role turkey may play in the arab world following the revolutionary wave that has swept through the region our debate show cross talk is coming up on r.t. . hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle turkey and the evolving geopolitical order in the middle east and arab world is ankara making a bid to play the role of the regional head to mine on the back of the arab spring and at the expense of western powers or is it merely following a foreign policy based on national interests. to cross-talk turkey's external ambitions i'm joined by john feffer in washington he is co-director of foreign policy in focus at the institute for policy studies also in washington we have joseph he is an adjunct professor at the american university school of international service and in london we cross to rachel xabi she is a journalist and author of not the enemy israel's jews from arab lands all right folks this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first i guess it's an understatement saying turkey is a country on the move and didn't hear turkey has

the real political order in the middle east and it is a cruel making to be to play the role of the regional picture mine on the back of. a book about you without your life or must go on to share the headlines now the palestinians are taking to the streets from across the west bank to show support for their leaders big so when you. left us russia tries to help the plan through despite opposition from the u.s. and. the united states is accused of being encouraging the arab spring to achieve its own interests even though it sacrificed the position of its closest ally a lot of israel leaving it in a state of isolation. greece makes some good progress in talks with. the south and hopes to get another aid package to stave off default but the i.m.f. warns the global economy is in a perilous state the u.s. and eat you close to falling back into recession. right as the headlines here and see do stay with us they were next piddle of elena's cross talk guests explore the role that turkey may play in the arab world following the revolutionary way that swept across the region but cross talk is now. they

let me start with the first first, why regional cooperation and wide region.first of all, we know, we heard because we know it thought why with a few exceptions then we have to convert than loughner's into family nurse. why is this important? because it is in between large commercial centers, not supermarkets, but clients in the east and west and of course in the south. and unless we develop a comic judy to make things have been, there is no way that this region without the benefit, but there is no way this region will get out of poverty, which is something we need because it's in everybody's interest. the nearest port, a lot of countries in a region is about 2000 kilometers away. how can he compete if you have anything to sell unless he has access to the places in between. an important one is getting on the way to develop at 8%, 9% growth over the past two years needs access. unless we have that access, investment, competitiveness, productivity ain't going to be there. those are some of the reasons why this makes sense. what other things make sense? the logis

geo political order in the middle east and arab world is ankara making a bid to play the role of a regional hegemon on the back of the arab spring and at the expense of western powers always had merely following a foreign policy based on national interests. to cast doubt turkey's external ambitions i'm joined by john feffer in washington he's co-director of foreign policy in focus at the institute for policy studies also in washington we have those at all mike he is an adjunct professor at the american university school of international service and in london we cross to rachel xabi she is a journalist and author of not the enemy israel's jews from arab lands all right folks this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first i guess it's an understatement saying turkey is a country on the move in here turkey has squandered no time thinking its english and strategy will bear world to a new level last week prime minister rachael type of on what observers have thought the arab spring toward visiting tunisia egypt and libya and into augment the c

the making to be complete the role of the regional hegemon on the path of. welcome back you're watching r t and here's a look at the top stories russia urges the palestinian bid for statehood to be given for a time of the un that's as washington threatens to use its veto power against a unilateral move just a year after president obama promised palestinians a seat of the soundly. the u.s. is accused of encouraging the arab spring to achieve its own interest even though it sacrificed the position of its closest ally israel leaving it isolated. greece makes good progress and talks with dead inspectors as athens hopes to get another aid package to stave off the fall but the i.m.f. warrants a global economy is in a perilous state with the u.s. and e.u. close to falling back into recession. up next people of l. and he's crossed our gas to explore the role turkey may play in the arab world following the revolutionary wave that swept the region is coming your way. can. start. to. blow in welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle turkey and the evolving geopolitical o

approaches to the region.the region that we call post-soviet eurasia, the 13 former members that are not 'em i. or nato -- e.u. or nato. and we start by russian policies in the region both in u.s. and in russia, namely that many kinds of behaviors that is many in the u.s. find objectionable are rooted in unalterable historical drivers. so the argument goes, russia meddles because of security and economic imperatives mimicking the similar behavior of the russian empire and the soviet union before it. um, and i think we, we argue that this core assumption about the causes of russian conduct in the region is flawed both because it rests on a historical deterministic logic, it is this way now because it was that way before, and more importantly because of the questionable linkage between the russian federation and the two previous states with similar geographic cores. [inaudible] for their neighbors by nature. after all, one was called the russian empire, and the other was founded on an ideology that envisioned it

