tv Inside Story Al Jazeera September 24, 2014 5:00pm-5:31pm EDT
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>> ambassador, appreciate it. thank you very much for being with us during this hours. mike, just a second for. >> you an aggressive speech on the foreign policy stage talking about the need to fight the isil with force, admonishing some of the closest allies to get their act together to do what they can. >> that's all of our time for this news hour. "inside story" is next on al jazeera america. >> the united states is now bombing isil in syria, as the bombs were falling the president explained why the campaign is necessary to the united nations. it is inside story.
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>> hello, i'm ray suarez. did an american aircraft appear over syrian skies sooner than expected? saudi military forces are participating as are the united emirates. turkey, it's score of isil hostages, it's borders overrun with refugees may be looking for a role. qatar backed the streets but was not involved militarily. at the united nations president obama called for attack of isil. >> the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. the united states will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.
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>> before the united nations general assembly president obama said once again the u.s. is not in a war against islam, and isil does not act alone. >> today i ask the world to join in this effort. those who have joined isil should leave the battlefield while they can. those who continue to fight for a hateful cause will find they're increasingly alone for we will not succumb to threats, and the future belongs to those who build, not those who destroy. >> the president obama said it was not us against them. and the worldwide should stand against isil. >> we reject the clash of specialalatio specialization.
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they do not build or create anything and peddle fanaticism and hate. and it is no exaggeration to say that humanity's future depends on us to ally. >> earlier this week the american military began an airstrike campaign in syria against isil. qatar did not send planes but play a supporting role. more than 20 targets were hit around the city of raqqa. fighters were other extremist groups in the region, al nusra, and khoreason were targeted, t too. ththey would bomb training
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camps and command centers in the city of aleppo. >> we've been watching this group closely for some time. we believe the khoreason group were nearing attacking. >> the morning after the first round of strikes in syria president obama said he felt the u.s. plan to destroy isil was heading in the right direction. >> i want to say thank you to all of you. this is obviously not the end of an effort but rather a beginning. but i'm confident we've got a partnership that is representative and will be successful. >> the u.s.-arab coalition against sunni extremists is unprecedented. the five arab countries helping in the airstrikes are each led by sunni muslims. >> my friends, the terrorist and criminals targeting syria, iraq, and other countries today are
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extreme reflections of a great global threat. qatar's president. >> terrorism seeks to deprive of humanitarian, di stress effortdiversity, therefore, we double our efforts to fight this phenomenon whatever its form, targets or source. >> hundreds of thousands of syrians have fled to turkey. turkey, a nato member, initially refused to get involved in part because the group was holding 49 turks hostage. the hostages are freed, and now turkey's president is
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reconsidering it's role in the coalition. >> late this afternoon president obama chaired a special session of the u.n. security council. the meeting began with a vote to pass resolution 2178 putting in place new obligations member nation must meet to prevent, repress grouping an of terrorist fighters. a regional threat, a conflict of uncertain duration making war on isil this time on the program. joining us for that conversation, research director of the seta foundation a think tank devoted to u.s.-turkish relations. and director of gulf affairs, and trans-atlantic fellow, he served in the obama administration state department. josh, let me start with you, the american rational has now been
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delivered to the world community. did the president meet his burden for making his case to the world for why this is being done? >> i think when it comes to speech i think every thinks the words he said were enough. the questions are the actions on the ground. as you pointed out in the top of the hour it's clear that the coalition we brought together, the attacks we've seen, they've been significant. the question is what is the plan moving forward. the president has done a very good job calling on the international community to combat on something that we can all agree on as a terrorist organization. >> we saw president erdogan this afternoon. is this case made in public to the world something that is being followed closely inside turkey? >> absolutely. isil is a threat to security. and turkey supports this
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operation. this is a counter terrorism measure, counter terrorism strategy. however, i think there is western on the turkish side about the fact that there is no political goal with respect to the syrian civil war as well as the sunni insurgency in iraq. >> if he said we'll take care of that after we take care of this, that's not a sufficient political goal? some of what is going on right now is purposely postponing dealing with the long-term problems until this very short-term threat is addressed. >> i think that's not very reassuring for the past three years. this problem has not been addressed, and there were many tipping points including the use of chemical weapons by the assad regime. i think they want to see a clear plan about how to address the
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problem in syria because they see the assad regime being very central in the first place. assad supported isil, gave space for them, they used divide and rule tactics against the syrian opposition, if you're going to empower the syrian regime that's not going to be in the interest of turkey, and turkey would like to be coordinating with the u.s. and it has been calling for zones and other measures to go to have a policy towards creating a political transition in syria. but that has not happened. allies, the u.s. have not been abland turkey have not been able to device a strategy to do that. >> we want to talk about turkey's role in the region. there may be many republicans in
