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 a if he was 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 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 in 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 joining us live from beirut thanks

very much saying or to come back here in the coming hours ahead. ok it's just gone six d. and you're watching our rolling coverage of a u.s. strikes in syria in the past few hours five hours to be exact the united states france and the u.k. have taken military action against syria in response and last saturday's alleged chemical attack in duma of the targets president assad's chemical weapons production facilities the strikes came at night while those in the syrian capital slept alan fisher has more from washington d.c. a response had been promised predicted a no delivered or fellow americans a short time ago are you order the united states armed forces to launch precision strikes or targets associated. with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dictator bashar al assad donald trump has argued be us how to take action to

protect its national interests at the stall the assad regime use of chemical weapons the purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production spread and use of chemical weapons establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the united states and had this message for president assad's russian an iranian alights 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. it's just over a year since the starting gas attack in syria provoked an american military

response this was a joint operation the french and the british joining the americans tonight france the united kingdom and the united states took decisive action to strake the syrian chemical weapons infrastructure. clearly the assad regime did not get the message last year u.s. defense secretary says he was convinced of syrian involvement in the suspected chemical attack just hours before the operation was given the go ahead but i am confident the sherry in regime conducted a chemical attack on innocent people. in this last last week yes absolutely confident of it and we have the intelligence level of confidence that we needed to conduct the attack. but as donald trump addressed the country there were some questioning if you believe all power to launch the attack here in the united states our constitution says without any equivocation it's up to congress not the

president not the executive branch to declare a war to say when we're going to go to war the president then executes that decision the russians had warned of consequences if the u.s. launched this attack because of its close ties to the syrian government the airstrikes may be over this new middle east crisis isn't alan fischer al-jazeera washington. ok gabriel is under joins us now live from washington d.c. so we know that the u.s. led this strike the u.k. and france were involved what was the u.s. says minute month. well the u.s. basically led this operation make no doubt about it but they were very quick to point out how this was a multilateral effort just at the briefing from secretary of defense jay mad james mattis we saw the side of the podium a military attache case from both the u.k.

and france and that was not by mistake that was on design because it was meant to give the overall impression that this was a joint operation that this wasn't just a unilateral strike by the united states like it was a year ago this one different in that respect so in terms of the details about how all of what exactly resources of the u.s. military were used and how many munitions were used in this that's all going to come out saturday morning here in washington time when the pentagon has another briefing but overall it was clearly the u.s. sort of leading this militarily but very much with their two key allies the u.k. and france shoulder to shoulder on this now that makes it different to the strike that happened almost a year ago to the day again in response to those chemical weapons attack by assad inside syria it's also is there's significant escalation from that time. yet is and that was pointed out at the briefing at the pentagon the one

a year ago was a unilateral strike and it was on a one. airbase this was a multilateral strike on three different targets that's a key difference there and a year ago was just on an on an air air base basically just taking out at least temporarily the means for the assad regime to allegedly use that base to deliver chemical weapons. this attack or this strike if you will call it that on these three facilities hit three very separate facilities it was a research center which madison dan forth very clear to point out is this is where the u.s. government in the pentagon thinks that this is where the assad regime scientists basically created all of these chemical weapons legibly so they really hit that and then also hit the command post and a storage facility outside the home so it's a it's a bigger military strike in that way but is it enough well we'll only know that in

the coming days weeks and maybe even months yeah absolutely meanwhile i gave how is it playing domestically that and yes i appreciate it it's the middle of the night still a very early morning that you might not have had much immediate reaction but this is been on the table now for most of this week how are people responding. yeah the strike came at nine pm local time here in the united states on the east coast south two am so it was late into the evening you're right there but this was expected in a lot of ways in the last twenty four to forty eight hours just as though the rest of the world had been hearing about a potential strikes in syria the american people have been hearing it too and you know you on one side you saw a lot of war weary americans that a generation of americans that have gone through war whether it be in iraq or now syria and. are skeptical of getting into another one in any way but in another side also you saw this these images coming out of syria allegedly showing in credible

