a little over the night of. the. u.s. defense secretary admits he has no concrete evidence of a chemical attack in the do in the syrian city of duma but doesn't rule out a preemptive strike against a mascot. this is exceptional country russia is unique but not exceptional that's america's future top diplomat explaining exactly why washington has the right to pursue regime change in other countries. and british football fans rise above the political discord to enjoy a european championship match in moscow are two folds one prominent arsenal fans

trip to russia. well not to music already and we're really worried about the tension actually sleep disorders no tension between the us. politicians that the politicians get on with. from all of us here at r t h q in moscow welcome to the program. the u.s. defense secretary james mattis says america has the right to carry out a preemptive strike on the syrian government to defend its troops he also admitted though that there was no clear evidence that chemical weapons were used in an attack in the city of duma last weekend. i believe there was a chemical attack and we're looking for the actual evidence the. this you're going to station for the chemical weapons convention and we're trying to get those inspectors in if we get them in and we will not know who did it they can only say

that they found evidence or did not as the pentagon chief mentioned the international chemical weapons watchdog has sent a fact finding mission to duma where the alleged chemical attack took place the o.p.c. w. inspectors are due to start work there on saturday however even before an investigation can yield results there have been calls for an intervention against assad's forces donald trump initially seemed determined to strike damascus but then backtracked the white house says no final decision has been reached but as it goes on of explains fears are growing over the situation in syria as a lack of evidence didn't prevent the u.s. from starting a full scale war in the past. we're looking at very very seriously very closely that whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks we'll see what happens with the drum of war is beginning to bang in washington and the beat is for syria the u.s. is again accusing president assad over using chemical weapons on his own people but

the basis for this conviction appears to be lacking one crucial aspect we're not engaged on in the ground on the ground there so i cannot tell you that we had evidence well something is better than nothing but right now it's just a feeling behind a possible military attack is it enough to risk ask elating into a war with syria's allies and even a nuclear standoff apparently yes protection of our forces i don't think we have to wait until they're under chemical attack when the weapons are used in the same theater we're operating in the rocky invasion played out along suspiciously similar lines we must take the battle to the enemy we will take every step necessary to make sure our country is secure and we will prevail the iraqi regime has in fact been very busy in answering its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents one difference that jumps out is that with the rug the u.s.

had that infamous bottle of anthrax as reason to call on its forces in hindsight it was a completely false pretext and with syria they don't even have that the o.p.c. w the u.n. chemical watchdog the height of judgment when it comes to such cases already vouched two years ago that syria's stockpiles were no more wrong to twenty seeing and their words seems to matter a little for washington there is another similarity with the iraq invasion and one must keep in mind the history of u.n. inspection teams in iraq. even as they were conducting. the most intrusive system of arms control in history the inspectors missed a great deal and in my last attempt to enlarge the membership of all of the organization was convincing iraq and libya for example to join in and that when i am no system member states it was

a shock to the americans i believe. because the plans already to take some action military action against iraq the bottom line is that the pentagon is hardly keeping its for lack of evidence on whether the attack even happened a big secret never mind the perpetrator behind it all that matters sticking to the tried and trusted path the problem is that the united states believes that it would be. of any any lol they believe that they have their own rules and it is not the case the threat to use force you know through action the goals against the united nations charter also we are concerned about the possibility of this coalition. this could go out of control and we might end up with why there a conflict that done the one that's already been suffer in syria it will not be an

attack against syria but also an attack against the whole united nations system. but more on this story peter oliver joins me live from berlin now peter president earlier said he's negotiating action against syria with european allies has he succeeded in creating a united front there. well if there is going to be any coalition it does seem that a lot of leaders in europe as well as further afield are going to need some more convincing we've heard from angola merkel here in berlin saying that although a clear message needs to be sent that using chemical weapons will not be tolerated she isn't prepared to commit the blunders fair to strikes in syria just yet the german military won't be involved as it stands similar message coming out of rome as well where he has said that italy will honor. existing deals when it comes to logistics but they won't be sending any combat troops all aircraft will listen to

those two leaders right now. be able to do it we must say as we tell you and so always have that if we need a long term solution to the syrian crisis we not only need to respond to crimes but first of all work towards peace and draw many will not lie to us but i want to make it clear again there are no decisions to see and support this that everything is being done to send a signal that this use of chemical weapons is not acceptable. one of the loudest voices in support of donald trump has been a manual on the french president however there are voices within his own government that is saying although mr marquand claims that there is proof of a chemical attack they're going to need to see that proof before they commit to any type of military action similar words coming out of the hague the netherlands saying they want to see while they want to see concrete evidence before they commit troops to any strikes in from canada across the atlantic there we're hearing the

