they've got to turn it around and pick up 1400 points on the dow and have a positive year. can they do that? we'll see, all they have to worry about is a hurricane, see you tomorrow. hello, everyone, i'm dana perrino, along with eric boien and craig gutfeld, it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." there's a new element threatening to obstruct the west war against ice nis syria. vladimir putin ordered his military to launch airstrikes in the country today. complicating the american-led mission. russia gave the united states an hour to clear the skies over syria. but american didn't comply and conducted it's own strikes. today, the kremlin says it attacked isis positions but the pentagon is casting doubt on that. here was our defense secretary earlier. >> the result of this kind of action, will in evidentabevitab

inflame the civil war in syria. it's doomed to failure. it does appear they were in areas where there probably were not isil forces and that is precisely one of the forces with this whole approach. >> once again, our administration seemingly not on the same page. our secretary of state appeared to be welcoming russia's involvement earlier. >> the united states supports any genuine effort to fight isil. if russia's recent actions and those now ongoing reflect a genuine commitment to defeat that organization, then we are prepared to welcome those efforts. >> senator john mccain faults putin's actions for syria. >> it's a bad day and a time for leadership and time that president obama woke up to the realities in the world and reassert american leadership and

that does not mean that we're going to send thousands of groud troops back into iraq or syria. but it does mean that we develop a policy, we are still the strongest nation in the world. now it's time for us to act like it. >> national security correspondent jennifer griffin joins us now from the pentagon. jennifer, that was quite an eventful day at the department of defense and all across the united states government. was the administration caught flat-footed today? >> absolutely. in fact i got the first tip that this had happened at 4:15 a.m. in the morning. and when i started making calls, there, there was no knowledge that the russians were planning to do this. and they were completely caught offguard. we've talked to a senior defense official sense then. it's created a great deal of turmoil in iraq because of course the u.s. is carrying out air strikes in northern syria and they're refusing to halt those air strikes and there's a real possibility that u.s. war planes could come eyeball to

eyeball with russian fighter jets. dana? >> i'll ask you one more question before we take it around the table. this week two days ago president obama and president putin met in new york. the leader from iran was here as well. did they not have any discussions there? or did america just not get the right information? >> well they did have discussions, they spoke for 90 minutes and from what we understand from u.s. officials, there were some protocols set in place for how high-level discussions were going to start to take place, between the two militaries to deconflict inside syria. there was a plan in place, and basically what we've been told is that the russians in -- ran around that plan and basically, it have essentially, they sent a three-star russian general into the embassy to deliver this kurt message this morning of a source of mine who had a read-out from the meeting said it was very tense. it was through a translator. and right now, the pentagon is

extremely insulted that this somehow vladimir putin responded. after meeting the president. but you also heard secretary carter say moments ago that he still trusts the russians and he's ordering his team to reach out to the russian counterparts and keep talking there were no consequences to the russian actions today. >> a three-star general approached a low-level attache of the united states and said hey tell your government you have an hour to clear the skies. did they really think we were going to clear the skies in an hour? or is this russian bluster making a big thing? and making a big scene and hey, look at us, look at what we're doing. >> the turks did the same thing within the last few months. they also within minutes told the americans that they needed to clear their war planes from northern iraq because they were going to start, start striking the kurds.

that caught the u.s. military by surprise and created a great deal of tension. so the russians are taking a play from the turks. what's happening, though, is it's extremely complicated over there. and let's remember, this russian three-star general, eric, he's part of the new intelligence-sharing military coordination cell that also surprised the u.s. embassy and the pentagon last week. we were the first to report on it. and that cell was set up in a self-like manner with syrians, iranians and russians on the ground under the noses of the u.s. embassy. so there's a lot that the russian says they're doing and they go and do something tricky like this. >> i'm sorry to interrupt. i'm trying to figure out intent. was it stand down, united states, move out of the way? or was it be careful we're going to start dropping bombs, we don't want an accident which would create a bigger problem? >> well first of all, the russian war planes are not

acting in the same area where the american war planes are. because they are not going after isis. russians on one hand say they're targeting isis, which is up in the northwest part of the country, around raqqa. these strikes were in the western part of the country, they weren't against isis, they were in areas where the u.s. has allies, the free syrian army. this was sort of a cursory sort of, we're going to warn you that we're carrying out airstrikes, get out of the way if you can. but we're going ahead, anyway. so it was not done in a professional manner. it was done with a great deal of disrespect and now the question is how to move forward. >> kimberly? >> that is the question. you know how best this administration should answer these actions by russia. what seems to be clearly an alliance now forming with russia, iran, iraq, that whole region. where the u.s. has been now essentially squeezed out this is a very bold move really kind of in the president's face, coming

