meanwhile russia's ambassador to the u.s. is one that the actions would have consequences let's go to our guest ted hope he's a professor of international relations at national university of singapore and the expert on russia he joins us on skype from singapore to get a warning there from russia that these actions would have consequences on the other hand we've got suggestions that they'll be some relief in the kremlin that these strikes one broader yeah i think you're from moscow as a perfectly correct that the u.s. france and the u.k. . chose very limited targets. possible it clashing with russian military forces and first the floating of the military forces was very astutely done and of course by tweet about the state. or two series themselves or the worst of the clashes so the russia

that is likely to call for another u.n. security council meeting has to look up many friends left at the council that. really i mean there's probably no credibility what the last five six years of activities for them around the world. are they're crazy almost maniacal to create a conspiracy theories for all actions by themselves in syria. pretty much dry. and when one does whether the attack will be the suspected that the poisoning which is suspected by russia. in the u.k. i mean that whether that pushed the u.k. to ease and made to accept decisively and so quickly this infant in syria because she's lumping together any use of chemical weapons being a red line. no it was important as the both france and the u.k. want to make sure that they're convinced trump. both those countries are still very

useful to the united states. they're hoping to demonstrate that the alliance very special and that they're all the same with respect to what they were going to need all occasions outside of area so i don't think it's connected with the st paul poisoning as it is the need to embrace trump and go trying to embrace the alliance ok if we look at syria and russia's involvement in syria these attacks is it likely to make russia think twice at all about the level of its involvement whether it will downscale are. not of it in fact a new kind of perverse he strikes probably strengthens russia's hand and telling assad is i told you so if you can see to use these chemical weapons you're going to share that as a whole i mean russians are kind if back to syria used chemical weapons but the united states and the west will probably continue to you know impose a military cost on the side of it because it is to use them is there

a willingness by moscow to see the syrian war through to the end because it's been suggested that a sat on his own can't do that. well it's almost over i mean it's just mopping up operation again and when you say the war is over really it is you know people are still fighting between anti-government forces and the syrian military under assad is over and say anything about the kurds this is a new about the turkish forces so be a war that is over but the country will still be fractured it and of course russia's leading from a parallel process of negotiations with its us down to talks alongside the geneva talks and does this give russia more impetus to continue with those talks and and go its own way without the u.s. . i mean the idea of a russian outcome is that if. the groups do consent to participate in

a summit which of course are not all the warring groups but just those of the senators as a actually groups and a friend or. the old home for the opposition groups is suddenly. leaving the brushes an area of mass as we know from american experience it's a lot easier to. achieve a military victory that it is to engage in the political reconstruction process there after the russians don't stop me. how's about iraq two thousand and three zero if you break it you have to fix it now russia stop having the effect syria has a lot you know about the i.p.c. w. and or due to being in duma whether that suspected chemical attack took place said you to be doing their best to get of what combat today on sas is a sad sign off by saying that the whole attack was fabricated russia is now sort of saying well it was actually north by ally of the rebels do you think russia is at

all interested me or p.c. w findings of that trust what it says. doesn't make any difference the last piece of it does. chlorine gas was used as the fields of stuff was true used so it all still of the russian connor is to continue ok that will leave at the moment ted hall thanks very much taking the time to join us from singapore. well british prime minister tres amazed that there was no alternative way to stop the assad government from using chemical weapons we are acting together with american and french. the syrian regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and ballroom tway. and a significant body of information including intelligence indicates the syrian regime is responsible for this latest attack this persistent pattern of

behavior must be stopped ok barbara joins us live from london again that pride that seven by the prime minister made or was televised wasn't there but it was released in the middle of the night what do we know about the u.k.'s actual involvement in these strikes. well laura we know that the involvement was coordinated with the u.s. and with france as we were hearing just a while ago from the french defense minister and they happen to the statements were put out at virtually the same time that is the u.k.'s video statement from prime minister to resign made and then donald trump's statement on camera now to resume a has said that this was a decision that she didn't take lightly and that it was in the interests of britain but her bottom line was that it was to do with preventing the further use of