suffering of people that were clearly victims of some sort of attack there so i think americans are a little bit divided on where to go here but i think oh a lot of people are just leery about getting too deep into something again given afghanistan given iraq and where we've been the last decade or so but clearly one of their kids wake up to this news and really start to digest. see the images coming out of there get a better sense of. where the country goes and where they're going to feel on this so it's really interesting though that the u.s. policy is really pivoted rapidly out of the white house on this just in the last couple weeks or just a couple weeks ago that president trump was saying that he was hoping to get all u.s. troops out of syria and that caught a lot of his key advisers by surprise then of course after this alleged chemical weapon attack in syria trump said that they were u.s. was going to respond very forcefully then came out and said maybe there won't be a response so it's begun gone back and forth so i think a lot of americans like

a lot of the world's been a little confused but knew something was going to be coming probably and it certainly did it certainly did ok again many thanks for that from washington d.c. 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 now 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 homes both of those were chemical weapons storage facilities that's according to the pentagon one of them was also a military command center and strikes came just under a week since the suspected chemical attack in duma on the outskirts of damascus the white house and u.s. state department say they have very high confidence that the bashar al assad government was responsible and has address trump describe the suspected chemical weapons attack by the syrian government 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 interim sensual thrashing in pain and gasping for air these are not the actions of a man. they are crimes of a monster. a white house correspondent kimberly hawkins has more now 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 were lied 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 are 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 strike that in fact there are actions that it needs to see in terms of the syrian government moving forward to name 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. ok we're just hearing now from turkey lines coming in saying from the foreign ministry saying that they welcome these u.s. led strikes on syria as appropriate that's from turkey as of course a nato ally of the u.s. heavily involved itself in the syria war on the support on the side of the rebels hillary mann leverett is the c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy strategy and is a former white house national security official she says the president is using military strikes on syria to boost his campaign ahead of this year's midterm 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 and 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 can drive home in each of his campaign appearances president trump is trying to make the you know

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 and his address he was present donald trump spoke strongly against russia and iran for the support of the assad government i also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting equipping and financing criminal 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 the russian ambassador to the u.s. has warned there will be consequences after the u.s. led strikes on syria and italy and one of said in a statement the worst apprehensions have come true our warnings have been left on a predesigned scenario is being implemented again we're being threatened we warn that such actions will not be left without consequences or responsibility for them rests with washington london and paris or italians joins us now from moscow we were hearing that we will be hearing from the defense the rest defense ministry at some point within the coming hour perhaps coming hours i mean a little are plenty to say on day. i think so

i don't know whether we're going to get that live my suspicion is that probably we won't stand for it the defense ministry briefings that have been taking place earlier this week certainly haven't been transmitted live but yeah we'll bring you the lines when we get them i suspect they will be commenting on what's been going on in syria over night and looking at the targets that were hits the the way that they were giving information perhaps on the to the u.s. . its allies platforms for delivering all these cruise missiles that that sort of thing but i think more generally the russians are probably sitting back at the moments going through the data and thinking this was a match the that it's considering how hot the rhetoric had been for the past few days certainly the beginning of the week with donald trump's tweets with

the russian ambassador to lebanon saying that any u.s. missiles coming into syria will be blown out of the sky and that russia would lash out at the. launch site so u.s. warships and that kind of thing so good to be where we are now with essentially three targets in syria chemical weapons facilities the u.s. says it's been hitting and no wider increase in the u.s. involvement in the syrian war for the moment that i think will satisfy russia as. an acceptable cost for what's been going on over the last few days and weeks and you know they could've had their own assets hits they could have had to rein in assets hits that hasn't happened as far as we know so far so for russia this ensue out but they will be half they will have to be seen to be doing something went they . yeah exactly so you know we'll have lots of angry

comments we've had some of it already and the russians are already calling for a meeting in the united nations to condemn this attack. as we heard from the russian ambassador to the united states he says they'll be consequences for it we'll have to wait and see what those consequences are you know hot talk is one thing but actually pushing back in some meaningful way against the united states is another. see the russians are going to be going to be going through a list of available options at the moment and it will be up to putin to decide how much he wants to hit back at the u.s. and whether he wants that response to be just cosmetic or actually meeting for the punitive and that's something we're going to wait for in the in the next few days in the city over i'm just saying our lines dropping here on the agencies the syrian president presidency has posted

