bashar al assad was never meant to be president. his father had ruled his nation with an iron fist for 30 years and had groomed another son to lead. but after that son was killed in a car crash, the president summoned bashar, then an eye doctor in london. told him, come back to damascus. do you sometimes wish that you were still an opt moll gist? >> you cannot look back to see yourself as a doctor. it's an important position. >> reporter: and indeed he does. just last month, an independent united nations commission who interviewed more than 220 syrians, issued a report, stating that the syrian government committed, quote, crimes against humanity, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against protesters, including children. do you acknowledge what the u.n. said? >> the concrete evidence that you have and we'll see if that's true or not. you have a lot of allegations now. >> reporter: did the u.n. not send up these documents? nothing at all. they don't even have the names. who are the raped people, the tortured people? who

bashar al-assad and his piggish band of crooks, torturers and killers of children will gladly go back to the way things were. as we in the united states contemplate the end of the bashar al-assad regime, events are giving many others pause in their enthusiasm. the syrians to be replaced this tierney may not be jeffersonian democrats. they're apt to be those who are organized around religious beliefs. these men and women are not likely to consider themselves our natural allies. this fact is not necessarily imply that they are or need be our enemies. in the years to come, a great experiment will likely take place throughout the middle east to see whether democratic norms can coexist. some may doubt it. it often seems to me that the conflict between moscow and state -- that those who find the conflict between mosque and state to be unresolvable seemed to also heighten the war between church and state in our own country as well. we see a number of islamic nations outside the arab world have a number of governments that while not perfect our democratic and down by the rule of law. it would

and from the beginning as well that those types of protests started the government of bashar assad and president assad himself was very clear that he wanted to initiate reforms in the that had to be done in a democratic and peaceful way it can't be done in a way where it's being you know where the government is being terrorized and it's a situation where there's an armed conflict that's not how democratic change can come about speaking of a libya where nato intervened could we see a similar situation in syria where this there's going to be this push for nato to intervene and if nato does intervene what would their motivation be. the motivation is to provoke regime change there's really no other motivation beyond that and of course well the the reason they would want to provoke regime change is to put in place a government that would be friendly to us and its allies interests and of course to enable those interests to control strategic resources in syria and throughout the region which is the same case that we saw in libya i mean the whole justification of protecting the population

and he's very much in terms of supporting bashar al assad's standing with iran so there are other players new players and existing players who've got a much bigger. as america's position is quite dilute very interesting franco to you i mean everything we just heard we do everything we just heard is that there are more bitter more than one iraq so it sounds like to me go ahead. yes i'm sorry what i wanted to know and i think it's extremely important from my colleague in tel aviv is the united states one of the most important impacts. what happened in iraq of the u.s. invasion is the united states has ignited sectarian tension and conflict in the middle east which is having profound effects ripple effects throughout the region i think syria is a critical piece here so is saudi arabia of course iran is the one positive thing as is as the united states withdraws even though we had a very bloody to day today in baghdad in iraq as the united states withdraws the one positive potential peace here is the united states will have less of an ability to actually use iraq as a battleground for

assad regime to stop its crackdown what kind of steps do you think will follow. well the u.s. government the obama administration has been very clear that they are calling for bashar al assad to resign to step down in fact for there to be regime change in the country they're not looking for some way to negotiate a solution to the conflict that's that's going on in the country they're looking for a way really to to force out of power but what the u.s. can do is what they've done in the case of other countries i mean they can intensify economic sanctions against syria they can continue in the campaign to try to garner support for some kind of military aggression towards syria but they will continue to do what they have been doing which is providing arms to those militant groups inside syria that are engaging in this kind of struggle this this fight against the syrian government and i think that that's probably the number one thing the u.s. will continue to do is to provide funding and arms to groups inside syria to continue to follow men on rest and try to overthrow the assad regime. a tense moment the u.s. . is saying quote credible reports that the acid regime con

been you know concentrating on the position that there is no dialogue with such a president dr bashar assad i believe there is still a gap between both parties i mean there is syrian regime and his counter let's say falls or political foes inside and outside the republic of syria so i did all to be more pressure and more efforts being perpetrated by independent arab states that they haven't played a role so far in the arab league and major clout powerbrokers all the thanks for sure for the russian federation and their support for syrian regime so far so there should be a certain balance between both parties in order to have a certain dire political dialogue between conflicting parties inside syria. so you talked about the western interests there. says that sympathy with the opposition and destabilizing the situation is in fact an indirect way of making sure that any full scale intervention is justified as we saw in libya so do you do you really believe that is the agenda that the west has i believe it's through any foreign intervention i believe in i urge what the surrogate lavrov has menti

