a quarter of lebanon's population is syrian, refugees of war.ow the party of my guest, deputy prime minister ghassan hasbani, says enough is enough. it wants to send them home but says it rules out talking to president assad — how can it be sure they'd be safe. the government say it's a burden the undermines the country's future is this the biggest threat or is it a political system that is entrenched sectarianism, legitimized bigotry and encouraged corruption so bad, it can't even keep the lights on? hardtalk theme music. ghassan hasbani, welcome to hardtalk, thank you for being with us. up to 1.5 million syrians have sought refuge in your country in the course of the war. about a quarter of your population now. how big a threat does that represent to lebanon? initially, it is a huge economic and social burden on the country, no doubt. lebanon welcomed all these syrians at the beginning, given the need, the humanitarian situation they were in. after a while — and this is several years on — this has...the numbers have increased significantly and

army of the syrian lebanese border. the operations taking place in lust stronghold along the border with lebanon the terror group set up a military base there in a mountainous area inside syria islamic state has been moving closer to the refugee camp just across the border in lebanon has also been a place of operation for the news of a friend. delves into the history of hezbollah is presence in syria lebanon's hezbollah has long been fighting alongside assad government forces throughout the six year syrian civil war but for the first time the armed group is making it official. hezbollah claims it's driving and isis terrorists as well as rebels out of the last foothold on the syrian lebanese border a mountainous region seen here on the map the green part here is controlled by al nusra and rebels and the black here by isis so far it sounds like just another development in the ongoing fight against terrorism in syria right so what's the big deal let's break it down. as well as presence in syria has always been a bone of co

israel targets a syrian artillery post after a stray projectile lands in the golan heights the fifth cross border strike since last saturday. in london huge crowds converged on the capital poured on prime minister to resign made to resign with the message one day more. i think we mean the same people leaving the people increasingly moving to be seen to be. moderate prices splits public opinion with just held across the country over the influx of refugees. germany surely it's going to be germany. with the confederations cup joins in a few minutes as we continue the intellectual debate. live from moscow with me. thanks for joining us this hour i was royal struck a syrian military position in response to strikes across the border the i.d.f. reportedly hit an artillery battery in the syrian controlled section of the golan heights the area has been a regular flashpoint between israel and syria for the past fifty years this follows five almost identical incidents in the syrian and israeli sections of the golan heights throughout the past week no casualties have been reported on the israeli

millions of syrians do that, they are not refugees.y fly out of beirut airport because many lines could not fly out of syria. there are areas for people to safely go back and forth. well, the human rights watch says they were forced back without consideration. nobody forced anybody. you are not signatories to the refugee convention say you have not formally committed to the international standards and that is another reason why people are sceptical about whether people can ta ke sceptical about whether people can take your word on that. more than 100 million people coming from syria 01’ 100 million people coming from syria or anywhere in the world, imagine the scale, coming to europe. this is the scale, coming to europe. this is the largest refugees per population situation in the world so norms, as the world applies, cannot be applied there. the world has to work first on making sure that the right secure areas in syria for them to go back. it is notjulie a lebanese problem it isa it is notjulie a lebanese problem it is a european and

and russia brokered ceasefire comes into force in the syrian city of people there enjoying their first peaceful day after six years of fighting. in the week's top stories have a. g. twenty right right the german city resulting in hundreds of injuries among police and protesters plus. i. c n n is accused of blackmailing the creator of president wrestling clips to reveal his identity if he does something similar again. but i welcome the latest developments and a look back at what's been happening over the last seven days to you watching the weekly here on r.t. international now just a few hours ago a u.s. and russian brokered ceasefire came into force in the syrian city of daraa after six years of relentless fighting people there have finally enjoyed a relatively peaceful. you know. i'm maybe deliberately. watched. the syrian cease fire came as an unexpected breakthrough following the meeting between president putin and donald trump on the sidelines of the g. twenty summit in hamburg and he said he has the details. following the first face to face meeting between president trump presiden

