a new mission this is how the arab league is being described by some particularly when it comes to syria others are not so appreciative for them the arab league is very selective when it comes to sanctions and its own members and those hostile to the arab league call it a tool of western powers. to cross not the arab league i'm joined by monzer slain in washington he is director of the center for american arab studies and a national security affairs analyst also in washington we have hussein abdul hussein he is the washington bureau chief of the kuwaiti newspaper all right and in paris we cross to tell me he is the editor in chief and co-founder of arab thank dot com all right gentlemen this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first let's look at the arab league and syria. for decades now the arab league has had a shaky reputation often being dismissed as ineffective and only to the interest of its autocratic regimes but with the onset of the arab spring it has managed to come to the forefront as a regional mediator calling the shots

a new mission this is how the arab league is being described by some particularly when it comes to syria others are not so appreciative. of the official t. application. called touch from the. video . calls an r.s.s. feeds with the palm of your. questions. sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know. welcome to the big picture. he. says. i asked. you you. if . hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle an old organization finding a new mission this is how the arab league is being described by some particularly when it comes to syria others are not so appreciative for them the arab league is very selective when it comes to sanctions and its own members and those hostile to the arab league call it a tool of western powers. to cross talk the arab league i'm joined by monzer slain in washington he is director of the center for american arab studies and a national security affairs analyst also in washington we have hussein ab

chavez it is economically if we give him enough in the world that syria. other syria. you can make it a lot of people in syria. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop perhaps even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we don't want the syria and its soldiers we have. and our people are subject to the result just like only this subject we have only we have enough but i think yeah we want to leave. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as liberators to being called occupiers tripoli residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of the young man who's on the channeling enemy willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know what if we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of all our we will make sure that what happened in libya repeat itself in syria the libyan model with the portraits of shaky borrow now ubiquitous on the streets of

syrian army but not syria but you know in sting libya the support in the street was only in syria and the care because there was. an old contentious between syrian people it and i was whose country was created artificially very late so you don't have such a thing in syria and so you're the only way to divide the people is to use the contrition rule so we try to do that now. below it's. so nice and of course of course to. question losing so but if you mean fight there you want to create peace between and i would send signals last competition a war in syria. hundred sixty years ago so it's difficult to prevent how do you see the situation progressing now first on the military level. i think that all b. reaction to destabilize the country are not working we see a lot of problems a lot of people killed but this is not a civil war great way to organize if they want to enter with foreign troops inside like be doing libya or using proxy from the gulf council i think. the problem is based country israel will battle glorious countries leaving since sixty years in the released who is that will

and turning back to syria now r.t. speaks with a french journalist reporting from the country throughout the conflict and shares his firsthand impressions on what's really going on. i. as the conflict in syria continues it's been extremely hard to establish exactly what's been happening inside the country we're joined now by independent journalist the airing my son thank you very much for joining us now you've been working on the ground here in syria can you tell us what your perceptions of the situation could begin we've seen groups inside the country. making big problems. slim rates when the border first. and various people. recruit some of them to to make bigger fighting groups and no way up in three min coordination with the political opposition to this country very. long history of the position between the party in the brotherhood saw no reason that i didn't speak to in this. groups coming from abroad so that's why this groups come in go quite everywhere because b. of some support and inside the population begin b

and sticking with our top story in syria as r.t. speaks with a french journalist reporting from the country throughout the conflict and sharing his firsthand impressions of what's really happening there stay with us. as the conflict in syria continues it's been extremely hard to establish exactly what's been happening here inside the country we're joined now by independent journalist the erema sun thank you very much for joining us now you've been working on the ground here in syria can you tell us what your perceptions of the situation are big in we've some groups entering inside the country. making big problems trying to create islamic emirates one of the border first in jordan and various people. some of those two to me who began fighting groups and. called the nation with political opposition. to this country a very. long history of position between sparty in boost the brotherhood saw no reason that i didn't speak to in this. groups coming from abroad so that's why these groups come in. because we have some support now inside th

