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this is al jazeera and studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters in doha. welcome to news access to chemical weapons inspectors in syria have not been allowed to visit the site of the tumor attack russia says the delays down to the airstrikes from the u.s. u.k. and france but the. united cites the russians with the site the latest on. the region wanted to break away from the rest of the spy rests by controversially went to the polls. and activists are appearing in court accused of addition and rebellion and its colonies. on twitter in a bookstore the former f.b.i. director said trump is morally unfit for office trump's called him a slime ball in the worst history. but did we learn anything more from the

interview will tony's book go further how will this influence the president's speech. and then we'll harding tens of thousands protested against the chinese government after it blocked l.g.b. taking on tape from its social media site way but shortly afterwards that decision was reversed we'll have more of your reaction to connected a james bond. with the news grid live on air in streaming online through you tube facebook lyman about is the red dot com chemical weapons inspectors are trying to get access to the site of the suspected attack in syria the one which killed at least forty people but getting inside duma to find out exactly what happened is turning into a bit of a back and forth between the u.s. britain and russia the u.k. has accused russia of not letting the investigating team into russia says those claims are groundless adding it and syria welcome the investigation and any delays

are due to the u.s. led strikes in the country and on top of all that the u.s. is accused russia of tampering with the site of the attack on top of all this we've got representatives of that global chemical watchdog the o.p.c. w missing for an emergency meeting at their headquarters in the hague the group said it had recorded more than three hundred ninety suspected chemical attacks in syria since two thousand and fourteen we'll start with this report from senator she's in beirut in lebanon. chemical weapons inspectors in the syrian capital damascus they still have not visited the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack reports suggesting that they will be heading to duma later today in the meantime the organization is holding a closed door meeting at the hague and they are discussing this. incident the united states accusing russia of tampering with the evidence because when this alleged attack happened the rebels were in control of duma a few days later russian military police entered the town and they investigated the site and said that they didn't find any traces of chemical weapons and for its part

russia is accusing the united states of trying to undermine the credibility of the o.p.c. w. because it carried out air strikes targeting damascus has chemical weapons facilities without waiting for the findings of the opi. w. but the u.s. and its allies said they have proof a chemical attack actually happened of course without providing any evidence so the war of words continue between russia and the united states but clearly. we're not expecting any more airstrikes at least not until the syrian government is accused of carrying out yet another chemical weapons attack we heard the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. say the u.s. is locked and loaded and ready for a strike let's check in with her a challenge now is live in moscow. russia seems to be getting it from all sides today the u.k. says not letting them in to do the u.s. is tampering with the site i'm sure the russians have had something to say about this. you know there's been pushback from the russians on

both those allegations coming from the kremlin which says these accusations are groundless and from the foreign ministry which is said you know accusations that the that the russians of tampered with the sites in duma well lavrov says that you can guarantee that hasn't been the case and also the russian delegation to the o.p.c. w says that it's just simply not true that the russians have been preventing access to the sites they have said the reason for the delay is because of the u.s. u.k. and french air strikes over the weekend and that's also it is up to the u.n. to basically give the final clearance for this team to get on with what they're supposed to be doing in duma what is the o.p.c. w itself say of all about all of this while i have here this is the opening

statement of the meeting of the o.p.c. w of the fifty eight meeting that's going on today and this is from the director general he says the team has not yet deployed to duma the syrian and the russian officials who participated in the prepare a free meetings in damascus have informed the fact finding mission team that there were still pending security issues to be worked out before any deployments could take place in the meantime the team was offered by the syrian authorities that they could interview twenty two witnesses who could be brought to damascus that is the view from the director general of the o.p.c. w so what he is saying there is that it is russia and syria north already us who are the moments providing the sort of final block for this team getting to the ground in duma but also that the syrians have selected a group of interviewees that the that the o.p.c.

dubbed. you'd see who's still in damascus can speak to rory up very simple question here but go with me on it just struck me that as we were talking there and you talking about all the stuff which has to do with syria but we're concentrating so much on russia i mean russia basically is the spokes person or spokes group for the syrian government in this situation it seems. you know i mean basically if it wasn't for the russians we could be having a very valid question you know debate at the moment about what the next government of syria is going to look like we might even know what it looked like already because it was you know russia and its campaign that stepped in late two thousand and fifteen the basically saved the syrian government from collapsing it was looking in a pretty perilous state a few years ago now we're in a position where you know we have essentially a rebel movement that has been crushed not into nonexistence but it's certainly not