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the united states who think that barack obama is a muslim, but i think in the region it's pretty clear that he is not. when he takes to the world stage and delivers a stinging critique using the language of religion, is that credible in the muslim world? is that seen as within his rights to do, to define who is a good muslim, and who is not? does it carry any weight when you're sitting in a tea shop or in a marketplace, are you living to that and saying, well, i guess this isn't islam? >> i think most people agree with problem. maybe even welcome his point. and that we're not targeting
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islam, and it's not a reflection of islam. that's welcomed. you have a small group of fanatics supporters of isis who will raise this question about the legitimacy of an non-muslim person to raise this point. >> when isis speaks back in a public way, they very clearly use the language of islam to make their points about their own legitimacy. here's the president of a very large secular country, but one identified with the christian world saying, no, don't use religion to legitimatize the things you're doing. >> yes, like i said, most people do agree with mr. obama, and only a small group, the ideological people who want to create or find anything wrong with united states policies. >> joshua, is the opening of this campaign from what had been strictly in iraq to syria a significant escalation in what's going on there? >> absolutely. i think as qatar has pointed out
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there is a distinction. if we take out isil who fills that vacuum? everyone has a different answer. they are supporting different groups. i would suggest that the free syrian army is a preferred choice for everyone but we don't seem to have a strong, moderate faction. the second is al-qaeda's response. i think iraq is an better response for us in many ways. the krg with the peshmerga on the ground have the strongest fighting force who can take on isis in iraq. and iraq is an easier circle to square whereas in syria we're a long way from a political settlement, and what do we do with assad because he in some ways has caused some of the problems that we're seeing and how isis has been able to
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primetime news. >> welcome to al jazeera america. >> stories that impact the world, affect the nation and touch your life. >> i'm back. i'm not going anywhere this time. >> only on al jazeera america. >> you're watching inside story on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. the fight against isil this time on the program during a meeting
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of general assembly in new york the president of the united states sprains the new american mission in syria and iraq and asks the world to support him. an alliance comes together to attack isil, and we're looking at the goals laid out by barack obama, and the means to reach those goals. there are members of coalition who are not friends with each other, but they hate isil more than they hate each other. can they really make a workable alliance and stay on task for what may be a fairly long conflict? >> i think that could be achieved if the united states stays focused. if they do not extend the war beyond that group, and work with these allies. let's be honest some of these allies were critical in the
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growth of isis and al nusra. turkey has played an important role in being a passage. i was not able to enter turkey but i know thousands who went to join isil and al nusra used turkey as a panels to go. and the trucks they're using are purchased from government. these regional powers, jordan, they must come to terms that they have to change their policy. that really, that responsibility must b be a key goal, that they must be honest about their fight against isis. let's not have a pakistan where the u.s. forced pakistan while they supported taliban at the same time. really this issue should not
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be--this scenario should not be repeated here. they must truly and honestly have support for these groups. >> their own misgivings and fears of what an unstable syria could mean to them contributing to this in some ways hands off attitude towards the syrian civil war. >> turkey has not been hands off. if you mean intervention unilaterally, yes, but turkey has tried to secure its border, deported many foreign fighters. >> and you're say about being a shipment point is not true. >> it may be oversighted. turkey i--over stated. turkey is a country to travel through. it is very easy with flat lands
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to infiltrate syria through turkey, no doubt about that. but let's not say that turkey supported isis because of these things. turkey has a long-standing cooperation with the u.s. on counter terrorism, and regards isis as a terrorist organization and is doing whatever it can. but turkey supported the free syrian army, groups that fought the assad regime. those groups have not been able to bring down the groups, and they've been weakened by the al-qaeda-related groups. >> if you put together an alliance that includes saudi arabia, jordan, the unite the emirates, bahrain, is turkey much less inclined to join a
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broad based coalition? >> turkey has no hesitation in joining u.s.-led counter terrorism campaign. but the root causes here are larger than just terrorist organizations. we have to address those objectives. turkey cooperates with many countries against terrorism and it has suffered from terrorism for so long. it's not like al-qaeda has not targeted turkey, it has and continues to do so. >> joshua, when the president laid out his plan in earlier weeks of how isil was going to be confronted, the saudis were give the job of training up this new army of vetted insurgents to
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fight against isil. that sounded like something that will take a long time. you have to keep this alliance together until that army is ready to take the field trained by the saudis. is this one of the weak spots in this plan? >> we're in uncharted territory. we don't have an u.n. mandate. we don't have nato backing this. this is a new place to be. if new york is no--the u.s. are not going to put boots on the ground, we can't defeat isil and what it represents without boots on the ground. if turkey, one of our major players is not going to be playing that role, i don't think that saudi arabia by itself can. it can fund and change its fun funding patterns. how can the u.s. ca do this.
