and imagine getting on with the grim task of recovering the dead. right let's return to our top story now the iranian missile attack on bases that house u.s. troops in iraq we have tyson parker from the aspen institute with us here in our studio and we're also waiting waiting for the u.s. president to give a statement on what has happened these are live pictures right now from the white house president trump is expected to comment at any moment now we'll we'll be listening in to that statement as soon as we see the president get up and ready to speak there tyson all we have to go on right now is the tweet that we saw all that that essentially was sent out after the iranian missile attacks where we saw the president say all is well that there is an assessment of casualties taking place so far so good what did you make of that initial tweet from the president all initially i saw it as a very narrow kind of assessment of the situation at these bases the pentagon has since come out and said that they had they were aware that these bases were on

a target list and had made. plans accordingly so perhaps there was some kind of intermediary signaling between iran and the united states to move out troops that would be deployed at these bases as has been noted by many analysts this could have been more signaling than anything else on behalf of iran but they are retaliated obviously these missiles that come from iranian territory as opposed to a proxy for cirrhosis so they don't have plausible deniability they are taking credit for these attacks so clearly they want to be seen as delivering a retaliatory blow at least to their public if not internationally beyond that in washington right now we've had some signals from republican senators who have come out and said that this is the time to deescalate including lindsey graham who is a close ally of the president so them saying a close ally like lindsey graham a real hawk a real internationalist who's kind of watch. u.s.

defense policy globally to come out and say you know now is the time to take a step back and assess these and come up with an iraq or iran strategy is pretty telling i think because clearly he's somebody who's coordinating closely with the white house and if there was indeed signaling as you said many analysts have said that that could have been the case that would also underline that point that perhaps the iranians the americans are not really looking to escalate the situation a further right at least not militarily now of course there are a lot of tools that both sides have on the table at their disposal the united states has of course massive economic leverage that it can come into play not only with iran but also with iraq as the president said over the weekend and iran has a lot of political leverage in iraq itself and you know some indications from government officials has been that they're all to aim as a retaliatory measure is not a military retaliation but a political retaliation i.e. trying to drive u.s. presence out of iraq the u.s. also as we know has a massive presence in iraq talk to us about these 2 bases how significant they were

for the u.s. well as has been noted you know these the u.s. has a lot of presence in the region it has the 5th fleet which is a major major deployment. in the strait of hormuz it has a lot of presence in saudi arabia the u.s. right now has about $5000.00 troops in iraq and the purpose of those troops after the withdrawal of iraqi troops under the obama administration is primarily to lead operations the anti isis coalition. presence in erbil you know that is kind of a u.s. for a long time a u.s. stronghold because it's right at the heart of kurdish territory in iraq and those have been traditionally the greatest allies of the americans in iraq in particular the other bases in the middle of the sunni triangle so that's kind of an area that if we were talking 15 years ago was a real source of anxiety because that's really where a lot of the insurgency after saddam hussein was kind of rising now that. well has

kind of flipped and we saw that a little bit in the vote in parliament in iraq in baghdad where all the shia members were the ones who were voting for the expulsion of american troops in this non-binding resolution and the sunni's and the and the kurds didn't participate so it is it's more symbolic than anything else there is a lighter footprint than if we were having this conversation say 8 years ago but you know these are still important bases as we're waiting for the president to give deliver a statement there at the white house remind us of what brought us to this point tyson i mean this really has been you know the simmering enmity between iran and the u.s. that led up to this 1st of all the strike that killed the general so money and then this iran missile strikes in retaliation right well i mean the trumpet ministration has taken a very strong strident anti iran line since it came into office and 2017 and this was a real pivot away from the obama administration's attempts to reincorporate iran into the international community 1st and foremost through the iran nuclear deal which it

negotiated with 5 other major powers to try to get iran to step away from its pursuit of a nuclear nuclear weapon capability. obviously president trump tore up that deal at least from the side of the united states other powers including the european powers have have made a play to preserve that deal by providing work arounds for sanctions that have been leveraged by the united states including secondary sanctions on those from europe or other places that would want to do business with with iran. and then you know it's just been a tit for tat kind of slow escalation since the summer i mean we saw 1st of all the saber rattling around the strait of hormuz in august which is the passage for about a 3rd of the world's sea bearing oil supplies we saw obviously this attack on december 27th which was a major i think impetus for. this attack against swim on me which killed one