on the heels of the two leaders meeting. >> it creates an issue, kimberly of how is the u.s. military going to engage with the iraqis, they can't share intelligence if they believe that the iraqis are sharing it with the iranians. >> in terms of military forces, is the bombing enough, if they had been bombing isis, in combination with u.s. efforts, turkish efforts works that take out isil? or is it inevitable that someone going to have to send ground troops in there? >> airstrikes are of limited value when it comes to fighting an army of terrorists, like isis has become. so no airstrikes alone, the russian airstrikes alone will not make a big difference. even if they were engaged in the fight against isis. but the bottom line is, they're not. it's all a lie. it's a figure leaf so they can bolster the bashar al assad regime. that's what the pentagon is

saying. that's what the evidence shows. because again they didn't go after isis targets today. they fired their weapons north of homs, homs is not someplace where isis is operating, that's where the free syrian army is, that's where bashar al assad's opponents are. >> two questions jennifer. one, what's the scuttlebutt at the pentagon? what are they saying about our leadership right now? and number two, could it be that vladimir putin was insulted that america had him meet with obama and not valerie jarrett? >> i'm going to leave that to somebody else to answer. but, but on, on your first point, what was your first point again? >> about the way is the pentagon sees how we're controlling this situation or dealing with it? >> yeah. >> i talked to senior military commanders here, who are here in the region. who have had a lot of experience

with iraq. there's extreme frustration at the inaction, at the lack of a strategy, at the they feel like they're being expected to do things like run this 61-nation coalition with airstrikes over two countries, syria and iraq. in very hostile territory. where they don't trust their partners on the ground. they don't have ground forces in which they can coordinate with. a great deal of frustration and at every turn they feel that groups like the russians are outmaneuvering them and there's nothing any can do about it and it's very frustrating. >> i wanted to ask you about another one of our allies in the region which is saudi. which is extremely frustrated because the sunnis just like assad, more than anyone and the stated u.s. position is that assad has to go. the russian position is, assad must stay. the iranians apparently want assad to stay. at this point do the saudis feel like they've been let down by the united states?

>> it will be interesting to hear from the saudis, i'm surprised we have not heard anything today. because those russian bombs landed in sunni-arab areas and that's the opposition to bashar al assad. these are sunni groups that are being struck so undoubtedly this is going to anger the saudis. but the question is, what are they going to do about this? what is the u.s. going to do about this? right now, putin is laughing. he knows that there are no consequences to these actions. >> so these air strikes are conducted by russia with a russian air base in syria, right? so it's limited to syria. nothing is spilling over into iraq, i assume? >> it's not spilling over yet, but remember, eric this intelligence and military coordination cell with this three-star russian general and other russian generals that popped up overnight last week in baghdad was not expected. the russians are using trojan horse-like methods to get their

aircraft, they put 32 russian aircraft into syria in the last week alone. we were the first to report that they used an old trick used by the israelis where they flew the war planes under cargo jets so the radar blot, they would not be visible from the air. and they flew from iran over iraq and into syria and popped up overnight. this air base that you're talking about, this is not a legitimate russian air base this is a pop-up air base. overnight. they have popped up. now they have a naval base nearby, they've had it for a long time. they're creating a corridor in the eastern mediterranean. and it has the israelis very concerned. >> if you're a ukrainian today, are you thinking that the united states is basically not going to have any capability of helping you push back russia from their country? >> we had an awkward press conference days ago where secretary carter stood next to his ukrainian counterpart and

had to answer questions about russia when it was clear that secretary carter was trying to talk about how the train and equip program would continue for the syrian opposition. when the pentagon and the white house have refused to provide offensive weapons to the ukrainians. so what are the ukrainians to think? there have been so many embarrassing moments where the double standard is quite obvious to them. >> jennifer, thank you so much. leading from behind looks like, folks. do you trust the media? most americans don't. greg's got a long list of reasons why, next.

