isn't it my want 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 this sort of this information campaign that people in the us have been warning out there sort of working on two fronts here on the front on the ground inside syria but also the media front they're 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 about russia today and you know other other voices 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 right 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 and will be if russia decides to take any action of course the chinese ask that if it one takes a step back and not take any military actions and yet of course the p three russia has started the united states france and the u.k. did they take an action so i think now the chinese will probably get closer to russia on the question of western intervention or what's been powers. imposing themselves as the guardian of the international order without going back to the united nations security council i think that will strengthen russia's hand and i think that might push putin to take certain actions i'm not sure exactly what but certainly with this might push russia and iran closer together behind the syrian regime unless president macor france as he mentioned the last couple of days or present them how they have something up their sleeves and terms of why did

initiative to resolve the crisis or the civil war in syria if they don't then definitely this will prove to be a shortsighted action that might lead to more of the same chemical attacks more of the same repression more death and destruction in syria and perhaps the consolidation of the syrian regime with iran and russia. and certainly plenty more questions be answered in the coming hours and days for the moment we'll leave it there thanks very much for taking time to join us from london just to remind our viewers it's just gone for g.m.t. and you're watching ongoing coverage of the u.s. military strikes in syria now the u.s. has carried out those strikes just about two three hours ago in conjunction with british and french forces on targets associated with syria's chemical weapons program and the pentagon has said that the first target was a scientific research center in the greater the mosque this area two more took

place just west of homes in what the pentagon says were chemical weapons storage facilities syrian state media is reporting the military's add defense systems shut down thirteen missiles in the case while area south of damascus syrian officials also say the target his sights were evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from russia now meanwhile russia's ambassador to the u.s. has warned the actions would have consequences as he announced those strikes president donald trump described the alleged chemical attack by the assad regime as the crime of a monster this masculine was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime the evil and the despicable attacked left mothers and fathers intrench and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air these are not the actions of

a man they are crimes of a monster instead. the u.s. defense actually james mattis has called for the international community to stand up to the assad regime. i want to emphasize that these strikes are directed at the syrian regime and conducting these strikes we have gone to great lengths to avoid civilian and foreign casualties but it is a time for all civilized nations to urgently unite in ending this sid syrian civil war by supporting the united nations back to an eva peace process in accordance with the chemical weapons convention prohibiting the use of such weapons we urge responsible nations to condemn the assad regime and to join us in our firm resolve to prevent chemical weapons from being used again. joins us now from

along the takis syria border some of the assad forces assad regime the government that has had some time now to assess the damage from these strikes these three strikes that took place about three hours ago what do you hearing from inside syria . well as the sun came up after these strikes ended the first statement that we heard which was not surprising from state media was a tone of defiance saying that this aggression destroyed partite aggression against the syrian state has failed this unnamed official now telling the world to the state agency that this attack has largely been foiled a third of the thirty or so missiles that were fired at syria were taken down the air defense back from these around damascus came into action and brought down these missiles as they came in and also syrian state t.v.

saying that there's been some material damage but largely there has been they were aware of that these attacks are coming and this unnamed official actually thanking russian officials for giving them prior warning because they say that the russians told them this attack is coming the evacuated as much as they could from these areas and there wasn't much damage it is the process of assessment is continuing but so far we haven't heard anything about any sort of civilian or military casualties in these three areas that have been targeted in near the capital damascus and in homs it is worth noting that the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons has a team inside damascus right now which was supposed to begin its work on saturday before these strikes took place it is not clear whether they'd be able to go out and carry out their work also what we've been hearing just before these strikes are the can. missions with which these inspectors would have had to go in with some

activists telling us about threatening calls and a lot of pressure that was being put on locals and medics in. this attack took place in reaction to gauge the united states carried out this strike along with france and britain but they are not sure what is going to happen now and when these inspectors off the o.p.c. deb you will be able to go in and assess whether there was a chemical attack or not yes we'll keep an eye on the in the coming hours because they were due to go into duma as you said today so just in a few hours from now the interesting to see how that mission is affected as you were mentioning before we haven't had any reports of casualties and we did hear from all policies involved in these strikes that they were doing their level best to avoid civilian casualties that they were precision strikes and indeed the syrian government and russia had plenty of time to prepare because of course trump announced some time ago that that would be some military action.

