this is news coming to you live from berlin and the international community prepares to ratchet up the pressure on russia over its support for syria's bashar al assad and france accuses me of being complicit in the actions of the syrian regime even foreign ministers and the un security council are meeting to discuss the crisis also coming out i think is morally unfit to be president talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat who lives. only about matters big and small and since the american people believe it after being fired by donald trump

the former f.b.i. director james comey lashes out ahead of the publication of his new book. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us western leaders are preparing to start a new diplomatic push today to try to end the crisis in syria it comes two days after a u.s. led coalition carried out military strikes on sites in syria e.u. foreign ministers are discussing a new political initiative aimed at restarting talks at the u.n. but they say any progress will depend on russia being involved. business as usual that appears to be the message of the syrian state t.v. images an upbeat president assad welcomed russian politicians to damascus signaling that the u.s. led strikes did not pose

a threat to his hold on power russia says it's firmly behind its ally. relations between the russian and syrian army's or accident so relations between politicians the army will now fulfill its task and russia and the assad government are not the only ones defiant the pentagon showed off satellite images of the destruction saying the strikes completely destroyed two targets and seriously damaged another one in damascus was reduced to rubble. we have a responsibility as a world to attack and stop what syria is doing it and so the united states with her allies one after three sites these are pinprick targets three targeted sites that we know were housing and testing chemical weapons these people fled eastern ghouta the site of the alleged chemical attack many refugees in the area are now in syria's rebel held north the feeling here is of disappointment that the airstrikes

will do little to stop the war. thought i feel nothing because the u.s. britain and the rest of the world have taken away our emotions they told us with the friends of the syrian people but on the contrary they're our greatest enemies to live for and we know that they tell us to do whatever you want kill as you like . should back into mask is syria's deputy foreign minister greta team from the international chemical weapons watchdog despite western allies already having launched retaliatory strikes inspectors will now determine whether poisonous gas was used. but they were not assign blame. whispering indeed that he is georg much as though he's standing by for us in luxemburg you foreign ministers are meeting where you are today they're talking about syria what can we expect.

expect e.u. foreign ministers to formalize their support for these airstrikes terry with one condition and that is that the sole objective of these strikes. to prevent any future use of these chemical weapons that is the key message that ministers are sending here and then of course look out for a new political initiative that particularly france and germany hope to trigger here in luxembourg and germany's foreign minister has said a window for dialogue has opened with syria's main backer russia here's what he had to say today in luxembourg. this conflict can't be solved without russia we have to find a way to achieve what we all want firstly a cease fire access for humanitarian aid a transitional government in syria constitutional reform and in time elections.

need a solution that everyone in syria can accept. and as the back because of the acid regime the russians also need to understand that. germany's foreign minister heiko musser talking about russia terms in relation to syria. is germany playing a special role here in keeping keeping diplomatic channels to russia open. i would say to some extent you could compare the german position in that case to the position that we have regarding the sanctions over the annexation of crimea against russia and that position is that the sanctions in itself the airstrikes are not an and in themselves they are always a means and the means here must be finding a political solution bringing russia back to the negotiating table and so when on friday the foreign minister talked about increasing pressure on russia this has to

be seen in this perspective that it is always the aim to incorporate russia into talks and that the the danish foreign minister here said on the arrival if it takes further sanctions so apparently something that is debated here if it takes for the sanctions to achieve that aim that is something the e.u.'s to look at into it is of course a controversial think a monkey or member states how to deal with russia the sanctions that are currently in place are supported by some others would like to see them gone so we'll really have to see today what comes out of this push for a new political initiative to resolve the syrian crisis again individual european powers at that summit today they've accused russia openly of involvement in chemical weapons attacks does that not complicate the use push for diplomacy. i'm not necessarily if you see it as

a signal to russia that the european partners about also the west in general is the term and to be involved in the solution for the syrian conflict and let's not forget the economic leverage that the european union has the foreign policy chief federica marina here made very clear that one object if you bring to russia a back into a solution for this conflict is also money the e.u. is ready to invest big amounts of money into a reconstruction off syria if the you and guide its talks in geneva can be relaunched york thank you so much. there in luxembourg now let's check on some other stories making headlines around the world today protests have been taking place across india over the gang rape and killing of eight of an eight year old girl eight men have been rested in the case which has sparked widespread outrage demonstrators demanding justice for her and in the case

of a teenager or a member of the ruling b j p party is accused of rape. in australia hundreds of firefighters have been battling a large bushfire raging near the southwestern suburbs of sydney authorities say it's miraculous that no houses have been damaged and no one has been injured and state police are investigating the cause of the fire which has been fanned by strong winds. former f.b.i. director james comey has said u.s. president donald trump is quote morally unfit for the office of the president is so they this chapter in the bitter feud between the two men let's quickly recap the key events in march last year comey confirmed that the f.b.i. was investigating links to the trump campaign but he informed trump that he was not personally under investigation well just weeks later in may trump fired komi raising many questions about the timing of that the president has been inconsistent