welcome back to "the five." we're waiting for secretary of state john kerry and lavrov to start speaking. when they start, we're going to take you there live. meantime we'll continue our discussion with jennifer griffin, dana, talking about the situation that has emerged in the middle east with russia stepping in to fill in this power vacuum. and in fact it was such a slight to the president of the united states after just meeting with putin, that no notification was given of what russia intended to do. >> i think that obviously russia is in the wrong. i think people will find out in

the coming days how the ball got dropped and where that disconnect is at the national security council. john mccain talked about president obama owning this. and i think it's important to remember that susan rice is coordinator of the national security council. so a lot of this lands back on her desk. i thought what jennifer griffin was saying is very insightful. she has amazing sources in the pentagon. they're telling her privately that they're super frustrated. you think about all of the secretaries of defense who have left and written books, including secretary of state hillary clinton. they said they were so frustrated and pushed back against president obama when they all said we should do something immediately. when four years ago, the civil war started. president obama did not take their advice. subsequently left. that's gates, panetta and hillary clinton amongst others, i think michael flynn said the same. they're all frustrated. but at this point america is going to have to pull together and decide and look to the president of the united states and leadership. >> what's the decision coming out of this, greg, how we should handle it?

>> we have ourselves now in this current timeframe of what's happening where russia is sending someone to talk to our attaches, a three-star general, to say by the way beat it out of syria. >> this is when you go from being the world's policeman, to the world's guidance counselor, we continue to be unhappy that people aren't playing by our rules, but there are no rules. there are only ideals. and the only way you can have ideals is to enforce ideals which we're unwilling to do. we have a president who's a perennial grad student who treats every event like a stoned sophomore. waiting to cram the night before. but syria is not a final. you know? it's not, it's not a class project. you wait until the last minute and when you snooze, you lose. >> and cram. so dana brought up a point four years ago, talking about a missed opportunity. a voice of unison and accord.

talking about what we should have done when we had the opportunity in syria. >> when this first started about a year and a half ago, when the whole president obama, the red line. and i stay where i am. it's not going to be a very popular opinion on it. what do we want to do? we understand how we got here. what do we want to do going forward? do we want to be the ones who come in and kill isis? we hate isis? we hate bashar al assad and we have to turn around and take bashar al assad out? or do we let them fight it out and figure out how to pick up the pieces after and push bashar al assad out? or are we the ones -- >> how are we able to do that? >> here's how you do that. like i said, 18 months ago, you push back, you push isis back out of iraq. you can do it. >> push them -- i think do you fix ra syrian assad -- >> you said send them out if

they're in charge and they've been seated at the dining table all of a sudden, all of a sudden the u.s. is at the kids' table -- >> we used to be the world's policeman. maybe we don't want to be the world's policeman any more. you want to make sure there's at least the -- >> i said i want to be the world's policeman. i didn't say we didn't want to. i suggested maybe we don't need -- >> there's genocide and homicide going on around the world in other places. >> of course, but i can't believe you say leave assad in place, that's politically easy to say let's leave him there he's a bad man, he used chemical weapons against his own people. he's fomented terrorism throughout the region as a proxy for the iranians. i don't like him, can't join with you and blame america for all these problems and i guess i'm going to say -- >> we're not blaming america. >> you're saying even senator mccain in his statement.

senator mccain says he's not about putting troops in and putting them on the ground. he wants america to be more forceful and to have a strategy. that's why people in the pentagon are frustrated. in the frustration, don't overlook the fact -- >> i didn't hear him say that. >> he said we need to have a strategy. but it doesn't mean boots on the ground. >> we're getting into the thing of there's only one solution. only like one way to solve a problem. there's multiple ways to try to get at this. i think it's four years ago that the red line was crossed. remember who was our savior at the time? vladimir putin. he said he would come in and take bashar al assad's chemical weapons and get them out of the country we know that they all didn't get out of the country, because he's been using them against his people. the very people who, we now have a major international refugee crisis. putting pressure on everybody. >> doing nothing is actually doing something. it was easier for president obama to sign a treaty, it's easy to sign a dotted line than to enforce a red line. he was more interested in the

legacy of that deal than it was for what's going on in syria. >> no, no, no, cheap shot. >> how so? >> you know what it is? it's us, it's we the american people don't have the political will and i don't care if it was a republican or a democrat. the question is, i think this would speak to your desire, dana, do we have a leader in the white house who would say to us as an american people, here is a critical need to act. we've had some problems. >> that was climate change. >> he said, he said the goal and the mission was that assad had to go, we're going to degrade and disrupt isis. >> we couldn't get congress to back the obama for airstrikes. >> i think they would have backed him. the president can get pretty much anything done. he's proved he could have got than done. >> when he has the will to do it. the other thing we're miss something that there's a diplomatic position here. one of the reasons we got to this point is because president obama wanted more than anything in the region, for the iranian deal to get done.

