already the different middle east. egypt is no longer the same egypt it used to be. it's an entirely new country. i don't want to criticize or nis, but the position of egypt and said the conflict is not the same as it used to be. i believe that with a little bit of patience and by the way, the remaining problems in my judgment are more psychological than realistic. i don't say that if it's psychological it's easier to sell. but we can solve it. and from my experience, i note that when you come to the end of the world and you think this is end, it be relaxed. there is enough ground on both sides and understanding on both sides and to have the highest respect for a boss and fortran to a think it is the best thing that could have been for the palestinians. the best thing that could happen for us. we respect him. we want to talk with them. we have domestic problems. you know, peace is a very serious problem domestically. as you have to convince your people to make concessions. now people say we are ready to pay the price,

and how we got into the middle east. and how we became addicted to oil, and, indeed, what we are facing. we are never going to be able to move forward in the future if we can't comprehend the history that we have come forward from. now, we actually never needed to be on oil, as in, as an energy source. most of you know that there's about 80 million barrels a day, maybe 88 barrels of oil a day used in this country, and about 67% of that issues for transportation in the united states, and about, oh, 90, 99% of that is used, is based on automotive liquids, on fuels. but oil is older than civilization. they were using oil 65,000 years ago in caves in south africa as a sealant for medicinal purposes. the first use of oil as a major illuminant came in the mid-1800s when kerosene was invented, and people started to eliminate with it. and 1835, the electric car was invented, and throughout the remainder of the 1800s, all the taxis and the buses and vehicles in the united states that were automotive were electric. until we switch

tensions we're seeing in the middle east at the moment and it's a domestic situation. i think the saudis are very very nervous to nervous about as i said their own minority share population which is one of the reasons they sent troops into next door battery to help suppress the protests there because they're worried about the protests coming home to saudi arabia they're worried about the role that turkey is playing in the region but which has become very assertive is becoming a regional power which is backing the new islamic governments in egypt and in tunisia and of course they're worried about iran which they believe is doing very well out of the arab spring as sunni dictators fall. iran does very well in iran has been doing well since the fall of saddam so that saudi arabia's worried externally its role in the region as a leader of the sunni majority and it's worried about its own internal critics the king tried buying off his critics you know giving out money giving out grants to try and buy people off that hasn't worked and so instead we see this cracking down on

trade, middle east going to china, middle east to southeast asia, it's transformational. >> absolutely. if you see the possibilities of globalization, lit be between india and china and the countries around it. we can't just look at solving our european short-term problem of the monetary union and the fiscal and monetary discipline, the role of the ecb and all the things that go with it. we have to be more externally focused to ensure europe stays competitive. at the end of the day we need to grow, to provide also the jobs for europe, for the social systems we've chosen. that requires a certain level of competitiveness. it's very important that we take that into account very seriously. >> and that's it for sp special edition of cnn marked place middle east this week from davos switzerland, i'm john defterios. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

middle east what do you think the outcome could be for the majority shiites iran obviously all of this is news for iran i think if you look back at the arab spring the turning point. in late february when saudi arabia was given the go ahead by washington. what happened then is related very much to everything that's happening now because it's the only country that is a majority ruled by a sunny minority and iran has the story claims to the island and the u.s. navy's fifth fleet is based there crucial to containing iran and so. what we've seen is a sunny shia divide reemerge in the middle east with washington clearly backing sonny powerhouse saudi arabia close american ally and saudi arabia in turn along has taken control of the revolutions out swearin so for example its funding and into the main islamic party in tunisia the muslim brotherhood and more extremist groups in in egypt are on the record as saying they go substantial funds from saudi arabia the yemeni government has openly criticized for interfering in its internal affairs and funding radical islamists and of course in syria t

and i'm not an expert in middle east -- politics of the middle east but i don't think it's going to be as easy a ride as everybody was making out, certainly in the west 6 or 12 months ago. >> how does that affect your decisionmaking going forward? do you stay committed to those properties and don't expand? >> the shepherd's hotel in cairo was due to close in december is now closing in june, to be completely refurbished. the hotel in luxor which had been closed for three or four years has now been completely redevelop. the redevelopment started and is ongoing. we're two years away from that hotel opening and probably a similar time frame, 2 1/2 years for the cairo hotel. by then, i think things may have settled down. >> very interesting. the other thing i want to talk to you about is your emerging market strategy. as a hotelier how do you position yourself for the emerging markets. >> if you expand too quickly, you can't do what we like to do in our hotels. almost all my hotels were in europe up till now. this is the first hotel outside of europe. 25% of my business into the european ho

east and it was the day the fourth middle east war broke out. ihe kept -- i've covered all si wars, the two inde-fatahs, the iranian revolution since then that every time i landed someplace there was a disaster and my father said to me, you wouldn't dare go to bermuda to vacation because there surely would be a coup d'etat. [laughter] >> the culture of change is reflected in lots of different ways.re in what i call hip hop islam. rap has become the rhythm of resistance in the region where young people in the same way, young americans in the 1970s turned to hip hop as a means of rejecting gang violence but still delivering an angry message. it's the same thing in the arab world. and we saw this with the emergence evens before tunisia' revolt began of young rappers in tunisia where hip hop was -- nobody ever told me to talk louder. [laughter] >> where hip hop was illegal and you found young rappers who were challenging the regime by putting lyrics on their facebook page,bo the one place that the government couldn't censor with lyrics that wereyr a