justification for the government in syria is doing. >> i think you have to understand the mind of bashar al assad, just as his father maintained his reign by conquering and defeating the city of hamma 20 years ago, i think bashar al assad is determined to defeat the city of homs. he wants to make sure there can be no benghazi. >> no free zone. >> exactly. became the free zone and liberated libya, homs cannot liberate syria. and the demography is complicated. >> there's a specific geography of the fear that you see. the aloui neighborhoods are spared, the sunni neighborhoods are shelled. the bread, electricity is all cut off from the sunni neighborhood. you see the terrible logic of this regime. >> which is basically pushing it towards sectarian conflict. >> that's from the playbook of bashar al assad, that's what he would love to do in fact. because if he makes the sectarian, he corners his own aloui community, they stick to him, they have to become basharists. >> he cannot win, but they cannot win, either. there's right now this back and forth. >> absolutely. i think we've talked before about sy

to bring about changes of bashar al assad to leave power will all of syria's problems disappear once president has left the scene or is that just the first step . well i don't personally think it's any step at all and i think that the us is out of place calling for any other government to to step down in the us is acting as though it's some kind of world emperor that orders governments in and then orders them out. i think that assad government has been very clear that it wants to resolve the internal conflict it's been working from day one that these protests began to negotiate a solution to implement reforms that president bashar assad has been very clear that there will be reforms in the country that one of the main problems inhibiting those reforms are impeding them has been the uprising of armed civilian militants who are fighting against government forces and that's what's caused so many of these casualties that have been taking place so many of the the deaths that have occurred over the past several months so i think that the really the solution is not whether or not bashar al

bashar assad's security forces are regrettably -- are reported to have killed nearly a 200 people in last two days, including numerous and deserters from the syrian army. protesters are celebrating the victims as martyrs. 18 of for an monitress this task with finding out exactly what is going on -- 18 of foreign monitors has a task to find out what is going on. there will be independent eyewitnesses. >> they will have the right to freely move, freely meet with people if they have to go to prisons, hospitals. >> but images on syrian state tv of military exercises raise questions about assad's real intent. and accompanying that buick -- footage, a message to viewers that the army is ready to strike back against any aggression perpetrated by any means that the syrian state. >> let's shift to some business news. its price cash injection for european banks. >> the money was more than welcome. the european central bank is making unprecedented three-year loans to banks. hundreds of financial institutions are taking out low- interest loans, totaling almost half a trillion euros. far more tha

does assad project the image that things are stable, that he's very safe. is he that safe? >> i think bashar al assad think that the laws of gravity don't apply to him. and he also believes what happened to gadhafi in tripoli and what happened to hosni mubarak will not happen to him. he believes that he's really immune to this fury. and he believes that his community will really actually fight for him and keep him in power. and i think in this kind of, you know, in this parallel universe, as you described it, it makes perfect sense for bashar al assad think that he could ride out the storm. for example, the arab league imposes sanctions on him. guess what he says. he said, we had 35 years, 40 years of sanctions. we can live with sanctions. the arab league again, in way, tries to corner him, he has nothing but contempt for the arab league. the united nations human rights council issues a report accusing him of war crimes. what does he say? he has no regard for the united nations. and when pressed, does he not think much of the united nations? he thinks -- he says, we only play the game that w

the obama administration has said bashar al-assad must go. tomorrow secretary of state hillary clinton will meet with syrian exiles in geneva. and tomorrow on this broadcast, we will have more from inside syria. clarissa linked up with those uo have taken up arms to fight the assad regime. some of them defectors from the syrian army itself. elsewhere in that part of the world, iran claims it has captured one of america's most sophisticated spy planes. u.s. intelligence is spying intensely on iranian sites believed to be developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. bob orr tells us an unmanned u.s. drone did vanish over the weekend. >> reporter: the secret stealth drone-- nicknamed the beast of kandahar-- is one of america's most sophisticated intelligence tools. for the past four years, the r.q.-170 has flown high-altitude surveillance missions over the battlefields in afghanistan and its border with pakistan. on the night of the bin laden raid, one of the radar-evading unmanned aircraft monitored the navy seals' assault. ict now u.s.