enemies the opportunity of a pretext to attack him why would he do it because he's evil the murderous syrian dictator bashar assad has been a brutal dictator bashar al assad's a murderous regime in syria assad is the worst kind of brutal war criminal a classic super villain booth stupid and evil beyond any logic the kind of villain batman would go after and america is not mine. if mr assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons he and his military will pay a heavy price britain is already on board if asked how does something really dumb for a new reason again the u.k. will join the us in punishing him we think it's absolutely right if we can to prevent the use of chemical weapons and we will fully support any u.s. action if you've been following events in syria recently you knew they aren't kidding the united states has attacked assad five times what they see is self-defense problem. justifying the prolonged conflict isn't easy once the voters don't want another gung ho bombing campaign they learn their lesson after the first few times the international community sick of

syrian state t.v. has reported that at least eight people have been killed. with explosives. however as police were closing in on the third car the suicide bomber managed to detonate his device. the white house says warned syria's president that he will pay a quote heavy price if he goes through with a chemical attack which the u.s. claims he's preparing however no evidence was provided to support the allegations so we're under investigation now we said aussies would have guessed if. but shah al assad has one really bad habit and that habit is and you need does this when he's winning he ruins everything by doing something really stupid for no reason at all. take acids army now they're crushing slavek state liberating vast swaths of syria and out of the blue comes this the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the saddam regime as sad knows the probable cause and sequences of a chemical attack it's the only thing really right now that could ruin him by giving his enemies the opportunity of a pretext to attack him why would h

you're using the talent, syrian people are more comfortable with syrian doctors. it's taking a strain off of turkey. so both of these countries have changed over time. my focus was how is the u.s. going to deal with the syrian conflict because we can't deal with it like we did in year one in year seven, we need to be in forward thinking. what i came away from was a couple of things. jordan and turkey are now depressed. they've had to go to double pressing of schools. turkish children go in the morning and syrian children go in the afternoon. they're feeling the pressure and we're starting to see it turn where they could get resentful. the roads are crowded. because syrians are so well skilled, they're competing for their jobs. as you look at that, syrians are very grateful. jordanians and turkish want to be helpful, but they're wondering where do we go from here. it is your our job to support those host countries, not with a check but to see how we can handle them. they're both different. they can't be treated the same. but out of all the refugees i spoke to, in a

you know do we want to go back to a united syria where by the syrian president controls all of syrian territory for example in that particular case if the syrian president bashar al assad was to seize control of all of syria that's a red line for his frail israel obviously would do its utmost to prevent that such a scenario from being fulfilled that's also our headline for turkey at the same time you have iran which believes that president bashar assad should have control of all of all of syria as he's a legitimate a syrian president so yes you don't have a convergence of views as to the final settlement but at the very least i think you know this particular step is a positive way forward but i would focus you know i personally would focus on the fact that. three players let me say is well the saudi arabia turkey these particular three players and they will do whatever they can order to spoil any solution which leaves syrian president bashar assad in control of the whole of the whole country and i think that these three players i mentioned would prefer who would try and bring about sc

troops as they slaughter the syrian people. iran continues to support terrorism including palestinian terrorists has blown and also. has below is a terrorist organization and they are currently. cross international loans in fighting in another country overtly it's in no way trying to demonize a group that is fighting against west against american against israeli and saudi interests in the region. but not everyone categorized as hezbollah fighters as terrorists the list of those who don't include syria russia china and of course iran which funds it and helped create the group in the eighty's the russian. allies and they came here legally they support us again the terrorists there are many participants in the fighting these are the syrian army forces and those forces that are usually called pro-government including his bill which is supported by the iranians his blood is fighting alongside this. block against the terrorist groups the western media has proven that they were supported by western countries by the united states by sa

