Hello there the latest news and a look back at events over the last 7 days to watch in the week here on our take now turkey says its taken control of a key border town is its troops advance deeper into Syria Kurdish forces they claim their retreat was actually tactical Ground Invasion which it calls an anti terror operation was launched on wednesday turkey wants to create a buffer zone in syria free of kurdish fighters ankara then wants to settle millions of Syrian Refugees there who are currently in turkey the u. N. Says over 130000 civilians have fled to advance warning that this could rise 2400000 those escaping the verge the International Community to step in. America and other countries should protect us theyre committing sin here our children. Women is there really no mercy but rather clearly this is an occupation we are a peaceful people we are talking about displacement and effectively genocide of innocent kurdish civilians innocent communities within that region the kurds have always been on the defensive but now they may they must defend themselves and their families which means that unfortunately they may not be able to police the the camps that hold isis and the isis prisoners it is now going to cause a big vacuum and a significant problem in terms of security for the offense that has sparked rallies around the world people in the u. S. France germany and of the countries to join kurdish protests the operation has also been condemned by the International Community share many fronts and others have gone so far as to hold on as exports to. The president has threatened to send refugees into you if he continues to condemn anchors actions. We have 3600000 Syrian Refugees in our country waiting to go back home Hey European Union come to your senses ill say it again at the moment of our operation you cannot define it as an invasion our job is easy we can open the doors and 3600000 refugees we will send them back to you. The offensive follows president Donald Trumps decision to withdraw u. S. Troops from the region defended the knave saying that the kurds did not help the us during world war 2. We have no soldiers in the area. Weve been talking to turkey for 3 years theyve been wanting to do this for many years as you know theyve been fighting each other for centuries now the kurds are fighting for their land just so you understand they didnt help us in the 2nd world war they didnt help us with no normandy as an example well that move was condemned both within the u. S. And abroad with. Britons and democrats saying the president is betraying the kurds as you go to dan of looks back now it u. S. Relations with the group over decades it seemed impossible sounded like crazy talk and yet it happened a moment of unity between republicans and democrats as they both condemned americas disloyalty to its kurdish allies the person who United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven this is that crazy. Which allies in syria or elsewhere in the middle east will fully trust the word of President Trump in the future the thing all of these politicians pundits and channels seem to forget though is that the kurds i used to waking up to a groundhog day of american betrayal the only difference is that its been going on for more than half a century and hasnt been funny at all. In the fiftys and early sixtys the cia pushed the kurds to revolt against baghdad as part of their efforts to overthrow their leader a bill karim kassim eventually he was toppled by but the new ruler was in a big fan of ideal of kurdish independence so he bombed them into submission bombed with napalm kindly provided by the United States. The kurds seem to either have a short memory or a forgiving heart because in the 70s the u. S. Was back on their good side iraq and iran were involved in a border dispute and washington was correctly supplying the minority with weapons once again pitching them against baghdad but then iraq and iran kissed and made up and all of a sudden the kurds were on their own being blown to pieces as their. Posed transatlantic Guardian Angel was watching idly even the americans at the time admitted that keeping their involvement under wraps was simply no excuse this policy was not imparted to our clients who were encouraged to continue fighting even in the context of covert action ours was a cynical enterprise hoovered action should not be confused with missionary work. Fast forward to the eightys and for the us it was the golden decade of big hair metallic umma dawn and m. T. V. For the kurds it was well just another decade of more u. S. Betrayal in the late eightys Saddam Hussein unleashed his chemical arsenal against them an atrocity looking bound to draw the wrath of the worlds policeman but it was still a long time before saddam was to turn from friend to full so american wrath didnt go further than statements like these we want to maintain good political and economic relations with iraq but the issue of chemical weapons gets in the way of that. In 2003 it looked like the u. S. Was finally ready to make amends for its decades of forsaking the kurds helping them was among the pretexts for the invasion of iraq but then even in washington many took such goals with a pinch of salt the kurds have every reason to believe or think that they will be betrayed again by the United States or so often the person contracts the spectacle of are inviting turks in to this war youre trying to bribe them into it could not have been reassuring to the kurds even under the turks before trial against betraying the kurds that is your point yeah surely your point is that because we betrayed them in the past we should betray the list type not that we should trust we