absolutely that is the reaction that you see not just a tone of defiance but action celebrations on the streets of aleppo in tahrir dusun in other areas of learning to state media cameras that you see rolling out across syria showing that life continues as normal making a point that these strikes actually happen quite a few days after the united states announced that it will take action and making sure that it told the russians be heard from the pentagon saying that they did not tell the russians very that they will hate but they only told the russians about the deep conviction that according to the conviction agreement about the use of air space but according to these officials and the state media of syria they are saying that the russians warned them they were they had ample time warning and we've been hearing about these assets both batteries as well as helicopters and planes being moved. from isolated spaces where they wouldn't have had the color off to say the

russians and the syrian government making sure that it moves it's us it's two words . two words the areas of the hominem base near aleppo and two words to damascus in an international airport only ok sions beach would not be necessarily targeted by the united states forces and as we've seen and as being portrayed in the state media a by the syrians that these strikes have so far failed to achieve what they did and we heard a very defiant president trump saying that this is a message to the assad government that this is something that can be sustained as well that if they don't stop these chemical attacks but so far from the tone that we've been hearing from syrian media it doesn't seem to have delivered that message ok and have enjoining us there from gaza thanks very much. well and has addressed syria's president donald trump speight strongly against russia and iran for that support of the asad government i also have

a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting equipping and financing the criminal assad regime to iran and to russia i ask what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men women and children the nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep no nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states brutal tyrants and murderous dictators. russia's ambassador washington has warned there will be consequences of the u.s. led strikes on syria vastly easier said in a statement a predesigned scenario is being implemented again we're being threatened we warned that such actions will not be left without consequences all responsibility for them

rests with washington london and powerless ok let's go now to worry chalons who joins us from moscow it's been suggested by one of our guests that there'll be some relief felt in moscow now that these strikes have actually happened because they were expected to happen and that they were so limited in nature. you know i think that's probably true i think that you know these these airstrikes have been expected now for so many days that you know as a psalm i was just saying there russia and syria and iran have all had plenty of time to get all their vulnerable assets and personnel out of harm's way there were a couple of things i was watching out for as the airstrikes were going on one is when they would come anywhere close to russian personnel or russian

military assets on the ground in syria and the other was whether we were going to gets the first call back testing of russia's much talked about s. four hundred missile defense system now the russians say that. that didn't happen there were no strikes against the areas where the f. four hundred is in operation which is a rounds that naval facility in taught to use and. base but you know i think the russians have clearly seen this attack coming they had contacts with the u.s. military through the de confliction line in the days leading up to the attack and the americans have also say it's that. when the stack was ongoing they basically cleared with the russians to get the airspace over syria.

freed up basically now of course that's a signal of some sort of the russians the americans are saying that they didn't directly talk to the russians about targets or where these strikes would be happening but the russians have known this was coming for some time and it's obviously the case that they were able to both get their own assets out of the way and also tell the syrian army ams the iranian allies they have on the ground prepare themselves as well so it seems that the de confliction channels were what were the mechanisms in place there. well i mean this is a line this existed for many many months now and it's basically a way for the united states military involved in the conflict in syria and the russian military with its. influence in syria to talk to each other and avoid collisions so you know with all the rhetoric was going on over the

last week ramping up the geopolitical temperature with you know donald trump tweeting the cruise missiles would be coming nice and slow and smart or nice and new and smart and the russian ambassador to lebanon saying that any u.s. missiles would be blown out of the sky and the launch facilities where they came from would be talking to clearly there was a growing sense around the world did that this was getting a very getting to be a very dangerous situation and it's the deacon fiction line that the u.s. and russians have been using for many months now that is basically the sort of primary safety valve for stopping the political rhetoric that's being thrown around by the leadership of the two countries from actually turning into our hearts conflicts with russian and u.s.