forces syrian ally or. the other militant groups are either being you know struck or. annihilated or there and entering into reconciliation agreements with the syrian government so i think what the new tone from teller's. if trump continues is really to try to get a foothold in on whatever syrian solution lies the hat because there seems to be no advantage on the ground or not much on the ground the americans as they enjoyed. as early as a year ago so i think that's what they're going for at the g. twenty talks ok it will be interesting to see what comes out of that meeting we'll leave it there and i don't know any political analyst covering middle eastern politics thank you. by russia's tonight media reports claiming that. the u.n. security council has blocked a statement on north korea's latest launch of a ballistic missile. joins us now from new york with the details could even can it so that what's what's being said exactly. well the russian mission is adamant that this statement that was released by re

thanks for joining us tonight well israel says it struck a syrian military position in response to a stray mortar shell fired from across the border your idea for portably hits an artillery battery in the syrian controlled section of the golan heights area has been a regular flashpoint between israel and syria for the past fifty years israeli military issued a statement. in response to projectiles launched from syria the idea of targeted the syrian military artillery position that was the source of the fire dentical incidents in the syrian and israeli sections of the golan heights throughout the past week and no casualties have been reported on the israeli side but two syrian soldiers were killed by israeli fire last saturday the israeli prime minister said his country will not tolerate any spillover from the syrian civil war and will respond to all incoming fire. thousands have turned out of the british capital for the not one day more anti-government march and the sea of children to has been following the demonstration in london. we're in central london where thousands of people ha

in the syrian city of raqqa, islamic state is making a final stand., a fragile coalition... gunshots. ..of powers, great and small. of arabs and kurds. of men and women. the enemy they face has weaponised fear. but this is more than the final showdown with isis in its capital. it's also a battle for a kurdish state in northern syria. there's something bigger than me. state in northern syria. it's for people here, the women here and women in the middle east, and maybe potentially the world. it's a fight for territory, both physical and ideological. this story begins not in raqqa, but in kobane. what remains of this largely kurdish city stands as a monument to a brutal turning point in the war against islamic state. it was here that is reached its high water mark. its territory extending as far as the turkish border. it was here it met its first significant defeat. the cemetery in kobane testifies to just how high a price kurdish fighters, men and women, have already paid in their war against is. for the kurds, this is part of a wider battle, for a long

refugees and published a paper titled five myths about syrian refugees you write myth number one is that most of syrian refugees are fleeing president assad why did you come to this conclusion and do you feel like this recent data from the u.n. validates it at all. oh thank you for bringing up that study just before it was widely reported that these refugees are on our return and what we found in our field research is that when the refugees and displaced people were asked who had they fleeing from they did not by any stretch uniformly blame president of soft and that runs counter to the western narrative which is that all these people were fleeing just because of a soft it is true that many did mention assad but the majority of respondents said it was basically the violence in the country broadly not just assad but also the terrorists that he was fighting against and so with the growing stability that we're seeing as the syrian military finds more and more success that does the so-called rebels we're seeing a return of those people and i don't think that this story will get as much

washington accuses the syrian government of a chemical attack without providing any evidence to support the claim the moves of provocation aimed at paving the way for u.s. intervention in the country. c.n.n. is left to read. reveal the true feelings of some of its top employees towards russia. the start of the week so will the british prime minister the minority government by handing a huge chunk of cash to northern ireland. continuing. to the streets in protest. germany surely it's going to be germany. when the twenty seventh of federations go joins in a few minutes as we continue. on . the last few days here with me. welcome to the week. we begin with news from syria where the capsule has been shaken by call bombings on a road leading to the city's airport syrian state television has reported that at least eight people have been killed and twelve more. being packed with explosives take media claims two were intercepted and destroyed at an airport roundabout however as police were closing in on the first car the suicide bomber managed to detonate his device. i. think the white house ha

targeted the syrian military artillery position that was the source of the fire and was follows five almost identical incidents in the syrian and israeli sections of the go to new heights throughout the past week these ready prime minister has said his country will not tolerate any spillover from the syrian civil war and will respond to all incoming fire investigative journalist rick starting to listen israel is escalating the situation as the syrian army have been so slow and slowly but surely it is crushing the the armed opposition the terrorists within syria israel is escalating its attacks and its intervention it's really dangerous i mean a couple of facts about that situation number number one is that there's been nobody injured on the in the israeli occupied territory and yet israel is attacking as your broadcast just mentioned two syrian soldiers were killed i just a couple of days ago so it's extremely dangerous it's clearly a violation of syrian sovereignty. thousands of turn out in the british capital not for the not one day more antigovernment march and of the sea it sure