chemical weapons by bashar assad the syrian president and his forces she has clearly said that there is evidence that he was behind the attack in doom or at least in the water last weekend allegedly using chemical weapons but her statement was quite a long one and she also had the following phrase we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized within syria on the streets of the u.k. or anywhere else in the world. and not to the own going diplomatic route between britain and russia which treason may blames for the targeting of a former russian spy and his daughter in salzburg in southwest england. britain has clearly pointed the finger for that nerve agent attack at moscow so in the last few hours there's been a statement from britain's ministry of defense saying that what british involvement

amounted to was four tornado planes taking off from a military base on the island of cyprus and launching storm shadow missiles at one of those facilities west of the city of homs in syria the ministry saying that it was a place where the syrian government was stopped. piling what they call chemical weapons precursors this chinese with what defense secretary mattis has been saying in the u.s. about targeted strikes on facilities where chemical weapons were either being stored or prepared the concerted that the joint message is that this is very much to do with preventing president assad and his allies from using it using chemical weapons in the near future but there's already now been reaction against what the

u.k. has decided to do from at least one of the opposition parties here do from at least one of the opposition parties here this is a tweet from the defense spokesman for the opposition scottish nationalist party the prime minister has engaged u.k. forces in gesture bombing with no major international consensus and no long term plan to halt the use of chemical weapons or deliver peace most worrying is that she has acted at the behest of presidential tweets and sideline parliament votes lost that last phrase chinese with what jeremy corbyn the opposition labor party has been saying in the last few days accusing to reason may of waiting for instructions from president donald trump and he demanded that parliament be recalled to have a vote before any military action involving the u.k. happen will of course it's too late for that now there's likely to be vocal criticism from some members of terry's amazing conservative party and perhaps

sizable protests there have been small protests outside ten downing street in the last twenty four hours but public opinion is fairly skeptical forty three percent in a opinion poll published last week said that they did not support the idea of joining military action in syria ok and it seems they were hearing the opposition politicians. raining down on trees in may for this military action but that's not entirely fair is it because he did get the green light from parliament on thursday for some thought of response. well to be precise she did not get the green light from parliament but from her own cabinet as she held she held extensive talks with her own ministers explaining the evidence as she has seen it and let's not forget as i was referring to the background of the. so-called script our case we in which britain has accused russia of poisoning

a former russian spy and his daughter there's also evidence that's been shared. least with her cabinet which convince them and britain's allies like france and germany that russia was behind that so she's been she's been perhaps sharing some more of what she knows about the attack in eastern the and also of course outlining why she says it's why she thinks it's in britain's national interest to join america in this action but at the same time she's also sold this as targeted and short term and limited and in her new video statement she says this is not about regime change but of course now her critics are coming out and saying that may well be the case but if you don't have a plan then this action limited is as it may be risks harsh response by syria by its russian allies in this could escalate how do you attempt

to calm things down now that's what they'll be wondering absolutely and plenty more questions. in the coming hours waking up there on it then as we can thanks very much nadine for the moment charles until further is the former advisor to the director of central intelligence for iraq w m d he says president trump is trying to use syria to send a message to north korea and iran. but it's worth recalling back in twenty sir team when president obama you know drew this famous red line about the use of chemical munitions and bottles like you are asked after which the russians really put the screws to bashar al assad they said listen you know your regime depends on you you know satisfying the shoes is a shoe in a different way and the russians really pushed to have arms control disarmament and inspectors you know take a take a handle at the at the syrian passy which was very extensive and you know

largely the work of this organization o.p.c. w. was quite successful things could be much worse right now if they had not gone after the large stocks of the syrians had what seems to have happened always as washer al assad has become more confident in his own survival is also become you know less constrained about using these weapons bear in mind you know he signed an international treaty thing he would get rid of and not use chemical munitions is down violated that truth so you know he's he's not without a lot of blame and sadly for the syrians these issues are only about syria for the syrians everyone else has a much broader perspective from the perspective of washington they've also got their eye on the nuclear issues having to do with both north korea and iran so if kim young room is watching what's going on here if nothing happens the boss real assad washington's got a great concern that he's going to get the wrong message and if if president from sees him in next month that's a big issue likewise there's