a video that appears to show bashar al assad arriving for work after the u.s. led strikes of course in the morning hours after that strike last night so the syrians very keen to say that it's business as usual they put out a video of a damascus street which says it could be any city in the world the cars are in the streets everyone's were going about their business from russia do you think it will be business as usual as well will they keep up the level of involvement in syria. i think it will change the dynamic in certain ways i think the you know if we if we can go back to war happens a year ago when the u.s. lost lashed out to. syria over a similar chemical weapons incident then i think what that allowed russia to do was to put a bit more pressure on bashar assad's and to get him to be a bit more cooperative around the negotiating table of course hasn't really gone anywhere but for a time there was

a bit more compliance from from in terms of talking to the opposition and moving things forward a little bit so perhaps it will allow russia to do that again it's shows bashar asad that there are consequences for what he does in the syrian conflict and it may not be those consequences are particularly severe but it does change the dynamic a little bit but in the overall pattern of things i don't think it's going to make too much of an impact we are seeing the syrian government's with its allies russia and iran effectively squeezing the last pockets of rebel resistance. duma has just fallen east and has just fallen and that process will continue in other parts of syria then what will happen is anyone's guess but you

know what we're seeing essentially is is a kind of splitting up of syria in some ways in two different spheres of influence we have the united states in the east of the country we have the kurds in the north we have turkey with its african area in the north west and we have the syrian government's with russia occupying certain portions in the middle in the coastal regions. and. the last question if we can what's the endgame for russia in syria. well that's a that's a tough question and there's one thing i didn't want to read you know we. we look we know that russia has stepped in to shore up the government's bash our last sides. it has. done that pretty effectively go back

to before russia's air campaign started i think it was september two thousand and fifteen. and it was looking pretty weak there were there were you know sort of huge parts of the country that were out of his control it was also a time when i still was was rampant now you know fast forward to now and i still is a shadow of its former self and we have the rebel movement in its fractured splintered way also being being essentially pummeled into into submission. and you know if that makes bashar al assad much more secure so russia basically stepped in to do that to make itself. a global power again some power that the united states had to deal with on many ways an equal footing and this was following of course what was going on in ukraine that had left russia

under sanctions bettery geopolitically isolated and it basically its operation in syria allowed it to come back into the game how at exit syria is a different matter and i don't think russia at the moment has a particularly good game plan for getting out of syria you know for all its criticism of the united states and its adventurism around the world and going into places like iraq and afghanistan except for and still being there you know sort of five to ten years down the line. you know it is possible that russia is making similar mistakes at the moment in syria well italians great speak to there from moscow thanks very much for joining us. again douglas ollivant was the director for iraq as the national security council under both president george w. bush and president obama he says it's likely that more such strikes if chemical weapons are used again. the language in the president's speech tonight implied that

these strikes will make it work he said and he said words to the effect of until these attacks no longer continue or the regime can no longer do this or words to that effect giving the implication that were there to be further attacks that there would be a further u.s. presumably u.k. and french for response that would then just automatically trigger i suspect there will be a mix of airplanes and missiles that will come from a variety of platforms it could be more tomahawks it could be. plane launch bombs a wide variety of munitions the targets will be the presumably the facilities that manufacture store and then deliver these weapons and not i'm not sure that this will interfere with the o.p.c. that you work presumably they're going where the weapons were deployed no one's going to be interested in bombing where the weapons were deployed they're going to be interesting where the weapons were made and stored he did emphasize the precision nature presumably there is

a great deal of coordination going on with the russians i frankly doubt the president cares very much if iranian forces are hit by those bombs but certainly great care will be taken to avoid the russian forces that are intermingled with the syrian forces on the ground though the president did not hesitate to use diplomatic words as we saw against the russians and the iranians asking them why they'd want to be associated with the regime so while the weapons are very strictly focused on the chemical weapons production his words were not. to the roman you what your own doing coverage of the u.s. military strikes in syria the u.s. is carried out strikes in conjunction with british and french forces i'm told it's associated with syria's suspected chemical weapons program now the pentagon says the target was a scientific research center in the great. two more took place west of