no way near where it was a few years ago in two thousand and fifteen much much weakened aleppo has fallen east and has fallen there are very few remaining pockets of rebel activity left and then of course there's the battle against isis which has been going on with you know the united states doing its part with its coalition so yeah i mean the russians of essentially safeguarded the survival of the asaad government and certainly when it comes to actual you know brass tacks what happens on the ground we know that the russian military police are on the ground in duma holding as they say law and order there but then there's course what goes on in the u.n. security council every time there is an allegation of human rights abuses chemical weapons attacks whatever it's the russians that step in in the u.n. security council use their veto and block any sort of strength and

action from the western powers the united states and its allies what we're left with really is a fairly token gestures like the kind of airstrikes that we saw over the weekend three for syria just worth remembering isn't it how we thought after russia and the argument has been isn't it rory challen sorry to interrupt their origins in moscow thank you for that. rory also talked about the secretary general of nato there who waded into the syria situation accusing the assad regime of repeatedly carrying out chemical attacks against all but went so far as to call the attack in doom or a threat to international peace and security those responsible must be out accountable and we must do all we can to protect in national all the use of chemical weapons there is no military solution to this conflict

therefore nato fully supports the efforts led by the united nations to achieve a last thing a political solution to the conflict in syria and one other footnote of here we are keeping an eye on the house of parliament in london where a debate is about to start on the waiting to hear of course the u.s. led strikes on syria a u.k. participated in france as well this will be up for discussion here prime minister to reason why he has to justify to the british parliament and why the u.k. got involved stupid why she didn't come to this house and debate it before the airstrikes and syria she is expected to speak soon we will bring you that. speech and debate when it happens and also speak to our correspondent a little later about that. everything that has happened since the duma attack and the subsequent air strikes is in our latest updates page everything gets aggregated

there if you like including some of the latest social media posts that we see that are relevant to it is regularly updated by the online team syria strikes all the latest updates is that al jazeera dot com easiest way to find it is just head to the what's trending menu on the front page. you can get in touch with us as well of course he can you contact details now with the hash tag a.j. news grid on twitter at a.j. english if you look for a tweet just before the show goes to a reply to that thread and may had our producers keeping an eye out for your responses facebook dot com slash al-jazeera you can watch and comment as you go discuss with us and everyone else who's watching or use that number plus one seven four five our one triple one four nine that covers whatsapp and telegram as well and you can join in by the channels there and get in touch with us there has a janie's great moving on it has been more than six months since catalonia tried and then failed to split from spain and now many of those who spearheaded the

session movement are being holed up in front of a judge the latest the former police chief of catalonia has appeared in court he and pro independence leaders are facing charges of sedition and rebellion if you go back in time remember it was october of twenty seventeen the catalan regional government defied all warnings from spain and pushed ahead with the referendum spain used force to try to stop the vote national guard stormed the polling stations but it was a landslide victory for independence and just later that month the catalan government actually declared its independence and that is when spain pounced it fired the catalan government it dissolved and seized control of the parliament in a rested cattlemen leaders on charges of rebellion the catalan president. tomorrow he made it out went off to belgium but the european arrest warrant did catch up with him in germany he was released on bail when a german court dismissed spain's request for him to be extradited but it's not over yet he could actually still be sent back on charges that he misused public funds

a lot going on in catalonia son you're going to go has more of the day's developments. there is also a lot of concern that with the states is that there is in catalonia remember of course that madrid has in effect taken over the region there is a sense that because there is still very much a limbo there is no not no leader nominated to be able to carry out some kind of resolution politically on this subject that it really affects the the three men who are facing the hearing on monday of those counts of rebellion and in fact it will be it will come down hardest on them that really sort of summarizes already the stress that these three are under with that because as far as they're concerned the spanish justice system here in madrid is not going to give way now and certainly at this point now they don't think with all the support that they received on sunday

from the demonstration they're not going to vanquish their positions now well his book is yet to hit the shelves but it's all thorough former f.b.i. director james comey is making all sorts of ways that the united states in his first major interview before the release of that book which is called a high a loyalty card he said donald trump is morally unfit to be the president and there may be court some evidence trump obstructed justice but even before the interview trump himself was in a shall we say combative mood on twitter saying among other things carmen should be jailed the full story from gabriel and his own daughter in washington d.c. . in a remarkable rebuke former f.b.i. director james comey is saying u.s. president donald trump is not fit to be commander in chief he is donald trump unfit to be president. yes but not in the way i often hear people talk about it i don't buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent to early stages of dementia

strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who's tracking conversations and those what's going on i don't think he's medically unfit to be president i think is morally unfit to be president of the exclusive interview with a.b.c. news george stephanopoulos was part of the rollout of coney's new book titled a higher loyalty truth lies and leadership in the interview komi says trump lies as obstructed justice and like it seem to an insecure mob boss and he also says russia might have compromising information on the president do you think the russians have something on donald trump i think it's possible i don't know i mean these are more words i never thought i'd utter about a president but it's possible and he accused the president of wrongdoing of a possible crime yeah structure of justice hours before the komi interview aired the president unloaded on twitter calling komi a slimeball slippery and not smart in one tweet trump insists komi committed numerous crime some self and needs to go to jail tweeting in part how come he gave

