions including an arms embargo the russian version of visions ending the violence through negotiations only and all of the west whole. school succeeded. and the opposition agreed to get around the table. mr rabbani welcome to the show thank you very much for coming for being with us and my first question is about the medication moscow has become a millionaire in the talks between the syrian opposition namely the syrian national council and president do you think this can be considered good as a step towards a peaceful solution of the conflict were only. like the. military solution well i certainly hope it will succeed because as you indicated yourself this may well be one of the very final opportunities to prevent. it's an even bigger catastrophe and in syria i think there are basically two questions one is the question of the transition and the other one is what happens after that transition the

wealth knew so much more welcome to the program damascus has swiftly it would jek to their brand new arab league package of initiatives on syria the proposal backs the opposition and calls for a joint arab un peacekeeping force in the country. reports from cairo where the league was meeting. tightening the sanctions which are already in place aborting the observers mission which was halted earlier in january and of course bringing in peacekeepers u.n. peacekeepers into syria these are the three main points which the arab league has come up with during their meeting in cairo the arab league has also called on the stronger backing for a position the fact that they all rallied to their.