a big issue with the iran nuclear deal where there's a critical review in washington and this president from so far has said he's willing to walk away from the nuclear deal with iran so there's a there's a lot of complexities heroes and if the united states and its allies let bashar al assad off the hook on if it there's a lot of come consequences you know the place is. now in his address trump has described the suspected chemical weapons attack by the syrian government as the crime of a month. this massacre 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 infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air these are not the actions of a man they are crimes of

a monster instead. a white house correspondent kimberly how kate has more from washington d.c. . well the white house says it can assess with confidence that the syrian government did use chemical weapons in that duma attack the white house releasing a statement of some of the evidence that it used to reach that conclusion saying in fact that they relied on photos as well as videos that many of the medical organizations that responded to that attack on april seventh in fact testified that many of the people or victims who were hit by that suspected gas attack in fact were experiencing symptoms indicative of the use of chlorine as well as sarah and there were reports of the smell of chlorine in the air as well as syrian government helicopters spotted circling over the area of the attack the white house also saying that it now believes as

a result of this military strikes that in fact there are actions that it needs to see in terms of the syrian government moving forward namely that the allies are now calling on syria to declare all aspects of their chemical weapons program to the o.p.'s c.w. that there needs to be a destruction of the remaining chemical weapons and stockpile as well the united states calling on syria to allow the o.p.c. w fact finding mission to investigate the attack in duma and also the there should be an allowance for humanitarian aid to reach civilians so clearly the united states feeling that there is a necessity for a very strong response from syria in terms of compliance this is something that the united states says it is demanding in conjunction with its international partners including the united kingdom and france. leverage is the c.e.o.

of political risk consultancy strategy and is a former white house national security council official she says the president is using military strikes on syria to boost his campaign ahead of this is election 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 president trump is trying to make the make the pitch here that he has been much more effective than president obama in 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's not going to allow chemical weapons to be used. well as we've been reporting the u.s. says all of the targets in this operation were linked to the syrian government's alleged chemical weapons program 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 that's according to the pentagon one of them was also a military command center where these strikes came just under a week since these suspected chemical attack in two months a suburb on the outskirts of damascus the white house and the u.s. state department say they have very high confidence that the bashar assad's government was responsible while the war in syria has been going on for seven years now and had reports limited strikes such as these have not been able to stop chemical weapons attacks in the past a warning that viewers may find some of the images disturbing. another batch of syrians forced to leave their homes. these are nearly four thousand people displaced from doumani of the syrian capital damascus where the latest suspected chemical attack happened. we lived in birthdays in history and bhutto especially in

the last three days with the original creation in juba which used resulting in suffocation cases among the civilians i would force displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in chemical attacks were unthinkable for these protesters in two thousand and twelve in the beginning really mobile videos used to capture a peaceful syrian uprising against bashar al assad. in the syrian government began its brutal crackdown with the arrests torture and killings the opposition also picked up weapons. and radical groups such as ice and took advantage that was the first event for the assad government which insisted it was fighting what it called terrorists. a major syrian chemical attack in change things in two thousand and thirteen and the threat of u.s. action inside syria remains that a threat to the international community is credibility is on the line and

america and congress' credibility is on the line because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important we have to act because if we don't we are effectively saying that even though we may condemn it and issue resolutions and so forth and so on somebody who is not shamed by resolutions can continue to act with impunity. and that impunity continue despite the u.n. chemical weapons watchdog destroying the syrian government's declared arsenal the trumpet ministration responded in two thousand and seventeen the missile strikes inside syria but also gave fire warning to russia president assad. as the previous incidents there's been international outrage failed un resolutions and u.s.

missile strikes in syria seven year war the international community has been multiple times and at times limited action but all that has failed to stop attacks on civilians president assad. hundreds of thousands of been subjected to the tactic of stars and then there are. thousands try to escape in many died on the way from the voters effectively shut down the borders around syria so people can be. some of the job it needed to take over. syrian opposition leader nasser our horary is calling for an end on attacks against all civilians by the syrian government on twitter he said maybe the regime will not use chemical weapons again but it will not hesitate to use weapons. community has allowed it such as barrel bombs and cluster bombs processor in government commander is also reporting an airbase west of damascus and near the lebanese border was hit during the

