every week and always looking to the future fund d w dot com science and research for. good of you news live from berlin the united states britain and france launch military strikes on syria explosions rocked damascus the capital as the allies target syrian president assad's chemical weapons facilities response to suspected poison gas attacks that present from calls the crimes of a monster is warning russia and iran to cut their ties to the assad regime.

i'm brian thomas thanks so much for being with us the united states and its allies britain and france have carried out air strikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities in syria now these strikes are in response to last week's alleged gas attack in the syrian town of duma which left dozens of civilians dead western leaders say they have proof that the syrian regime was responsible huge plus were reported around the capital damascus moments after the operation was announced syria's main ally russia says more than one hundred missiles were fired but that many of them were intercepted by syrian air defenses the pentagon says the strikes were a one time shot and that no further attacks are planned. now this is the biggest intervention by western powers against the assad government since the start of

syria's civil war present doll trump announced the operation in a televised address. americans a short time ago i ordered the united states armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dictator bashar al assad. a combined operation with the armed forces of france and the united kingdom is now underway we thank them both we are prepared to sustain this response until the syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents i also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting equipping and financing the criminal assad regime to iran and to

russia i ask what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men women and children ok let's get the very latest now from washington we're joined by did abuse claire richardson here in the studio we have analysts and journalists yakob oh i see morning to both of you thanks for being with us i clarify to start with you president from said earlier that the u.s. was prepared to continue strikes and toll syria as he put it stop its use of chemical weapons but the fence secretary james madison saying this could be yet let's give a listen to what he said. that will depend on mr assad should he decide to use more chemical weapons in the future but right now this is a one time shot and i believe that is send a very strong message to dissuade him to deter him from doing this again. what's the strategy here is the intention to keep damascus and moscow guessing

about what washington's intentions are. hi brian well the immediate goal is to punish assad for these chemical weapons attacks and to send a strong message that the international community will not stand by as a government gases its own people it's not clear however what the long term strategy here really is and it's certainly not regime trained and it seems like these strikes are unlikely to change the balance of power or the situation on the ground in syria remember this is a deeply complicated proxy war we heard a trumpet there speaking about backing from russia and iran for the assad government and ad hoc strikes do not appear to be part of a coherent long term strategy in this regard what's more even a week ago we heard a very different trumpet singing a very different tune about syria he was saying he would like the military it to withdraw all two thousand u.s. troops that are there and it's also important to mention that the airstrikes we saw

of this nature of last year that were meant to be a deterrence against using chemical weapons appear not to have had that functions and so we have seen this attack again ok hala let me ask you this question is pick up with what claire just said there is this having a deterrent effect in damascus will this get president assad to scale back as the americans brits and the french are saying his chemical weapons programs must look a lot not as you heard defense mr matthews say this would be a one time deal with the third him so i mean the only thing left is to pick up before the dust has said is it ok to do it you know i mean this is not a serious attack that would harm you need forces inside of you could police majority base that this post will forward but the crackdown of the uprising and then the wanton destruction of the civilian population ok so for deterrence to happen you think there should have been a broader and more intensive attack against assad's ass and that's the only thing

more thought that that. his prestige at these photos a few the slap on the face. wasn't even a slap on the face not even so far no reports of any losses in the strikes they say that they fired more than a thousand more than one hundred missiles excuse me and that they hit three of syria's main weapons facilities ok what about the public support for this in the united states for this time of military intervention does the public is have troops back on us well there's certainly no appetite for a protracted middle of military intervention in the middle east in the way we saw with afghanistan or iraq in terms of support at home it's largely split down partisan lines we've seen republicans come out in support of the president and these strikes and we've seen democrats come out and say that these could in fact be illegal they are certainly reckless and they are asking if the president can bomb

syria unilaterally what's to stop them from bombing iran or north korea ok when you look at these strikes and what they targeted and the russian response what do you see being the american strategy towards syria very limited options both the u.s. is like an embittered revolve who would see that so is food in the way it went through. but not in a way that could escape the confrontation with russia so they are very limited in what they can do d.d. ok so given the limitations though was this a an attack that could nonetheless have an effect on the relationship between moscow and damascus i don't that because i don't think maybe most i mean it's the bit with the most when you have the schema could open order the order they sanctioned it but they have to stand by their title lead your group or wise syria