forces clashing in some military way on the ground and it seems to have worked in this particular scenario interesting to hear from the defense sector james masses today that they were trying to get ahead i mean they came out very quickly with both the presidential statement and the defense secretary statement and one of the things that massa said was he's trying to get ahead in the this information campaign that he was expecting to come from russia and from assad and we heard much from the russian media so far. look they're already way too late for that the russians have been saying for at least a month now that they were expecting a false flag operation a provocation launched. basically by western powers the united states they were saying was probably going to be behind it in collaboration with the rebels on the ground in syria using chemical weapons to basically smear the damascus

governments and justify u.s. strikes against syria now when the duma incident happens last weekend's will of course that was the narrative that was pushed further up the news agenda in russia all those lines were repeated again yesterday we had a briefing from the russian defense ministry saying that the the videos that we saw in our t.v. screens of all these kids and civilians in the hospitals being hosed down and. clean so they were seeing them on our screens now that video was staged and it was staged by the white helmets and the british intelligence services and there are medical personnel who were involved in

that video. have been seen in that video who have essentially confessed that it was all a fabrication so that's the kind of message that we're getting out of russia at the moment so i think you know in terms of combating that kind of narrative the u.s. is already behind right ok many thanks rory for bringing us the view that from moscow let's go straight over now to our white house correspondent she joins us live from washington d.c. company how it can be i'm just saying some lines dropping his syrian state media saying that three civilians were injured. in the holmes strike by the u.s. u.k. and france of course two sites in homes or near homes and one site in damascus was struck just a few hours ago targeting chemical weapons facilities owned by a sad when we heard president trump and defense actually masses speaking they were at great pains to insist that all measures have been taken to prevent civilian casualties. right and you know with daylight we find

out whether or not those many refer to a surgical strikes were in fact as precise as they'd hoped i can tell you rarely are they one hundred percent clean in terms of civilian casualties or what the united states often will call collateral damage so certainly with daylight not surprised that we're getting those kinds of lines coming out of syria i think it's important to note that while the united states said that this time the strikes that occurred were different from what we saw one year ago in terms of these three target areas the three chemical weapon sites and well there was this sort of sense of relief that you were talking with rory about that this is finally occurred i think we have to look at the u.s. language very carefully while we heard from james mattis that the seem to be sort of a one shot deal when you listen to the statements coming out of the joint chiefs general

dunford there he said that this wave of air strikes is over that certainly leaves open the possibility that this could happen again and certainly there will be some reflection now that there is the daylight in the possibilities to sort of survey the damage if you will in terms of how this campaign moves forward and if it does have another face so certainly the united states is we know from the state department this statement has just come out in the last thirty minutes or so that right now there is telephone calls that are being made by the acting secretary of state sullivan he is not only talking to members of congress he's also talking to his foreign counterparts so i imagine there is an extensive exchange of information that is taking place as the damage is surveyed as a result of these strikes that have occurred and it's taken a few days of deliberations amongst white house officials people in washington to decide the course of action it's been you know about

a week since the attack took place how much support broadly is there for this action there in washington d.c. . i'm glad you asked that question because i haven't had the opportunity about the sort of the backdrop that greeted me when i came into the white house that was a handful of protesters who were chanting don't bomb syria i wasn't the largest march of ever seen outside the gates of the white house but it certainly was a substantial presence and certainly the american public will be weighing in on this i can tell you that certainly many americans were moved by the images just as the president was of of the victims of that suspected attack we have to remember that the united states says it's not suspected chemical weapons attack in fact they have put out statements this evening now the morning we should point out here saying that they believe there was a substantial photos videos testimony from medical professionals that those people that were in those videos in fact were experiencing the effects of the symptoms of