up classified information jail why did he lie to congress jail in another message trump tweets komi will go down as the worst f.b.i. director in history by far trump adding with an exclamation mark for good measure you know more for him is that me in a coma he was fired by trump in may saying it was for his handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation but trump later said in an interview it was because of the russian vest a geisha and the firing prompted a series of events that led to the justice department to appoint robert mueller as special counsel. overseeing the russian vest a geisha and that has expanded to look into whether trump obstructed justice by firing komi home he says trump privately asked him for a loyalty pledge trump denies this this isn't the first book to rattle the white house in january fire and fury sold more than a million copies in four days written by journalist michael wolff the book revealed

salacious details that painted a picture of a white house in chaos khomeini's book coed for poses even more of a threat to the white house given it was written by the former director of the highest law enforcement agency in america and based partly off notes that he took after private meetings with the president the book is scheduled to be released on tuesday and certain to set off a firestorm in washington and beyond and particularly with an administration that seems to go from one crisis to another gabriel zonda oh al-jazeera washington his you have returns in washington to take the story forward i'm very conscious you have when we end up waiting for the president to tweet about something you're looking at the clock and wondering when he's going to wake up and tweet such of the times we live in now what do you talk through what he has said in response today. pretty measured response on monday just the one tweet so far but we should remember

combing. his book tour is only just beginning they're going to be many many more interviews many more weeks of headlines that komi and his publishers hope will be generated by whatever he says so we can experiment has plenty of time to react to komi but so far just the one tweet relatively measured actually building on this idea that komi just isn't very trustworthy kermie drafter the crooked hillary exoneration long before he talked brackets lied in congress to senator g. then based decisions on her poll numbers disgruntled he mccabe and the others committed many crimes so this again this this theme that we get from the white house that komi was well disposed towards clinton was trying to win the election for clinton in some ways of course the clinton camp has a very different view of me they think that he was instrumental in her defeat because i don't think actually there's in the clinton campaign to be able to think about any mistakes that clinton might have made so they always go for the go for kermit lied to congress or senate to senator gee a reference i mean could we actually a number of things he said his congressional testimony last year turned out to be not quite as truthful as they may have been whether he was lying or not it depends

on your point of view this is about whether he had been. leaking to the press along with his deputy and drew mccabe was mentioned also in this tweet he said no at the time when it came out that actually all these allegations came out that he had authorized leaks to the press so what we're seeing now is this campaign if not from trump as much yet today but certainly from the white house that comey is self-serving a very political figure if he had so many misgivings about donald trump at the time then why did you don't say so at the time why did he remain as a cia director that's one of the questions that could be used is there other reaction or feeling about what james comey is as you said the book to is just stunning about what he's been backing on here because we can focus too much i think on just what president trumps as when there's obviously many other players out there. right i mean that way that there's not actually necessarily anything new in what we've heard so far about the book the book hasn't been published yet at

least open white be released yet and it's not published until tuesday but said in his comments i mean these are these are the sort of things we heard in his congressional testimony last year about donald trump and his interactions with donald trump as he was trying to investigate these allegations of of russian could lose and clearly doesn't i mean he's a lot of necessarily the most like figure in washington that all those who don't support trump who support hillary clinton for example who do think that komi is a bit of a slippery fellow very political job a very self-serving job and who also the has been some dismay about his performance in that interview that gabriel was discussing in his piece the nature of some of the criticism of donald trump the innuendo about loretta lynch president obama's and general just even for him to say look i don't know perhaps the russians do have something on trump i mean what does that actually really mean is that a fitting for an f.b.i. director so i mean there are questions about him but we know from the polls are about a third of americans to distrust him without

a third don't like donald trump and then there's that other third which i think komi in trouble now fighting for ok thank you she had sorry we've got a rep you out there just now because to reason may has begun speaking in the houses of parliament in london on the issue of the u.k.'s strikes on syria with this man his five hundred for the casualties all indications are that this was a chemical weapons attack. u.k. medical and scientific experts have analyzed open source reports images and video footage from the incident and concluded that the victims were exposed to a toxic chemical this is corroborated by first hand accounts from n.g.o.s and aid workers while the world health organization received reports that hundreds of patients arrived at syrian health facilities on saturday night with signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals. and based on our assessment we do not think that these reports could be falsified on this scale furthermore mr