now the iranians and the russians are at a much stronger position and now assad is going to have to stay. >> it feels like vladimir putin saw the opportunity to take the world stage and say look who the big cheese is in the world right now and he's using it. when you take a step back, is syria that big of a piece of the puzzle? >> we have all lies surrounding the country. >> if you're in europe and you see the refugee influx? >> net net went to russia to talk to putin recently to make sure as he intervened, he wouldn't be a threat to israel. >> putin a threat to israel? >> right because netanyahu wanted to make sure. >> it's a complicated situation, but they have to hit it on all fronts and diplomacy has to be part of it. no one is taking u.s. seriously when vladimir putin makes a threat, promises to deliver -- >> i know you were teasing into this. i hope you stick around, you'll want to see the press conference, to see the foreign minister of lavrov, quite a

character and john kerry have to try to battle this out. >> not quite a character. >> but he has nice ties. we're going to take a quick break. please do what dana said, stay right here, we'll be back with the kerry/lavrov presser as soon as it begins. ♪ it's the final countdown! ♪ ♪ the final countdown! if you're the band europe, you love a final countdown. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do.

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this is a fox news alert. welcome back to "the fiv." we're awaiting a press conference by senator john kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. let's go behind the scenes in terms of what's happening between those two and their camps. >> because they've had a day where there was one serious substantial developments and actions that were on the ground this meeting is set up, our defense department and our state department looked in the day like they were on different pages. and i would imagine what they want do do now, john kerry's team and lavrov and his team are probably huddled together saying what are you going to say when

you go out there? they're going to want to present a united front. complicating it is you have to call back to the white house and talk to probably the president. and the national security adviser, susan rice, who might be up here in new york because that's where all the activity is. >> do you think the reason why he's late is because he rode his bike here? >> the traffic is terrible in manhattan. it could be. i think that the reason that they're late is because they don't know what to say and they're anticipating the questions that they might get from the media and they don't want to, if i was john kerry i wouldn't want do worsen the situation. you can imagine what russian state television is like tonight. it all a has to do with putin trying to shore up his image in the world. i don't think it's true that russia is more powerful than the united states, but that's what he will tell the people back home. >> when they had the announcement yesterday, the russians went on tv and said we're not sending in troops, it's just bombing. don't think we're going to

invest any long-term money in this deal. that's what they had to say. >> baloney. that's what they said and today tyutin was able to get unanimous support for kinetic actions from his parliament. >> do you think this is where president obama's community-organizing experience comes into play, juan? >> absolutely. >> i think it will help shore up the problem. >> this is -- he's able to get that kind of unanimous approval and consent like you said for kinetic action. now would president obama be able to do that? just look at the leadership piece right there. >> you want obama to be a dictator? >> that's what putin is. >> if he had good ideas. >> if he had majority support. >> when you see him able to do that and galvanize that kind of support and get the measure behind the people. >> i think that that was a total ruse. think that they all were told you will vote yes. >> that's what it is. >> but nevertheless, nevertheless, that is the message that's going out to the world, these are the actions that he is in fact taking

regardless of whether or not it's a ruse. this is what's happening in the middle east. and you see this alliance. >> and i did hear that over, this week over at the turtle bay they call it where the united nations is, that there was relief amongst many of the leaders around the world saying finally okay, somebody is actually going to do something. and it was not the united states. >> because they're worried about the immigrant surge. but the fact is if you're talking about russian/domestic consumption, russia is under sanctions, their economy is weak. i can understand why nationalistic sentiment is we want a powerful russia on the world stage. they're not going to -- the russian people aren't going to back this. >> can i just say what we need to hear from these two, an explanation as to why if russia says we're going to take care of this with isis is bombing the free syrian army not isis? and we hear john kerry say yeah, we're working with russia getting involved in the fight