let me start with the first first, why regional cooperation and wide region.irst of all, we know, we heard because we know it thought why with a few exceptions then we have to convert than loughner's into family nurse. why is this important? because it is in between large commercial centers, not supermarkets, but clients in the east and west and of course in the south. and unless we develop a comic judy to make things have been, there is no way that this region without the benefit, but there is no way this region will get out of poverty, which is something we need because it's in everybody's interest. the nearest port, a lot of countries in a region is about 2000 kilometers away. how can he compete if you have anything to sell unless he has access to the places in between. an important one is getting on the way to develop at 8%, 9% growth over the past two years needs access. unless we have that access, investment, competitiveness, productivity ain't going to be there. those are some of the reasons why this makes sense. what other things make sense? the logist

intervene turkey has in mind the role of an important regional power and with the recent upheaval in the arab world that sense of mission has become aggrandized and arguably more aggressive on the same visit to tripoli or to one vehemently condemned government's crackdown on dissent in syria up until recently turkey's ally and earlier in cairo he called to uphold the palestinian bid for statehood rallying for the palestinians cause has in fact become one of the pillars of burdwan soft power strategies much to the detriment of ankara's relations with televisa throwing the ball in israel's court once said some countries in the region cannot read the changes that are happening on top of which israel experts say that turkey is a player to reckon with if that's the case how enduring is that we will it's employed in the emerging regional or prove well of give its competitors a run for their money or overplay of hand a big spends of its western partnerships back to you thank you very much ok rachel i know you first in london are we seeing a new paradigm we see the washington riyadh tel aviv

let me start with the first first, why regional cooperation and wide region. first of all, we know, we heard because we know it thought why with a few exceptions then we have to convert than loughner's into family nurse. why is this important? because it is in between large commercial centers, not supermarkets, but clients in the east and west and of course in the south. and unless we develop a comic judy to make things have been, there is no way that this region without the benefit, but there is no way this region will get out of poverty, which is something we need because it's in everybody's interest. the nearest port, a lot of countries in a region is about 2000 kilometers away. how can he compete if you have anything to sell unless he has access to the places in between. an important one is getting on the way to develop at 8%, 9% growth over the past two years needs access. unless we have that access, investment, competitiveness, productivity ain't going to be there. those are some of the reasons why this makes sense. what other things make sense? the logi

it deals with the regional inner operability. and it is called the bay web, bay area wireless enhanced broadband. it will be a network data, broadband network, exclusively for public safety and first responders. hopefully i can work the technology here. bay web is a public/private partnership. it is a partnership of the bay area public safety agencies, ten county bay area region. we're working with representatives from all of these counties to develop this partnership. another partner shmotorola and i will talk a little bit about motorola in a few minutes. they received an grant to build this network. finally we have bay area regional inner operability communications system, j.p.a., which is recently stood up joints power authority to oversee and govern the bay web project and anne kronenberg and chief sir are both members of the j.t.a. so we have great representation from san francisco. just a quick couple minutes on our current status. on communications and inner operable communications. we have our voice communications, land m

as cross live now to jerusalem to talk to dr nimrod goren the founder of the israelis to regional foreign policies for more on this and many has being with us here dr coren so how bad in your opinion is this downgrade in diplomatic relations and military cooperation for turkey israel relations. relation has and paul is in use in peals but this whole relationship to a totally different and an already level diplomatic relations will be and can always be have been in the last twenty or more years among the community relations be shoved down the matter of fact. and basically all cooperation with our for so deal of the exactly the situation could the on going negotiations of the past month between these are intricately with a really good review. to avoid and unfortunately it's a very bad news for israel turkish relations there but widening the sell what does it mean for the region's politics considering that the major arab states are already weakened by the wave of uprisings. basically the idea presented an opportunity for israel to mend its relations with turkey turkey moving from its allianc