speaker the syrian regime has reportedly been attempting to conceal the evidence by searching evacuees from duma to ensure samples are not being smuggled from this area and the wider operation to conceal the facts of the attack is underway supported by the russians mr speaker the images of this suffering are actually quoting innocent families seeking shelter in underground bunkers found dead with foam in their mouths burns to their eyes and their bodies surrounded by a coreen like. children gasping for life as chemicals choked their lands the fact that such an atrocity can take place in our world today is a stain on our humanity. and we are clear about who is responsible a significant body of information including intelligence indicates the syrian regime is responsible for this latest attack open source accounts state that barrel bombs were used to deliver the chemicals barrel bombs are usually delivered by

helicopters multiple open source reports and intelligence indicates that regime helicopters operated over duma on the evening of the seventh of april shortly before reports emerged in social media of the chemical attack and the syrian military officials coordinated what appears to be the use of chlorine weapons. mr speaker no other group could have carried out this attack the opposition does not operate helicopters or used barrel bombs diet does not even have a presence in duma and the reports of this attack are consistent with previous regime attacks these include the attack on the twenty first of august twenty thirty where over eight hundred people were killed and thousands more injured in a chemical attack also in kuta fourteen further smaller scale chemical attacks reported prior to that summer three further chlorine attacks in twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen which the independent un s c mandated investigation attributed to

the regime and the attack which can shake who on the fourth of april last year where the syrian regime used sarin against its people killing around one hundred with a further five hundred casualties based on the regime's persistent pattern of behavior and the cumulative analysis of specific incidence we just it's highly likely that the syrian regime had continued to use chemical weapons on at least four occasions since the attack in can't shake who and we judge that they would have continued to do so so we needed to intervene rapidly to alleviate further indiscriminate humanitarian suffering mr speaker we've explored every possible diplomatic channel to do so but our efforts have been repeatedly thwarted. following the sarin attack in eastern damascus back in august two thousand and thirteen the syrian regime committed to dismantle its chemical weapon program and russia promised to ensure that syria did this overseen by the organization for the prohibit of chemical

weapons at the weekend the leader of the opposition cited this diplomatic agreement as a precedent that this process can work but this process did not work it did not eradicate the chemical weapons capability of the syrian regime with only last month the o.p.c. w finding that syria's declaration of its former chemical weapons program is incomplete and as i've already set out it did not stop the syrian regime from carrying out the most apparent atrocities using these weapons furthermore on each occasion when we have seen every sign of chemical weapons being used russia has blocked any attempt to hold the perpetrators to account at the u.n. security council with six such veto since the start of twenty seventeen and just last week russia blocked a u.n. resolution that would have established an independent investigation able to determine responsibility for this latest attack so regrettably we have no choice

but to conclude that diplomatic action on its own is not going to work. the leader of the opposition has said that he could only countenance involvement in syria if there is un authority behind it the house should be clear that would mean a russian veto on all foreign policy. when the cabinet met on thursday we considered the advice of the attorney general based on this advice we agreed that it was not just morally right but also legally right to take military action together with our closest allies to alleviate the humanitarian suffering this was not about intervening in a civil war and it was not about regime change it was about a limited targeted and effective strike that sought to alleviate the humanitarian suffering of the syrian people by degrading the syrian regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring their use and we have published the legal basis for this action it required three conditions to be met. first the must be convincing

evidence generally accepted by the international community as a whole of extreme humanitarian distress on a large scale requiring immediate and urgent relief second it must be objectively clear that there is no practical alternative to the use of force if lives are to be saved and third the proposed proposed use of force must be necessary and proportionate to the aim of relief of humanitarian suffering and must be strictly limited in time and in scope to this saying these are the same three criteria used as the legal justification for the u.k.'s role in the nato intervention in kosovo our intervention in one nine hundred ninety one with the us and france and in one thousand nine hundred two with the us to create safe havens and enforce the no fly zones in iraq following the gulf war but also justified on the basis of humanitarian intervention so governments of all colors have long considered that military action on an exceptional basis where necessary and proportionate and as a last resort to avert an overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe is permissible

under international law. mr speaker i set out why we are convinced by the evidence and why there was no practicable alternative let me set out how this military response was also proportionate this was a limited targeted and effective strike that would significantly degrade syrian chemical weapons capabilities and deter their future use and with clear boundaries that expressly sought to avoid escalation and did everything possible to prevent civilian casualties as a result of the coordinated actions of the u.s. u.k. and france was successfully and specifically targeted at three sites. contrary to what the leader of the opposition said at the weekend these were not empty buildings the first was the bar's a branch of the scientific studies and research center in northern damascus this was a center for the research and development of syria's chemical and biological program it was hit by fifty seven american t. lambs and nineteen american j s s that's the second site was the him machines are