in his reasons for firing the f.b.i. director well in june comey testified at a state at a senate intelligence committee hearing accusing trump of lying defaming the f.b.i. and trying to derail an investigation well coney's firing triggered robert muller's special investigation into possible collusion between russia and trump's election campaign so far miller has indicted several of the president's campaign staffers now komi is releasing a book ahead of it he's given his first interview since his firing he told us network a.b.c. why he thinks trump is unsuitable for the office of president but i don't buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent through early stages of dementia strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who's tracking conversations and knows what's going on i don't think he's medically unfit to be president i think he's morally

unfit to be president who talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat who lives constantly about matters big and small and insists the american people believe the person is not fit to be president or united states on moral grounds. former f.b.i. director james comey there will joining us now is us political analyst tyson barker from the aspen institute here in berlin good morning tyson morning what do you make of coney's latest statements about the president well clearly there is no love lost between the two men i mean the interview that he gave yesterday and a.b.c. was dripping with personal distain that i mean and he did bring what he's known for this kind of boyscout persona to that interview saying that he is morally unfit to be president that said he did say that the decision to remove from from office should not be made by any process or technical vote or even even by impeachment up to this point it's there's no evidence but rather by the voters themselves that's the democratic process and the democratic process should be allowed to work itself

out of donald trump president don't trump the proceeds of this interview with a tweet storm a classic trump style against komi let's take a look at one of the more recent tweets he wrote slippery james komi a man who always ends up badly and out of what he is not smart will go down as the worst f.b.i. director in history by far. tyson who will american voters trust in all those who are they going to be more inclined inclined to believe trump were coming what do you think the polls show and there was a poll taken last week by politico showed that americans trust komi two to one forty eight percent to thirty two percent but that thirty two percent is really important because that's the hard trump base the kind of always trump ors that don't really leave the president they don't defect from the president no matter what happens and the question is is the support for comi and the most investigation as determined as those that thirty two percent that's really sticking with trump

and white house reporters are saying that they've never seen trump as angry as he is right now just ahead of the book's release the book to be released tomorrow by comey what is it about all this that angers trump the just well. i think that he has directed most of his eye or over the past year with this russian investigators and his attorney general and deputy attorney general he really think sees the spark that started this fire as being the decision by jeff sessions to recuse himself from the investigation thereby starting a chain of events that led to this miller investigation the raid at the f.b.i. the f.b.i. raid of his personal lawyer last week mr cohen has also sparked a lot of nervousness in the white house and particularly for the president himself he is asking to know what evidence was gathered in those raids of course the implication is they want to prepare themselves for whatever might be coming down the pipeline so you've got

a president becoming increasingly nervous and agitated i suppose you could say let's listen to what komi himself had to say when asked if the russians had any compromising information on donald trump i mean these are more words i never thought i utter about a president on stage but it's possible and i wish i wasn't saying it but it's just it's the truth it always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely and i would have been able to say with high confidence about any other president i'd go with but i can't it's possible. former f.b.i. director casting doubt on trump suggesting that the russians might have some incriminating. evidence what do you make of that how significant is this statement it's very significant the other question that he came up in this interview as you know the george stephanopoulos asked several times for him to render judgment on a number of issues what is your what's your take and he really tried to stay within a certain box because he knows that he is a witness he's not just you know

a former f.b.i. director but a witness in a live investigation and he doesn't want to do anything that will affect his credibility as a witness in the miller investigation itself we've seen many developments so far during trump's brief presidency all moving towards an old white house that increasingly in disarray and being on the back foot as it were in turmoil how significant is this development now what is happening with coneys book how much is this adding to the fire well they've clearly komi is clearly set up a p.r. kind of campaign that's going to keep this in the news cycle for a week he's got a number of interviews coming out he's going to do a book tour they've commissioned i think nine hundred thousand books that's about four hundred five hundred thousand books more than the fire and fury book that came out a couple of months ago but the truth is that the news keeps layering over itself so this is one episode in a long narrative that's been going on since this presidency began but it's certainly not the last episode. we'll have much more to talk about as things

continue tyson barker from the austin institute here in berlin thanks so much. and you are watching d.w. news we've got another full both in for you coming up at the top of the next hour soon we will be with you then and meanwhile you'll find our stories online at the w dot com thanks for watching. stories that people the world over information. the passions they want to express t.w. on facebook and twitter up to date and in touch follow us.