chlorine and sarin and also there was the smell of chlorine in the air when this attack occurred so certainly the united states believes that it has the evidence in the words of the white house statement they have assessed this evidence they say with confidence but at the same time i can tell you there is going to be a healthy and robust debate here in the united states whether or not this was a legitimate strike the protesters calling it illegal. of the u.s. constitution certainly that would be the argument that many would make in the united states that donald trump did not have the authorization to do this unilaterally and should have spoken with congress but also tell you though that despite that healthy debate that has been going on for twenty years presidents going back to george w. bush have taken similar actions so certainly there is there are statements coming out of members of congress are issuing them as we speak still saying that they want to have that debate in congress but there's also an overwhelming feeling that

because of those images that there was the belief that those responsible needed to be held accountable and the majority of. members of congress put that very squarely in the hands of the syrian government and in turn also russia they believe is supporting the syrian government in its actions are going to ask you whether they would like to have been congress' approval had the debate and said because of course it was a lot of anger when president obama didn't follow through on his red line of acting following assad's use of chemical weapons you have to remember though the united states has now had one entire generation that has been at war. there is you know many children who were born for example in two thousand and one following the september eleventh attacks have now grown up knowing nothing else but the united states in some sort of constant state of combat and so there is a war weariness in the united states there you have to remember donald trump campaigned saying that he wanted to pull the united states out of these foreign

conflicts even suggesting it's hard to believe but just a little more than a week ago in fact suggesting that it might be time to leave syria and now here we are at the same commander in chief has just put in place still a terry strikes in syria for the second time in two years or is sorry in a year just a little more than twelve month period so there's a confusing syria policy coming out of this white house that is left the american public equally confused but i can tell you when you look at most polls there's a general war weariness among the american public that's in large part why donald trump was elected there was this belief that there's time to look inward in the united states should no longer be the world's policeman well if we do look at it would just just fine make him believe this is a very convenient distraction for donald trump a time when he's facing a lot of problems there at home. there's no question that the ongoing russia

investigation whether or not there was collusion between this the presidential campaign and russia the twenty six thousand u.s. election ongoing debate about russian interference russian meddling those are the two focuses of course of the special counsel investigation under robert muller which we should point out just this week has not been particularly flattering for donald trump especially with the reporting on friday from the former f.b.i. director james comey who was of course fired by donald trump certainly there have been some very unflattering headlines for the president that have only intensified in recent days and certainly there are many who would make the argument that donald trump may have been motivated to take these military strikes as a result of the negative press that he is receiving in a desire to change the headlines i can tell you i certainly remember going back to two thousand and one when george w.

bush was certainly having some trouble not of the same magnitude but not the most positive press and then he became almost the hero that led the country following the attacks on the pentagon and in new york city i don't think that there's an exact parallel here certainly i am not in a position to judge whether or not the president acted because of a desire for media distraction but certainly there are those particularly on the left in the united states that will make that argument at the same time the white house in its statement certainly made no mention of that instead only saying that the president received evidence credible evidence i can tell you that there have been consultations going on all week with the threat of military strikes hanging in the air the national security council meeting multiple occasions this week the u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley coming down to washington. to continue to consult with high level partners here in the white house campus and eventually

it seems that the determination was made that there was enough credible evidence that it was in the u.s. is interest to act in this way in conjunction with france and the united kingdom ok kimberly many thanks for bringing us the view that from the white house can really hold it reporting well as we've been saying the u.s. is saying that all the targets in this operation were linked to the syrian government's alleged chemical weapons program of the first target was a scientific research center in the greater damascus area the pentagon says it was used for the production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology two more sites were targeted west of homs both of those were chemical weapons storage facilities according to the pentagon one of them was also a military command center the strikes came just under a week after the suspected chemical attack in doomer a suburb on the outskirts of damascus are the white house and u.s. state department say they have very high confidence that the bashar al assad

government was responsible douglas ollivant is the director was the director for the iraq at the national security council under both president george w. bush and president obama he joins us now from washington d.c. good to have you with us again so if we look at those particular areas that were struck we did expect some response especially a military response these are very pinpoint strikes the broader than the strikes that happened a year ago but are they going to have any effect on the actually going to stop assad from using chemical weapons because they're manageable according to the syrian government. right so that's the it was clear that what we had here or was a strike that was balanced by two considerations you wanted something that was really large enough to make the assad regime change its behavior to imprison him that they cannot violate this norm while the same time being small enough as not to engender a response by there are certainly russians and perhaps iranian sponsors so now the

