bush decided to bomb sunni iraq not shia iran giving shia ahmadinejad a heck of a lot more influence in the middle east and taking out sunni saddam hussein iran's biggest enemy against whom they fought a multi year war that cost them both billions of dollars and killed over a million people so some people are saying that the ten million dollar gift to rove is payback from shia iran for all the great things rove and bush did for them against the sunni muslims in addition some people are saying that the ten million dollar donation to karl rove has some strings attached that if romney wins or the republicans take the senate then all those sanctions president obama put on shia iran would immediately be lifted and we might even go after another sunni run country that iran doesn't like just like bush took out sunni run a rack and flipped it over to shia rule and some people are saying that all the aggressive bomb iran talk coming from mitt romney is just a show and the behind closed doors mitt and mahmoud are best friends here we have ten or even twenty million dollars anonymously handed ov

encouraging chaos by trying to bring down the secular assad regime dominated by the minority and backed by shia iran. >> this is part of our prime minister's great middle east project to redesign the region. what began in geneva and egypt has now got stuck in syria, but next will come iran here to make it easier to attack, they want a new government in syria, so they are sparking a sectarian war. >> mahmoud has the same fear of sectarianism. >> unfortunately, they are the supporters of the regime and the people who are fighting now, the syrian people. the syrians will forget that soon. there is going to be retaliation. i have no doubt. >> the end of the regime, he is sure, will not be the end of the struggle, but he does not want to give up fighting. >> winning a medal at the olympics will hang on just a few hundredths of a second, so what is it that is elite athletes the edge they need for success? ahead of the games, we had exclusive access to athletes and world-class scientists and engineers working with them to try to find out if it is the technology around them, there -- their genes or somethin

arabia qatar and bahrain iran with much animosity and see it topple the assad as a way to weaken the shia iran this whole situation has little to do with freedom or democracy neither saudi arabia nor qatar bahrain or the united arab emirates have any democracy or freedom and most of these states even lack a constitution because it would be ridiculous to assume that these democratic states could bring democracy to syria or the sunni shia confrontation as a very important dimension to this conflict often ignored it plays a major role that you know just recently u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton said. and i go wait russia and china will pay a price because they're holding progress in blocking it this is no longer tolerable what's your reaction to the statement. but all i see is that the us is paying a price for what it did in iraq for example the us has lost a lot of its glamour and trust in its foreign policy. i would even go as far as to say that the occupation of iraq prompted a crisis in us or at the moment even its staunch allies like turkey or egypt along with western european countri

shia group. in a way of change sweeping across the middle east, iran, a shia country has been working with the government. saudi arabia and qatar are increasing support for anlt eye government forces. this intervention by neighboring countries is fuelling the syrian civil war. nhk world reports from jordan. >> reporter: the city is near the border with syria. several charities set up bases they're help syrian refugees. every two weeks cash vultures worth about $190 are giving to 1,500 families. it is enough to sustain their lives in this area. these charity groups are funded by the sunni muslim state, saudi arabia. and other arab countries of the gulf region. it is part of their counter measure against syria. >> precious lives are being lost. both among those who make up the government forces and among those who have joined antigovernment fighters. but to achieve freedom and justice, we must give the rebels all of the support we can to ensure a better future. >> on the pretext of helping refugees, this charity group is supporting the forces against their regime. >> translator: i'm grateful for the suppor

think every country in the region wants to secure its own national interest you have iran's saudi arabia there is the shia sunni confrontation there is the influences of iran in their region and there is hezbollah the all these are the intricate relationship by i think play a role but. i don't think it's the way you characterize it that they are some sort of. some sort of a playing in the hand of the united states or russia or saudi or israel directory. carol in london you want to jump in go ahead yeah because i think that's a very important angle i think since the beginning of from tunisia and egypt the beginning of the arab uprising we've seen that saudi arabia and qatar have actually kind of broken free from this american region or there are so to speak which has completely collapsed and we can see very clearly the the declining u.s. influence over here and the lack of clarity about how to restore it which is kind of bridging a this competition between qatar and saudi arabia and again both of those countries kind of put it meddling more aggressively and affairs of other countries i mean just mentioned