american and you know there's just been a lot of saber rattling generally so the line that the u.s. government was giving at least this morning was you know this isn't necessarily a response to one incident but it's accumulation of salome's kind of mischief in the region that has ultimately led to in their in their words in the past decade 600 american deaths ok well for our viewers just joining us the pictures there you see on the right hand side of your screen there waiting for a u.s. president to deliver his 1st public statement following the iranian missile strikes on military bases in iraq that house u.s. troops he did tweet earlier just after those military strikes but this would be his 1st public statement all eyes on the white house right now particularly also in iran to see whether the situation escalates further or not and tyson you know in washington itself this is been a huge source of contention as well the original strike to take out the general money that is really divided democrats republicans as well yeah it has and you know

one of the 1st divisions is really on process because i think when it comes to national security no matter who is president congress washington elected officials are willing to give the president a wide berth in the pentagon a wide berth a lot of goodwill credibility if they make their case so there are traditional processes pretty brief in closed door briefings particularly among the gang of 8 you know those who are really involved in intelligence the very trusted members of congress the chairman of select committees on intelligence to make sure that there is a case to be made for this kind of. you know meaningful operation and the this this white house did not make any. more not notified there's been a lot made of that according to the war powers act there would need to be a notification within 48 hours the president did make that. notification over the

weekend and the white house seems to be kind of at least learning from that process fell in some ways that they've said we're going to be much more active in briefing in congress in the future the vice president vice president pence was up there briefing nancy pelosi i believe today or yesterday so they are trying to kind of incorporate congress more into understanding what the dynamic is in the region republicans have also not been completely clear on what the position is and even within let's say the conservative the broader conservative. community there has been a lot of criticism of this attack tucker carlson who is a fox news commentator a somebody who definitely has the president's year has been extremely critical of this attack as has rand paul so a libertarian senator from kentucky so there is the vision among republicans as to whether or not this was warranted i think it's also important to add one more

element which i forgot to mention which is the saudi arabia aspect. there were officials from saudi arabia visiting the white house meeting with the president unplanned in the past couple of days and saudi arabia has also been a a target of attack from the iranians in this in this fall as you'll recall the iranians attacked 2 oil refineries in saudi arabia knocking out about 5 percent of the world's global energy supply so you know the close relationship particularly with the trumpet ministration and saudi arabia is also something that they probably bring into the copulation right really important context there tyson while we're waiting for the president to deliver a statement let's also bring in our correspondent in washington alexander phenomena who is standing by for us as we are waiting for the president to get up and speak there at the white house alexandra what can we expect from the president is there any indication what we might hear from him. well what we're hearing right now form

from administration officials is that the administration has a sort of understanding that iran did not intend to kill any american service members and that it was sort of signaling that iran is not interested in as collating the situation so the interesting question right now is whether president trump will be also willing to have or to take sort of the tory approach by addressing the nation today as you know he was actually expected to address the nation yesterday that he didn't do it because as we understand the u.s. military the pentagon needed more time to assess what is the situation on the ground and to have a closer look at the iranian chessboard to understand if there are any troop movements maybe any new attacks coming so the white house and the pentagon they took their time and we waiting for the president to speak about what happened

yesterday and what to measure as he is willing to take center even talking with tyson here in the studio about how all of this has divided congress lawmakers there as well tell us about some of the reactions you've been seeing there in washington . well our guest already mentioned one of the staunchest supporters senator graham who was on fox news yesterday and here clearly considerate and name to what happened in iran in iraq i'm sorry as an act of war on the side of iran talking about how the president has the authority to strike back however we also have to say that there are many people here specifically on the democratic side of the who are a very warning and who expect the president to deescalate a we also know that he actually has always been interested in as he said bringing

iran back to the negotiating table he has always been interesting in closing a deal not only with the iranian regime but also with north korea but also with afghanistan so it will be interesting to see if he now takes this opportunity to deescalate and to take a victory lap and say look at the iranians did and didn't intend to kill any americans because they knew that we can strike them hard that we are a military power it's our victory you know we will watch you but we will refrain from any father escalation that is something that he can do but of course we don't know because he often. very unpredictably center we were talking in the studio with types and also about the fact that there might possibly have been some signaling between iran and the u.s.

before these missile strikes that targeted the bases in iraq that housed u.s. troops is there any indication that you see in there that perhaps the u.s. defense officials that the president were aware that that strike was coming that these bases were being targeted i mean what we what was known. well what we can assume what they knew that the bases can be targets but we don't have any information any official confirmation that the u.s. was warned that something like that a missile attack targeting to you as a basis or 2 bases that are hosing to you as troops were coming. you know is it clear what the president's strategy is you're going forward with iran. well that is the key question here and his critics don't that he really has a plan how to move forward from this point of time they also

criticize him for not having a particular skill set that the commander in chief is such a difficult situation should have you know to choose his words carefully and to choose measures that are sought through that is something that his critics say because when we look at his strategy so far it was not very consistent. his strategy was to apply maximum pressure strategy on on iran to rely mostly on saying shin's and to sort of try to get this way iran to the negotiating table but so far this strategy at least in terms of bringing iran back to negotiating was not very successful however we also have to say that president trump seems to set sort of red line here because he