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we're all still wondering about that. what is the way forward? who do we coordinate with. while we're welcoming the saudis and others, we have not there yet. >> you think there are limits from what can be done from the air. >> i think so. look, i agree. if this is a political solution more than military, the military part is important, but without getting an agreement in the region on the fact that isis must be destroyed completely, and these governments, because let's be honest here there is not a single armed organization in the middle east that is not receiving state support. i dare anybody name one organization. isil is one of those organizations that is receiving state support, not private support only. without changing the environment in terms of ideological support, media support, and until a few
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weeks ago we see some calling isil revolutionaries. >> if you bring them into the an the alliance are they more likely to cut the supply of money to isil, al nusra. >> not necessarily. today jordan freed one of the worst master minds of terrorism. you must--the u.s. and it's strongest ally must bring pressure on these countries that are really feeding and encouraging terrorism as part of their foreign policy ways. i think they should be pressured in changing their ways. >> we'll be back with more inside story. after this short break i want to ask about a region that remains in the anti-isil coalition if they do manage to degrade and
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>> welcome become to inside story on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. different members of the new anti-isil coalition have supported one or another of the factions fighting the assad government in syria, qatar and saudi arabia angrily took opposite sides in egypt. the united arab emirates has aligned to inter convenient why the libyan civil war. the new sunni allies revile iran, would want to tak who want to take down isil as much as they do. it's all part of the political goal here. >> what remains after you do this short-term task? >> well, i think the immediat
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immediate--immediate goals will have to be syrian civil war and how to have government that is functioning in baghdad that is inclusive of the sunnies. those are going to be the immediate goals. the region--getting the region to agree on a common both in iraq and in syria will be very difficult. western allies should come together and devic devise decision on syria. >> once this is done, is there is a more a to autonomous
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kurdish state in iraq? >> at home there is a peace process with the kurds going on, so turkey is not fearful of the kurds. turkey wants most syria and iraq to remain stable, and have governments that are responsive to their people's aspiration. >> is this just postponing the big showdown between the shia-led governments and the sunni-led governments in the region. >> i don't think this is a sunni-shia situation. there was talk of inclusiveness, this should include turkey, and having an inclusive government to the palestinians. the sunni, shia, and foreigners, it is not inclusive. you can't pick iraq and leave these people, who are these
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other governments who have been the provider of fighters, of money, ideology, to isis and al nusra and others. this is not about syria and iraq alone. it's about turkey, jordan and the gulf countries. they have to change, and their structures in order to solve these this problem. >> joshua, if the obama administration pulls this out in some form because it may last until after he's done being president, does it put the wind at the back of the united states in working out some regional settlement? >> absolutely. i mean, this is going to define the legacy of the obama administration. i think by going in the way he has. he came in as president, he opposed the war in iraq. now he has gone back into iraq. how do we end that conflict? as you pointed out there are many conflicts across the middle east. they all stem from lack of leadership in the region. if the united states is going to put its flag down not in terms of territorial, but bring our friends together, it empower the allies and right now there are
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many factions, and turkey can play a role, saudi arabia, egypt can play a role in a way that they can't bilaterally and the u.s. brings them together, that will put wind in the policy in the region. >> that brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story." the program may be over, but the conversation continues. we want to hear what you think about this or any day's show. log on to our facebook page. send us your thoughts on twitter. our handle is aj inside story am. or reach me directly and follow me at ray suarez news. we'll see you for the next "inside story." in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern, as an international coalition vows to take on isil
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we'll take a look at the other group being targeted in syria. find out what the u.s. knows about kho rasan. we'll look at the most dangerous places to live in the united states in the next few decades. and one mcdonald's franchise is offering signing bonuses to new employees. we'll explain that to you and much more coming up tonight at 6:00. a show about innovations that can change lives. humanity and we are doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check the team of hardcore nerds. dr shini somara is a mechanical engineer. tonight saving baby grace.
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