homs and what the pentagon says were chemical weapons storage facilities not syrian state media is reporting that the military's air defense systems shot down thirteen missiles in the kiss watch area south of damascus syrian officials also say the targeted sites were evacuated days ago thanks to warnings from russia meanwhile russia's ambassador to the united states has warned the actions would have consequences. the syrian government confirmed the strikes but said the action would do little to hold this hold against the rebels. yet that the lamb at their usual pool what. we stress that this kind of aggression will not stop our army our alliance will continue targeting terrorist groups across the country this will strengthen us and we will continue to defend our sovereignty and our homeland and people's security well british prime minister treason may says there was no alternative way to stop the assad government from using chemical weapons we are

acting together with our american and french fries the syrian regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and borrow way 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 while the debugger is a correspondent from london no more details really coming out of the british involvement including issues such as storm shadow missile and the way the british were involved in the attack maybe from the air base in cyprus. that's right so the ministry of defense in britain put out a statement calling it a successful attack making it clear it was part of

a coordinated operation with the u.s. and france now they said that those four four jets the four tornadoes they didn't say where that come from but believed to have headed out from a base on cyprus. was part of an operation targeting a facility west of homs in syria which the british ministry of defense says was a place where the syrian government was stockpiling so-called chemical weapons precursors the statement made it clear that they had gone to great lengths to try to minimize any risk of contamination from that site to the surrounding area and pointing out that there were no civilians and they've been living nearby. at the same time to resume a has said that this was a an action which was in the interests of britain but based on the idea of

sending out a strong message to bashar al assad and anyone else in her words who thinks that they can continue to use chemical weapons with impunity she's also extended criticism implied criticism to russia of course strong backers backers of bashar assad saying 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 the british government has directly accused the russian government of being behind a nerve agent attack on surrogates group our and his daughter mr scrip hour was a former russian spy and that incident happened in the english city of saul's bree so to resume a very much in her televised statement in the early hours of saturday saying that the. this was meant to be a limited and specific action and was certainly not about regime change at the same

time she's come under criticism in recent days for not having a plan jeremy corbyn the opposition labor party leader has said it seemed like she's been waiting for instructions from donald trump before deciding on how to respond to the alleged chemical weapons attack in eastern hutto he said that's no way to carry on he also demanded that she recalled parliament to let elected representatives have a vote on possible military action we're hearing now over. to resume a told her cabinet that she wanted to move quickly so that that wouldn't have to happen of a debate and possibly a vote in parliament that's bound to to strong criticism again the defense spokesman of the opposition scottish nationalist party in the last few hours has been one of the first to tweet his reaction saying that most worrying is that she

to reason may has acted at the behest of presidential tweets and sidelined parliament also suggesting that this action would do nothing to stop the use of chemical weapons in the long run will of course that depends on exactly what was hit and how much was taken out so the details are unclear but it is clear that there is opposition also from to resume a zone conservative party and from some of her own members of parliament to going ahead like this without the backing of parliament it happened this situation came up in twenty thirteen let's not forget when david cameron was prime minister wanted to join barack obama's planned retaliation for chemical weapons use in syria parliament voted no and that a bomb or retaliation never happened and of course nadine what we're finding obviously as time is progressing that we're now. analyzing exactly how the british prime minister is thinking and you've touched on a lot of points there how much has the scriptural case that the poisoning in souls

three really you might say solidified backing within the cabinet for this action for theresa may to be given the green light certainly by the cabinet but not by parliament at the moment as you say she will come under a lot of criticism once the sun rises and the politicians from across the british spectrum can actually you might say weigh in on the argument of what's just happened within the last six hours. well that's right certainly the cabinet backing that she got in a meeting on thursday wasn't guaranteed i think though perhaps more than the influence of the script of cases is what to reason may well have been saying in terms of the evidence coming out initial evidence coming out from syria of course those inspectors from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons haven't been able to conduct their own investigation yet but. samples have been

taken and u.s. sources have been stating that they show the use of of illicit substances including chlorine we believe. so really should be she'll have been strengthening her case about what what the proof is that president assad and his allies were behind the attack which led to those horrific pictures that we've seen on our screens of civilians including children suffering dreadfully foaming at the mouth and so on of course russia says that this is not what it purports to be and on friday russia's ambassador here in the u.k. suggested that britain and other people other countries may have been involved in staging some kind of fake attack although he he when he was asked do you believe that those pictures the people in them are actually actors he wouldn't confirm that but definitely hitting back and feeding into this narrative of fake news that we're