syria is able to resist very long time to be. pressured from the top these think the president is that they now has the capability the capacity to remain in power of course and. the problem is that the people who try to destabilize assad. stronger are sort of the that they are creating the meat they have already. well they will have. but i said at the beginning where you have the wrong evolution of a program they think it would be very simple what the grade. of. the constitutional civil war but they make the mistake of a great peace. we dealt the number who we put in and in libya when they created this leaking rate. because he became very thinly behind in syria. they have a lot of weapons from the beginning because they seized from the army and not believe in the same smuggling underworld you know but they are very big stocks so very can have a basis to extend the civil war in the country but here they think it and after that they use the people way of sense going from one told to handle the creating problem for one told to anoth

because he became routinely behind in syria. they have a lot of weapons from the beginning because bases we pull from the army and not believe in the same smuggling underworld you know but they are very big stocks so very can have a basis to extend the civil war in the country but here they think it and after that they used to the people way of sent going from one told to a creating problem for one told twelve but not able to destabilize all the country of the same time and i think you know it's too late they will fade thank you very much for joining us. mum. mum. mum. mum. mum. mum mum. the list explore areas. touched by money. surrounded by stupid. case paintings on display for thousands of years. beyond the time. the. download the official auntie application your phone on pod touch from the top story . life on the go. video on demand parties mine comes and says feed now in the palm of your. question on the dot com. are oblique observers head to syria's most turbulent city of homs to assess whether the government is keeping it

>> outside syria? no. >> reporter: syria's uprising began in march, after fellow arab nations, tunisia and egypt, had thrown out their dictators and as the world moved against libyan deictator moammar gadhaf. you've seen the pictures of mubarak in jail. pictures of, in libya, of moammar gadhafi, killed. are you afraid that you might be next? >> no, i'm afraid that the people won't support me. syrian people. >> reporter: that they won't support you? >> they support me. i mean, the only thing you could be afraid of, to lose the support of your people. that's the only thing you should be afraid of. >> reporter: do you feel now that you still have the support of your people? >> if you don't have the support of the people, you cannot be in this position. syria, it's not easy. very difficult country to govern if you don't have the public support. >> reporter: you feel the majority of the people in this country support you? >> the majority are in the middle. and the majority are not against. to be precise. >>

sanctions on syria and one sided pressure don't work. the west for ignoring atrocities committed by opposition groups who aim to create a humanitarian catastrophe in the country. the former ukrainian prime minister supporters have stormed the building where yulia timoshenko seven year jail term for power abuse. international news and comment live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is. present a. promise that all reports of violations during russia's recent parliamentary poll will be looked into he made the comments as he met with leaders of the parties elected to the state duma well for more let's talk to. live from central moscow sara what else is present event of said at the meeting and how has the post-election situation been developing in russia while he was talking with the other leaders of the party that made it into the dream of course. the communist party. and the liberal democratic party now we heard of of course addressing the concerns of the election. he once again reiterated that all these claims are going to be fully i

they are all of them inside syria and the. spanish reporter was first in libya recognized them here in the inside of the top of beasts a so-called free syrian army but not syria but you know in steam libya for supporting the street it was only in syria in the car because there was. an old contentious between syrian care and tripoli tonight which was this country was created artificially very late so you don't have such a thing in syria and so you have the only way to divide the people is to use the confession of war so we try to do that now. below it's. so nice and of course more so to. christian jews and so but to have a main fight they want to create peace between i would since his last competition a war in the syria. hundred sixty years ago so it's difficult to prevent how do you see the situation progressing now first on the military level. i think that all be reaction to destabilize the country are not working we see a lot of problems a lot of people killed but this is not a civil war great way to organize if they want to

those how to feed into those terrorists and how they terrorize certain area in syria today. there was a propaganda actually launched by some satellite out of satellite trying to bitrate different pictures i was in syria just two days ago i was in damascus there is nothing. when i was there i went to the cafe i went to a lot of places but when you listen to that satellite you think there is like a whole war is going on so there is reality and there is a propaganda and i think that the observer on the ground can testify to some of the facts on the ground and you don't have to say there is an eyewitness and actually there is somebody invented the eyewitness so this is in a way the observer if they coordinate as was requested by the foreign minister could be an indication and verify the syrian account that those country who said they want to help syria they actually work in to destabilize syria ok well the opposition leaders let's just talk about what they want they still say it's not enough for the opposition leaders continue to call for a different type of intervention a milit