these barriers are certainly not unique to this region. variations of them can be found everywhere in the world. but because this is the most dynamic economic region in the world, what we do will have an impact on everywhere else. some barriers are left over from a different time and haven't changed to reflect new economic realities or concepts of justice. some seek to preserve an economic order that ensures that men have the higher paying jobs to support their families. and some reflect lingering cultural norms, the belief that women need to be protected are from work that is thought to be dangerous or unhealthy for them. in truth, what is dangerous is denying ourselves the level of economic growth we need to build stronger societies. and what is unhealthy is for women to be denied the chance to contribute fully to that growth. that denies everyone, first and foremost, their games, a chance at greater prosperity. economic orders do not perpetuate themselves. they are made and remade through countless decisions, small and large, by economi

this has been a truly regional cooperation, a cooperative effort. our vision for the project is to lower environmental effects and project costs by implementing two ideas. first, we want a centralized facility, instead of each agency doing their own desalination at their own facility. we would like one central facility that serves all five, or several agencies. that reduces the footprint. second, our agencies have assets that exist. some are fully utilized. others are not. we would like to maximize utilization to see if we can help neighboring agencies implement this project. this project has been recognized by the state and federal government. we have received $1.20 million through the state through crop 50 funds. in the last two phases we did, feasibility and pilot test, the state-funded 50% of the work. the rest was shared by the four agencies. what this shows is that for each agency, just by contributing 12.5% of the total project cost, are at the table for studying desalination. this cooperative project allows us to leverage our dollars. we are

is this going to be a regional authority? to go forward with this project, we would need to have either a memorandum of understanding with the agencies, or a contract, or a jpa would be a possibility. >> a joint powers agreement, but none of those exist yet. >> correct. >> once you determine the responsibilities of the agency, will they be coordinated to reflect proportional representation, or will it be equal representation from all agencies? >> participating in the study is right now -- my expectation personally has been at the end there will be less than five. there may be two or three. there may be only one. >> those are three agencies. they can override san francisco concerns? >> we have not explored how that might work out. we could set it up where there has to be unanimous agreement. >> sort of like the budget committee in congress now, which will never receive agreement. >> that is right. >> that is my concern when we start to establish regional agencies that combine the political interests of four distinct areas, or

that is possible on the regional trains.

regional efforts to bolster the region while promoting trade efficiency. efficiency. the apec secretariat looks

regional efforts to bolster the region while promoting trade efficiency. the apec secretariat looks forward to a successful apec transportation meeting and to the directions on the agenda that are set. thank you. [applause] >> me remind everyone, we have a very full schedule today. [inaudible]

regional biking service points serve two aims. one is of course, the people who want to bike, to rent their bike, to have it repaired. on the other hand, it's part of a social economic project, so, therefore, it's also an initiative that i find personally very important. these are people who are unemployed but get into a working program in the bicycle

, was a strongly agricultural region. at the beginning of the 1950s, more than half of the work force was still employed in agriculture. from this starting point, we have arrived at the situation today in which, as in all other parts in italy, the service industry now prevails. as well as services to business, emilia-romagna provides some of the best social and health services in italy. statistics show the highest percentage of working women in italy, though they've not yet reached the same levels as in northern europe. but, as in the rest of italy, child benefit payments are low, and this presents parents with difficult choices. antonia patuelli works in the quality control department of a fruit drinks company and lives with her husband giorgio in bologna. [speaking italian] [translator] i need to work. otherwise, i would not be able to support myself, but even if i was in a position to support myself in some other way, i would still work-- fewer hours, maybe, but i would definitely like to carry on the same work. i can'

in the region, we should continue to strengthen regional efforts to bolster the region while promoting trade efficiency. the apec secretariat looks forward to a successful apec transportation meeting and to the directions on the agenda that are set. thank you. [applause] >> me remind everyone, we have a very full schedule today. [inaudible] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- supervisor campos: good morning, everyone. welcome to the transportation authority plans and programs session meeting. clerk of the committee is erica cheng. madam clerk, can you please call item no. 2? >> review of minutes of the july 12 meeting. >> colleagues, you have the minutes before you. before we act on it, with any member of the public like to speak on this item? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. taken without objection. madam clerk, please call item no. 3. >> item #3, citizens of advisory committee report. an information item. supervisor campos: mr. davis, good morning. >> good morning, commissioners. our meeting took place last week and i it -- as a result there were