refrained from taking military action after iran was accused of attacking tankers in the persian gulf he refrained from taking military actions after iran was accused of shooting down an american drone he even refused refrain from taking military actions when iran was accused of attacking saudi oil facilities and apparently the what happened in iraq when iraq he irani for proxies attacked u.s. military base and killed a you asked advisor and it was this red. i would interpret this as what president said now we have to try back this is the point that. it's necessary for us to show 3. types and i'd like to get your comments on exactly what alex hunter was talking about there what donald trump's strategy is here with iran

and again if you're joining us we're waiting for the president to give a statement that might shed some more light on what that strategy would be but right what's your take well i mean some of the reporting out of this of washington has been that he was offered he was set up with a range of options and this was the most extreme option and that was the one that he chose to take i think that alexander's assessment that this could have been based on a a red line an implicit red line that was not articulated regarding the death of an american contractor is an interesting one the administration is also making the case that this is cumulative the rhetoric around a lot of these incidents that have been seen mention the shooting down of the drone the attacks on saudi oil refineries the saber rattling in the strait of hormuz all elicited a pretty. strong hawkish reaction from the administration but there was never any kind of follow through so some of what the administration has been messaging is this is related to a a pattern of the events that has been taking place and this is not just in

retaliation for the attack on december 27th but a longer kind of pattern of incidents if we're talking about bringing iran back to the table to negotiate on denuclearization and and opening up the country and its its nefarious actions in places like syria iraq lebannon israel saudi arabia yemen it's such a i mean we have to look at things on their face and it's really too soon to tell whether or not this is going to lead to what some people are saying is a victory for the united states if we look at for example the iran nuclear deal we saw on sunday that the iranian regime has decided to move forward violet. 5th pillar of that deal in iraq you know we have the president talking about sanctions about leverage leveraging sanctions on iraq and we have a vote in the parliaments basically saying that we need that iraq needs to expel u.s. troops from the country of both of those tilt iraq a little bit it even politically look to tilt iraq

a little more towards iran and away from the united states and then we have a the session of the isis coalitions operations because of the level of danger in the country which is a top national security priority for the united states and for europe so in these 3 areas which are really important for the united states in the region it doesn't seem that the ball is moving towards the united states that the momentum is moving towards the united states so it's really quite early to tell whether or not this is actually lead to something productive for the u.s. if the momentum is not moving towards the u.s. is there any likelihood that we could see which is iran saying here it is stated very clearly to get u.s. troops out of iraq to remove its influence from the region that we could see the president consider that well i mean the president just like his predecessor have both indicated the u.s. presence in iraq was a mistake in going back more than a decade and. did withdraw troops the only reason the troops were redeployed into

iraq and of course we should say that in the past couple of days another 3500 troops have been deployed to the region again signaling to iran that the u.s. is present and will act if necessary. is to execute this narrowly defined anti isis operation and that continues to be according to the the administration and republicans in congress as well as democrats broad bipartisan support a top national security priority for the united states so anything that would hinder the united states being able to fulfill that foreign policy aim seems like that would not be of. tory for the trumpet mr ok and again we are waiting for the president to deliver a statement there at the white house and alexander i want to bring you in on that question as well you know if the u.s. sees its presence in iraq as crucial to its own national security what are the voices are speaking to there in washington saying about how crucial that u.s. presence in iraq really is is this something that the president would be willing to

reconsider. well here actually was asked by reporters of yesterday if he would consider this options and he said that actually he would be very interested as he has always repeat to stew in bringing to us troops back home however he things that right now it's not to derived a time to do that because it would to mean that iran quit expand its a for to trent across the region that was one of the reasons he mentioned much he also said that he thing stats of the you ass has invested it's a lot in iraq's to of to build up in the democracy there they build spaces they participate if participated and actually let's the anti ices coalition and so he's point of view was that if there are going to pull out with

day a woods needs to be thought oh free him birthed that's why he's administration was talking here of ball it's him pausing for potential sanctions on iraq so at the moment at least it's dozens semen that to the trump administration is considering this option of course we have to at it will the will be of difficulty to stay in iraq if the government will decides to ask the u.s. troops officially to to leave indeed alex and rivette as definitely the case than while we're waiting you here for us president trumpet to speak those are the pictures that you're seeing there on the right hand side of or screen will waiting for the present deliver his 1st a public statement on iran's missile attacks on basins in iraq with us truths but let's for now take a look at how we got here or iran is claiming that more than 80 americans were killed in a missile strike on those 2 bases in iraq of the pentagon says that initial assessments indicate there were no u.s. casualties these missiles reportedly hit the iron asada air base that as in western

iraq and also another that's near the city of irbil iran's revolutionary guard says that this attack was in retaliation for of the u.s. assassination of general cousin solar money in baghdad last week it's all about the . thought on the monitor the house the reigning in state television claiming at least 15 misdiagnose fired by iranian forces have hit the assad air base in iraq killing 18 u.s. soldiers the numbers cannot yet be verified and so far there have been no reports of casualties from the united states or other coalition forces. on with. this promised active revenge was for the killing of top military commander general salim mani who the move has been widely welcomed across iran.