words coming out of ottawa or that they're not looking to be present in syria and canada in the past had taken part in bombing campaigns against isis in iraq but they were all stopped back in twenty fifteen when justin trudeau took over as the leader of the country there now perhaps the most go to ally that the u.s. has is the united kingdom and we've heard on friday after a cabinet meeting in london that the british cabinet says there is a need for action after the alleged chemical attack in syria however when speaking to people on the streets in the united kingdom there certainly isn't an appetite amongst the british public to join in with donald trump. think military strikes in syria will help so many know i don't know this whole mess at the moment one of the very anxious about any kind of military essentially what would she achieved by really disagree with military action against anything happening in this syria there's already enough fighting going on there as it is and there's

a real danger of war escalating way beyond what we expect the scenario. where the target is to send any for the signal if we. push up the base to. mention that outset i think we have five to choose where these countries have these problems have the civil war and we try and go to fix it but we had our civil war when the americans had their civil war nobody went and bought us we got this side we have now they need to go through this on their oh. well that we has we hear there from the united kingdom there is a lot coming out from all european countries that if they going to be a part of a coalition they're going to need confirmation that this chemical attack did take place and at the moment there are a lot of people quite skeptical as to what the right response is at the moment quite a few questions still up in the air peter all of our reporting live from berlin

thank you for bringing us that report we spoke to the former mayor of london ken livingstone he told us trace a manos the british public is unlikely to support new military action in the middle east. blast time britain was considering getting involved in syria there was a debate in parliament and parliament voted against it that was very bad news for them prime minister cameron but the idea that we should be getting involved in wars in the middle east without palm and being able to issue and make a decision is absolutely outrageous and i think it's because she knows there is very little public support for getting involved in the middle east again we all remember everyone in britain unless we were lied to by our government and the american government when we're told the iraq had weapons of mass destruction the result was hundreds of thousands i think nearly a million dead many of our own troops lost their lives as well and it all turned

out to be based on a line. breaking news coming in just now russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov says that moscow has evidence proving the chemical attack in duma was staged that's of course what i know alleged chemical attack taking place last saturday will bring you more information on that when we have it. meanwhile donald trump's new pick for america's top diplomat mike pump aoe has made it clear it's ok for washington to secret gene change in countries like syria citing american exceptionalism. and you would agree with me if we embrace the regime change in other nations we can hardly say but this is something that only the us gets do if we see that's acceptable foreign policy goal for us other nations conclude something acceptable for a policy goal for them this is a unique exceptional country russia is unique but not exceptional that same mind that we're hearing from here we've been here in america leaders this is nothing new

president madeline albright secretary of state she said that if we use force here it's because we're the united states we're the in this pencil nation you had obama talking about is. in the interest of all nation hillary clinton so this is really the air that americans read that we're now in a multi paula world the united states and russia still have a couple thousand nuclear weapons pointed at each other on hair trigger alert china's economy is booming and this is no longer the world of the early one nine hundred ninety s. now standing up and asserting russia's national security interests and there is some people the united states just don't like that. clashes have again are opted on the israeli gaza border where the palestinians have been holding anti occupation protest since march some demonstrators have come up with some inventive ways to counter the israeli offensive they've been making masks filled with perfume and

cotton and even first some vegetables to help them breathe through the tear gas fired by the israeli defense force. to look at. the moon because i'm not sure. what else you. know. the i.d.f. has deployed tanks and have been using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the demonstrations since the beginning of the standoff there have been scores of palestinian casualties. meanwhile an i.d.f. soldier who shot a palestinian on the gaza border during a protest in december has been cleared of wrongdoing by a military inquiry video emerged of him firing shots alongside other snipers who

cheered and laughed at the injuries they inflicted. there's no reason we could have to murder the sort of. vengeful designer. the one in that the words of one of the thought that the student did. well. but. this is when i did the well really more than he because. i did nothing i was just a demonstration i went to my friends to help them and before i reached the place they shot me the soldier knew that i was going to help them and that's why i was shocked. to watch from the palestine solidarity campaign says israeli soldiers

react to protest in a disproportionate and inhumane way and absolute act of target practice effectively because the cheering from. the soldiers fellow soldiers basically was just completely inhumane and outrageous in the west i challenge them to produce evidence anywhere that this would happen. and in any case this shows you that the difference on the one side you have heavily armored. soldiers and on the other side or you have protesters who might have a story to throw from a long long way away it's not exactly going to damage the defense or disorder. squatters and right police have clashed once again at the french city of not act.