storage area for radioactive waste according to the live figaro newspaper the facility is in the garden region it's a major site involved with decommissioning nuclear facilities and operates a pressurized water reactor we'll bring you more on this breaking news story shortly unsolved issues in russia u.k. relations should not stand in the way of healthy and profitable cooperation that's what the leaders of the two states concluded that their meeting at the kremlin artie's a nice and now a has more on the outcome of the first official visit by a british prime minister to russia for six years. president made of called the talks direct and constructive david cameron called them excellent the two leaders have pretty much agreed to disagree on their sticking points and saying that they have to be able to move forward in other spheres especially business a lot of talk at least in the new summer as a lot of questions about the lives of engage location how that will if it will really continue to in fact ties in just to remind you alexander litvinenko was a former russian security officer who was poiso

four hundred people working in a mosque or in we have affiliates in different regions of russia and. when i heard about a dear of a mr putin of creating the edge and see it was. for me a. very interesting because it was what i already did for thirteen years. so you qualified for the job because how do you go out and use your send an email or want open doesn't do email see this mail. it was a. sort of. contest or was it a tender it was a tender. send by email. dear. to the role how or see the edge and see and etc and then on the twenty seventh of july. put in invited us and told the results tell me tell me what did you write to the prime minister how how did you impress him how you going to improve the investment climate in russia because i have been asking this question here in this studio for more than a year now that invest in proving the investment climate what know what's new in your approach their idea of agency and the met and the managers for managers who would work in the agency they should be businessmen who all the really created their own business because for businessmen t

is a very diverse region. i think we have a golden opportunity. president obama cantu par wanting to change the relationship between the united states and the became to power wanting to change the relationship between the united states and the muslim world. but now he has been given a gift on a silver platter. these young people want a different relationship with the united states. this is not an anti-american revolution. this is a pro-democracy, a pro- dignity, a human-rights revolution. it is important for the administration to be out in front, not just with words, but also with money. we give the egyptian military $2 billion a year to buy weapons and tear gas and tanks, etc., not to save themselves from an outside force, but to save themselves from internal disruption. how about half of that money goes to building schools, building civilian infrastructure, building the democratic infrastructure necessary to create a peaceful transition? tavis: is that not nation- building? >> it is, but nation building on t

shortly after taking off a region killing forty three people on board. and moscow is to set a fact finding mission to syria to get first hand information about the crisis there this as russia's president medvedev refuses to take sides in the conflict saying that talks are the only way to peace. well coming up next it's our special report about the deadly legacy of war and how it could come back to haunt military .

this was a minimum of $1.3 almost $1.4 billion in this city and region. but $1.8 billion across the state and country. not just the 8,800 jobs in this city and region, but close to 12,000 jobs across our country. those are real numbers because the america's cup has been vetted in the past. they have done post economic analysis of what other host cities have generated, and in every case they noted that their projections initially understated the ultimate realities of the race. so i have great confidence and expectations. not only are we going to see more of this activity out on the bay behind me, which has gotten more of your attention than my words, but also we are going to start seeing the region come together in a way the region needs to come together across the collective effort, organizing around this bid. i will just say one final thing. one of the great things about an effort like this is that everyone raising their game. so you have the direct benefit of the work we are going to be doing on the pier and port, but it is the other things we are doing

we've been supporting a lot of the autocrats in the region. in order to win the war on terrorism, it's important we get muslim people behind us, muslim people on the streets taking initiative. >> stephen: but we already did that by invading iraq and getting rid of saddam hussein. >> and that went so well. >> stephen: well, we won. we won there. we went in there. we got rid of the bad guy, unless you'd like saddam back. just go ahead and say it. you want saddam back. >> new york but... >> stephen: okay. good. then they should be thanking us. didn't we send a message to the arab world that this is how you change things, and they went, jesus, we could do that ourselves, except minus the jesus part. >> they actually did. >> stephen: did they really? >> no. in fact, they were rejecting the model we established in both iraq and afghanistan. it didn't workment ten years later we're still in both countries. ten years later there are more suicide bombers in iraq than we have ever suffered from. greater deaths in afghanistan last month than at any time