with our coalition partners. but they have a different goal. >> they have a different agenda. >> their agenda is to keep bashar al assad in power. i get that. i would like us and john kerry to address the fact that they are bombing the free syrian army, not isis. our goal is to get rid of isis, it's not exactly adding up. >> these aren't lining up and it's very clear, the first decisive military action that russia took in the region and specifically who was targeted. it's about their interests, it's about furthering the alliance that they have now created there. the alliance with iraq, iran, russia and that's the move being made. the u.s. is caught flat-footed what is john kerry going to say, he has to get a few points of consensus where he can agree with the russian foreign minister to put out a statement that isn't going to be contradicted in an hour. >> he can say we're on board, we're in favor of russia getting involved in the fight. not necessarily that they're hitting different targets than

we would want them hitting. >> that's why this is so important. >> if you're a reporter in the room, that's the question you want to ask so you can try to t there's daylight between the two. in addition, remember when president obama dragged his feet about helping the ukrainians, it further emboldened putin. he needs additional help because his domestic politics is in a little bit of trouble. nationalistic pride for the russian, this is really important for them. >> we're sending winnie the pooh into an m.m.a. fight. >> he does have all that sticky honey. i don't know. >> tigger is not around. >> keep it here on fox news as we wait for our secretary of state and russia's foreign minister to come to the podium. "the five" returns in a moment.

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we'll bring it to you live. to set the scene, we're joined by our national security correspondent jennifer griffin. jennifer explain to us the importance, the significance given the recent developments in the last 24 hours about what we're going to hear today from these two gentlemen. >> well kimberly, the reason it's significant is that early this morning, the russian three-star general in baghdad entered the u.s. embassy with a demarche. an appeal to the u.s. military to pull out of its air assets out of syria. to move forces out of the way because russians were beginning to carry out airstrikes in syria for the first time this is the first chance that a senior u.s. official has been able to talk to the russians since the airstrikes began. it follows by just one day, a 90-minute meeting between president obama and vladimir putin. in new york. those two leaders thought they had things sorted out in terms of coordinating in the future.

between the two militaries to avoid, to deconflict us, they like to say in the syrian air space. then the russians basically pulled an end run around the u.s., and gave them one hour's notice before the air strikes began. certainly kerry is going to want to hear from lavrov what the russian intentions are. what the russians are saying publicly and what they're doing on the ground. creating facts on the ground, if you will. are very different. there's a lot of daylight between the what the russians say they're doing and what we're seeing, what the intelligence says that they're doing. in fact, the latest intelligence suggests that they, the russian strikes did not strike against isis. even though that's what putin and the russian military says were the targets. it's very clear that russians are trying to prop up the bashar al assad regime in syria. that has the pentagon and white house officials very, very concerned. kerry just yesterday in an interview on a rival network. said that he thought that

russia's presence in syria was in fact an opportunity, does kerry still feel that way today? we asked that of secretary of defense ash carter. it is very clear that the pentagon white house and state department are caught flat-footed by the russian moves today and this is the first face-to-face meeting that a u.s. official has had with a russian official to try to figure out what's actually going on. kimberly? >> was there any truth, this is dana. was there any truth or confirmation that the airstrikes that the russians had today hit 36 civilians in that area? >> that's the reports from the syrian human rights observatory. this is a group that has a great reputation. it's a group that we've all relied on over the past few years. there are reports on the ground in terms of human rights abuses and these kind of strikes are usually pretty accurate. they certainly showed pictures and video of children being pulled out of rubble. so clearly, whatever the

russians thought they were hitting, they hit some civilians. because we've seen evidence that some women and children were struck today. >> there's probably going to be limited reports about that because that's not going to be good for the overall russian picture. >> jen, i don't know if you can answer this jennifer. but sergei lavrov is very forceful and forward. john kerry seemed a little meek and on his heels today. almost like he was shocked by what was going on. do you expect anything different? and by the way, do we really want our secretary of state with sir gaye lavrov today, hours after they initiate strikes, that they didn't tell us about? >> i think you actually do want secretary kerry there face to face with lavrov. what you want, and this is what i'm not sure what the message is that he delivered privately. because publicly the message in the last 24 hours, even in the last 12 hours since we first

reported about this russian demarche, this request for u.s. war planes and u.s. personnel to leave syria. ever since then, the public statements by the defense secretary here at the pentagon is that we will keep talking to the russians. that's the message being put out. there are no consequences that are being threatened at this point there are no sanctions being talked about. there are no -- the, i feel that from reading the tea leaves here and at the state department and the white house briefing today, they feel that they don't have a lot of options left in syria. and in iraq frankly. they realized that the russians are fact on the ground. so they have to talk to them. back to you. >> awaiting u.s. secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister lavrov. we expect them to be speaking momentarily. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. my name is mark amann.