getting used to now in this information war between britain and russia which seems to be growing in the deal how much of a message is this as you say to russia more so than to syria as you say relations couldn't be any worse between london and moscow. well to resume it was very explicit in her statement that that she was sending a message not just to the syrian government but to its allies and anybody who argues that the western powers should not intervene against the use of chemical weapons but i think the main point here is that she will have been talking to two people in the white house and that's why it's so controversial that's why there are so many critics have to resume a saying that you you you did not have to go along with the plans of president

donald trump we've been here before it's got us in trouble and if you don't have some kind of wider strategy and if you can't assure us that this isn't going to escalate with a possible reaction not just from syria but from its allies then this could be a very messy situation and this is this is something that should have been planned further before we went ahead of course her. supporters will say that it's long overdue that such retaliation should have happened years ago so there is a lively debate here in britain exactly about how far britain should be siding with seemingly the new u.s. position on syria for the moment the deal we'll leave it there of course come back to you for more analysis as we hear from politicians across the spectrum from the u.k. thank you let's go to the french president no man will not cross who's issued a statement regarding the joint strike in syria and he says we cannot tolerate the normalization of chemical weapons which represents an immediate danger to the

syrian people and our collective security friends and its partners will resume efforts today at the united nations to allow the implementation of an international mechanism that will establish responsibility stop impunity and prevent the syrian regime from doing this again now the french foreign minister spoke to reporters earlier even said that there had to be consequences for the suspected chemical attack in duma. the action we have taken has very limited and very precise objectives to destroy the chemical weapons arsenal of syria to stop a committee more chemical can each and continue its terrorist strategy towards its own population we're not trying to hurt citizens we are trying to dissuade assad from this criminal activity he meet with his our correspondent in paris and perhaps more. clarity on france's involvement in these strikes

militarily what more are we hearing. well we heard a bit earlier from the french defense minister flaws only you gave us more details about france's involvement she said that france has been very closely involved with the u.k. in us in planning these operations these airstrikes now she said that a french a raffle fighter jets actually took off from france now that's interesting because there was a question as to whether or not french jets could take off from france or from one of france's bases in the region jordan u.a.e. she said that they the jets took off from france in order not to involve any other nations so you can imagine that those jets would have been refueled mid-flight in terms of the targets she said the chemical weapons production sites were targeted those used by the syrian regime she said two very important sites were targeted by french or cruise missiles you also said that

a frigate had been deployed into the mediterranean and all along she underlined importance of the fact that france had told russia about its plans. what was very clear certainly when nikki haley spoke at the u.n. security council yesterday and it's been echoed in president macro statement is that chemical weapons should not become the new norm in political warfare in the modern age when there are so many safeguards and international agreements in place to make sure this doesn't happen with respect to issues of world war one a world war two and subsequent conflicts. well that's right and it's the same message that we've heard from french leaders over the past few days we heard this morning earlier here in paris from the french foreign minister who said the words the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable over and over again he kept saying it is just not acceptable he said the syrian regime know exactly what they

have been doing he said they have been using chemical weapons increasingly over the past seven years against their own population and it's not insincere acceptable because it contravenes international law contravenes human rights and france will not tolerate it in the message was really that france couldn't just stand by and see these chemical weapons being used and not act or not do anything and we heard the same thing from president might call a before these air strikes even happened he talked about the fact that france have proof that chemical weapons have been used by the syrian regime and that a red line for him had been crossed because back in may twenty seventeen just awfully he won the presidency and here in france he said that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line for him and france would retaliate all up to now. hasn't acted on this but now it was felt that perhaps he needed to do so what's interesting though is

that we still have not heard from the president or from any of the government ministers exactly what that proof is that the french say that they have we haven't had any details about that at all but what they are saying is that going forward they want to see as much done as possible to come up with some political or diplomatic solution we heard again the french foreign minister also calling for a cease fire for the moment we'll leave that of course come back to as we get more out of the french capital joining me here old such as my old cobbler the head of policy analysis of the arab center for research fifteen hours ago we were both sitting here listening to nikki haley in the security council talking giving us a very detailed. history of chemical warfare and how the world said it has to stop i asked you do you think something is going to happen you said it has to and it has for the last five hours are you surprised at the way it's happened in these three targets have been not really an utterly because number one i think the message has