nowhere in this country whenever they beat news about syria would never be everything you suppose syria i would really pay attention and although everybody here say that they gots correct i don't think that's or got stopped as precise as i think it was so i'd like to think that because of my trip there and my experience there. that when i see something about syria i don't take it at face value i remembered everything that i had gathered and would look through it through that perspective rather than just what i see. test of syria every day right up to the new year we'll be bringing you more personal reflections from our correspondents who cover the biggest stories of the year you can also catch them as well on our website out com if you get a belated check out our website the stories to there right now know your rights the city of los angeles is pushing people detained in the occupy l.a. protest to take classes now about the first amendment and the proper way to exercise free speech somebody for interested also from us we've got live footage coming from straight from bethlehem there the.

warns that syria is now in a state of civil war footing the day after all it over four thousand as the plans to hold emergency talks on the crisis they are. all eyes are on egypt as other country awaits to see how the people vote with the parliamentary elections despite the fact many doubt it will bring any real change. a record number to depends of course the vote but many continue to mourn that woman if you can do that step down and make way for civilian government move from cairo in just a few moments. thousands of protesters take to the streets of new york to stage a labor union rally demanding jobs and economic justice echoing occupy frustration at the gulf between the haves and the have nots. embers of the siemens will launch a new gas turbine manufacturing plant together with its russian partner had a heap of energy do it explains what the companies are teaming up for join you for more and are covered for. what you are going to live from moscow one pm in the russian capital syria is in a state of a civil war and that's the warning from the u.n. which has to made to the death tol

for more details on this developing situation in syria. thank you for coming on the program today as we were just talking to r.t. sara furthur freshly back from syria we're discussing the fact that official reports suggest al qaeda could be connected to these latest pair of suicide bombings in the capital do you think it's proof the al qaeda terrorists are operating in the country as the assad government has said or could this just be a tactic that benefits one side either the side of assad's regime or the side of the opposition. well actually we're not sure yet responsible for the these attacks but whether that is proof or disproof that al-qaeda is active in the country is another christian al-qaeda is active already in syria for some time and may be and may be they are also responsible for d.c. attacks so when the saudi government is claiming that they are merely fighting an armed resistance from abroad. they do have a point but that does not change the fact that there also is a popular uprising in the country now and i think the attack

the city of homs in syria. and for more on this situation in syria i'm now joined live by international affairs commentator recross all of this talk nato organization a web based information campaign against the lines mr rose that think of so much for joining us now so western countries and says president assad is personally cracking down on peaceful protesters why is it that that nine months on the rest continues with reports suggesting the opposition is actually getting stronger. i am speaking to from chicago and not from either damascus so i don't claim to have time to be privy rather than cite information about what's happening internally in syria your reporters are doing a good job i think covering that aspect of the crisis my concern is more what is happening in the region in general and what internal developments which may not remain so starkly internal inside syria for time for the region and also the pattern of destabilization overthrows of the overthrow of governments throughout the arab world so far

next up, hearing looking and syria. over 5000 people have died in syria, including 300 children, as protests and violent clashes continued. the united nations human rights council says syria should be investigated by the international criminal court. >> the subcommittee will come to order. as has been well documented, the human rights being -- human rights violations being perpetrated in damascus are horrifying. we have documented some of the rest of calling him widespread human rights abuses witnessed in -- some of the of the most appalling and widespread human rights abuses witnessed in the past decade. abuse, murder, sexual violence, torture, and the abuse and murder of children. witnesses report the torture, abuse and rape of children no more than 15. one military defector stated that he decided to defect after witnessing the shooting of a 2- year-old girl by an officer who affirmed that he did not want her to grow into a demonstrator. the english language does not have words strong enough to adequately condemn the

it means setting syria on the path of. the rule of law and protecting the universal rights all citizens regardless of sacked or ethnicity or gender. so i mean you already mentioned forces said to be along the border there what is going on in terms of the state department and what what's being planned sort of behind closed doors from what you understand. look when it's hard to disagree with pivotal what hillary clinton just said but what she didn't say is the real story and watch it didn't say is we want to bring this regime down we went through change but we still don't know how to do it so made to a splendid fact is to subcontract this civil war basically to turkey and the turks just a simpson that a lot of us have been discussing over the past few weeks what would you start is a must they're all they have a foreign policy that implies they won't create any problems with any of their neighbors this is their foreign place for the past eight years in fact and now they're creating a problem we have direct neighbor the castle