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national security correspondent, jennifer griffin for a little more of the background and the intel on some interesting developing scenarios over there in the middle east. just in the past 12, even 24 hours. jennifer, there are many who believe we're watching the collapse essentially of 70 years of u.s. blood and treasure in the middle east with russia stepping in to take the helm and deciding the course and future of the middle east. with respect to iraq, iran and a heavy presence now in syria. >> that's right, kimberly. in fact what we have seen in the last 12 hours, is an absolute game-changer in terms of the relationships in the middle east. we have been reporting for the last two weeks, these stealthy russian movements not just into syria, setting up a pop-up air base there and a naval base and sneaking those 32 war planes into syria. but also now this intelligence coordination cell that they've set up in baghdad, right under

the u.s. embassy's noses with the iranians. with the syrians and with now with the iraqis. this creates a huge challenge for the u.s. military that's trying to lead this air coalition against isis in syria. and iraq, it's very clear that while the russians say that they're going to strike isis targets, they did not go after isis targets today. the pentagon defense secretary said as much himself from the podium here. it's clear from the pictures on the ground that there were civilians, women and children who were struck. and that this is where the free syrian army, allies of the u.s. are based, in homs. that's where the russians are carrying out the air strikes, to prop up the regime of bashar al assad, the whole reason for the refugee crisis, flooding into europe. the reason for isis having the reform to begin with russia is trying to assert itself as a

super power and there are essentially no consequences. and they in essence have snookered the americans. because president putin met with president obama for 90 minutes on monday at the u.n. and just one day later, his three-star general goes into the u.s. embassy in baghdad, issue as demarche and asks for all u.s. war planes and personnel to leave syria. that's where we stand right now. >> you've set the stage for the importance, the significance of this meeting of these two gentlemen seeking what will be the u.s. response and will we show some measure and fortitude against what has been a very bold move by russia in the past 24 hours. juan, you have a question? >> i want to come to that point, jennifer. you had mentioned consequences. so if we are in a new era of u.s. competition versus russia and the russians are now taking advantage of shared intelligence that we've been having with the iraqis, because the iraqis are

now part of their deal, what can the united states do to punish russia, to push back? >> well, i mean you saw what they, they've tried to do when russia used the same man you'eu by the way, an old playbook that they used when they invaded ukraine, crimea just a year ago. you're not talking about a new russia, the russians have been doing this. there were no consequences other than some sanctions against some senior russian leadership in the wake of the crimea invasion and the invasion of ukraine. the u.s. has not supplied weapons to ukraine. the u.s. has spent about $231 million to train a syrian opposition force that was supposed to go against isis and we've been reporting in the last couple of weeks the pentagon admits there are only four or five fighters in the field now. for that $231 million. many of them in fact we reported just in recent days, that they

handed over their weapons to an al qaeda front group inside syria. so the u.s. strategy is in shambles right now. russia is taking advantage of that, filling the vacuum and that's the danger here. >> russia on the march. jennifer griffin thank you for joining us on t"the five." >> a couple of things i thought i would mention is that president obama came to the united nations this week with a couple of things in mind. he had a successful visit with the pope. he's got the iranian deal in the bag. and he's got the trans-pacific partnership, the big trade deal almost a done deal with the other nations signing on. he wanted to do two basic things. the number one thing was to try to get an agreement going on climate change, they've made some agreements and side deals, but that's not the headline. you always have to expect the unexpected. in this case the president now has to put a ton of focus on the

issue that he didn't want to talk about, which is isis. the other thing that happened yesterday is that the taliban overran a major city in afghanistan and we had to send additional american troops there. right now president obama had been trying to draw down troops from afghanistan. you have the people in the pentagon now and the general over there in afghanistan saying we should absolutely not do that. the second thing president obama and america wanted to focus on are the new sustainable development goals. there are 169 of them and these are things like making sure that children can read by the age of five. they're all very laudable goals, not very prioritized, but no one is talking about those things that the united nations could do. because everyone had been ignoring this problem up until now. >> which has been four significant years in the making, now we see the aftermath. that's why the statements we're about to hear from secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister lavrov are going to be pivotal on setting the stage with what we can expect going forward. they're walking in now, they're on their way in let's see what

