this persistent pattern of behavior must be stopped and the barber joins us now from london and the demon tourism a very quick to release that statement in the dead of the night in england. that's right that televised statement came shortly after she made a final phone call with the french president emmanuel mcconnell and it was just after president trump actually started speaking so clear coordination happened there it was a long statement by to resume in which she said that she didn't undertake this decision lightly the first time she as prime minister had had to engage militarily and she said that it was clearly a response to what she says was the the chemical weapons used by bashar al assad in duma she says that as you were hearing just

a moment ago he cannot be allowed to continue to do so with impunity and she says that the u.k. and allies strikes will send a message to anyone else who think that they can use chemical weapons with impunity just a bit of detail the ministry of defense here in britain also released a written statement calling saying that they had conducted a successful attack now we have seen pictures of fighter jets arriving back into u.k. a military base on the island of cyprus perhaps they were involved the ministry of defense say that the the strikes or the operation happened at two o'clock local time. in which four tornado fighter jets tornado planes long to the royal air force launched storm shadow miss oils what they're calling a military facility which was previously a missile base a short distance western of homs in syria. they say that outlook that

location the syrian government was stockpiling what they call chemical weapons precursors they say that they went to great pains to were make sure that the. of contamination from those substances to the surrounding area was minimized and they also point out that there is no civilian population living within the surroundings within the near surroundings of that base it is a very significant base that they say has been hit so to resume a statement making it clear that it is a direct response to something which in the eyes of the british government has been proved that the chemical weapons alleged chemical weapons attack in eastern water was by forces loyal to us are said but she also interestingly does mention the following she says we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to

become normalized within syria on the streets of the u.k. or anywhere else in our world of course that's a hint as to what happened in syria with the scruples and the ongoing the ongoing repercussions of what the british government has and their allies have clearly said was the use of a nerve agent against a former russian spy in a british city as gosain a demas is as much a message to russia as it is isn't it to syrian president bashar al assad and the wake of that attack against the square piles and full of bring. absolutely writes the the rhetoric has really been ramping up continuously since since the incident in salzburg and just on friday in fact that the russian ambassador to britain was on national television here saying and react

and meet it met with a lot of eyebrow raising same that he thought it was possible the british government had actually directed what happened in eastern huta suggesting that somehow the chemical weapons attack the alleged use of sarin or other substances was actually staged now he was asked are you actually saying that those pictures of children and other civilians frothing at the mouth lying dead were faked he he didn't go that far he said though that he he wasn't convinced that that that the what was being reported actually happened and he did back up his statement saying that it's possible in his eyes in the eyes of the russian government that britain and possibly other governments had conspired to directed these videos those horrific videos that we've seen coming out of medical facilities

in eastern hooter so really i think that what we're seeing is a continuation of what. mr mattis in the last few hours has called a war of disinform ation or at least a propaganda war between britain and russia that he made the u.k. parliament did give the green light for response at least to the chemical weapons and that's a much contrast isn't it the u.s. where trump didn't get congressional approval for the strike. well in fact it's a complicated picture here in britain because back in twenty thirteen when david cameron was prime minister he took the issue of retaliating to a chemical weapons attack in syria to the british parliament and that the parliament said no that was after the then opposition leader ed miliband said the

hell it wasn't justified there were several members of the ruling conservative party also voted against military strikes then in twenty fifteen the british parliament did give backing for limited action in response to the use of chemical weapons just in the last few days though jeremy corbyn the opposition labor leader has been saying that he wants to see parliament involved and a un investigation before britain joins any military action obviously that has been superceded by events but behind him he knows that public opinion is pretty skeptical on monday there was an opinion poll published in which forty three percent of people said they did not support the idea of britain taking part in military action against syria thirty four percent said they didn't know and twenty two percent actually back to the idea so as well as many parliamentarians from the

opposition and from to reason may's own party who've been saying in recent days that parliament must be consulted and have a vote before anything happens there's the issue of public opinion behind all this lies what happened in two thousand and three when at least a million people marched in the streets of london against the invasion of iraq and tony blair basically going to war with the backing of parliament but without the without a un resolution so this is what jeremy corbin has been calling for saying that it must all be done under the auspices of. the u.n. his critics of course pointed to the fight but russia has consistently vetoed resolutions at the u.n. security council ok that the many thanks for bringing us the view from london to go across the channel and we can join. butler in france for the french president emanuel said that his country is participation is aimed at ending the syrian regime's impunity that's after we had very similar language from president prime