chemical weapons bunkers fifty miles west of the city of holmes which contains both a chemical weapons equipment and storage facility and an important command post these were successfully hit by seven french sculp cruise missiles and the third site was the him since our chemical weapons storage site and former miss our base which is now a military facility this was assessed to be a location of syrian sarin and the cursor production equipment whose destruction would degrade syria's ability to deliver sarin in the future this was hit by nine u.s. t. lams five naval and to sculp missile cruise missiles from france and a storm shadow missiles launched by asked for r e f tornado g r falls. very careful scientific analysis was used to determine where best to target these missiles to maximize the destruction of stockpiled chemicals and to minimize any risk to the rat surrounding area and the facility that we targeted is located some distance

from any known population centers reducing it further any such risk of civilian casualties. mr speaker well targeted and limited these strikes by the u.s. u.k. and france was significantly larger than the u.s. action a year ago after the attack it can shake and specifically designed to have a greater impact on the regime's capability and willingness to use chemical weapons we also minimize the chances of wider escalation through our carefully targeted approach and the house will note that russia has not reported any losses of personnel or equipment as a result of these strikes i'm sure the whole house will want to join me in paying tribute to all the british servicemen and women. and their american and french allies who successfully carried out this mission with such courage and professionalism mr speaker let me deal specifically with three important questions first why did we not wait for the investigation from the a p c w u n s c mandated inspectors had investigated previous attacks and on four occasions decided that the

regime was indeed responsible we are confident in our own assessment that the syrian regime was highly likely responsible for this attack and that its persistent pattern of behavior meant it was highly likely to continue using chemical weapons furthermore there are clearly attempts to block any proper investigation as we saw with the russian veto at the u.n. earlier in the week and let me set this out in detail we support strongly the work at the o.p.c. w. fact finding mission that is currently in damascus but that mission is only able to make an assessment of whether chemical weapons were used even if the o.p.c. w team is able to visit duma to gather information to make that assessment and they are currently being prevented from doing so by the regime and the russians it cannot attribute responsibility this is because russia vetoed in november twenty seventh t. an extension of the joint investigator a mechanism set up to do this and last week in the wake of the duma attack it again

vetoed a new un as see resolution to reestablish such a mechanism. and even if we had o.p.c. w.'s findings and a mechanism to attribute for as long as russia continues to veto the un security council still would not be able to act so mr speaker we cannot wait to alleviate further humanitarian suffering caused by chemical weapons attacks second will be not just following orders from america let me be absolutely clear we have acted because it is in our national interest. it is in our national interest to prevent the further use of chemical weapons in syria and to uphold and defend the global consensus that these weapons should not be used for we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized either within syria on the streets of the u.k. or elsewhere so we have not done this because president trump asked us to do so we

have done it because we believed it was the right thing to do and we are not. there is broad based international support for the action we've taken nato has issued a statement setting out its support as have the gulf cooperation council and a number of countries in the region and over the weekend i have spoken to a range of world leaders including chancellor merkel prime minister gentle olney prime minister trudeau prime minister turnbull and european council union council president donald tusk all have expressed their support for the actions that britain france and america take. third why did we not recall parliament mr speaker the speed with which we acted was essential in cooperating with our partners to alleviate further humanitarian suffering and to maintain the vital security of our operations. this was a limited targeted strike on a legal basis that has been used before and it was a decision which required the evaluation of intelligence and information much of

which was of a nature that could not be shared with parliament. we have always been clear that the government has the right to act quickly in the national interest. i am absolutely clear mr speaker that it is parliament's responsibility to hold me to account for such decisions and parliament will do so but it is my responsibility as prime minister to make these decisions and i. this is because i have been clear this military action was not about intervening in the civil war in syria or about regime change but we are determined to do our utmost to help resolve the conflict in syria that means concluding the fight against die ash which still holds pockets of territory in syria it means working to enable humanitarian access and continuing our efforts at the forefront of global response where the u.k. has already committed almost two point five billion pounds our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis and next week we will attend the second brussels

conference on supporting the future of syria and the region which will focus on humanitarian support bolstering the u.n. political process in geneva and ensuring continued international support to refugees and host countries driving forward the legacy of our own london conference held in twenty sixty and it means supporting international efforts to reinvigorate the process to deliver a political solution for this is the best long term hope for the syrian people the u.k. will do all of these things but as i've also been clear that is not what these military strikes were about mr speaker as i've set out the military action that we have taken this weekend was specifically focused on degrading the syrian regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring their future use in order to achieve this the must also be a wider diplomatic effort including the full range of political and economic leavers to strengthen the global norms prohibiting the use of chemical weapons