it's really have been struggling to bring stability to that region with people that by violence many many years linked to islamic insurgency for now all the major fighting in that region has to some extent being controlled she said they felt that if he's very much studying supporting stability to that region attacks on police and the government continue throughout that region that's the especially if it's that we see the number of people that have today if you see that again last night. all right sara thanks very much indeed for bringing us more on this server reporting here. it wasn't all that long ago the al-jazeera news network was considered quote evil by washington but the white house has certainly changed its tune recently praising its groundbreaking coverage that's a little surprising critics after we can lease revelations exposed the director general of the qatar based network of having links to the cia and promoting him to herd we quit our cities now it takes up the story. right now al jazeera english is seen in million american households al-jazeera or the island is not in

in some regions, the harvest was a total loss. in september of that year, government officials came to rokunohe to check on the year's rice harvest. ( speaking japanese ) ( speaks japanese ) translator: twenty. narrator: officials count the number of stalks, flower heads and kernels. ( speaks japanese ) translator: hulls: 92; kernels: two. narrator: this crop is devastated with only 90 empty hulls and only two full ones. this kind of damage had not been seen in generations. so why plant in the north rather than in southern japan? it's a fascinating example of agricultural geography and even economic geography in japan. the closer you are to the parts of the country that have become densely populated, it's been harder to maintain agricultural activities in those areas because of higher-paying jobs and the attractiveness of urban life in these areas that traditionally supported three crops or at least double-cropping of rice in the course of a year. in the northeast, on the other hand, that's been much slower to industrialize. so ag

an important ally in the region a time it needs all the friends a king gets. big deal all relationship to a totally different and lower level diplomatic relations will be there with a really good left one pupil you can only can relation agree. exactly the situation to their own going negotiations of the past month really is very intricately really to mediation to try to avoid really fortunately so now with this let's run for only a very important and muslim country a nato member. and it is very important. in last for quite some time. which is really the expecting a very difficult diplomatic development the u.n. mission of a part of. starting a regime the e.u. have agreed on yet another round of sanctions against syria this time its biggest source of income oil. on the frightening issue we were of water how ukraine is looking for ways to become less dependent on russian gas. cans. to libya now where the rebels are tightening the noose around colonel gadhafi is last major stronghold his hometown separates the fugitive leave his forces have been given an extended

>> that is a real growing need in our region. it is the fastest growing component of metro's budget. i think we need a blend of supplies and some real improvements in how we deliver those services. there is an important federal role in meeting those needs. it is a very important demand. >> talk about nontraditional stake holders. so we're just about ready to wrap up but i would just like to give everyone a chance to have the last wood. what do you want? what do you hope? what do you fear? how is that? we'll just go right down the line. >> well, i think what i hope or what chairman mica hopes or house leadership hopes is that we can move a long-term transportation bill. in coming months. i can assure you that there are efforts ongoing where we won't leave any stone unturned. to try and find adequate resources to fund our programs. we're going to have significant reforms. we talked to the senate. i think the bottom line is as they say, if the will is there, the way is there. i think that -- i'm hopeful, now i'm optimistic. it is re

make our region more resilience during droughts or natural disaster. the tests are in themselves and valuable for emergency preparedness, whether or not a fall the selenite -- whether or not a full desalination facility is pursued. this will evaluate how our agencies can assist each other in the event of a disruption, emergency, drought, planned outages, and integrated water management plan as required by the state. the questions raised by environmental groups about potential diversion are excellent questions. these are the very questions these studies have been designed to answer. the information we collect during this coming phase will help all of our agencies make fully informed decisions about the potential benefits and consequences of pursuing a shared facility. the information will allow decisions on if, when, and how in the next steps may be approached -- and the next steps may be approached. -- any next steps may be approached. they are immediately valuable for use in future emergencies, and planning integrated water management. the level of co