minister trees in may that this strike was about not tolerating the normalization of chemical weapons. is that's right and in fact the elites say put out a communique shortly after the reports of those airstrikes saying that that for france simply a red line had been crossed that red line was set by the french president at the beginning of his presidency back in may that if chemical weapons were used in syria france would retaliate and that's what we're seeing now and as you pointed out elise a is saying that these airstrikes were targeted at the syrian regime's ability to produce and use chemical weapons it also is very interesting the communique says again that france has proof and the has no doubt that the syrian regime bears responsibility for that chemical attack in duma and simply that's a violation of international law that could not be tolerated by france and that is

why france has decided to stand side by side with the u.s. and the u.k. and carry out these airstrikes so will these strikes on the french and what were the was the french involvement rather in these strikes inevitable. well i think for the french president his credibility was really at stake here you know since he became president nearly a year ago now he's never had a very clear policy on syria he has talked a lot in the past about the fact that president assad should be part of the diplomatic solution he's talked a lot less about that in recent months is also always said that chemical weapons use would be a red line crossed for france but until now he has never actually acted upon it so i think really his credibility was at stake and many people france are waiting to see whether or not france would actually respond to the reports of that attack in

duma there is no doubt that france could have carried out a strike alone unilaterally but again the fact that president decided to carry out these airstrikes alongside the u.s. and u.k. isn't a great surprise because he tends to take a more multilateral approach it's very much his style it's also interesting because some analysts were saying were telling me this week that the fact that machall is decided to support the u.s. in this particularly could also be something of a strategic gain for the french president because it may give him some leverage in the coming weeks when visits donald trump in washington arms are the regional issues and in particular i'm thinking of the iran nuclear deal a deal which france supports but the donald trump wants to scrap ok many thanks for bringing us the view from paris we'll be speaking more to you later well the u.s. general joseph dunford spoke about what was specifically targeted in syria during this joint operation let's listen to what he had same first target was

a scientific research center located in the greater area this military facility was a serious center for the research development production and of chemical and biological warfare technology. the second target was a chemical weapons storage facility west of holmes we assessed that this was the primary location of syrian sharon and precursor production equipment the third target which was in the vicinity of the second target contain both the chemical weapons equipment storage facility and an important command post and order joins us now from beirut since they know just things the lines dropping on the wires from inside syria senior officials from within the regional alliance saying quote we have absorbed the strike thirty missiles were fired at syria in the strike and a third of them were shot down and an assad government official saying the sites

were evacuated days ago after a warning from russia the government is now in assessment mode is not assessing the damage of what's going on there as day breaks inside syria. well really the message from damascus is one of defiance if you watch pro-government media outlets you see celebrations in the streets people condemning the aggression the syrian what they're calling an aggression syrian state news agency sana saying quote the aggression has failed so the government showing confidence really and the opposition of course welcoming any attack against the syrian government but we've spoken to opposition sources and they've been telling us that this is clearly not enough this is not going to change anything this is not going to deter the syrian government this is not going to hold them accountable for their actions what the opposition wants is justice and the question that they have is that what are these strikes going to achieve yes the united states made it very very clear that the aim

of this operation is to dismantle the chemical weapons infrastructure of the government what the opposition wants is to destroy the military capabilities of the government so that they cannot use conventional weapons against civilians so this was clearly a limited action and there is a sense of relief if you want from this syrian government and its allies yes russia you know saying that there will be consequences but at the end of the day russia is relieved because it didn't find itself in direct confrontation with the united states there was a fear that if russian personnel were killed or if this was a wide scale operation then they may have had to respond so that has been averted what do you think will be the rebels' reaction to this strike. well the opposition wants more they want the international community to take action against the syrian government but it is very very clear from the beginning from the beginning of this crisis that the aim of this operation is not regime change it's