videos claiming to show a chemical attack conducted by the syrian government are dismissed by russia as. donald trump a taxi and then again posting a mock wrestling video showing came taking down the channel. two thousand and seventeen confederations called germany warning one goal to nil over your goal will bring you the chances are all drawn to the few minutes. hello there thank you for joining us on the key erin you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international all the latest headlines on the stories that shaped the week the russian foreign ministry has slammed videos alleged to show the off the mouth of a chemical attack in syria the ministry spokeswoman said they all fakes produced as part of an anti assad propaganda campaign. the social media smear campaign under the banner assad used chemical weapons has now started just as we predicted you'll see more of this fake videos over the following days the complain this plan to be on a grand scale videos purporting to show victims of a chemical attack by the syrian military flooded social media on saturday that was off to the whi

so it's extremely dangerous it's clearly a violation of syrian sovereignty. thousands of time out in the british capital for though not one day more antigovernment march an associate showed akin to has been following the demonstrations in london. were in central london where thousands of people have come out onto the streets to protest to resign me government now this is not the first protest taking place in london in recent weeks but it's certainly the biggest lead i've seen recently thousands of people filling the streets marching from the b.b.c. had orders to the words parliament where they're all here they say because they want the story now it's those that have was just going to be away from the steering measures to the handling of breadsticks of the coalition to do you see to the gun was shy judy really gillis is long and people want to me to make him go this is why he got his white between so many so many. people the quality and it's just not fair and just have to be that way on here tonight well as a protest because this will stir to the conservative

in a sheriff or to a syrian refugees coming back to the country that go into aleppo of their will to damascus and nobody really that they'll go to territories which are under such territories wish under such control which means that they are not afraid of him and this is the thing we are overlooking totally what about. attitude was western position you know frankly speaking i cannot i cannot formulate what is europe in position to was syrian crisis i see absolutely no position well at least in the beginning i remember because i covered the. conflict from the start the position of many european countries was that europe has to stand up for democratic values and that's why it has to support this armed uprising against the leader that many europeans receive as a dictator and as a killer of his own people now i don't want to get into the discussion about assad per se but don't you think i wonder if the syrian crisis in your view has taught europeans anything about you know the promotion of democracy and values has there been any lessons drawn on that front i believe yes i believe yes and

a syrian television has reported that at least eight people have been killed and twelve. intercepted. destroyed an old roundabout over as police were closing in on the third a suicide bomber managed to blow himself up. on the white house has warned syria's president he will pay a heavy price if he goes through with a chemical attack which the u.s. says he's preparing however no evidence was provided to support the allegations so watch season without investigates. but shah al assad has one really bad habit and that habit is and you need does this when he's winning he ruins everything by doing something really stupid for no reason at all. take acids army now they're crushing slavek state liberating vast swaths of syria and out of the blue comes this the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the saddam regime as sad knows the probable cause and sequences of a chemical attack it's the only thing really right now that could ruin him by giving his enemies the opportunity of a pretext to attack him why would he do it because h

syrian kurds or for example the iraqi military if they resort to immoral or illegal methods of. like torture the russian foreign ministry also warned that they have evidence that isis is preparing a provocation a full false flag chemical attack in syria to draw the united states in them on the topic of provocations and fake news the russian foreign ministry also expects a retraction and correction from c.n.n. we're talking about the boy that became iconic an icon of the battle of aleppo vod the civilians there went through with you know much of the big media mainstream media rallying behind him saying look this is what the russians and the syrians are doing in aleppo and the russians have promised not to forget that story until a retraction and a correction is issued by c.n.n. . well earlier in the week russia's turkey under run they had an estimate for another round of talks on syria's reconsolidation after two days of negotiations they agreed on a plan for deescalation zones in syria with the final details expected by the end of august we heard from the russian president's spe