question is we wake up this morning will be have we done both of those things is this enough to convince the assad regime that it simply makes no military logic now for it to use chemical weapons that any gains that it gets by using them will be offset by the punishment it receives and then on the other hand is this a small enough strike that the russians believe they don't have to take any action in response and is it to give us of course is so keen on the u.k. and france so key not to repeat a situation that we saw in france they go fully entrenched in the war. absolutely there is there is no desire to get involved in not just the one war the many wars that are going on in syria it's important to remember that we have the the syrian revolution against the regime the war against isis the turkish kurdish conflict this chemical weapons question so many wars and yet they're all in or tangled and

a strike on one can have implications for the other so that really it leads us to then what is the american policy now in all these various wars general mattis secretary mabus came out and said that we still support the geneva process but there's a lot of flexibility in that do we support a geneva in which the the current status quo of the assad regime gradually moving and really not having to negotiate seriously continues to move on or do we want the opposition to have a stronger voice and it was just pointed out it was just a week ago or over a week ago that this is ministration or at least the president was very seriously talking about completely withdraw all u.s. forces from syria is that still u.s. policy that's not really clear as we wake up this morning and assess the damage you know i'm not going to ask him perhaps none fact question because very few people seem to know what's actually going on inside the white house but is there a strategy here. well it doesn't appear there are some ten any

strategy in syria and i don't think that's a necessarily an indictment of either this president or the last one this is an incredibly wicked problem that's difficult to parse in a place where u.s. national interests are not very deep and the cost of doing business seems to be incredibly high to make any real difference so is there a good strategy to know but were there a good strategy i think someone would have found it a long time ago you know ok that was an event many thanks for joining us that from washington d.c. the u.s. general joseph dunford spoke about what was specifically targeted in syria during this joint operation. the first target was a scientific research center located in the greater damascus area this military facility was a syrian center for the research development production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology the second jorgen 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 as lever us and washington d.c. she's the c.e.o. of the political risk consulting strategy and as a former white house national security council official good to have you back with us hilary what is the u.s. policy. i think the u.s. policy is very much domestically driven by domestic policy politics here in the united states for president trump and i think it is essentially to claim victory over isis of which there is a lot to speak of but to not let that victory be really claimed by russia and iran that's the i think that is the most important thing for president trump beyond that it's important for him to distinguish himself from president obama that he can

actually enforce the red lines that president obama made in terms of chemical weapons use in syria but the trick here is that he wants to do that without militarily changing the dynamics on the ground in syria which work in president favor in terms of defeating isis but the problem here though is that if it's his domestic policy over true syria policy is that we've been hearing that assad can't win the war using conventional weapons so he will have to go back to use them if he wants to bring it to an end if he uses them again then the u.s. is going to have to respond again so we're sort of getting into this circle and i'm trying to going to have to have a better policy but a depressed. well i'm not sure i mean i think that the assad government in syria the russians and the iranians have been extraordinarily effective in terms of using conventional west weapons to keep the assad government

in power and to push isis out of syria the where i see the concern coming is not immediately or places around damascus where i see the next battlefield in a sense in terms of chemical weapons coming potentially is it live and i think that could be a tremendous crisis with even far more casualties than we've seen in duma but that's not something that's going to happen tomorrow and i think for president trump as long as it happens after the november midterm elections here in the united states he can handle it again the critical thing for his reelection is that he annihilated isis these things on along the way as as cruel and callous as this may sound these are just bumps in the road in terms of his campaign pitch to claim that he and i laid it isis because it is a nice distraction for trump isn't it. in some ways it is certainly the former f.b.i. director homie has an explosive new book coming out this weekend where he's going

he was scheduled to have back to back media coverage throughout the week.