will we will not will not yes they did in 2007 the. Us let turkey have its way with the kurdish rebels in iraq as ankara launched a lethal bombing raid against them this is of course nowhere near you full list by 2019 america had left the kurds for dead a few more times both in iraq and syria. American traditions go beyond partisan lines america loves having turkey on thanksgiving going to the Pumpkin Patch for halloween and launching fireworks on the 4th of july screwing the kurds over is nothing but a decades long political tradition for america and they will abide by it be the democrat or republican. Now ecuador has in the grip of anti staring protests at the moment despite present when the rain is military backed curfew that was imposed on saturday early that day people attacked government buildings and also a t. V. Channels office in a week has passed since people 1st flooded on to the streets to oppose government cuts on fuel subsidies. And this is what theyre doing look these are real goods real bullets against people the accountants who protect themselves who carved wooden sticks who dropped explosives on out Indigenous People who sleep in houses concha they were asleep thats what a car dance. Well when the fuel subsidies were cut prices reportedly raised by 120 percent leading to a knock on inflation on other products to the decision came as part of a deal made by the president of the International Monetary fund back in march in exchange for another loan to the country but they know so far refused to scrap the cuts although he did say on saturday he would have a 2nd look at them. Before that blamed the unrest on former president. And also the venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro mr correia told r. T. That moreno only has himself to blame but. Its a difficult time for my home and the shows the politics of merino in his government hes already been in power for 2 and a half years and he still blames korea for everything economic crisis for security for his political faults and to say these mass protests to my fault is just crazy that hes not in there is really marino is not interested in democracy for him the most important thing is to control power control the ecuadorian public so he create projects that can damage the majority but be beneficial for his goals. Now a quick look at some stories making headlines this sunday a powerful typhoon has torn through japan with at least 23 people reported dead heavy rain and strong winds have led to landslides and power cuts the operations are underway with some 16 people reported missing and a new hotel being built in new orleans has collapsed killing 2 people and injuring 20 a number of people are thought to be missing 2 authorities have cordoned off the area as a further collapse is feet. Ahead of a state visit to saudi arabia on cheese state that gave an interview to several Arabic Networks including our sister channel r. T. Arabic it is in full. I have an idea of us welcome to this unique interview with russian president Vladimir Putin which were recording in sochi. With me here today are mr mohan and reporter at sky news arabia and so im soffit a reporter r. T. Arabic thank you very much for this unique opportunity considering your upcoming visit to saudi arabia. A lot of. But you know so i mean. It is my pleasure i think its a good tradition to meet with the countrys media before visiting it as with the visit to saudi arabia we attach great importance to it it is in a sense a return visit after the visit by king of saudi arabia custodian of the 2 holy mosques to russia it was the 1st historic visit we consider it historic and it really is there is one more thing that i believe is important to note in soviet times relations between saudi arabia and the soviet union were rather low level in recent years the quality of our relations has changed dramatically we consider saudi arabia a friendly nation i have very good relations with both the king and the crown prince we have been making good headway practically in all failed but i will start with the economy there is still a lot to be done but we have set a good pace last year it was up 15 percent in the 1st 6 months of 29000 growth was as high as 38 percent were considering some good joint projects on direct Investment Fund and the public Investment Fund of saudi arabia have joined established a 10000000000. 00 platform with 2000000000. 00 have already been invested work is underway on other projects and some promising and interesting projects have already been implemented because they consider it possible to operate on the territory of saudi arabia one of our Companies Exploring the possibility of building a petro chemical facility with investments of more than 1000000000. 00 it is Cebu Holdings russias Largest Company in this sector we have for string a partnership in the trust based sensitive area of military and defense cooperation we have been negotiating for a long time equally important are our joint efforts to resolve the regional crises in this regard i would like to emphasize the positive role saudi arabia has played and resolving the Syrian Crisis we are working especially closely with turkey and iran as you well know but i believe that without saudi arabias contribution towards the syrian. Settlement it would have been impossible to achieve a positive trend therefore i would like to express our gratitude to both the king and the crown prince for this constructive approach im confident that my visit will help to build up the momentum both in developing bilateral relations and enhanced and cooperation in International Organization of. So that. Mr president thank you very much once again for giving us the opportunity