crowds chanting death to america as a run supreme leader ayatollah ali how monday tells them them message has been delivered in court oh you're. a slow force delivered last night but what is important is that the seditious presence of america. in the region should be and it fits. the country's foreign minister has also spoken out. that we've said very clearly that if the united states takes any further action iran viewed respond accordingly and we will respond in a very harsh way but proportionately. u.s. president donald trump visited the assad air base in iraq in december 28th seen

his response so far into the strikes has been measured tweeting all is well assessment of casualties and damage is taking place now so far so good. meanwhile security forces have been inspecting a site below the capital of iraq self-governing kurdish region where at least one iranian missile landed american forces are also based in the area oh all right that is what has led us to this point we are still waiting as you see in those pictures there on the right hand side of your screen for the president to deliver his 1st public statement on those rainy and missile attacks on bases in iraq housing u.s. troops he was expected to speak around 20 minutes ago we're still waiting for the president clearly a lot to the bay to discuss before he comes out to speak to the press and to the public and i want to ask you as we're looking at that report there if you look at

the the u.s. strike that killed general stolen money and baghdad and now the reciprocal attacks from iran on the bases in iraq what does all of this leave the u.s. as allies here particularly europe where we've seen all sorts of reactions the messaging has been relatively measured europe has a major equity in preserving the iran nuclear deal and so their primary 2 messages have been one we need to deescalate everybody involved needs to deescalate well 33 primary messages one they came out especially germany france and the u.k. and were heavily condemned very strongly in iran and the nefarious actions of saloon money over you know a career of kind of using proxy wars playing violence in all these different states in the region. to all sides need to deescalate and 3 preserving the iran nuclear deal is the of the uppermost some most importance and even today after the strikes

that took place on these 2 air on these 2 bases all the 3 the big 3 the big 3 came out and said you know this is they condemned iran under no uncertain terms and called for deescalation what has been interesting is the c b e. hughes response which has been much more measured it's been much more i would say ecumenical in some ways they have been more reticent to condemn. iran because they are very interested as the lead negotiators of the of the iran nuclear deal of making sure that this stays intact this friday there will be a meeting in brussels of the european foreign ministers the 28 members of the foreign ministry council to discuss further efforts and on saturday german chancellor angela merkel along with the foreign minister i promise will be traveling to russia to visit with latin reputing to discuss the tense situation in the region as far as troops on the ground obviously all these countries are most of these countries are members of the n.t.

isis coalition all of them have come out pretty much all of them have already come out and they explicitly said that none of their per troops or their country's troops were harmed in these 2 attacks. all right we're we're just seeing that the president that we see the vice president there. and secretary there and we're waiting for the president we see him just arriving i believe don't see him yet on screen he is just arriving and we're waiting for this again his 1st public statement on the u.s. missile attack. iran missile attacks rather on u.s. targets in iraq he did tweeted earlier after those missile attacks saying that all is well so far so good in that the pentagon is assessing the situation but all eyes right now on the white house to see what the president will be saying. and tyson just quickly i mean what do you think your expectations are here on what we might hear from the president well i think that you know all indications are

some kind of measure the escuela tory. statement a lot of probably bear harsh criticism and rhetoric on iran a probably a recap of the kind of laundry list of escuela tory actions that have taken place in recent years maybe going back even a decade and talking about how this administration has changed policy in the region and perhaps also expectations for what they want iran to do all right let's listen in to the president. as long as i'm president of the united states iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon good morning i'm pleased to inform you the american people. should be extremely grateful and happy no americans were harmed in last night's attack by the iranian regime.

we suffered ok he's all of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained and our military bases. are great american forces are prepared for anything iran appears to be standing down which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. no american or iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken the dispersal of forces and an early warning system that worked very well i salute the incredible skill and courage of america's men and women in uniform for far too long all the way back to 1979 to be exact. nations have tolerated iran's destructive and

destabilizing behavior in the middle east and beyond those days are over iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism in their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world we will never let that happen. last week we took decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist from threatening american lives at my direction the united states military eliminated the world's top terrorist to sam solar many as the head of the cuts force solomin he was personally responsible for some of the absolutely worst.