s biggest trade partner and arms market in the middle east the gulf kingdom has been rattled by recent unrest in the arab world and has suppressed protests on home soil as well as elsewhere with ruthless force our correspondent laura smith has more on the trip strong relationships with the saudis is very important to britain for advancing the u.k.'s interests in the region and of course as you mentioned saudi arabia has recently been hugely roiled and rattled by various developments in the region including the overthrow of their longtime ally hosni mubarak and these recent tensions with iran and there is a certain amount of a lot of powerful opposition to this visit here in the u.k. a group of very powerful members of parliament the committee on arms export controls have questioned why licenses to saudi arabia for arms exports from the u.k. haven't been revoked in the wake of that trouble they have submitted questions and then publish those questions to the government on licensing of various equipment including bombs and components of vehicles and helicopters and also communications eq

past midnight now here in moscow next hour to talk to a british author and middle east expert who explains what he believes was the arab spring turning point and who he thinks is still stoking the unrest. i'm talking to join our brantley he's a foreign correspondent he's dedicated his life to writing about the middle east of publications all around the world in the wake of the arab spring he says far from the democratic pluralism that the west would take over. what's in fact rushing into the power vacuum is mists john l. bradley thanks very much for talking to us today now we'll start with the situation in iran because it's very much in the news that the mavens the e.u. has banned all new oil contracts with the country and it plans to extend sanctions on the iranian central bank how much do you think that's going to cost iran the e.u. and the global economy in general it's only going to cost to run we've seen today the local currency. level against the u.s. dollar in history and the fact is that iran explore a sizeable amount of its oil to the you and coupled with american sanctions unilat

thank you jeremy for joining us here on our team as well as call put it when it comes to the middle east there west talks i gently sickly and acts brutally if it's true if you agree with this what should be done what can be done to prevent syria from falling into these patterns look at what's been happening in the middle east and the policies the western governments of followed they have always had the noble motive and we're doing this for this very very good reason but we don't have to be terribly skeptical or cynical to understand that actually behind the noble motive is self-interest if we look at what happened in egypt the west backed mubarak right to the very last and then was no longer possible to back him when it was indefensible they dumped him and with him with the president of tunisia and then they moved very very quickly on libya what was happening in libya. absolutely terrible in many cases in the name of human rights they kind of attacked libya the same with syria you know it's kind of it's it's a protest movement it's democratic change and reform which are very worthwhile m

the old order challenged and the new middle east in the making. we will be asking an israeli minister what it means for his country. it is midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, and 1:00 p.m. in italy, where the captain of the stricken cruise liner is due to face magistrates. even as divers carry out the search for survivors, 29 people are still missing. the focus has shifted to what caused the terrible accident. there's a growing body of evidence and conjectured shared by the costa cruises owners that the captain is to blame. >> the rescue teams adopted a new strategy today. navy divers approached the costa concordia and prepared to blast holes into the best will in a last desperate search for survivors. the controlled explosions open new routes into the cruise liner, which is stranded. the local coast guard says there is a glimmer of hope that people may have survived in air pockets inside the ship. the missing are thought to include four crewmembers, as well as passengers from america, germany, france, and italy. these pictures recently rel

when we look at what's been happening in the middle east policies the western governments of followed since been this year they have always had the noble motive and we're doing this for this very very good reason but we don't have to be terribly skeptical or cynical to understand that actually behind the noble motives is self-interest if we look at what happened in egypt the west backed mubarak right to the very last and there was no longer possible to back in when it was indefensible they dumped him. greece has declared that it could ditch the euro and leave the euro zone in as little as three months that is unless the e.u. and the i.m.f. fund it with the second one hundred thirty billion euro bailout talks over the cash lifeline of stall for months with creditors demanding an overhaul of greece's economy which they see is ultimately doomed belgium business journalist to your involved believes the numbers say it all the greece's exit is unavoidable. the greek economy is going down like a stone. g.d.p. contracted by four percent in two thousand and ten by six percent in two thousand a

be turmoil right across the middle east if anything happens to destabilize the government from outside forces but certainly syria the syrian government itself has to step up the pace because it's certainly losing the propaganda battle. meantime the syrian regime claims its fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad that's yet to be independently confirmed but what is fact is that the rebel fighters who helped to overthrow colonel gadhafi in libya and now eager to take the revolution to president assad's door hundreds of libyans most in areas are reportedly already gunning for regime change in syria. now reports from tripoli. a butcher our dad made the owner of this kebab shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. jealous of his economic the biggest game in the end the one that syria. other syria. you can't make it a lot of the people in syria. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop have even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we do