to record this interview your visit to the middle east will possibly have an impact on the United Arab Emirates as well or do you think about strategic cooperation between russia and the. And how would this corporation evolve can this corporation play a certain role in strengthening collective security considering the Russian Initiative to establish a collective Security Architecture in the gulf region especially in the area of the strait of hormuz. And that it. Youve just mentioned the strategic nature of our cooperation indeed we signed a Strategic Partnership memorandum last year and we see the United Arab Emirates as one of our very close and promising partners the signing of this document was not a coincidence it demonstrated the quality and nature of relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Russian Federation and i have to say that as is the case with saudi arabia our partnership is vigorously developing in all areas of all the gulf countries we have the highest level of trade 1700000000. 00 but of course this is not enough we are well aware of that so currently we are working with the u. A. E. Sovereign fund the joint platform is worth approximately 7000000000 dollars 2000000000 dollars have already been invested work is underway on other projects and of course it is safe to say that the United Arab Emirates greatly contribute to resolving regional crises and play is stabilizing role in the region it is no great secret that we maintain regular contacts with the leadership of the United Arab Emirates there is even an established tradition and practice to compare notes regarding different topics in my opinion we are doing it for the benefit of both parties and the region as a whole will lead to. Mr president and the more than 10 years of your presidency some harsh dramatic developments have taken play. In the middle east and the statehood of several countries has been undermined namely iraq and libya we see that this could be the fate of other states as well when we see what happened in the Syrian Arab Republic what catastrophic events took place there now many members of the arab public think that russia can really bolster its role in the region you surely know there are never a guarantee arabic covers russias Foreign Policy as well many our viewers have been asking straightforwardly why is russia taken such a harsh stance in the case of syria but the position regarding libyan rug was perhaps not as hard to replace what it is that we can look at. First of all during the crises in iraq and libya i was not in office but this is not the main reason the thing is that as is commonly known in the case of iraq the United States circumvented the United NationsSecurity Council the u. S. Has no mandate to use force against iraq actually i was present at that moment anyway russia did not support the invasion russia france and germany did not support u. S. Plans regarding iraq what is more we warned about the potential adverse implications and thats exactly what happened the initial euphoria of military victory soon gave way to despondency and pessimism about the consequences of the victory because all Iraqi Government institutions were destroyed but no new institutions were established at least in the beginning when you put on the country the radical forces got a boost and terrorist groups became stronger many former offices of Saddam Husseins army and Security Service agents resurface and join the ranks of what later evolved into why is this so those who lead and supported this campaign had not considered the ramifications we do expect that there will be some positive developments in iraq and despite some internal problems the country will continue to move forward although there are still a lot of problems to deal with that were perfectly aware of that as for libya the chaos wrought by the military operations still prevails but in this case our western partners played a trick on us voted for the corresponding Security Council resolution after all what does this resolution say. If you read it carefully the resolution prohibited good afy to use aviation against the rebels but there was nothing about allowing any as strikes on libyan territory so that was actually what happened so basically what happened there was done circumventing the un Security Council and we are all aware of what happened next there still chaos and confusion of flow of migrants went through libya to europe get off it always warned about that he said that he stopped african migrants from going to europe as soon as this wall was gone they started pouring into europe and now they have what they warned about but that is probably not even the main issue most importantly it is destabilizing the entire middle east region as for syria we came to syria to support the legitimate government and i would like to emphasize the word legitimate it does not mean that they do not have internal problems im ready to talk about it in detail later it does not mean that the current leadership is not responsible for what is going on then they are but it does not mean that we were to allow terrorist organizations to capture syria and to establish a terrorist suit a state there that we could not allow militants to move to former soviet republics we do not have hard borders or a visa regime with them we could not allow militants to infiltrate russia from there we already had such an experience and we know what this might lead to we still remember what happened in russias north caucasus region not that long ago this is why we made a decision to support a legitimate government weve not just provided assistance to the legitimate government we proceed from the premise that in town all poli