iran is shia, and egypt is sunni. but putting that aside, we don't want these countries to devolve into these autocratic, theocr theocratic anti-western entities where there is no true democracy and very harsh version of islam is being pursued. we would like to see more of a turkish model which is a commitment to democratic principles and if people want to be governed by laws that are more in accord with islamic practices, so be it. it's their country. that's what democracy is. we just don't which way it's going to tilt, whether it's in egypt or tunisia or countries that are going to undergo democratic transitions, and there will be more of them, obviously libya. so i think the position, you know, the government should be taking is let's see where it goes. let's do what we can to support these governments and encourage them to head down a democratic path to liberalize their economies and to be supportive. and then if they head off in the other direction to, you know, use coercive kind of measures to try to influence t

terms of kind of repressing and keeping down and disempowering the shia population because adriel deterrent against an attack on iran is the great fear that the shia populations especially across the region will rise up and will attack western interests in the region and now we see in bahrain and saudi arabia attacks on the shia population there so this and this is why the army has been. in my view this is trying to prevent the shear from being in any position to to weaken the shear to bring them in a position to respond effectively and so they're to with a run in the event of an attack on that country. coming up in a few minutes credit to wiki leaks with a win over funding. to preemptively cut off the finances of a company that has not been found guilty of any crime i think is a very very bad and my whistle blower triumph in its first battle against us credit card giants which blocks public donations to the website. and detainees problems with mind bending drugs the pentagon report shows inmates in secret foreign prisons were interrogated while under the influence of chemical. campaign groups funded from abroad wil

terms of kind of repressing and keeping down and disempowering the shia population because adriel deterrent against an attack on iran is the great fear that the shia populations especially across the region will rise up and will attack western interests in the region and now we see in bahrain and saudi arabia attacks on the shia population there so this this is why the army's big incentive in my view this is trying to prevent the shear from being in any position to to weaken the shear to prevent and be in a position to respond effectively and so there are two with a run in the event of an attack on that country. coming up in a few minutes corrected to weaken leaks with a win over funding. to preemptively cut off before a public company who has not been found guilty of any crime by suit is a very very bad on. the online whistleblower trial the senate finance battle against u.s. credit card giants which blocked public donations to that website. and rivaling power of wide screen as the country's deposed leader tells us he left to avoid his people bloodshed stay with us for the president's first major interview since hi

this where the shia muslim movement, hezbollah, is based. iran is believed to be supporting the group. nitsana stressed that fighting and winning compensation from iranian government will eventually bring peace to israel. >> by obstructing iran from using the hard currency, we are obstructing them from funding terrorism. we all know that money moves everything. it's right for terror organizations as well. in order to collect it, we need long arms in different countries so we bring all these people from europe, from the united states, from canada to build these connections that will help us. >> reporter: taking advantage of u.s. law to put pressure on iran seems to be winning strategy for israeli attorneys. they are using it as another weapon to stop iran's nuclear development. >>> earlier shery ahn spoke with nhk reporter in jerusalem. what do israelis think of these legal tactics? >> reporter: many people seem to strongly support them. in may this year, a similar lawsuit saw the israeli side beat the governments of iran and syria in court. the m

shutterstock or the i am of dealing king syria from iran and weakening iran because they have a sectarian view of things and against the shia are regime or a shiite country iran is sort of for this reason i think that more iranian of will lead to more escalation and more sending of weapons from saudi arabia and qatar to the rebels or to the terrorist groups inside syria which will lead to more violence so i think we're in for a very escalated period and i think no no these are persian gulf countries well actually now choose to escalate their stance and even send more and more weapons to these armed groups interesting perspective thank you very much indeed middle east expert ali of his from lebanon joining us live there thank you so much for your time. latest revised figures say over one hundred sixty people have died in russia's southern region of klassen adar after a devastating floods swept through the region on friday night humanitarian aid is pouring in from across the country while volunteer workers travel to the area to help victims get back on their feet tells us how people have faced fear with heroism. panic on the

iran is shia, but we do not want these countries to devolve into these autocratic, theocratic, anti-western entities where there is no true democracy and a harsher version of islam is being pursued. we would like to see more of a turkish model which is a commitment to democratic principles and if people want to be governed by laws that are more in accord with islamic practices, so be it. it is their country. that is what democracy is. we do not know it -- which way it is going to tilt. there will be more of them, obviously. i think the position the government should be taking is, let's see where it goes. let's do what we can to support these governments and in courage them to head down a democratic path, to liberalize their economies and be supportive and if they head in the other direction to use coercive measures to try to influence them. but this is about the people who live in these countries and our ability to shape this outcome to one that would be a perfect and in our interest is actually extremely limited. how that plays out in the campaign, i am not sure but i do not think governor