now listen journals thanks very much and did of these claire richardson for us in washington thanks useful. go get the european angle now and go to brussels on there. what role did britain and france plane is trucks well first of all of course the military role briand with four tornadoes from air bases in cyprus from the u.k. side and then the french defense minister made clear that from multiple bases in the met at on the in the mediterranean so from ships in the mediterranean friendships but also from france there were fighter jets involved in this action on the ground but then you have also the diplomatic and political support and let me just give you one example yesterday diplomats told me that there is strong evidence has been presented in brussels that that points to the involvement of the syrian regime in this chemical attack particularly regarding the volume of the chemical substance that has been used ok now the french defense minister was among those

saying that the russians were warned before the strikes and in order to avoid any kind of confrontation let's take a listen to that sit up at us you visit is abuse operation targeted objectives belonging to the clandestine chemical program of syria. but is the main research center of this program and to important production science have been struck. puppy. that is his objective through these targets the capacity of syria to develop and to produce chemical weapons has been hit. design machine did s.u.v. get i don't. want to assume we are not looking for confrontation and we refuse any idea of a military escalation. this is the reason why to get there with our allies we

ensured that the russians were warned a head of time on them what's the message coming there from the french defense minister. very clear straightforward message brian here that this has been a limited action this has been a proportionate action that was the message from both the defense and the foreign minister who gave this press conference basically a message to the russian aila allies of the syrian regime with specifically mentioned there is zero interest here on the part of western forces to escalate this crisis it says be it on the ground to worsen the situation since this is already a multilayered conflict and causing heavy casualties there is fear of revenge attacks now on the ground so no interest in escalating the crisis while at the same time zero interest to escalate any crisis with russia and so russian air bases to which you have in syria have been avoided russian locations have been avoided and

that has also been confirmed by the russian side yeah the british prime minister was making some comments last night along those lines as well he said that the joint strikes were not about regime change that's a very important message and were meant to send a message to the regime in damascus let's listen to that this persistent pattern of behavior must be storage not just to protect innocent people in syria from the horrific deaths and casualties caused by chemical weapons but also because we cannot allow the erosion of the international norm that prevents the use of these weapons because sounds like britain doesn't want to see any any escalation as well. absolutely that's a recent may hear made very clear in that state in that statement that as she had no practices she saw practically no i'll turned to the use of force so she needed

to act swiftly here in an interesting thing is here that she didn't ask for the approval of from her palm and as something that previous governments have done she's not obliged to do that she has the power to do it but in the past it has been done it was demanded by a lawmakers ahead of this military operation and only moments ago the u.k.'s opposition leader jeremy corbin called the attacks a legally questionable action and he says he feels that the parliament has been sidelined. germany's stayed out of all of this it said beginning a couple days ago that it doesn't want to play any military role what might it offer when germany of course any military involvement would approval from the year of from the german parliament is a police get tory germany traditionally ever since the the second world war has

been reluctant to actively interfere in conflicts in regarding fighting i asked there is strategic support so that could be an option for the moment that is not on the scale on the table because this is a limited one strike act that we have seen and germany has ruled out military involvement but german chancellor and also the foreign minister said they strongly support sending a clear signal to the syrian regime that the use of chemical weapons is off limits ok garrett thanks for the view from brussels this morning on the strikes as for us in brussels let's go now to moscow and our correspondent there yuri rachet how yuri can you fill us in on the russian response there must be a sense of relief where you are that that these strikes were limited. yes absolutely russian president putin said just a few minutes ago here in moscow these attacks would only deepen the only home uteri in crisis in syria he strongly condemned them and he called for an emergency

session of the un security council russia said u s embassy released a statement in that ambassador a not totally even off in washington warning to the strikes wouldn't be left without consequences and he said that all the responsibility arrested with washington london and paris. good news as long as we can talk about good news today is however that moscow has not used its air defense systems in syria troubles between moscow and washington are still on the rhetoric level moscow has very well listen to what u.s. president of the trump sat in his televised address an ounce in the strikes mr trump accused russian president putin personally of failing to avoid that the syrian president bashar al assad used his chemical weapons russia's u.s. ambassador in washington mr one ton of saw this precisely as a personal insult to the russian president which russia russia couldn't accept he

said russian lawmakers let him get a job out of however who is the deputy head of russia's foreign affairs committee here in moscow sad that russia was likely to call for a meeting of the united nations security council the chairman of the international affairs committee of russia at the house of parliament cost ten thousand cars that chuff he sat at the strikes were a violation of international law and probably designed to prevent investigators from the global chemical weapons watching from doing their work yuri is should you mention something a very important that. the russians in syria did not use their air defense systems but should the u.s. conduct any additional strikes how might russia respond.