to cause the assad regime either to fracture or to force the assad's inner circle to accept some process of negotiated transition. or to simply persuade someone surrounding the regime that the conditions were in place that would justify an internal coup of some kind, an overthrow of the regime. this was the underlying logic of u.s. strategy of the raise the cost of loyalty with this cascade of consequences leading to the end of the regime. yet, here we are, almost a year after the policy began to be put in place, with virtually no evidence to suggest that it is working. we know that the regime is frayed, and that there are internal tensions within the regime. that the economy is taking a significant toll from the impact of economic sanctions. but the kind of cleavages that might cause core regime supporters to defect have not occurred. and this, i think has to be recognized as a very significant failure and as my colleague bassam suggested, it is in many ways a failure anchored in a misreading, a fundamental misreading of of the resilience of this regime and the foundations it could draw

but what leverage do they have over the assad regime with the glaring absence of russia and china? hello, and welcome to "gmt." also in this program -- nato appeals for calm and patience in afghanistan as protests continued after korans were burned in u.s. military base. hungary under mounting pressure from the european union to get its house in order. we will talk to a -- leading hungarian politician. it is midday here in london, 2:00 p.m. in damascus and 1:00 in the afternoon in tunis where representatives from 70 countries are trying to forge some kind of coherent and effective strategy on syria to help civilians in the country and to try to end the violent actions from authorities. the friends of syria conference includes leading western powers, eric nations, and members of the syrian opposition. but there is concern any action will not be possible without the cooperation of china and russia, who refuse to attend. in syria, the opposition free syrian army has claimed it attacked government troops in the district of the opposition stronghold of homs. in this video, opposition fo

they do feel committed to support the assad regime. that is something that they should now change their mind about now that the circumstances have changed so we will continue to work on them on whether or not before or after their election. >> mr. speaker clearly india came to the defense and supported the resolution marking an end to three decades of that country's ties to the afghan families but to what extent -- to any automatic measures in the event of noncompliance? >> like my honorable friend i welcome india to this resolution. it is true that several countries on the security council did want to see a resolution which didn't go beyond the draft resolution as it was voted on saturday. certainly india is one of the countries that wouldn't have wanted a stronger resolution or the authorization of sanctions or other measures but the prime negotiations to the security council was always with russia and the objections raised and the amendments were from russia primarily rather than from india or south africa or pakistan. >> i very muc

>> is the assad regime bowling to pressure? >> i do not think so. i think it is all tactics. this regime has adopted the thomas jefferson. that we either hang together or separately. whether or not they see to the delegation that is going to be led by coffee and not -- kofi annon, the real test is the russians. >> any signs they are embarrassed by the violence? >> not enough. we have not called the russian'' love. we should stop the shipments until the kofi annon achievement has succeeded or failed. it hasn't forced them to -- has forced them to be embarrassed once again. >> thank you for joining us. yet another day there have been violent protests in afghanistan over the burning of korans. there have been fierce anti-u.s. rallies in some key pakistani cities. jones had been called on to resist the urge to avenge the -- they had been caught on to resist the urge to avenge the deaths of troops. >> this was the western city where some religious leaders are accused of fanning the flames and directing the violence. police fired above or at demonstrators who attacked a local recons

the assad regime has continued to deny that they do this these u.n. syrian ambassador to the u.n. claims that they're actually protecting these demonstrations russia itself has called on the syrian regime to refrain from excessive use of force so i mean all parties here agree that the syrian regime is using excessive use of force is killing its own civilians i don't understand why we're talking about. an intervention would then would then effect on syria what that would have after effect that would have if the situation continues the way it continues it's going on now it's going to become much worse and then the likely possibility of an intervention at that stage would be a catastrophe but what we're asking for now is some solution for some sort of protection for the civilians we've seen a failure of that from from the international community we've seen a failure in politics because countries like russia or china are supporting the syrian regime i think russia in particular and we've seen collision of statements between russia and between syria and do

the first since the protests against president assad's regime began. the state television has blamed the attacks on what it calls armed terrorist gangs and say but opposition activists blame assad's regime. >> state tv has been carrying extremely explicit and lurid coverage of people killed at the site of the explosion near the security building in ahe willo and showing bodies and everything amongst that bull dozed away. there's reports from activists saying the blasts were felt at least a kilometer away. now the government of course is blaming what it calls terrorists. it's the first of its kind in the city of alepo, the second largest city in syria. but protest activists say there was a clear move by security right before the blasts which made them think something was about to happen. >> and on state television, it said the blast went off near a public garden where children had been playing. how secure are these buildings? how difficult would it be for anyone else to get anywhere near them? >> that, of course, is a question and in damascus itself the

with the gcc, the countries because, in fact, there is a very large amount of support against the assad regimeppen to include iran, russia, and chooun. the question now really is who is going to win? the russian, chinese, iranian side backing hezbollah, backing assad, or the other side, which includes the saudis, the turks, the europeans, the arab league, the gcc, and us. now, assad is willing to kill to prevent himself from being ousted from power, and the question really is are we going to back the other side along with the arabs, or are we going to back them with words, or are we going to back them with something a little bit more tangible? >> what would that more tangible thing about? >> more tangible thing would be the kind of support that was given initially in libya. that is, i would give them money, and i would give them arms. that's both of the two things they need right now. they don't need american airplanes. they do need what would from our point of view be covert support. i would hope that it would come from arab countries rather than directly from the united states. they're being

removing the diplomats from syria, the united states is signaling it no longer wants to engage with assad's regime. president obama is holding out hope for a negotiated settlement but remains steadfast that assad must go. that sentiment was echoed monday by britain's foreign secretary of state. >> this 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. >>> there's no plans to try to topple the regime, leaving little protection for the opposition fighters from the government's forces. >>> russia's foreign minister is scheduled to visit damascus today. he says russia is pressing assad's government. to implement democratic reform. >> now to politics and a change of course for the obama campaign. the campaign is now asking its fun raisers. meanwhile rupp voters have three presidential contests today in minnesota, colorado, and missouri. susan mcginnis is in washington with more on that. good morning, susan. >>> good morning, betty. mitt romney is hoping to further solidify his front-runner status in all three states t

russia is a long-time ally and provider of arms to the assad regime. in syria, angry protestors burned russian and chinese flags. >> it seems like the syrian government is treating the security council vetoes as a green light to step up the violence. it's a license to kill. >> reporter: that's how many are explaining the sharp escalation of violence in homs. the city has been under siege for days. relentless bombardment pushed the death toll to more than 300. amateur footage shows what the people are up against. eye witnesses report syrian tanks and soldiers are moving to other cities, as well, a sign similar attacks in other parts of the country could be imminent. brian, 11 months into it, many are questioning how much longer the syrian military will continue to fight the protestors. the opposition force fighting the assad regime says more defectors are joining its ranks and it is looking for countries willing to supply it with more weapons. an indication that this is going to get a lot more violent before it ends. brian? >> ayman mohyeldin with us fr

of the governments which do not have a single democratic institution start complaining about assad's regime being empirical yet i believe that that undermines the political and moral legitimacy of what the friends of syria club is a club a serious trams or a club of people who want but. that's a question you have to ask the host. and you can see that full interview right here on our t.v. this thursday and the what do you think will happen if the u.s. and other western powers start supplying the syrian opposition fighters with arms well you can logon to r.t. dot com to share your opinion that's of a concern is also screen can see the majority of those are taking part in also they think this will only trigger a civil war between rival rebel factions in syria and see that over just over a quarter of the weapons before it's over either ten ten percent think that western until help the opposition to the government and the rest of you so far think that this is unlikely to affect the syrian crisis as the rebels are not strong enough of your said r.t. that. greece has just been thrust further into

what do we know about who is supplying the assad regime with weapons? what the regime's intentions are, and what we know about the willingness of the syrian military to continue to kill and maim their own country men. relative to iraq, despite the political, economic and security challenges that confront iraq, the government's leaders appear to be willing to work generally together, to resolve issues politically rather than through violence. while there is much this new democracy needs to do to build a true stable and sovereign nation, we would like to hear our witness's views on the iraqi progress to date, and their outlook for compromise. we also look for un -- in what is the iraqi government's commitment and capability to deal with that influence or their willingness to deal with that influence. i'm going to put my comments relative to china and the asia pacific in general in the record and end with just a comment on signer security. -- cyber security. director clamper's prepared statement-cyber security threat to our country and our economy in the t

regime change in damascus. our correspondent, rupert wingfield-hayes, has been finding out what israelis make of events in syria. >> israel is no friend of bashar al-assads regime. this country has been pretty much in a perpetual state of conflict with syria since its foundation more than six decades ago. syria has been a long-time base for islamic jihad and hamas, and israel continues to occupy syria's golan heights. it's ironic, therefore, that this country, more than any other in this region, is extremely nervous about the demise of the assad regime. for the last 10 years, the border between israel and syria has been extremely quiet. and president assad has shown no inclination at all to want to restart a hot war with this country. and as israel has found on its other border in the last 12 months with egypt, the demise of a hard-line dictatorship to be replaced by more democratic regime can lead to a government that is even more hostile to this country. >> i think they know how to deal with syria, that we have known until now, but because everything there is changing, i think that it could be kind of a complicated deal for us in the future. >> they c

resolution on referring president assad and his regime to the u.n. and to the icc, does he agree that the timing of that is very important? many dictators we know if they have nothing to lose, nowhere to run, they're likely to dig in and the atrocities are more than perhaps they would have been and the timing is absolutely critical. >> yes, that is certainly my honorable friend makes a very valid point. it is not possible at the moment to refer this to the prosecutor of the icc. but i do think that the longer this goes on and the greater the atrocities that are committed, the more determined the world will be to find a way to bring to account and bring to justice those responsible. and that should weigh heavily on those would are now participating in the atrocities of this regime. >> will the secretary of state be able to update the house on the safety of british citizens in syria? >> mr. speaker, for a long time, we have served the british nationals should not travel to syria and that those there should leave. we now said that for many, many months.

this is the assad regime treats our children. now you see what assad regime is killing children.s the u.n. going to do about this? what is the u.n. going to do about this? nothing. they're going to sit and discuss and see what they're going to do this peacefully. they want to solve it peacefully with this. after what they did to these children. they have been hitting us from 6:00 a.m. until it's 2:00 p.m. now. we have over 100 bodies, over 200 underneath the construction. we don't know who they are. >> remember, the assad regime denies almost all of this is happening. i want to show you syrian state media's website from earlier this evening. the lead story is president assad declares a decree on cyber crime and then support of the russian and chinese support for the regime and reports of terrorist attacks in hrk oms and elsewhere. then a report and pictures of a memorial service for seven security force members, victims they say of the conspiracy. no doubt security forces are being killed. wouldn't be worth mentioning except this kind of funeral in broad daylight is rare in place

>> well, there are four -- as we call them, four pillars of assad regime. the continued effectiveness of the military and support, his own military which is quite large. there have been deshert shse de they have assaults on civilian population. the economy is another pillar that is really taking some hits, the price of gas has doubled since september. the price of food has gone sky high. they have periodic electrical interruptions, so that is the -- the economy is going south. the state of the opposition, which is quite fragmented, it's very localized. the syrian national council really doesn't only control -- command and control these opposition groups. the free syrian army is a separate organization not connected to the syrian national council, and, of course, the other is the cohesion of the eli elite. although we've seen signs of some of the seniors in the assad regime making contingency plans to move financial resources. to this point they've held together. assad himself probably because of his psychological need to emulate his father sees no other opt

at the time has come for the reason assad regime and to change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china why that talk more on this division at the u.n. security council we're joined now by professor of political science at the city university of hong kong joseph trying thank you for joining us here in a while in moscow in beijing is objections being ignored. well i guess foot china to support the sanctions you it has to be consulted in this case by the united states and the second condition of course is that development of regional organization support dissensions in this case the arab league just condition has been fulfilled and then a food condition one thing on the part of china you stepped up caught that compound that country should not feel the term prefer that its core interests have not been tracked and alternatively china sees that t

that seems to me exaggerated for all the crimes of the bashar assad regime he's he's kind of seems to be inflating it which to me is is damaging to the opposition and that's what people who i've spoken to who are either part of the opposition or sympathetic to the opposition that's why they're kind of they don't like this kind of approach because the crimes of the regime in bad enough without kind of. using words like in. the syrian observatory their little group emphasized to me that they're against the floods and that's part of it doesn't seem to been picked up by the media in general that although they call their figures a lot they don't quote the fact that well they said explicitly to me you know i haven't kept going since and where we're against a no fly zone we don't want to war in this country we want we just want democracy. so again that the media seems to be quite selective of the parts that make it. and they did does i suppose the reality of. bloodshed on the ground does does play into it into what's going on in the u.s. and to a certain extent but i think there's greater po

the time has come for the assad regime. change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china are reporting for us there now. the editor of antiwar dot com says the resolution was doomed after the fallout from the would be accomplished. the resolution itself was was probably not going to accomplish much anyway it seems to have been at best an effort to kick start some international backing for intervention in the country which obviously russia and china were not going to support i don't think it was ever going to get anywhere and now it seems like with the arab league having withdrawn all their monitors from the country in favor of this resolution they sort of shot themselves in the foot here and don't have a lot of options last it might well put an end to this crisis and create another p