been delivered. the message was you cannot use chemical weapons you have a wind wide wide range of other means you can use them but not for chemical weapons that was the message by the western allies. so they don't want to make their use of chemical weapons something normal or to normalize the use why did this message get through not the message from last year after the concha koon attack is it because three locations have been targeted and that they are very specific location and they doubled actually the that the number of hours they used in this strike last year they used around sixty missiles this time they used around one hand and then and they targeted these very specific chemical weapons plants in in syria so that was mainly the message it intended actually to create perhaps the maximum damage for these particular plants but the minimum damage for other military. bases

and installations and i think this this strike actually has made almost everybody happy now including the russians they are yours and the syrian regime because if you compare that to the action i think there's a huge gap between the two the general consensus that we're getting from our contributors to al-jazeera is that there is this side of relief plants it's not the word happy of what's happened but it does pose a question about the relationship an understanding between moscow and damascus moscow more than likely has told damascus you can't keep doing this you can't keep doing this they did it and this is the repercussion is there a lesson to be learned here by damascus or will they listen. to russia anymore well i think i think i'm i have my own theory about the use of chemical and we're talking hypotheticals because because i think it it was a it was the iranians made the whole chemical weapons not the syrian regime why because i think that your audience they wanted to dealey to have this mass exodus

from the from the from because this is a very strategic area for them and they don't want to have any opposition elements kept inside the town you know i mean the agreement between the russians and that agreement actually. says that the population of the area tends to be inside and that he cannot actually enter that region so i think it was mainly the iranians so this should be clear the tension between the russians and the iranians rather than talking about that i shares and the syrian regime that is my theory so i don't have any and the evidence actually to support it but i think it's more iran then the syrian regime who use the chemical weapons in is a visit is a very intrinsic type troika of those three countries obviously allies to each other and it does again pose a question about where they go next because obviously they want to try and find a way to end the conflict in syria without losing any more civilian lives but we

keep seeing constant bombardment and we've also heard that one of the chief advisers to the supreme leader in iran is suggesting that it libya's the next target and that was something that we also discussed less than twenty four hours ago where do the people that left go and could they face what happened in duma absolutely i think i think today that the conflict in syria has become in my opinion more complicated than it was before because now the americans are trying to get back to the syrian scene through this strike in fact not only the americans but all those allies that include the u.k. and france also they don't want the russians that. iranians and the turks actually do to manipulate the whole political process in syria so this is why i believe this like to bring these three big wisdom powers back into the political process and put more pressure of the hops on the russians because at this time it was very clear

for the russians they could have lost their investment in syria and taiwan you could could dislike was actually the stock had been stronger by the by that was the allies so the consequences could have been much worse than than they are now so i think it's because this is area of charity for almost the americans and the russians to work together because they did work together on this strike that is my hunch so in order to push the political process forward to go where we have more to ask you yet on let's carry on. well as you know the strike told trump criticize the russian and iranian support for syria he says washington's allies in the middle east will ensure that a rainy and 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 point 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. let's continue with the subject of iran the president was talking about i mean what sort of message is that to iran in terms of the strikes that can be perpetrated by a group of lawyers but also the issue of the iran nuclear deal which is a huge bequest and more about whether president trump is going to territory i think i think iran has become the main target for the united states in the region after the defeat of isis because from the very beginning president tom was clear that his

two main objectives in the middle east is to defeat isis to contain iran so isis has been largely defeated and now he's dealing to iran we all remember the statement which was made by x. to the sun the former us secretary of state at stanford university in january seventeenth he said that the united states will keep its military presence in the eastern part of syria because we are keen to will. it to have a number of objectives met the first one is that we will prevent the revival of isis or of cards in that that is symbolic of syria number two we are going to we are not going to be the mistakes which have been actually made by the previous administration i.e. the obama administration. getting in eliminating an enemy of iran and then getting out and leave iran actually we are not going to do this in syria so after defeat the defeat we are not going to allow iran to take control in this part of the world