not to topple the government back in two thousand and thirteen when there was the threat of military intervention following a chemical weapons attack also in the eastern huta and clave there was a lot of hope especially among the opposition that this military intervention will lead to some sort of regime change because the rebels were much stronger in two thousand and thirteen they were based around damascus they were they were able to take advantage of any airstrikes but this time around the situation on the ground is very different the syrian government and its allies they hold the upper hand the balance of power is in their favor the battle battle lines have been drawn the opposition pushed to the north of the country so they would not be able to take advantage of this of this operation in any way so for them this is the definitely not enough if this does not punish the government and for them it's not going to deter the government from carrying out more attacks just yesterday. iran's top advisor to the supreme leader of iran and he's threatened that the next focus the

target of the next military operation will be live that's in the northwest of the country where there's a million people who have been internally displaced the united nations called this the world's biggest displacement camp so iran warning further military operations on the ground so what we have these strikes changed ok big question indeed cena thanks very much for that from beirut let's bring in harry man leverett now in washington d.c. she's the c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy and a former white house national security council official so hillary president trump has now twice done. what president obama promised to do but didn't. and that. it is the key point that is the that is the absolute number one priority for president trump to distinguish himself from president obama president trump i would say about about three weeks ago firmly pivoted here in

washington toward his reelection and toward the twenty eighteen congressional midterm elections he named a new campaign manager and he started to really campaign in places like west virginia ohio other places that are his strong base of constituents and he is focused in terms of syria on how he's different from obama he's different from obama he claims in two ways one is that he's committed to withdraw u.s. troops to get the united states out of the conflict but at the same time to ensure that the red line that obama drew that chemical weapons would not be used in syria that that would be enforced and so he's able on the campaign trail to make this political statement including with the political strike we saw tonight i would characterize it as a political strike much more than a military strike on syria this political strike president trying to drive home in each of his campaign appearances is it going to be a popular move domestically i think so we have evidence of that from last april

last april there also i mean president trump has had a controversy since he was elected even before that but certainly since he was elected and in april last year when he retaliated against syria when he hit syria there was a market increase in his polling numbers here in the united states across the board from liberal democrats to neo conservative republicans they all supported it and i think you may see the same thing this time he will get a political boost here in the united states will the strike in syria have any implications of being will it bring about its desired effect and stop president bashar assad using chemical weapons. i mean i don't think it really has anything to do with syria or the battleground in syria in fact president trump is trying to make the make the pitch here that he has been much more effective than president obama annihilating isis destroying isis on the ground in syria especially he has no

real interest in changing the military calculations in syria as far as he's concerned he's been victorious the only thing he really needs to do is to keep up his campaign promises and his tweets that he is not going to allow chemical weapons to be used but otherwise he does not really want to change the military dynamic in syria itself and this is also more of a message isn't it to russia on the one hand but also to north korea and to a wrong both of whom have suspected minute nuclear programs. in some ways though i think very telling here even though president. had a pretty provocative tweet against russia in this context about syria and chemical weapons at the same time general dunford here at the pentagon was pretty careful to say even though the united states did not quarter me these strikes in syria with russia that we did use what he called normal de confliction channels with russia

it's very important to note that not a single russian shot was fired against the american strikes in syria this evening and i think that's because these so-called normal de confliction channels were used so even though the rhetoric in president trumps twee was very provocative in fact on the ground general mattis was the one who i think prevailed here and was able to cool tensions with russia rather than and inflame them ok thank you very much telling interesting very very incentive to speak to that and washington. well as he announced those strikes will trump chris size russian and iranian support for syria he says washington's allies in the middle east will ensure that iranian influence in the region is contained the united states has also rebuilt our friendships across the middle east we have asked our partners to take greater responsibility for securing their home region including contributing large amounts of money

for the resources a quick didn't and all of the isis effort increased engagement from our friends including saudi arabia the united arab emirates qatar egypt and others can ensure that iran does not profit from the eradication of isis ok joining us now from our london studio is also a senior political analyst moan. moan we knew something was coming did we expect this. well more or less right. there's been talk there's been boss boasting of such thing and the but the nice smart missiles that the united states has and the need to uphold the ban of the use of nuclear weapon so all in all what we've seen over the last seventy two hours is the three our allies france the u.k. and france getting together looking at the evidence as they saw with their own

intelligence as this so it deemed it damning if you will and decided to take action against the syrian regime and to limit that action to the use of chemical weapons and to deter the syrian regime from using chemical weapons unfortunately or otherwise for the syrian regime it's once again limited almost you know pinprick strikes if you will towards those three facilities and then to that they're the man responsible for the use of chemical weapons in syria and for the death of half a million of that's important of course remains a large remains at the head of the syrian state absolutely and we've heard from a guest earlier saying that assad actually needs these chemical weapons because although conventional weapons have killed half a million people he doesn't have the manpower or the arsenal to continue the war to