the time has come for the assad regime to change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china are. reporting from new york with this story and more on the u.n. security council failing to pass a resolution on syria we can cross live to anti-war activist and journalist. thank you for joining us. after the veto at the u.n. can the international community resolve the syrian crisis or will it remain. the conflict in the hands of the syrians. well first of all the international community quote unquote meaning the united states france some of the gulf cooperation states that are the cause of the crisis in syria the crisis is an armed rebellion not of the people but of very small groups that are very well armed trained by the united states and by turkey with weapons smuggled in through jordan and through turkey and earlier through lebannon that apparently has

all the time has come for the assad regime to change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china dr ali mohamed. syria tribune website believes that a real solution to the crisis would be for russia to step in and broker a peace deal. where the. nations. that claimed this resolution will not be in preparation for any military action are now required to prove what they claimed. their actions were enough happy the chinese were not happy about that is a question they eat or do it and that is something that can solve the problem initiated by the russian government still holds talks between the between the different bikers in syria and i think it is up to the look to those militias to prove that they want the welfare for syria and they want this year and people to live in prosperity and therefore they have so much for accepting is he or she heard th

general assembly votes to condemn the assad regime but for the violence in syria while russia and china continue their efforts to broker peace through negotiation. and of the greek prime minister plans to brussels for last minute bailout talks as thousands take to the streets about to express their anger over fresh austerity measures. recapping the week's top stories and bringing you the latest news this is our team certainly glad to have you with us. iran has cut its crude oil supplies to french and british firms and it's a move seen by many as retaliation for the decision to impose sanctions on the country but you says the ban was it needed to force iran to resume talks over its atomic program meanwhile a team of u.n. nuclear inspectors is on its way to the country a second such a visit within a month earlier the european commission claimed that the block has enough oil reserves to last for around one hundred twenty days so the arabia has also stepped in it by saying it is prepared to supply extra oil if needed but some experts fear this move nonetheless will have a negative impact on

borders and impact the middle east as a whole analysts are concerned that the collapse of the assad regime would be a devastating blow to iran leaving it isolated and potentially forcing tehran to adopt more aggressive policies artie's laura smith has more. iran's military is put through its paces but how long will this carry on being a drill as the conflict in syria gets bloodier by the day western powers range against president assad ally iran the strategic position looks increasingly shaky which some suggest is no coincidence that there is a proxy conflict between israel and its western allies and iran which basically only has one ally in the region which is the syrian republic so if you can get syria away from iran either through a diplomatic deal which they're trying for many years all through regime change which seems to be the direction of travel now that would definitely weaken iran at all roads in the middle east right now do seem to lead back to tehran experts are calling the last thing deployed and coca bring down throw in radian asset and replace it with opposition figures we'v

not get the impression that it is the people versus assad in this conflict the situation is different a faction of the people is opposing the regime well another party supports mr assad well yet another faction does not want syria to fall into chaos they support the regime possible they do not support the idea of a surge into fields it is not black and white it is not a scenario where a whole nation rises up to overthrow a government they don't like they believe that the situation cannot be resolved without the regime when representatives of the gulf monarchies which do not have a single democratic institution start complaining about assad's regime being on their across yes i believe that that undermines the political and moral legitimacy of the friends of syria caught up is it a club of serious friends or a club of people who want bashar assad gone so that's a question we have to ask. about or we can see that full interview right here on r.t. this thursday and what do you think will happen if the u.s. and other western powers start supplying the syrian opposition fighters with arms well you can log onto r.t. dot com to share your

the time has come for the assad regime to change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china. the security council failing to pass a resolution on syria we go live to international affairs commentator rick rose off from the group stop. so with a new resolution. what do you think is the next step. this could cut both ways so what i fear is we maybe see a replication of what happened in one thousand nine hundred ninety when the united states and its nato allies launched a seventy eight day bombing campaign against yugoslavia having failed to enlist chinese and russian support for un resolution against that and hear the slavia i'm hoping of course that the resolute stance states on the principled stand taking the taken by russia and china against a resolution that we have to remember was sponsored by morocco and co-sponsored by a very interesting gro

there's not even a willingness on the part of the assad regime to let the syrian red crescent in to pick up bodies, to deliver medical supplies and provisions. and they effectively not only block such aid, but they target those who are trying to provide it. so we see a brutal use of violence against the people of syria and everyone trying to help them. so we're looking with our allies, particularly in the neighborhood, those who have borders, how do we get this aid in? how do we protect people who are trying to put it in? and we're going to continue to do everything we can, not only to help get that aid in, but pressure the assad regime. and we are working actively to persuade the russians and the chinese, and at the very least they ought to support humanitarian assistance, put aside the political disagreement we have about supporting, you know, a leader who has murdered so many of his people with, you know, artillery. let's focus on how we help the syrian people. so that's our goal right now. >> i appreciate that. switching gears in the remaining time i have, it had been, i believe, mis