for example number 2 here as a risk is g zero in the middle east which is something i assume means there is no great sense of coming together on the middle east. >> >> there isn't and there is no international capacity to maintain stability but the local forces are either not paying attention or they are fighting each other. so for example, the united states pulls out of iraq, china is not going to be in there, russia is not going to be there, the euro zone is not going to be there bhorks is going to help iraq put itself together and the answer is nobody and what is happening as a consequence is we are seeing maliki is under a lot of threat and starting to go after the sunnis, there is an explosion of sectarian violence that could accelerate. >> that is right, the g zero in the middle east is one of the biggest risks out there, it is not just in iraq, the syria, the arab league has shown itself to be ineffectual so the arab, the transition is not going well, and it is not likely to, so, you know, therare lots of -- the united states is absolutely not critical leadership and not indispens

of course we're always interested in your opinions on those middle east peace talks on the subject of our latest online poll head to our website r.t. dot com to take. dorothy. two percent say that peace talks are doomed to failure long as the u.s. continues to step back israel's next twenty six percent on line but just think that israel is ready to compromise because it won't hold your second building on. thirteen percent welcome the talks thinking that the first move towards peace just nine percent saying it's not ready for a dollar has reason to focus on the settlements issue. being to negotiate directly but you don't mind crossed your mind or you break some. other stories we're covering for you. when the next the latest in our part find the series where experts entrepreneurs share the secrets of business success in russia. and there one such example is the story of in. more than a decent crust from russia's bakery sector they've been running the biggest operation of its kind in moscow for more than four years makes they give us a taste of what it takes. i have twice a week in the p

cnn, marketplace middle east. >> and that's it for this edition of cnn marketplace middle east. i'm john. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

she has reported from the middle east for many years, and is now a vice president at the middle east institute in washington. kate, welcome here, and it's great you're back, and how did it feel when you were in cairo this time? what did it feel like? >> well, you know, i sensed, bob, a kind of empowerment and excitement that i haven't seen in egypt for a very long time, and i've been reporting there for years. egyptians overthrew a dictator. they're now politically empowered. they found their voice. they're engaged. but at the same time there are new fears and anxieties. the country has been very unstable the last year. the tourism industry has collapsed. investment is down, and people are hurting economically. in fact, there are people today who are much worse off than they were a year ago. so there are fears. >> in those demonstrations that we saw pictures of, there were divisions, weren't there? some for one thing, some for -- >> yes, it's interesting. we're seeing sort of a different take on the revolution. there's one group that came out the other day, and they were celebrating,

the director of the center for middle east studies has told me that he believes terrorists are behind the attack in homs. they blame it but that is it's out of question and the government. have an interest you're not short a journalist among demonstration pro-government it's silly really to accuse the syrian government about this and he was killed by snipers or from their orders from the opposition it's unclear and my opinion but the position accuse the government it's a part of the said got to go was fair but it's not it's not acceptable it's not credible if we have this the nation about five thousand victims in syria. of them. and members of badly and i think it's not the way that see the government in the civilian. with the implications of the ongoing bloodshed in syria still hard to predict r.t. spoke to professor of middle east politics dr germy salt to get a broader view of what's going on in the region and that interview is coming your way in just a minute stay with us for that here on r.t. . thank you jeremy for joining us here on our team as well as call put it when it comes

to containing iran and so essentially what we've seen is a sunny divide reemerge in the middle east with washington clearly backing sonny powerhouse saudi arabia close american ally and saudi arabia in turn along has taken control of the revolutions out swearin so for example its funding and into the main islamic party in tunisia the muslim brotherhood and more extremist groups in egypt and of course in syria the main opposition is made dominated by the muslim brotherhood and the so-called free syrian army is dominated by not only radical jihadi is from within syria but also jihadi is from throughout the region where we're told constantly that there's no real threat because these are moderate islamist parties but of course the definition of moderate makes absolutely no sense you say that that if that is the miscreants who have stepped into the breach in many of these countries are you saying that these weren't genuine people's uprisings at the time. the idea. behind it is that they hijacked the revolutions and precisely because they were in fact islamists inspired the beginning in tunisi

as we talk to middle east politics professor jeremy salt. thank you jeremy for joining us here on out. as well as call put it when it comes to the middle east the west talks only sickly and acts firstly if it's true if you agree with what should be done what can be done to prevent syria from falling into these patterns look at what's been happening in the middle east and the policies the western governments followed since been this year they have always had the noble motive we're doing this for this very very good reason but we don't have to be terribly skeptical or cynical to understand that actually behind the nobleman.

well coming up later in the program military maneuvers in the middle east washington sending thousands of troops to israel for a planned training exercise but the move sparks worries of a possible build up to an attack on iran. that's still to come for us to stand up beginning and no less spectacular decline ten years on and the euro is in real trouble with member countries plagued by deepening debt and widespread disorder it means that what began as a project to establish an economic european superstate is now quickly becoming its very undoing. reports from brussels. the birth of an ambitious project a common currency celebrated with no less than a big bang. theory the beginning of a strong europe you're. back to the warm bed of the world. yet ten years down the road the euro is not in the best of shape. a spiraling sovereign debt crisis credit downgrades rising interest rates tens of millions unemployed budget cuts and violent protests. the euro's growing undergoing the worst crisis it has ever been and obviously the founders of the of the euro did not hope that this would happen for