the end simply relying on those days he was suggesting that we are going to see more chemical weapons attacks because assad doesn't have any other option if he wants to finish and win this war. well if the reports are correct then of course that's exactly what we've seen a year later from the previous attack back in shashi horne when the united states responded and clearly that response was not sufficient. if you listen to ambassador nikki haley about fifty such attacks and public records about two hundred chemical attacks then we were talking about the chemical republic no longer the republic of syria and of all of these or even part of these and even just a sliver of these reports are correct the ones that have been confirmed by the united nations this certainly this regime has committed flag grint war crimes

against his own people because you know there's one thing to be against civil war another thing to be engaged against a war of terror of sort whether it's fabricated or not but another thing to gas one one's own people and you know that there's a whole international system and there are since imposed guardian through that system like the france and the u.k. and the united states to act in order to make sure that people don't gas their own people nowadays and hence that is happening and yet that is happening in syria but should the u.s. france u.k. have waited for the a.p.c. w.'s report there of course to on the ground today saturday in duma to gather evidence that it was indeed a chemical attack. look the discussion about the legality of this operation is of course widespread today is specially in the united states. and

clearly the arguments been made that the united nations security council and elsewhere by the throat and miss ration is that the russia has made sure that whatever investigation is carried that it will not show who is the culprit behind it there is no independent commission today to be able to signal out the response ability in the end of the day they will only be able to show whether there was or there wasn't a chemical attack and i think there is a certain gray area here that the united states and others are exploiting and exploiting sometimes for their own political reasons and once again it's not just that the legality is in question laura but it's also the question of the politics behind the operation and the geopolitics there were to do political calculus behind it you know we hear about the wag the dog argument here just like clinton had when he. attacked sudan and later on attacked afghanistan the trump with his own stormy

daniel crisis and his own issue with his lawyers on the investigation so so forth he carries these attacks in order to look presidential and believe it or not i mean i actually couldn't believe it just a few minutes ago looking through the tweet feed and all sorts of pundits in washington think tank pundits and others even those detractors of the trump administration and president trump himself are calling him presidential which is exactly what he wanted because a lot of other things he was saying going on in washington that were pointing to the fact he wasn't and if we look at the wider picture again it's been suggested that russia that assad will actually be quite relieved now that these attacks have happened and they have been contained and there wasn't a wide response. look if there is no strategy behind the pinprick attacks or retaliation is then we really are in

trouble because i think now that the regime is solid in its place supported by iran and russia and is capable to doing a lot of harm and if you take the russian threats or warning seriously that there is going to be implications for this attack by the united states the u.k. and france then i think within syria itself that's going to be the forefront of russian iranian. response to the united states and i think probably the syrian regime the syrian opposition and many of its allies including in syria and perhaps some of the american special forces in the country may pay the price for what is happening today there's also the larger the larger picture of russia being slapped down with its own presence in syria as a superpower when its own clients bashar assad is hit twice last year last

april and today and this does definitely diminishes the prestigious of russia as a country that thought over the last three years has established itself as a regional power at least in the middle east so all in all i think we are yet to see the intermediate and long term implications of what is happening in syria tonight absolutely and just in this in the more immediate time do you think it's going to have any impact on assad launching another chemical attack. i think that would be you know the ultimate irony right because and then of the day if you keep punishing the regime for getting those attacks and the regime continues the carrot is them it only means that you deterrence has failed. it's going to be interesting isn't it mon to see what the russian response is we

haven't had much reaction of course it's still very early days do you think we're going to have the sort of this information campaign that people in the u.s. have been warning out the thought of working on two fronts here on the front on the ground inside syria but also the media front trying to get information out before perhaps the russians get in and get their version of the story out you know i want to read you wanted to watch of russia today and you know other other voices of of the kremlin as they are accused of being by western media i think i would care more for example at the position of china i mean i have actually listened carefully to what the chinese ambassador said at the united nations security council yesterday as well as last week in the last few days and i think it's very important to see how china is in fact standing behind russia on the question of syria and you know china of course is a major player in today's world would.