. -- human-rights in syria. this woman came from a village in the north where the opposition and the army conflicts led to massacres of hundreds of civilians. the bloody crackdown on the opposition continues. in homs, a citadel of resistance, and men brave government snipers. elsewhere, fighters. it is emblematic of a country spiraling into violence. >> for more on today's attacks, p. j. crowley, a former state department spokesman, join me a short time ago. >> it has been noted that the government blamed al-qaeda and put this attack together with the protests seen within this remarkable year. is in their interest to do that. it could be al-qaeda. al-qaeda is the simplest explanation. al-qaeda has been largely sidelined this year. more likely, it is a sunni attack iran -- sunni attack. you have the gulf, the sunni who have the majority in the country. is it sunni-directed violence against the establishment? this is not on the best terms. >> of course, the opposition, the question that this the whole time. why wo

country's assaulted by airport security proclaimed the instant could be linked to moscow's position on syria. will stay with that story to international pressure mounts on syria artes of abene talks to one of britain's foremost journalists next jonathan steele of the guardian newspaper to get his thoughts on possible solutions for the country's political crisis right now . i'm joined by jonathan steele former chief correspondent of the guardian newspaper and now a commentator on international affairs jonathan thanks for speaking to r.t. europe now the u.k. recently been approached by the king of jordan to spearhead a diplomatic offensive against assad william hague the foreign secretary is now met with opposition leaders is this the preamble to another libyan start intervention. it could be i mean we can't be sure and i think it's dangerous it might be i mean they're trying to be hague's message to the opposition is to get your act together unite on a common platform in other words to turn yourself much more like the libyan opposition who the government also talked to and then eventually rec

of syria our people to. avoid the external. but to go. there when really feels like celebrating anyway when the country's hospitals are full of casualties the government claims it's fighting militant groups sponsored from abroad meanwhile the opposition originally marked by its insistence on peaceful protests it's now been joined by growing numbers of army defectors and has become increasingly arms on the months quite downs by the government and this violence spreads its prevailing extremely hard to know exactly who is responsible for what. you have for instance. from somebody who is not. the government. position the deal presently is a government. taxing killings have been met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation you know we have to use two different views on every t.v. . we don't turn as a means to see who is more. to the truth one of the arab league team will be attempting to cut through the rhetoric and discover his version of events is most accurate they many remain skeptical about how much they'll be able to achieve but

inside syria and the.spanish reporter was first in libya recognized them here in inside of the top of beasts so-called free. syrian army but not syria. and still to come this hour a disaster of chain reaction. suddenly there was there was panic cause outside of the car about to film a stand up. and the police and the emergency workers suddenly just like the sound saying. it was all inject me. but i could understand there was that you can see the fear and can also there was a tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car artie's international correspondent i've ever been at looking back back at the risks he faced while reporting from japan ravaged by the raw power of nature. but first pakistan facing a crisis in its relations with the us appears to be seeking more support from other powerful ally to the east china ties with america have been all but severed following last month's deadly drone strike by the us military and this year's raid to kill osama bin laden without as lot about as for w

in syria people want for christmas in the new year is peace but no festive mood as the latest round of violence leaves dozens dead. and the new mission for a new year fueled by a success is in libya david cameron reveals plans for involvement in oil rich somalia describing the country as a threat to pretty secure with. its ten pm here in moscow this is r t thanks for being with us my name is kevin first tonight thousands gathered in central moscow to protest against this month's parliamentary election results the mass rally was organized by opposition groups who claim the vote was rigged. it was at the scene of the demonstration. it's certainly fair to say that the head count of the saturday's rally beats that we saw two weeks ago at below plan square official figures we're hearing from the interior ministry is that thirty thousand opposition is saying some hundred thousands but certainly tens of thousands of people came onto the streets of moscow today to call for free and fair elections you have lots of different political groups here people that just came out and say they're not par