that i'm going to write and say i'm going to say the president ahmadinejad he does support the assad regime ongoing in syria facing this pressure from the opposition but iran is now under severe international pressure over its nuclear program we've seen the west bearing down on even further in recent months do you think with iran's support of the syrian government could it could tear on really risk coming under even greater a backlash if it in some way does support the assad regime. well remember iran's position is based upon a moral principle and that is non interference of hedger monic powers and the non-a ference of neighboring countries in the syrian internal affairs the syrian people have to make their own decisions and they don't need to be funded there are no there doesn't need to be any funding for weapons coming outside the country even in iraq before the united states invaded iraq and killed almost a million people directly or indirectly as a result the iranians opposed that war as well despite the fact that the iranians had immense dislike for saddam hussein they despise saddam h

the time has come for the assad regime. change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china. the western backed security council the country in the best interests of the people there. the libyan example hasn't been so long the league claimed to do or to stand by the libyan people that it turned out that they were supporting one. side that was actually armed and under a billion against the rest of the people and the same is happening in syria. this question is a very important one so there is a call for negotiations for talks why not support this called the clean their president and i said lost legitimacy but not a month ago a. very important survey that was done by qatar foundation qatar foundation of getting the word cutter to show that the president has the support of i mean almost fi

own so i mean it's quite possible to imagine that iran must be interested in the survival of assad's regime. well definitely iran does support the syrian government and it supports reforms in the syrian political order according to polls carried out by the b.b.c. funded by the fact that he is the majority of syrians barkhad the syrian president they want him to remain in power even their own polls say that on the other hand iran is completely imposed photos of foreign countries imposing their will on the syrian people we already see in the turks helping create civil war we see the dictatorships in the persian gulf region funding civil war and violence in the country it is these countries that are that should be blamed for much of the bloodshed in the country and the west of course supports them as well but the western propaganda machine. inverts reality in what they if if they are so keen on democracy in the region they should the united states and its allies should call on all dictatorships to their leaders to step aside and to have elections going to radians i say i'm going to say the pre

and so the violence has to stop but it has to stop and the opposition look as from the assad regime. stay with us here on r.t. still to come with less than a month to go until russia's presidential vote prime minister vladimir putin sounds like outlines his views on russia's social development in his fifth major press article of the campaign find out the challenges facing the country short. plus tainted reputation the summer games in london or risk being marred by a controversial sponsorship deal with a chemical giant linked to one of the world's worst just real busy. but first buildings on fire shops looted dozens injured this is how the greek people made a new around of drastic cuts approved by their parliament tens of thousands protested the deeply unpopular package needed to get a second bailout from international creditors or he's jacob greaves has the latest from athens. the greek government is under attack from all sides now you've got the e.u. eurozone international monetary fund really increasing the pressure saying the cuts haven't gone far enough and they haven't been impl

jason litter of antiwar dot com says it's likely that if the assad regime were to fall it would not be a pro-democracy government that would take over and damascus. a lot of nations particularly the g.c.c. member nations saudi arabia qatar united arab emirates have been looking for an excuse to cut assad out of the picture in the arab league and particularly now are also hoping that they can leave use this as an opportunity to possibly replace him with a more friendly regime and much much as we saw in libya foreign intervention is not a cure all if if anything is complicates matters and creates new power bases where there were none before we saw in libya of course the national transitional council and some of the militias that nato was backing ended up going on extremely bloody retaliatory rampages in the wake of the fall of the gadhafi regime large numbers of people killed and so in some cases entire towns depopulated. nominally because they were seen as pro get off all these other nations are trying to secure the opposition to their interests and certainly al qaeda could be expected

drop as the syrian crisis deepens end of the violence intensifies concern that grows that if the assad regime falls it is a key ally iran would be left isolated and forced into a more aggressive because a. lot of it has rejected a proposal to make russian its second official language of the country's russian community makes up about a third of the population initiated the referendum to draw attention to what they call decades of. discrimination. that has euro zone nations that struggled to get to grips with their financial troubles and the idea of a united europe is losing ground but some schools in the bloc are accused of brainwashing people's into believing that the union is still going strong. and welcome back you're watching r t certainly glad to have you with us let's get a look at your top stories with syria becoming i further engulfed by conflict one of its key allies in the region iran is also feeling the strain experts warn the unrest could cross borders and impact on the whole middle east analysts are concerned that the collapse of the assad regime would be a devastating blow to ira