the reaction is and whether or not they were to come to some points of agreement and unison in the face of this crisis. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, we met with secretary kerry for i think the third time in few days. today we devoted our meeting to the fall-out of what our presidents agreed when they met here on the 28th of september. the first instruction to us was to make sure that the military of the united states, the coalition led by the united states on the one hand and the military of the russian federation were now engaged in operations in syria at the request of the syrian government. get in touch and establish channels of communications to avoid any unintended incidents. we agreed that the military should get into contact with each other very soon. number two, we also discussed

what the presidents told us about the promoting political process. we all want syria democratic, united, secular. syria, which is a home for all ethnic and concessional groups, whose rights are guaranteed. but we have some differences as for the details on how to get there. but we agreed on some steps which we will undertake very soon and our country will take very soon together with other countries, including the united nations on creating the conditions for options to be used to be applied to promote the political process. and i believe that this meeting the discussions between the two presidents, is a very useful occasion to promote constructive and safe approaches to the

situation in syria and around it. we agreed to remain in touch with john and as always, we are available for contacts with each other. thank you very much. >> well, sergei has described the meeting that we had, which we would both concur was a constructive meeting. i relaid and reiterated the concerns that i expressed in the course of the u.n. security council meeting, which was led by russia today. concerns that we have obviously about the nature of the targets, the type of targets and the need for clarity with respect to them. and it is one thing obviously to be targeting isil. we're concerned obviously if that is not what is happening. so as sergei said to you, we agreed on the imperative of as

soon as possible, perhaps even as soon as tomorrow, but as soon as possible. having a military-to-military deconfliction meeting, conference, discussion, whatever can be done as soon as possible. because we agree on the urgency of the deconfliction. we did discuss a number of different ways to try to address the conflict itself. and several options were agreed to be further discussed. i need to take those back to washington to the president. and to our team. and i'm sure sergei will likewise discuss them with president putin and his team. and we will follow up on that for certain. because we also agreed that it is imperative to find a solution to this conflict and to avoid

escalating it in any way or seeing it intensified by forces beyond anybody's control. and finally, the foreign minister and i agreed that there is even as we don't have yet a resolution with respect to some critical choices in that political solution, we think we have some very specific steps that may be able to help lead in the right direction. that needs to be properly explored. and so we agreed we have a lot of work to do. and we're going to get to doing that work as rapidly as possible. understanding fully how urgent this is in the context of refugees flowing out, the impact on europe, the impact on the region. and understanding also that, that we need to see syria kept whole, unified, secular, democratic, and those are big

agreements in that regard. and now we need to work on getting there. so we will stay in very close touch and continue to work on this. thank you all very much. thank you. >> and that was secretary of state john kerry, along with the russian prime minister sergei lavrov, addressing and not taking in fact any questions. making some pretty basic statements, saying there's more work to do. they're going to try to get consensus and secretary of state john kerry saying he's going to make some suggestions about how he feels this should be handled. dana, you want to translate through state department speak? and then greg has a comment. >> basically what they did if you put it through the strainer you come out the other end, they don't have a solution. that was a very restrained effort by the two of them. i think that they raised more questions and they didn't answer any. greg? >> that was john kerry saving face, i can't blame him, botox ain't cheap. >> glad we went to you for that. >> pointed out the

deconfliction. carving up what they're going to do and that should have been done before. >> why wasn't it? >> because we're weak. we're weak and ha was proof right there. you show a strong russia and you show what are we doing america. >> juan how can this not be a reflection of the dmirngs the united states being relegated to a suggestion box of vladimir putin? >> i don't think we're anybody's suggestion box. they're playing with us because i think they're afraid of any kind of incident. that's why the odd word, deconfliction. whatever that word. >> it will be banned. it's a new word, it means nothing. they are, i think the russians don't want, and i think the russians have support from people who are worried about the lack of policy, that's led to the immigrant surge. people say good if somebody else is willing to get here do the work, do it. >> deconfliction is divvying up the pie.

not divvying up the pie, avoiding a fight. >> as the crisis unfolds, keep it here on the fox news channel. special report is next. russia bombs u.s.-allied rebel fighters and catches the obama administration flat-footed. this is "special report." good evening and welcome to washington, you were just watching secretary kerry at the united states with the foreign minister of russia, sergei lavrov. russia backs u.s.-backed rebel strongholds in syria. backing up syrian leader bashar al assad. to set the table with breaking news from the region, let's look back. three years and a month