to europe itself and it is part of if you wanted to draw out that way an arc involving iran iraq with its big shia majority. the syrian government and the people who support and of course the. national resistance movement in lebanon hezbollah that's a very powerful arc with a lot of firepower and one of the characteristics of she is a witch the foreign office minister that i talked to last night appeared oblivious to was the shiites are quite ready to fight to the death and what role do you think iran should play in bringing peace to syria well iran is a critical component in the region as a whole it's critical in iraq it could end in an afternoon the all remaining traces of western occupation of iraq in an afternoon if they give the want to do so and of course you cannot talk about the future of the region without bringing iran into it and russia and coffee alone are both correct in saying that iran is indispensable in any solution to this the only possible solution is the kofi annan plan which is supported by everybody in the world except the. people whose plan it ostensibly is the united nation

qaeda might be playing because al qaeda is really not a force to be reckoned with in the shia world, particularly in iran. there's a whole lot to unpack here. we learned in the briefing today, jay carney confirming the packet that president obama called his russian counterpart, vladimir putin about a couple hours ago i guess it was. they talked about syria on the eve of this upcoming vote ayman was just talking about. >> one of the things on the agenda tomorrow is reauthorizing the mission of the u.n. monitors who have been in syria. from all accounts today, those u.n. monitors are basically relegated to their hotel and aren't able to do any of the ork they were sent there to do. have had he accomplished anything and is there any point from a frac cal standpoint of a continued u.n. monitoring mission? >> well, it depends on who you ask. if you look at the trajectory of this u.n. observer mission over the past 90 days, which was the or mandate, it has completely failed to do what it was meant to do which is observe and try to refrain the two sides really from engaging in violence. so what has happened is

the proximity of iran makes them extra sensitive to the shias. and yes, this film was -- i can't to an american audience or western audience this film is somewhat explosive. for a gulf audience which does not talk openly or has not historically spoken openly as a community about things like sectarianism, between sunnis and shias, and about authoritarianism and the merits of one-family rule and for a community of people who do not talk about these things publicly, this film was a bomb. >> sure, you are dealing with a lot of hidden issues there, but important. >> and you mentioned that most of the previous work had been about abuses under the bush administration. and obama has come to office with promises of transparency, but he has had more of the whistle plowers and he has not been able to close guantanamo, do you believe that the situation that this country is with this sense or threat how real or not, we do not know, but it is one that is ladying to the erosion of civil liberty? >> i worry that it is. because if administration that is theoretic

iraq is on one of those sort of key fault lines in the middle east between the shia world and the sunni world, between the iran arab world. and so, it has not been easy in iraq trying to forge some kind of governance where shia and sunni and kurds all feel that they have a stake in it, and i suspect that as we move forward with syria, we are going to have to make sure that all these different communities feel they have a stake. after all, when you look at the syrian christian community, the syrian kurdish community, they seem to be still supporting the government, not that they have any love for bashar al assad, but they're obviously worried about the possibility of muslim brotherhood. so, when we look at our experience in iraq, we realize that there is a great deal of concern among these smaller communities about a larger community. i think there is some experience that we can apply to the situation in syria if we can get to a political end game. and right now, we're really in the midst of a war there. >> yeah, still such destruction taking place there. christopher hill, thank you so much for your time this m

iran. it is deeper. they are shia. there an offshoot of islam. they are tremendously different in terms of culture. in terms of politics, they feel an affinity for each other. they are lined against the majority population in syria. iran would like to see that regime in syria continue into the future. it allows them to supply has allowed with weapons. that relationship has just deepens. the relationship is extensive. >> how did assad get the power he has? he does not look very powerful. guest: that is a very appoint. he inherited the country from his father. what happened is they made their way up through the military. they were the minority. they represent 12% of the population. they took the reign of power. >> the pentagon has set up a special team to prepare for what many believe is the imminent collapse of the regime. they will prepare the military for whatever role that might take. it appears to be reaching a decisive moment. what they are's leading to is the u.s. government has finally realized that the situation in syria cannot be contained