which have stood for nearly a century so we will continue to work with our international partners on tough economic. action against those involved with the production or dissemination of chemical weapons and i welcome the conclusion of today's european foreign affairs council attended by my right honorable friend the foreign secretary the confirms the council is willing to consider further restrictive measures on those involved in the development and use of chemical weapons in syria we will continue to push for the reestablishment of an international investigative mechanism which can attribute responsibility for capital chemical weapon use in syria we will advance with our french allies the new international partnership against impunity for the use of chemical weapons which will meet in the coming weeks and we will continue to strengthen the international coalition we have built since the attack on sorcery mr speaker last thursday's report from the o.p.c. w. has confirmed our findings that it was indeed an awful chalk installs free and i placed a copy of that reports executive summary in the library of the house one of the

much lower order of magnitude the use of a nerve agent on the streets of salzburg as part of a pattern of disregard for the global north. so while the action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons it would also send a clear message to anyone who believes they can use chemical weapons with impunity we cannot go back to a world where the use of chemical weapons becomes normalized. mr speaker i'm deeply conscious of the gravity of these decisions they affect all members of this house and me personally and i understand the questions that rightly will be asked about british military action particularly in such a complex region. but i am clear that the way we protect our national interest is to stand up to the global rules and standards that keep us safe that is what we have to own and what we will continue to do and i commend this statement. all

they. say thank you mr speaker i want to start by thanking the prime minister for phone conversation in advance of the bombing raids on friday nights and for advance copy of her statement today i also join her in paying tribute to sergeant match on row the s.c.s.i. card from manchester was killed on the twenty eighth of march with u.s. forces in northern syria master sergeant jonathan dunbar from texas who was killed in the same attack i welcome the fact that all british military personnel involved have returned home safely from this mission the attack in duma was an a riff an attack on civilians using chemical weapons part of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people mr speaker this statement serves as a reminder the prime minister is accountable to this parliament not to the whims of

the u.s. president i we clearly. we clearly need we clearly need a war powers act in this country to transform a now broken convention into a legal obligation her pretty decisive came to this house to seek all storage for military action in libya and in syria in two thousand and fifteen and the house had a vote over iraq in two thousand and three there is no more serious issue than the life and death matters of military action it is right that parliament has the power to support or stop the government from taking planned military action i. know mr speaker the b.b.c. report. the prime minister argued for the bombing to be brought forward to avoid parliamentary scrutiny will she today confirm or deny those reports

i believe mr speaker the action was legally questionable. and on saturday. i just urge members to calm down because in my experience some of the members who shout from a sedentary position then all entertain the fanciful idea that i might be called to ask a question and i wish to disabuse them of that idea the prime minister was heard in an atmosphere of respectful quiet. and that will happen for the leader of the opposition as well no ifs no buts no sneers no exceptions that is the position jeremy corbett thank you mr speaker i believe that the action was legally questionable and on saturday the united nations secretary general and turning to terry said as much reiterating that

all countries must act in line with the united nations charter which states action must be in self-defense all be all surprised by the united nations security council . the prime minister has assured us that the attorney general had given clear legal advice approving the action i hope the prime minister will not publish this advice in full today the summary notes references the disputed humanitarian intervention doctrine but even against this the government fails its own tests the overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe due to the civil war in syria is absolutely indisputable. but the foreign secretary said yesterday these strikes would have no bearing on the civil war and the prime minister has reiterated that today by saying this is not what these military strikes were about. mr speaker does for

example the humanitarian crisis in yemen entitle other countries to arrogate to themselves the right to bomb saudi airfields all their positions in yemen especially given their use of banned cluster bombs and white phosphorous mr speaker three united nations agency said in january that yemen was the worst humanitarian crisis in the world so will the prime minister today commit to ending support to the saudi bombing campaign and arms sales to saudi arabia only mission itself what assessment has the government made of the impact of bombing related military facilities where the regime is assessed to store chemical weapons what impact on the local people of chemicals being released into the local environment news footage shows both journalists and local local people in the

rubble without any protective clothing why does the prime minister believe these vessels strikes will deter future chemical attacks as the prime minister will be aware there were u.s. strikes in two thousand and seventeen in the wake of the use of chemical weapons in can trick on for which the un o.p.c. w.-t. held the assad regime to be responsible in relation to the airstrikes against on him facilities the prime minister will be aware that the o.p.c. w. carried out inspections on both those facilities in two thousand and seventeen and concluded i quote that the inspection team did not observe any activities inconsistent with the obligations under the chemical weapons convention can the prime minister advise the house does she believe the o.p.c.

double. you were wrong in that assessment or does she have separate intelligence that the nature of those activities is changed within the last five months and in the lights of the chill cause inquiry does she agree with the key recommendation about the importance of strengthening the checks and assessment on intelligence information when it is used to make the case for government policies given that neither the un nor the o.p.c. w. has yet investigated the attack it is clear that diplomatic and nonmilitary means have not been fully exhausted while much suspicion right clearly points to the assad government chemical weapons have been used by other groups in the conflict for example josh slam which was reported to have used gas in aleppo in two thousand and sixteen amongst other groups it is now vitally important that

the o.p.c. w. inspectors who arrived in damascus on saturday are allowed to do their work and publish their report into their findings and report to the united nations security council they must be allowed. to complete their inspections without hindrance and i hope the u.k. will put all diplomatic pressure on russia and syria. and other influential states to ensure they're able to access the site in duma the bigger question must be that during the syrian conflict over four hundred thousand syrians estimated to have died in the conflict and the vast majority by conventional weapons as the prime minister indicated the u.n. estimates that thirteen point five million syrians are in need of humanitarian

assistance and there are over five million refugees it's more important than ever that we take concrete steps to hold and finally end the suffering acting through the u.n. the prime minister should now take a diplomatic lead to negotiate a pause in this a bar and conflict this means engaging with all parties that are involved in the conflict including iran israel russia saudi arabia turkey and the us to ensure there is an immediate cease fire. we have mr speaker the grotesque spectacle of a wider political battle being waged by proxy with the syrian people used as pawns by all sides our first priority must be the safety and security of the syrian people which is best served. by d.

escalating this conflict so that aid can get in so will the prime minister and now we embark as i hope she will on a renewed diplomatic efforts to try to bring an end to this conflict as she indicated in the latter part of a statement the prime minister states that diplomatic process is did not work this is not exactly true the initiatives negotiated by john kerry and sergey lavrov led to the destruction of six hundred tons of chemical weapons overseen by the o.p.c. w. . no one mr speaker disputes that such diplomatic process is a difficult and imperfect but that should not stop us from continuing diplomatic efforts. the refugee crisis places a responsibility on all countries hundreds of unaccompanied children remain in europe and the u.k. has yet to take even in even the small numbers it was committed to through the

dub's amendment i hope that today the government will now increase its commitment to take additional syrian refugees will the prime minister make that commitment today minister thank you thank you mr speaker if i can start off by responding to the comments of the leader of the opposition has made on the syrian conflict more generally because i everybody in this house recognizes the nature of the conflict and the impact that has had on the syrian people the millions of people who've been displaced either within syria or to countries in the surrounding region we have as the united kingdom as i said in my statement we are now the second biggest bilateral jonah to the syrian rhetoric or syrian refugees in the region at almost two point five billion pounds we've been very clear that we want we believe we can help more people by giving that age in the region and we have been able to

support hundreds of thousands of children in the region by the aid that we have given to them we will continue to do that and continue to support and continue to be grateful for all that is being done particularly by turkey lebanon and jordan to support refugees in the region this is a significant task for those countries and we are supporting them in that effort i also said the right on the gentleman also asked me to launch a new diplomatic effort as i said in my statement we will indeed be continuing the work in relation to this wider issue of the conflict in syria that means as i said continuing the fight. against dietitian concluding the fight against irish it means our humanitarian work as i have said and continuing to press for humanitarian access and it also means supporting the international efforts to reinvigorate the process to deliver

a long term political solution in syria but it is necessary for all parties to be willing to come together to ensure that they can and to discuss and develop a long term solution for syria now let me come on to the specific strikes that took place at the weekend and the issue of chemical weapons right on what gentleman asked about the legal basis we have published the legal basis for our action and i've been very clear i went through the arguments in my statement this is about the deviation of humanitarian suffering that is a legal basis that has been used by governments of all colors it was used as i said in nine hundred ninety one and one hundred ninety two it was also used by the labor government to justify intervention in kosovo as part of the nato as part of the nato intervention he refers he refers to other areas of conflict in the world can i just say to him what sets this apart particularly is the use of chemical weapons.

this is about alleviating the suffering that would come from the use of chemical weapons but i believe it is also important and in this country's interest and the interests of other countries around the world that we do reestablish the international norm that the use of chemical weapons is prohibited we cannot allow a situation to develop where countries and people think that the use of chemical weapons has been allowed to become normalized amount and that is important for us all he talks about the o.p.c. w. and about the intervention of their investigation into as i said in my statement the problem is. they are being stopped from their investigation into the regime and the russians are preventing them from doing that and more again the regime has reportedly been attempting to conceal the evidence by searching evacuees from duma

to ensure that they are not taking out of the region samples that could be tested elsewhere and a wider operation to conceal the fact of the attack is underway supported by the russians he talks about other groups that have and the possibility of chemical weapons being used by other groups as i pointed out in my statement this is it is understood that these chemical weapons were delivered by barrel bombs barrel bombs are normally dropped from helicopters there is the evidence that i cited in relation to regime active helicopter activity in duma on the on the date in question and it is not the case that the groups that he has referred to have access to the helicopters and barrel bombs that will be able to ensure to deliver such a chemical weapons attack i think it is clear and it was on that basis that the government decided to act together with the united states and france and i think it

is important that this was a joint international effort that took place in relation to these strikes these strikes were carefully targeted a proper analysis was done to ensure that they were targeted sites that were relevant to the chemical weapons capability of the regime we did tourism a british prime minister addressing the british parliament. at the moment aren't certain questions which were put to her by the leader of the opposition jeremy kolbe and that was after her own statement where she said it was both morally right and legally right to launch such air strikes on syria after the suspected chemical attack he said that we cannot wait to alleviate suffering of people from. nicol weapons hence this had to happen jonah hall is a correspondent following developments the sing along with us hi journalists i guess maybe you can talk us through the differences in arguments here because to reason may seem to be very much saying we had to do this we had to take action now

because of the chemical weapons attack and jeremy coleman is going much bigger picture than that. well look the reason bay has put herself in front of parliament now is she chose not to do that last week she chose not to reconvene parliament from its easter break to call for for them to scrutinize britain's case for joining these attacks and to vote upon them she said that now is their chance to hold her to account and this was her moment this statement for the reason made to lay out to parliament all of the considerations that have come into play the evidence that they've looked at to determine that it was the syrian regime in all likelihood who dropped it will use these chemical weapons and why there was quite such an urgency to act in the way that they did how they justified that in terms of humanitarian law and why they didn't call parliament to vote they will later on be a question and answer session in which all of this will be debated further but yes treason make going into the forensics of it and saying look quite simply there was

a basis here called humanitarian necessity humanitarian urgency used as a legal justification in previous conflicts notably kosovo by the british government and other governments she said in which there was a specific test you had to set out the that there was a clear case of humanitarian distress you had to set out that there was no alternative to this kind of action and you had to do it in a limited proportionate and necessary basis she says that all of those issues have been met it is therefore legally justified morally as well and on the basis of britain's national interests that is the prime minister's position she will take questions but it is unlikely that the opposition will get the firm vote on the matter of the bombing the strikes themselves that they so badly want john to hell thank you for that analysis outside the houses of parliament in westminster. finally on the grid you could call it a victory for gay rights but also a victory for free speech online china's most popular social media network is reversing its decision to ban gay content on its site there was

a massive backlash when sign away about china's version of twitter basically decided to block videos and comments related to homosexuality were said it was trying to comply with cybersecurity laws but it seems in this case the online outcry was heard loud and clear here is adrian brown with more. well reversals like this are very rare in china now things all came to a head on friday when sino weibo which is china's equivalent of twitter announced it was going to delete all gay themed content now this provoked a predictable outcry there were letters angry posts hashtags one hash tag in fact called i am gay received more than three hundred million views three hundred million before it was deleted on saturday so clearly online there was a lot of anger but as quickly as those posts appeared they were deleted now the company defended its actions by saying it wanted to create quote

a clear and harmonious environment online and was simply complying with president xi jinping has new cyber security laws the internet has become a real battleground for the l.g. bt community and president xi jinping appears to have that community in his crosshairs he wants to clean up the internet he doesn't like what he's seen and so i think this this battle is by no means over it's going to continue and continue for weeks months and years to come now the l g b t community here in china says they are still persecuted and discriminated against even though it's no longer illegal to be gay in this country to be a practicing homosexual now china has one gay parade game archie year that happens in shanghai the next one is in june and now in other parts of the world world leaders take part in those parades it happened with justin trudeau in canada but i think it's fair to assume the for now you're not going to be seeing president xi

jinping doing that. quick chance to hear from leah now about this story how the reaction yeah there's been international reaction to this trying to community came out strong protesting against the ban of gay content on way both the hash tag i am gay tens of thousands of chinese to post images of hearts and rainbows one of the most shared posts is this from an activist who uploaded a video from a public event where gay people wearing rainbow colored eye patches asked passer bys just give them a hug i king the founder of the country's most prominent gay rights group e. flag wrote in a blog post saying that waiver would not have withdrawn the ban on l g b t condit if it were not for this campaign he says the essence of l g b t movement is coming out when more and more people stand up thank you for that leo a funny old news group today's no we got all caught up in events from london more news on al-jazeera from london and just.

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. someone get a good training surround. you'll sing in the sky. producer to speak. with us tonight is bruce. katz owner we're going places together. in the next episode of techno the team looks into the environmental impact of waste management trash is a big business than one fourth with a smelly bill thanks to the complexities of recycling when these different plastics are blended together then the recycling becomes difficult to impossible and the signs that office solutions it's very easy for us to have a hundred percent recycled material techno on al-jazeera.