so it was clear to me from that time that the united states will be doing something in order to do to reach that containing iran so by striking now at the installations might by having this and at least like i think that was somehow. a message also sent to iran that we will not accept any sort of iranian military presence in syria there is an easy read. dyess air base last week was also another message that will not allow any sort of iranian military presence in syria so iran is the key objective right now just some was dropping from iran's revolutionary guard let's just use events will certainly not be in america's interest that's from the fars news agency and of course iran has an influence in that it's keeping its american involvement both in syria and in iraq there's

involvement in the northeast of syria and also advisors in iraq you know this has to be a concern to the u.s. if they are thinking of hitting iran diplomatically politically in any shape or form iran has lots of options well i don't think we should make a lot actually of these statements because their army is the use to make very big statements against the americans but i doubt that they can do much about it in my opinion because right now they are very concerned about that action of the united if your allies goes back up against a wall and your your we're fighting for him and with him then you're going to look at your options. could be really massive in this where there will be giving the americans the execu is actually to strike. at i mean to head them really bad i don't think that iran is they want this at this particular juncture because now i believe that iranians are very concerned because if the u.s. president withdraw from nuclear deal with iran that is going to actually bring back

the sanctions against them and don't forget that president rouhani the whole program of president rouhani was about lifting the sanctions and start having a fresh start with the international community bringing in economic investment from that was done cantonese and and starting the whole cycle of the of the of the economy so if sanctions are back number one if the u.s. withdrawal from and if you know. number two which means in fact that the americans are back to that he changed policy in iran and feared don't forget that the supreme leader is in a very poor health right now and everybody it is expecting some sort of of. instability in iran if demand passes away without actually having a very clear successor to him so iran is nothing in a very good shape right now in my opinion to have to start any sort of

confrontation with the americans don't forget after all that that is likely are they are also and they are watching closely iranian activities in syria so i think the iranians should be very careful and as i said i mean they used to have very big statements but when it comes to action i think we don't see much of that getting more reaction wrong later in the day when carbon thank you. all syrian opposition leader harry reid 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 the international community has allowed it such as barrel bombs and cluster bombs. let's cross over to say hi to our correspondent in lebanon just before we get more analysis about what's going on the region we've got word coming out from the turkish foreign ministry and they are saying operation launched by u.s. u.k. france against syrian regime an appropriate reaction of course turkey has

a vested interest in what's going on certainly in syria and in the north. well yes and turkey was trying to play a role or played a role in fact to try to defuse tensions and deescalate the crisis over recent days turkey in a position really to do so being a nato member it was able to be a sort of a channel of communication channel between the western alliance and russia and erdogan the president of turkey was on the phone with the russian president vladimir putin as well as the american president there were behind the scenes contacts and at the same time we have to remember that erdogan and putin are allies may be unlikely allies but allies nevertheless in syria the so-called asked and trio turkey and iran and russia so turkey in this position to try to play a mediating role turkey of course we know that the regime change is no longer its priority that has since changed its priority in syria is to prevent the creation of

a kurdish state which will affect its kurdish population in turkey but nevertheless it is cooperating in one way or the other with russia so it is it is in the middle it enjoys good relations with all parties but it continues to criticize the syrian government for its actions it criticized the syrian government for the chemical weapons or suspected chemical weapons attack it even criticized the syrian government for its operation in eastern hutto but those criticisms tend to be muted because turkey like i said has to play a difficult role trying a balancing act if you like between the united states russia turkey and iran of course. it all sort of hinges as well on current events of what's going on right now because you have the p.c. w. heading into duma we don't really know where the movements will be in the light of these overnight attacks. yes we have no confirmation whether that fact finding

mission will still go ahead they are supposed to head to the site of that alleged chemical weapons attack inspect and investigate and find out whether or not a chemical weapons attack actually occurred there inspectors invited by both the syrian and russian governments both syria and russia denying that they took part in any chemical weapons attack in fact moscow even blaming the united kingdom for staging and directing this attack in collaboration with the opposition at first many believe that you know the u.s. president could be waiting for this fact finding mission to issue the results of its findings before launching strikes but clearly that has not happened it's not clear whether the the mission of this fact finding this fact finding mission really has any relevance of course your studio guest about the comments coming out of the fars news agency in iran that events will certainly not be in america's interest that's what the iranians are saying of course they have influence where you are in lebanon and they've got