operation that's going to the lebanese capital beirut where as they know holder has been following events so we're not seeing the rebels exactly celebrating these strikes because essentially it doesn't make any difference to them in this war. no this was not about change this was not about reducing the military capabilities of the syrian government and its allies you talk to anyone in the opposition they believe that the syrian government will not be deterred from carrying out more attacks and what people want is for the conventional attacks to stop the airstrikes to stop and people are quite worried after hearing warnings from from iran the top adviser to the iranian supreme leader ali akbar will be was in damascus a few days ago and from damascus he announced that there will be a military operation to retake and recapture the province of idlib that is a rebel controlled province in the northwest of the country a province which hosts up to two million people half of them internally displaced people the united nations calls that promise the world that province the world's

biggest refugee camp so people are worried that the further military offensives will be carried out just after what they saw in eastern huta in eastern a looter there was a massive military operation that began on the eighteenth of february and at the end the rebels lost control of this enclave just outside the capital damascus and one hundred thousand people were made homeless displaced sent to the north of the country forced to leave their homes as part of the surrender they have been hearing some lines sayings lines open from the syrian government they've been condemning what it calls this brutal barbaric aggression and saying that the west strikes again to hinder the probe just a little bit about that. well yes the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons they sent inspectors to damascus those inspectors are supposed to visit the town of dumas the site of the suspected chemical weapons attack today and start a fact finding mission to investigate and find out what exactly happened now it is

still not clear if that mission will still go ahead we don't believe that it has been canceled we haven't heard from the organization but many believe that this mission in one way or another would have staved off the possibility of a strike so now the syrian government saying that the west is hampering their mission and that they don't want the o.p.c. w to find out what they're calling is the truth we have to remember that the syrian and the russian government both deny that a chemical weapons attack took place in fact the russian government is even blaming the united kingdom for staging this attack and directing this attack with the help of the of the opposition so the o.p.c. w. their team is in damascus we still do not know if they're going to go and carry out this mission and tomorrow we'll have to keep an eye on that on dimmer in the coming hours because there were of course as you say due to go into duma today in the meantime they were saying some response from iran from hezbollah because of heavy presence inside syria they are saying that these strikes will not achieve the aim.

yes harsh words from the allies of the syrian government has below of course the lebanese group which is fighting alongside the syrian government condemning this aggression and saying it is a continuation of the recent zionist aggression of course what they're referring to is monday's airstrike they're blaming israel for targeting the t four air base the syrian air base in homs where seven iranian soldiers were killed what we believe to revere revolutionary guard soldiers and iran actually a knowledge ing that it lost those men and late last night hezbollah secretary general saying that this was a historic mistake on the part of the israelis because now israel is in direct confrontation with iran in the past it was the confrontation was by proxy via hezbollah so hezbollah is saying that there's a direct confrontation between israel and iran and of course people are quite worried because a few hours after in a statement last night israel released the result of an investigation showing that according to israel the iranian drone that they intercepted in israeli airspace was

armed and ready for attack some people interpret in this really as maybe a way to justify more air strikes in syria we do know that israel wants to clip the wings of iran if you like and prevent iran from entrenched itself militarily in syria so really this is not over and the possibility of more tension and more airstrikes in the coming days we cannot rule that out absolutely zero even though the u.s. u.k. and france were all made when it went to great pains to say that these were targeted for cision strikes that has an end to them there could be global regional ramifications in escalation between these two sides. well yes they were limited strikes no doubt at the end of the day what it avoided was a direct confrontation between the united states and russia but the possibility of tensions between israel and iran are still there and this is why for example the

iranian foreign ministry in their statement saying they're warning of consequences now just a few days ago while everyone was waiting and anticipating the you know the response of the u.s. government what are they going to do the iranian top advisor of the supreme leader ali akbar will lay it to us in damascus and in damascus he issued two warnings the first warning was to the israeli government and he told them you will struck this syrian air base and killed our soldiers you will pay a price for that so iran acknowledging losing those men this is quite significant and then two days later he issued a threat to the united states telling them that you have troops in the north east of the country in the kurdish region of syria two thousand soldiers and you know we plan to liberate to this area in his words liberate the east of the euphrates so almost telling that the americans that there could be a clash on the ground and also iran warning of consequences in the region iran holds cards in iraq in the united states is in iraq and the united states wants to

stay in iraq at the end of the day and there isn't an easy partnership so are we going to see an indirect confrontation there ok.