and a concrete solution based on reforms can be implemented and that is what pleasure president bashar al assad announced earlier and that is what he intends to do a lot of based our political analyst and journalist thank you. well still to come this hour here on beaten by the clock the u. bungles its own bailout cash deadline as the book struggles to convince member states to chip in for the common good of all of the euro. we're going to be transformative moment maybe very social and economic justice in america is not backing down the occupy movement gains momentum after three solid months of their worldwide crusade against global financial fraud. ten minutes past the hour now here in the russian capital let's get to the oil rig story that capsized in russia's far east on sunday where rescue operations are continuing to spite fading hopes of finding any more survivors a total of fourteen have now been safely brought to shore and have been treated in local hospitals. griefs met some of them as they arrived in port. dry land and the end of a nightmare for the weary few on board this ship rescued

with the russian fighter jet, attack helicopters and tanks, president bashar assad has threatened to them all against his own people to stay in power. fox news learned that iran and the revolutionary guard are going to great lengths to help assad. that doesn't surprise the israeli minister for strategic affairs. >> syria is part of what is called axis of evil. >> as they reference the ammunition supplies in the eight-month massacre of the pro-democracy demonstrators, western intelligence says he is running out of the critical items and iran started using commercial airlines to supply weapons, ammunition and men to resupply assad. seven times a week, commercial airliners fly from the international airport with unsuspecting passengers aboard to damascus airport where the plane, military facility for unloading. yet another effort by iranians to cover their tracks. in marge of last year, turkey intercepted a number of armed shipment using iranian cargo planes and since banned them from the air space. >> you can identify the ira iranian involvement. in any conflict. in almost any conflict.

sides of the conflict but we must understand at first that this is exactly what the regime of bashar assad has wanted in the first place is this south korea fulfilling prophecy where by ensuring that the fate of the ilo we and other religious communities is attached to the fate of the regime the fall of the regime of the or the prospects of such a fall unfortunately links itself to the fall of these other communities and so they feel that it's either going to be they must side with the regime or they may face completely being go wiped out following the fall of the regime this of course as we've seen in hamas has unfortunately led to such sectarian strife but in general and the syrian opposition under the biggest umbrella group the syrian national council has completely condemned any kind of use of force that is other than the means to protect peaceful protests to be used within notably the free zone i mean but they're still using i mean there are all sides people are dying here so there's a lot of use of force here if i got hussein here why should the arab league be choosing a side in a ci

in rare television interview with barbara walters, the syrian president, bashar al-assad, flatly denied he ordered the use of brutality. instead blaming the violence on others. paul would starts the coverage -- paul woods starts the coverage. >> day after day unarmed syrian protectors have come out to face machine guns, snipers, and army vehicles. the costs so far is 4000 dead mom. . but in his abc interview, bashar al-assad did is killing his own citizens. >> we do not killer on people. no government in the world kills its own people, unless it is led by a crazy person. i became president with public support. it is impossible for anyone in this state to be ordered to be killed. >> we saw a different picture in a week of traveling inside syria. the city of homes, catalogs her losses. her son was shot dead and protest the explains. then her grandson was killed by a sniper while all getting brett. -- while out getting bread. a few days after talking to us, she, too, was shot dead. >> i do not own the country. >> no, but you have to give the order? >> no. >> the crackdown was without your

assad and that would be iran. jon: these protests against bashar al-assad are essentially an extension of the arab spring, are theywhat does it say to the people trying to take on their own government and apparently being buchered in the process? >> they are buchered in the process. most clearly like in egypt or tunisia i think it would be more dramatic than libya. they are not armed. there is not another army breakaway as in libya. unfortunately we have been late. therefore what we see in syria is a regime unleashed against its own population unstopable. they have allies at the security council, russia and china. it is pretty dramatic what is happening now in syria. jon: the u.s. is talking about issuing invoking sanctions against the syrian government, right? will that work? will that help? >> we are always late. sanctions of the nature we would issue would work six months ago. we're at a level with a no-fly zone or refugee zone or assad unleashes against his own population. he will try to weather those sanctions. but at the end of the day nobody can stop him except an action by nato at this point in time. jon: