of course this is a concern for everyone but the turkish military and the turkish officials say that they have targeted the y.p. g. syrian kurdish fighter group positions and arrested in and tell of the at and they are not targeting the civilians according to their statements but this is a resident in the area that turkish military targets for a safe zone which is 30 kilometers deep have residential areas so as a military operation on falls it will be interesting to see how turkish military is going to plan the soap or a shot in order to avoid any humanitarian any civilian casualties and this is a concern for everyone but the turkish military members that i have spoken so far they say that it turkish military is a vault to prevent any civilian loss and turkish military is proving its experiences like in somalia like like in afghanistan is appreciated by the nato allies as well that they have been

a peaceful and they have been protective about the civilians but of course this is the these are the 1st signs of the military operation these are the for this is the 1st hour we don't know how far this operation is going to go until turkish president rejects a prior john and u.s. president donald trump meets in washington on november 13th some say that until then this military operation can be limited to a specific place because that meeting is going to be very important and very binding it seems that the decision by the u.s. earlier in the weaken by president trump to. publicly state that the u.s. would not support kurdish fighters really has been the green flag with or without a conversation with the american president for the turkish president to go ahead with his plans because of the g. and the s.t.'s have with a kurdish background and roots have certainly. and corrupt for decades.

well so her lip seems for both the americans and the turks both sides neither sides want to confront each other on the battleground so but turkey has said that the weather with the u.s. or without the u.s. turkey you know later really would take this action for a military operation to establish the safe zone. first to protect its borders then to create a safe place for for some of them is some of the millions of syrians who are being hosted by turkey right now so yes the u.s. is saying we pulled out our support from the s.t.'s might be seen as a green light but let's remember president trump twitted yesterday that ok we're not supporting the syrian kurdish fighters group right now but we are supporting them financially and by weapons the weapons supplied to the wife e.g.

has been of a great concern for turkey because the y p g has been provided have a weapons and very sophisticated machine is under the umbrella of the syrian democratic forces turkey has been saying that those weapons were delivered to y. p.g. and through them to the p.k. k. and would be directed to turkey and that's why and turkey it turkish officials say they have no since there is no proper invents free and that they're not sure how much of those weapons have been used so far by the y. p.g. during the fight against eisel and how much is left and how much can be directed to turkey and this is also a great concern for the turkish military and for the turkish officials how much all these weapons are in the hands or whether they will be used against turkish military because it has been reported by the media recently the why p.g. and the p.k. k. has developed some drones and other weapons so what is

a question what is vague for chickie is the military capacity of the why p.j. because they have to they have trained in the battlefield as well. ok said the mo we'll leave it there for the moment of course continue to monitor. what's going out of there and grows only turkey let's cross over to charles stratford our correspondent who's been on the ground really as your colleague turkey syria border monitoring exactly what's happening we've been seeing a variety of pictures of smoke plumes of smoke coming up in certain areas or charles just explain to us where you are what you're seeing and hearing if anything . we are quite close to the borders certainly we have been speaking or getting information through from some of us sources with the y.p. g. . and they are telling us that there have been artillery strikes taking shots in the strikes east of the town called come in the last few minutes we've also been

reporting airstrikes as you say on the town of russell i and there have also been reports again from. what p.g. sources say that there were. halted restrikes on 2 villages south of tel. which is directly on the border and we've also heard all of them have to do a strikes on the town of isa. we are in the last the last few minutes we've heard and we can't confirm this that there may well have been some sort of response rocket fire by the s d f we cannot confirm that at the moment but yeah it certainly seems as if this operation that the turks have been threatening certainly very much in earnest in the last couple of days but as we've been reporting they've been threatening to do this for years is very much on the way. you've been seeing a build up of military hardware in the past few days as i explained for all right international viewers exactly what you've seen being brought into southern turkey

before across the border. where we can confirm as to whether any of the machinery of the weapons that we've seen have actually crossed the border but certainly in the last 2848 hours 2448 hours we've seen lots of tanks being taken down to the border a.p.c.'s trucks that we presume may well have been carrying ammunition. we haven't seen in terms of personnel we haven't seen trucks full of soldiers but we've seen artillery positions and. situated along that border. and as we and we've shown pictures of that and it seems as if certainly some of these artillery batteries are being used on these targets. and in terms of the situation so far we obviously are waiting to hear from. the turks and of course the

kurds will come back to you charles in a little while let's just cross over to morrow in kabul is the director of policy analysis at the arab center for research and policy studies and joins me here in doha good to have you with us on the program again another chapter in a very complicated military political and insurgent story is being evolved as we speak i mean the turks now. a operating in a way that they had wanted to for some time. that's absolutely absolutely right i think president dylan has been waiting for this moment for many many years i believe he started actually pushing for this operation sense but i didn't obama you as a former u.s. president was in power in 2015 but at the time actually i mean there was.

disagreement between the 2 countries. of the situation in syria because at that time. president out of the ground war. but isn't obama to support him and has a force in order to be more vers syrian president bashar assad. and he wasn't actually be very much supportive of they were efforts at that time which of course i mean decided to ally itself with the. forces in the north east of syria and the war against isis so there how there was a huge differences actually between the united states and turkey over the past the bust few years but now it seems that with the new administration with disagree with this administration it's not new anymore but with this administration with the tom administration. distillations seems to be have changed and the president many times tried actually to pull they were as forces from north east of syria the

fear stymied like to do that was in april 2018 but then there was a huge resistance by his or team including. previous national security adviser john bolton and also his previous secretary of defense jim matters but again in december of 2000 it didn't last the somebody he had the phone call also with the president of the gun and he decided to pull out u.s. troops from syria because for president prompt actually he believes that the war against isis is over and that u.s. troops must go back home this is. what he thinks and that was an election promise that he wanted actually to fulfill before. the election campaign a starts early next next year but again last september there was also usually distance from the saudis but on days it i.e. also his on his own administration and that led as you know so here to that is it

a nation of gen mattis former secretary of defense so i decided actually to back off once again but this time it seems that he has he has to go for that and the latest phone call between him and but i didn't. have the gun seems to have given turks the green light to go and try to establish this saves or and the northeast of syria in which turkey will be trying to eliminate or remove at least the kurdish forces. and the syria democratic forces from a strip of land on the borders between syria and turkey but we don't with we still don't nor actually the score and the depth of this operation we don't know what sort of agreement turkey and the united states. have regarding this military operation how far the turks are going to go inside syria what is going to be the

length of the operation all saw across the border that is because you know i mean the borders between syria and turkey in the east of you if it is it stretches for more than like 400 kilometers. we don't know if the turks will be will be actually invading along these 140 kilometers or there are going to be only a very limited military operation on a smaller step. because that's really my next question is about this incursion because the turks are at pains to say this is not an invasion this is not a lock you patient but there is concern in european capitals as we've seen. not just from the e.u. jointly but from london and from paris and now even concern from moscow that this could develop and is the worry that this shouldn't be it shouldn't be titled a massacre or annihilation of a particular number of kurdish people i.e. these fighters who've been fighting alongside western and american forces against

a very important enemy in terms of eisel and that if it is or if it does end up in that direction turkey will have many questions and a growing number of enemies if they go down that line. absolutely but i think at the end of the day what is really who really counts here are the americans i mean not the europeans and certainly not not not not not not that i shan't although that ayesha is for me they seem to are actually to agree on to a certain accent that the key might go inside syria but that should be in court the nation with them and with the syrian regime and my explanation for the russian for the very in my been a flexible russian position right now is that the russians they want to punish the kurds for allying themselves with the united states we all know that the kurds actually have always been an ally of more score throughout the cold war.

the soviet union and russia developed a strong ties with the kurdish factions in iraq in syria and iran but actually during the war against the kurds actually decided to go with the united states that actually made that i share furious about them so now for me it seems that i should i was are willing to banish the kurds on one hand by our law in turkey or not allowing turkey in fact but mike on dorning by not oboes inc strongly the kurdish military obligation to on one hand bunny's the cause on the other hand to force them to go to actually and embrace the syrian regime once once again because i does this mean then all the question perhaps should be do the kurds have any friends at all who can they rely all now because at this present moment in time if they look a lot south east or west they're pretty isolated you're absolutely absolutely right

now they have been abandoned by their ally the united states is a but i didn't seems to have actually thrown them under the bus after the end of this war i guess i so but they still have an option. and actually the kurds this is what the russians are trying to do they still have the syrian regime to or to embrace and we all know actually that and right now there is ongoing talks between the kurds and the syrian regime on how actually to. challenge or to check the. military operation to how to actually challenge that that operation so i think we are going to see now a change a new dynamics in the north east of syria we are going to see nuances develop in that region we might be seeing the kurds actually leaning more towards russia and the syrian regime and also of course iran and this and this and this case because

they have to feel that they have been betrayed by the united states and they have actually been abandoned by the administration so i think you are going to see like a new or alliance in under making in the north east of syria very much dislike the alliance which has been actually in this spot for the boss for 5 years. well for the moment we will leave it there with you thank you for your analysis of course we'll continue to come back to you as the situation develops marwood carbon policy studies there for us here in doha while russia has been calling for dialogue between the syrian government and the kurds over the situation in northeastern syria the foreign minister sergei lavrov is all a 2 day visit to kazakhstan where he's been speaking to the media there he said it's important to reduce tensions in the region on tuesday more said it was not informed about the u.s. decision to pull out american troops from syria. we have announced our situation regarding what is ongoing in northeast syria and on the turkish border with syria

our situation is based on sorting out this issue only via dialogue between the former government and the representatives of the kurdish community living there we have been in contact with turkey and the other parties participating in a standard to convince them all to start a dialogue for solving this problem in this part of syria. is our correspondent in moscow listening in to of course so what's so good lover of what to say a measured response there from russia's probably russia's foreign minister and step as we just heard from our guest here in kabul and you know the russians themselves are not happy with the kurds historically they sided with the americans when for decades they'd been russian allies but russia still certainly on the surface trying to bring the kurds into their sphere of influence and into damascus is sphere of influence. exactly that's exactly what this ag a laugh of course was saying in there in kazakhstan he urges now the courts to come

to the syrian side basically to have this dialogue of course the word dialogue under these circumstances of a military operation is a bit of a pacific all term i would say but that's exactly what russia wants the courts and the syrian government to come together and of course with the help of russia for i've also said that russia happy to a contribution to this dialogue and then make sure that this is actually going to be something significant of course yes the courts have this historic relation with russia for so many time for many years in the soviet times and have abandoned the russians and sided with the u.s. and russia of course has tried to get the u.s. to leave syria for a long time already and has actually been positive about the trump announcement that the u.s. troops were leaving of syria and also called the u.s. presence in syria a dangerous game which would jeopardize the syrian territory integrity so basically

russia is now playing a sort of wait and see game they officially say lawmakers here in moscow say we're not getting involved in this this is not why we are in syria but of course put in spoke to a gun on the phone just before the operation was launched which is of course a significant thing to mention because the president of turkey called put in specifically to tell him also that this operation was about to happen on of course we don't know the other details in from this phone call but it would be interesting to know what exactly are the one has promised to the russian president putin has urged one to make sure that 'd he wouldn't damage the peace process in syria which is very important to russia russia has been been hammering on this constitutional committee make sure that syria is going back to. pre-war situation so to speak and of course this this turkish operation is hampering these africa but it seems to me

that there russia is now hours waiting and seeing how far no one will go and maybe they have specific information about this operation that was discussed during this phone call a few a few hours ago or for the moment step of course we will continue to monitor what comes out of moscow let's just bring our viewers up to speed for those you just joined us here on al-jazeera english these are pictures coming from turkish television of both air bases in interlaken of course areas on the border of southern turkey and northern syria where the turkish military has now begun operation piece spring in an incursion into. northern syria to flush out what turkey calls terrorists there have been aerial bombardments as well as artillery from the ground various locations where we have seen plumes of

smoke and we expect more detail as to where those locations are in the coming hours we know that certainly soon. a. here or near dia because there have been targeted by or from the air. let's cross over to our diplomatic editor james bays who joins us now from the united nations james we've been. popping across the middle east and europe for comment certainly from major capitals but of course the decision was made by the american president in washington d.c. and certainly there will be international reaction in some shape or form. a little early though i would say for much international reaction at this stage so i watched ambassadors from the u.n. security council coming to their regular meeting which started just over half an hour ago and most of them were deliberately not coming past the cameras they were

going into the security council another way and some of the diplomats that i did speak to said that's because events really are just moving too fast at the moment and most of the diplomats most of the ambassadors didn't have a comment for us 24 hours ago we heard from the german and the french ambassador both calling for a straight the only ambassador who spoke to us is the most important one currently and he is the president of the security council south africa holds that presidency which rotates every month gerry much is the south african ambassador and president of the security council he spoke to us though in his national capacity they can say listen to in this situation you know that in syria this did you call all their buddies to exercise makes a number does that mean until sure the protection of civilians particularly if you

also be emphasize that there is no a military solution to their confidence syria and who will lead to call on all parties to hedge unless and obligations in the review mentation of resolution 22514215 and i hope they can sell me the flag at some stage on these developments. especially those who are deeply involved here. james it just seems that the syria problem and war has been one that is an intractable problem that has perhaps very few solutions at this present moment the west solutions are brought forward and to venues like the united nations opinion is divided and as you say they may know there may not be an international. can cool conclusion at the moment to the current operation by the turks and even if there was opinion it would be divided would it not in the security council. opinion

is always divided in the u.n. security council on syria they did very rarely in the last 24 hours come up with something that hasn't been very common in the long war in syria come up with a statement that was supporting the idea of the constitutional committee this is supposed to meet in 3 weeks time and that full support there is interesting because they reaffirmed the resolution back in 20152254 which is the one that lays out a political way forward in syria interesting that all of the security council signed up to a statement on that because remember what that resolution says it says yes there should be talks in geneva which are now looked like they're going to happen at the end of the month but that's supposed to lead to u.n. brokered elections and there are supposed to be for the 1st time since the assads came to power and $970.00 free and fair elections in syria if you were to follow the path laid out by that resolution the u.n.

itself in terms of the secretary general and his staff are monitoring the situation in extremely closely his most recent statement issued 24 hours ago said he was watching things with extreme concern i think they'll be key members of his team who will be looking at this i can tell you that his head of political affairs rosemarie de carlo happens to be in the middle east at the moment and so it's likely that she'll be following the situation very closely and the other person is get pederson who is the special envoy on syria who is supposed to convene those talks on the constitutional committee on the 30th of october and they're planning a big launch for that on the 30th of october for the start of what we long and difficult talks worth reminding you that everyone's talking about the syrian kurds right now they are actually excluded from that u.n. process there are no members of the s.d.f. or their related political parties on the list of people attend. that

constitutional committee i think we need to watch in the coming hours whether the security council is going to be able to come up with any meeting or statement on syria diplomats telling me at the moment that they think it's unlikely because it's not really in anyone's interest to say anyone anything at this stage will have a meeting at this stage the u.s. may well not want to talk about the current situation because confusion has reigned in the last 48 hours in washington following president trump's initial statement that seemed to give turkey a green light and then various parts of the administration including more recently president trying to an extent seem to be walking that back russia could call for a meeting to try and embarrass the u.s. but remember russia talks very closely now to turkey and iran on syria and there are some speculating that perhaps russia has given its own green light to the current operation as i say for now diplomats here say things are moving too fast at

the security council to talk about the current situation i think it's worth reminding those diplomats of course the president otoh on made it quite clear what he was going to do he stood in the general assembly of the united nations just 15 days ago and in his speech held up a map of the area along the turkey syria border on the syrian side that turkey intended to take what he said would initially be a peace corridor or with a depth of 30 kilometers and a length of 480 kilometers which would a neighbor will the settlement of 2000000 syrians and then he laid out the fact that they could actually expand that further deeper down into syria to the dead as or rocker line and potentially return from turkey europe and other parts of the world up to 3000000 syrians so the turkish president made it quite clear to everyone what he was planning to do in the general assembly of the united. in front

of other world leaders and just before we leave you just for the moment we do have a wire dropping that the french e.u. ministers says that france and britain will call a u.n. security council meeting over turkey's offensive it'll be interesting if that is confirmed by the elysee palace certainly by paris but of course we'll follow that development with you in the coming hours james bays our diplomatic editor there at the u.n. thank you let's just join and move on to. and he is a professor at albany university and joins us now via skype from damascus good to have you with us on the program can you just explain to us from where you are in damascus how this incursion by turkish forces and aerial bombardment of northern syria is being explained to the syrian public. oeuvre i think that the syrian government is so angry of the turkish bomb being and

don't share the risk and they give serious terrorists weekly s. see if the syrian government. is not so happy in love to the undemocratic what others are doing and indeed they are in the midst of a syrian government and we know that there are separate lists and they want to make their own on that entity and to divide syria about the treatment of this situation i mean to the democrats forces and. other court just threw the switch out and eastern europe if you practice not make the pentagon lanse it does by wanting receiving government to put an end with that and i think turkey can work to be a political means and by cooperation with the russia was syria was iran and with others too in the situation and this is a process to ition there are going to do a show that is sort of your prison not to be in damascus agrees to their democratic

forces but everybody is angry here from the turkish. shooting and. aggravation that gets you to europe really well but there are 30 or literature or whether it was by your facts if that is the case that how do you reconcile the approach by the russian foreign minister earlier in the day that the kurds the y p g and the s.d.s. should talk to damascus if you are telling me now that damascus is angry with those very kurds who have been fighting against them is there a platform where they can talk together is the russian foreign minister on the same page as damascus when it comes to talking with kurdish fighters. yes russia is trying to make a can to conciliation between syrian government and between good this so the groups to the east of your practice of boy any minute so it's got

a sion and they want to reach any kind of police got a solution and at the same time there are the russians are really must consent to make the history of the conciliation between you see the i'm getting your cave examples then but you've got a gun and the same president bashar assad and this should be reflected in a really really was it if and only see so if you a sugar the us must fear the one atmosphere of middle east and i think it's time to look at this atrocities in this association it was happening that number is better than the rhythms of play by them it would be a total what and in the turkish ambitions but it's from russia some point of view and from syrian government government sponsored view that there's a better to reach a resolution and set them and for all problems for by well it academy is not by me or 3 runs this issue but another issue from the flying.

under the syrian government i think that's obviously a government this is not a that as i suppose your this concept of that syrians democrats process as enemies and some syrian and high responsibility. describes them as enemies and as if there is and some people say that we want to go to a lot of the water then why because they are just giving an absolute displacing out of sperm to progress as they are to bear to think the artist and giving that type of. plan was there especially ali for us there are spitting out of one the right. professor there always be that conflict of what and who is doing what to whom but what we do know. certainly is that the kurds are in control of those facilities that how i saw sighters and as i speak when i was seeing pictures of certainly plumes of smoke in areas in northern

syria and people and convoys of cars and buses trying to leave the area so there is an evacuation of people people are trying to flee from the conflict zone but at the end of the day 'd how far are the syrian government going to allow the turks to dare i say it make an incursion into northern syria or to continue the bombardment of that area is there a timeline or a time span that the damascus would allow that to happen. i don't think that the master allowed without the buck luck and hearing government do now i don't think that they have ever. barry or why their fans of choices and of course student government and law concerned than. just getting it. up at the same pound they come up look at the courses who article. some parts of that city

at the same time that it is impossible allow course groups still got draw all of that building of oil in there and including everything at that interview and separate that from syria this is a return ticket so if you are a shill for the syrian government now but i think. there must be a. biography by russians about you around you and by others just buck that and know the story shouldn is running very quickly if war is really a land war and nobody wants to see that in there and least for the moment raheem a professor at auburn university in damascus thanks so much for joining us on al-jazeera let's cross over to one of our regular analysts marwan car blood joined me earlier on the program he's director of policy analysis at the arab center for research and policy studies joins me here in doha professor

obviously you heard james bays are our diplomatic editor in the united nations talking about the fact that at the moment the international community are unwilling to really say anything on that u.n. platform. at the moment i suppose it is difficult to know what to say and who to say it to because at the moment all the focus is on turkey and turkey is certainly taking no notice of the international community at the moment. absolutely like well i think the turks they think that they got this green light from from the us president and they are actually in consultation also with russia. since the russians and americans are actually. not unhappy with this operation or at least with what they think the turks will be. doing in the north of syria i think there is no point actually of taking this issue to the security council because at the end of the day if the americans on that i shall not actually

given the consent form and it is illusion from the security council i think there will be no such condemnation of the turkish or the turkish move we know that they will be as are very upset be with this operation. but as i said i mean they are actually are not the important players in the syrian conflict then bought and players are that chance and americans. are in a very good was a shot right now why because we believe that the russians and the americans are trying to please them so the key is emerging actually as a very important regional bar because of that that russians want to stay on their side because turkey is a very important but not within the as a stand up process we have seen over the past couple of weeks actually a major development towards establishing this constitutional committee which is suppose actually to end the syrian conflict it is conflict. but on the other hand they are not this is not willing actually to lose to the key to to russia and this

is one and this in my opinion when the reason why but as then from decided actually to give disagree in light to turkey because he was actually. in a situation where he should decide whether to go actually with his got additional allies or would want to keep his took a shower lies on the other hand i think the president probably decided to go with turkey rather than other than the kurds so as i said these are the 2 import. players are right now. ok with that with the with the kardashian military operation but we still we still need to wait actually in order to know the scope and depth of this operation and whether the turks actually are going to respect what i think they are and the standings with the americans and with the russians or they are going to take this operation to the very extreme. indeed this is exactly what most people are concerned about about what extreme

actually means moment thanks for joining us we know you're not going away we will come back to you for more analysis for those of you who are joining us here on al-jazeera the turkish military forces have said and done what they had promised for the last few days that's an incursion into northern syria these are recent pictures of military aircraft taking off very close to interlaken air base and into syrian air space we're also hearing reports of artillery fire from the turkish side into northern syria areas that seem to have been affected are sort of a. near deer back here and. a us a and we've also had pictures of civilians fleeing certain areas. in buses and cars we know that there was going to be an evacuation of areas if people felt under threat and that has been the case these are recent pictures that have been

coming to us within the last hour where they will flee to is. unknown at the moment but we are monitoring all of the media outlets that turkish media sources are offering and also obviously various agencies to and we will keep you informed let's go straight back to the united nations to our senior diplomatic editor james bays james earlier we were talking about what the security council might do i mentioned the french e.u. minister wants to convene a security council meeting you've got fresh fresh information regarding germany. yes germany obviously one of the most important countries in the world one of the key players worth reminding viewers that germany is not a member of the security council on a permanent basis but it come currently has one of the temporary seats for a 2 year term so germany is an important player when it comes to the security council currently and we have a statement out of burley in from the german foreign minister mass we strongly

contend turkish offensive in northeastern syria turkey risks further destabilization of the region and this resurgence we call on turkey to end the offensive and pursue its security interests peacefully so an important development there coming from germany the security council actually meeting as we speak discussing the situation in the democratic republic of congo we have not managed to confirm at this stage that they have the french and the u.k. is that french minister is reported have called for a security council meeting i think it's the french at this stage signaling that they're about to call for that meeting because although the ambassadors around the table in the security council we are in touch with some of them by text and by whatsapp and it doesn't look like a security council meeting has been called at this stage and given the fact they already have and gender items taking place today in new york wednesday it may well

be that if they do so as seems likely now following the comments of the french minister if they do call for that meeting it may well not take place until thursday germany also remember is it an important member of nato and as you see those jets taking off from intially it is worth remembering that what you're seeing is one of the biggest air bases in nato a nato air base in turkey a nato ally and they're going out there potentially to bomb close partners of nato as most helpful country the. u.s. in the form of the s.d.f. the large largely kurdish force that has been operating in this part of syria and indeed it's fraught with sort of political and international ramifications james that we know sometimes that the u.n. itself acts very quickly or acts slowly and you sort of given as an idea that they may not have anything to say right now but from your understanding and your knowledge of how the u.n.

works the people even speaking to these last few years i mean what level of gravity does this military operation have to go to do you think before diplomats in new york will actually have something to say from their national governments. well i think they will have things to say i think everyone agrees with the gravity of the situation i think the problem is quite a simple one that when you have an international crisis around the world it can be dealt with by the international community incredibly quickly if the permanent members of the security council the so-called great powers those that one world war 2 and still hold the levers of power agree and they can react terribly fast and implement all sorts of things including peacekeeping missions military action all sorts of things when those great powers disagree as they have done consistently throughout the 8 and a half years of the war in syria there is in action there is going to be

a lot said at the united nations even if whether we have a security council meeting which now looks likely or not but i'm not sure there's going to be any action and that's the thing that's mark to the syria file for all the time on this long devastating and bloody war and of course i will continue to monitor what comes out of new york and the united nations with you james thanks for the moment let's cross over to not too far away you are james into washington d.c. and our correspondent patty culhane who's also following events for us there from the capitol and patty obviously a great deal of anx in the political cora doors of either power or diplomacy certainly in washington as they hear about what the turks are doing now in northern syria may be too early for comment but we do know that there's been a backlash certainly this last few days to president trump's decision to pull

support from the kurds who've had a very important job fighting alongside americans these past 5 years. there has been a huge backlash and one i don't think that the president really saw it coming all the reporting is that he had this conversation with president early on and basically said fine you can come in we're going to pull our 50 soldiers out and he keeps saying well it's a big deal it's only 50 soldiers but you're seeing democrats republicans all across congress from the far sides of the spectrum to the center basically you know adamantly saying this is a horrible idea we saw lindsey graham sent a tweet about senator lindsey graham who is a close confidant of the president couldn't sway him on this after the decision been made but he said the warning on twitter to turkey saying this is a bipartisan issue we are against you on this we will have massive saying if you continue on this path he said continue this of red line that you should not cross now that it's been crossed we're going to have to wait and see what the u.s. congress does the president though is been doing what he does some mornings when

he's feeling embattled he takes to twitter and lately he's been tweeting about the impeachment proceeding at immigration but a few hours ago he did tweet this the united states has spent 8 trillion dollars in all caps fighting in policing in the middle east thousands of our great soldiers have died or been badly wounded and millions of people have died on the other side going into the middle east is the worst decision ever made he went on to tweet that he's pulling these troops out and he is the usa is greater than ever before so the president doubling down saying trying to defend his decision and what we've seen here is the basically the the agencies trying to keep up with the president put this on the defense department put out a statement just last night our time to basically say we knew we were consulted all along although all of the reporting is they didn't but that they knew all along and that turkey has made this decision that they were going to come in so they had to pull their 50 soldiers out so that they would be safe that is

a really bizarre statement coming from the pentagon but you can see washington the executive trying to get behind with the president's decision will of course. we'll leave it there for the moment as we see pictures of those military aircraft starting that military operation in northern syria you watch al jazeera live where breaking with that news that the turkish military from the air and from the land have now made their incursions into bombing certain areas of northern syria mainly against kurdish fighters those very fighters the 4th alongside american forces against i so we will have more on this story in our breaking news an ongoing coverage here on al-jazeera english don't go.

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we listen what i said was that pakistan would never start a war i'm anti war we meet with global news makers and talk about the store. raise the baton on the soldiers in iraq rewind returns with a new series. and updates on the best about his aims documentaries are sick of it so it's fun to. rewind continues with the gift of sight just so sickly intervention is one of the few where you will see patients like this series at least 10 years younger than she was yesterday just within 24 hours on al-jazeera philippines president roderigo deterred she says he's cracking down on a communist insurgency but some fear it's a deadly campaign to silence his critics as the death toll rises one a one east investigates due territories new war on al-jazeera when the news breaks it looks like if you're told in order to get someone who can get this country out

of the crisis when people need to be cut. from the live below cost this border area without that they should al-jazeera has teams on the ground for the last minute these because. there's been a long long. battle to put a lot of documentaries and lighting on air and online. this is al jazeera. here the news hour on al-jazeera i will take you live right away to the turkish vice president who's speaking right now from turkey let's listen in when i say that

the and to create the suitable circumstances for them to go back to their homeland . we have operations being done and they still do freight that. has been concentrated and the u.s. has said that. we do not think it will never take a part in such an operation. the syrian crisis has been. prevented. and the syrians. in syria have no safe place to be in. and this. has led us to have a safe zone. and. around 1000000

syrian refugees can go back to their terror trace turkey. all was. at bringing comprehensive peace and justice to this region. and this operation will be the 1st step of other steps to bring justice and peace to the syrians we will complete. this operation. you know to be a real source of peace. in syria. yeah we need life and safe life to go back to syria we need peace and stability to

be in syria we need to sort out what's the syrian crisis yes and we will hand these territories to. their real owners. and we are keen to take part in all meetings and summits that. am at sorting out the syrian crisis. this operation will be a sow's of peace and this will bring peace and we'll sort out the syrian crisis in the radical way. this operation led by president ratchet gun. is. one of the steps is one perceived among the other procedures on the steps taken by president. for the sake of syria and

for keeping the unity of syria. turkey. since last year has been a target a conspiracy and then economic crisis and we have done all what we can in order to find real solutions to this crisis and to take steps that will sort out our economic problems and to confront our enemies and the traitors these steps have started through reducing the bank of interests and. combating inflation. and support all the investment. and the company is here and the private companies.

to be a part of these economic woes sieges be. we. also do more and more to help the farmers. and to give them loans and also loans to investors who want to invest and this will help a lot of them. during the turkish economy we will continue these procedures and the brothers and sisters. we have put into concentration targets until the 20512073. right you were just listening to you to the turkish vice president. he was speaking

from. outlining discussing the operation that commenced just a few hours ago in north eastern syria and he was saying that turkey is determined to establish a safe zone and to guarantee the return of syrian refugees to their areas he also did say that this is the 1st step of other steps and he did call the operation one off piece so just to bring you up to speed with what has happened over the past couple of hours turkey has begun its military operation into northeastern syria with airstrikes supported by artillery fire president. made the announcement on twitter a short while ago and he tweeted turkey and its syrian rebel allies have launched the offensive erdogan says it aims to eliminate a quote terror corridor along turkey's southern border the kurdish led syrian democratic forces say turkish warplanes have struck its region in the north east the s.d.f.

says it sparked huge panic among people and meanwhile world leaders have been urging turkey for restraint as well as dialogue so let's look at exactly where all of this is happening the turkish forces are launching attacks against the town a foot off the line troops have also gathered near the turkish border town of charlie it's thought they'll cross into the town of which u.s. troops recently evacuated that town those in territory held by the s.d.f. kurdish led forces turkey already has a presence in syria holding a number of observation points those however are northwestern syria an area mainly controlled by turkish and rebel forces we have reporters monitoring developments from the united nations to moscow to erbil and istanbul but 1st here's the latest from charles stratford's the turkey syria border. we're quite close to the borders certainly we have been speaking or getting information through from some of us sources with the white p.g.

. and they are telling us that there have been all to restrike studies opportunity strikes east of a town called kami shriek in the last few minutes we've also been reporting airstrikes as you say on the town of russell i and there have also been reports again from. what p.g. sources say that there were. halted restrikes on 2 villages south of tel. which is directly on the border and we've also heard all of us have to race tracks on the town of isa. we are in the last the last few minutes we've heard and we cannot confirm this that there may well have been some sort of response rocket fire by the s d f we cannot confirm that at the moment but yeah it certainly seems as if this operation that the turks have been threatening certainly very much in earnest in the last couple of days but as we've been reporting they've been threatening to do this for years is very much on the way let's bring in some cases although she's

joining us from istanbul so we were listening to the vice president speak just a few moments ago said i'm just talk us through what more we learned about this operation. when you look at the separation according to the defense minister straight meant it started at 4 pm. local time which is 13 g.m.t. time zone and again according to the official of the official statements turkish authorities have informed the you not to states russia u.k. france italy and general secretary outside of the nato and the united nations in order to brief them about the operation beginning from a 2 pm turkey local time and. also we have heard nato saying that turkey has legitimate security concerns and turkey has been while in the targeted

in the recent years these are the new things and what we know about the field is that. i now have been targeted by the turkish military by the f. 16 jets that to go from southeastern city d.-r. booker and by the whole with serious this is what we know so far of course a town in sharm no rafah which is called jail damp and there has been hit by mortar shells from the air from the syrian democratic forces p.y. decide from inside syria this is what we know about what's going to what's going on the ground but so far no land incursion has happened turkish military it hasn't crossed the border yet and with the vehicles and everything the operation for now is limited by the. by shelling and airstrikes cinema this was more or less an expected operation but do we know any more about why

it was a claes a couple of hours ago when it did. well there in you know turkish the president. has been saying that we can go in we can enter syria for a military operation he meant at the time and just yesterday he said it's going to happen within a very short time but no one expected it would happen before $2.42 and $4.00 always present don and present them all trump are due to have a do to have a meeting in washington in november 13th but he before the united nations general assembly that took place in new york last month our don said that the that line for the u.s. to decide to corporate with turkey about this is the end of september and if the u.s. is not willing we will take a unilateral initiative and take an action in syria in order to clear the area

from the y.p. g. forces which turkey's ses is the syrian branch of the kurdistan workers' party and also accuses the u.s. because. this is as washing to you also recognize the p.k. k. as a terrorist organization but why are you allying with syria offshoots in order to fight against eisel instead of us and turkey also accuses the international platforms inside in some places that they are ignoring the turkish military is then the free syrian army is fight against eisel as well but in this part of the region generally the military operations are initiated at night this is the it was surprising that the start during the daytime but as i said for now it is limited by airstrikes and the shellings. cinema possible clue giving us the update from istanbul thank you let's bring in our diplomatic editor james bass who's joining us from the united

nations international reaction seems to be coming in now james.