a strong presence in syria supporting bashar assad at the moment. yes tough words from iran hezbollah its ally and levanon the revolutionary guards all condemning and calling this an aggression and warning of grave consequences yes there is no doubt that iran feels that it is the target because many believe trump did not just want to target these chemical weapons facilities or the chemical weapons infrastructure in syria that he was being pushed to target the iranians and hezbollah in syria that that did not happen but what is clear is that there is tension and the possibility of more confrontation between iran and israel late yesterday has well as secretary general has on the strela said that israel made a historic mistake by targeting a syrian air base in homs and they killed seven iranian revolutionary guards for iran to actually acknowledge that this is a major statement and are actually saying that iran israel is now in direct

confrontation with iran in the past it was in confrontation a proxy confrontation via hezbollah just a few hours after his speech that israelis released the results of an investigation saying that the iranian drone it shot down in israeli airspace was armed and ready for an attack so are the israelis going to use this as a pretext to launch even more strikes against the iranians in syria we know that this is what they want they want to prevent iran from entrenching itself militarily in syria but at the end of the day iran has cards and it made that clear over recent days of the laity iran's top supreme leaders advisor he issued two warnings one to the israelis telling them that we will respond to the attack at the t. for air base and another warning to the united states telling them that your troops are occupying forces in the north east of syria and we plan to quote liberate the area east of the euphrates so a lot of statements coming from the iranians warning the americans no doubt the

stakes are high indeed zain what are your contacts telling you about sort of the atmosphere at the moment across the border in syria in damascus we're getting variety of opinions about whether the syrians are pleased relieved that the attack itself has been quite limited but specific. well it depends who you talk to if you just watch pro-government channels you see people celebrating in the streets of damascus calling this a victory because at the end of the day this was a limited strike it did not affect in any way the government's military capabilities it didn't involve any regime change or a toppling of the syrian government but people in the opposition are upset what they believe is that it's not just chemical weapons that the government uses they use conventional weapons and that needs to stop well for the most we'll leave it to you in a little while not a house for me is the director of the center for middle east studies at the university of denver though he says the west has no interest in resolving the fundamental problems because of lead to serious surfing the civil war. recall that

we had a very similar situation roughly a year ago when bashar al assad used sarin gas on civilians in it live province. donald trump launched you know cruise missiles to prevent that from happening again but. bashar assad has continued as you know to use chemical weapons against his own civilians now the it seems like what's happening here is that this is a much more extensive robust and sustained set of operations geared toward preventing or deterring but charleston from using chemical weapons whether he'll get that message or not whether they'll be able to whether these airstrikes will actually be able to significantly damage the ability to use and abuse these types of weapons on syrian civilians also it is unknown so we'll have to wait and

see time will tell if you want to interpret this particular airstrike against the backdrop of western policy in syria over the last seven years it seems like the west is sending a message the only thing we care about in syria is chemical weapons and isis what charlotte assad chooses to do to his own civilians using conventional weapons is of no concern to the great powers and if you look at the numbers i think that's that that sort of i think confirms what i'm saying roughly maybe at most two thousand people have been killed by chemical weapons used by the assad regime half a million people have died in this war as a result of conventional weapons and so that seems to be the message that you know the west is sending to bashar said you can continue with your mayhem you continue with your maps politicized as long as you just don't use chemical weapons then

we're not going to get involved now i think some see. areas today because they've been so disappointed by the international community and so decimated well i think for a moment feel some sense of elation that the brutal dictator that has been oppressing them for the last you know at least for the last fifty years but at least in very significant ways in the last seven years is finally receiving some punishment but i think the reality net in the next morning when people wake up they'll see that the united states and its allies have no interest in changing the fundamental course of the war. the united states in its ally and its allies really going back to the top of barack obama basically you know sent a message to russia and iran that they can control the course of events in syria and no one is going to stop them no one in the west has the political will or the interest of the appetite to really change the fundamental underlying problems that got us to this point the only.