for to bring together the syrians. and above will not forget the tragedy being witnessed by the people on the ground and i'm sure that through this frank dialogue we can help guarantee axxess safe access to humanitarian aid wherever it's necessary. with my russian colleague we've also spoken of ukraine. i reminded him of the need to result of this crosses to. improve relations in the form of the normandy formats in the framework of the normandy format to allow progress. on the minsk agreement with security because the security situation has deteriorated. z. both in terms of the line of contacts and they don't territories. naturally for mr love rose visit has allowed us to. talk about bilateral relations. we all the number one invest in foreign investor in russia. and also spoken of humanitarian cultural and social issues. for french and civil for us in civil society working together in the framework of the train and on dialogue. we are working together to put together. an attractive framework for all use. we have had a

know several he has at least and another thing with us is that president assad seems to a lot of syrian people more prefer belches now speaking about security in europe many russian experts believe that the station in ukraine despite a march lower does told present a much higher danger to the unity and security in syria in europe do you agree with dad that the syrian file is actually far more troubling despite the fact that it is not a full scale war and i'm not able to pull to put them in the least like number one number two number three you cannot prefer one thing. of course though there are all security risks definitely. if we speak about ukraine for baltic states and for poland this is one more reason to speak about possible russian aggression not syria but ukraine many in russia believe that tactically president can may need a low level conflict simply as a as a tool that would distract attention from the lack of reforms from the very slow progress on all those promises that he made to the people of ukraine after my done is there anything is there anything in your view that moscow

airstrikes targeted syrian forces and their vehicles approaching american forces have shot down two syrian drones and fired on allied syrian troops several times each time citing self defense in that same period however it doesn't appear that the out based u.s. backed militants have even once engaged in combat with isis now are to correspondent on your part tell talk to sharmeen to ask her how the u.s. actions don't seem to align with their stated goals the u.s. declarative ject in syria is to write and state. this is not a legal objective since the united states military has not been invited into syria for this fight by the the central syrian government who is the only authority that can that can allow foreign troops to fight in their country there are despite this stated objective there are clearly hidden objectives that we've been able to identify as the fight continues because the u.s. has on many occasions looked the other way let me just say the u.s. led coalition is look the other way when isis has has taken territory inside syria most prominently when isis troops just marched acros

since the start of the syrian crisis, the united states has helped lebanon support syrian refugees with clean water, food, shelter, and health care. our approach, supporting the humanitarian needs of displaced syrian citizens as close to their home country as possible, is the best way to help most people. america is proud to stand with those who have the courage to stand up to terrorism and take responsibility for affairs in their own region. the reliance and resilience of the lebanese people in the face of war and terror is extraordinary. we honor the citizens of lebanon who are working to secure a future of peace, stability, and prosperity for their children. mr. prime minister, i'm grateful that you're here today. it's a big day in our country because of the vote that you just heard about. we stood and watched the results on television before coming out, and you found it very interesting, i hope -- pm hariri: yes, i did. pres. trump: -- and very important. i look forward to working with you to strengthen our partnership and the enduring friendship between the american and lebanese pe

the major stumbling block being of course the future of the syrian president bashar al assad and his role in syria or nuclear. well let's try and get more of a handle world's going to go we've got a few experts regional of this latest ceasefire deal is going to. i think that the russian president put it best when he said this more pragmatic american approach which no longer sets conditions like the removal of the syrian president i think this factor does indeed make the chances for this latest cease fire to be more successful it increases the likelihood of success because we do indeed appear to have a new american recognition of reality a more pragmatic as i said american approach to i think we should be fairly optimistic because previous. failed because there were powerful spoilers in the aleppo case with. the al qaeda affiliate which was very strong and was able to disrupt the cease fires there in the south the military situation is different most of the fighting forces on the rebel side are smaller groups affiliated with the so-called free syrian army and affiliated groups of very