all right welcome back broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is our international i'm sean thomas with jacqueline vogel. just to recap our breaking news speaking from the white house president donald trump has announced that the u.s. france and the u.k. have launched strikes against syria trump said that the attacks would continue until the syrian government stops using chemical weapons he also called on russia to take responsibility for not preventing the chemical attack in syria according to several media reports there were explosions in damascus heard right after the u.s. president's speech arabic media said six powerful blast occurred in the syrian capital as far as a district where scientific centers are located and sources say that a strike at targets included a research center the airport and special units barracks the syrian military claims

it intercepted more than twenty missiles in london u.k. prime minister theresa may said that there were no alternatives to striking syria since all diplomatic means had been exhausted while at the pentagon u.s. secretary of defense jim madison and general joseph dunford said no additional attacks are planned at this time he also said it is difficult to get evidence of chemical weapons attacks out of syria russia's ambassador to the u.s. has slammed the attack saying that u.s. actions in syria will have consequences right now we are joined live by dr. who is a professor school of international affairs in the pot in india thanks for being with us here on our team international. so russia's foreign ministry says that these strikes came at the very moment that there was a chance of peace in syria do you think that this is the case. absolutely i think the timing was meant to reinserted the united states as a stakeholder and as

a player for the endgame in syria the humanitarian excuses you know the actress cities and the so car you know barbarism and the righteousness that there trump is claiming all these is the free t.v. in fact we know the never really has hired any bleeding heart about human rights and democracy this is something else mainly intended to prove united states military relevance and remember trump or threaten russia recently on twitter saying nice new and smartness answer coming your way and get ready so they're trying to demonstrate that they are still a player although they lost the war in syria over the last seven years their proxies have been defeated most of them have been cornered and marginalized most of these jihadi groups that the united states and its allies have been supporting arming and financing are not intrude treat so this is a last ditch attempt to try and change the dynamic in the water weaken the regime and satisfy the demands of the u.s.

allies like saudi and israel who are desperate because they believe that the iranians and the russians i wonder what so this i see it's a kind of a humanitarian imperialism and a liberal imperialism where there is art but the argument that they're going in and attacking the regime for saving lives but the real intention is actually still relevant and i think that that's where the last hope and these one are strikes of a sustained strike said they're blaming will not eventually do anything to change the balance of power on the ground because the united states the public opinion and generally the morgue in the us sometimes trump himself reflects that more east to withdraw from syria but i think the people in america had struck and as far as britain and france are all i think they are just clutching at straws because they're all of relevance is in the question and they're supposed to give it right in thinking back on the u.s. . and trying to assure that they have called the question liberal order but frankly

as i said this is clearly a military operation meant to reinforce some kind of relevance of presence here rather than to really see the place now despite the fact that yesterday we heard from james mattis who said that there was no one hundred percent evidence in on the ground we did hear from him today that it's highly likely that the syrian government used chlorine in douma they don't exclude the use of sarin as well so what do you think about washington launching this operation without one hundred percent certainty about what happened or whether chemical weapons were even used. i think you might this is what it i were keeping his job because you have john gordon and the far right. who i don't trump who want exemplary record on board military action as i said to prove that the us is still a military power so do lobbyists the so are grown up the one of the few grownups who's left in the. administration has been marginalized you can see the even in the

body language and the manner in which he had dressed the press corps just after the attack started he still i think has doubts about this whole thing but he has been overridden and i think he has expressed genuine doubts about the veracity of these chemical attack claims and like a seasoned general who has seen a lot i think he understands that what is bad and he also realizes that taking on russia frontally like this and adding it and planting it is not good for the world and he doesn't want a greater regional or toward the breakup but i think he has been signed and so in twenty four hours you are right he has flipped from saying let us be cautious and let's collect evidence from now saying i have confidence that the our intelligence agency will find out that became their backs did happen so it shows as i said the conflicting opinion and interest groups within the us and one side they want to limit it and not to go any deeper and do ignite

a full scale global lot on the other hand there are these hot heads and hawks who are saying listen i make a cannot be a superpower if we are already lost the war and we are being sidelined completely let assure all relevant somehow lets a lot of human sides and legs then trumpet to the word that we are the upkeep of the conscience of the word so it's actually i said a mosque the humanity and mosque as been the need to be and what we see is a repetition of past such efforts in the u.s. foreign policy going back to you know the invasion of iraq of two thousand and three. attack on libya and do those and eleven all these have been you know camouflaged as humanitarian actions then we know that the really for pussies they want geopolitical influence they want to push over russia from going to the gym they want to satisfy their allies and it's just a cloak and i think the people of the world are seeing clearly now that trump who is famous for embracing so also to deviance and killers is now saying i will not

allow the innocent people from being gassed so their rhetoric and the reality are so far apart the riskier for everyone to see. dr charlie of the attack on the author here in the studio i want to ask you we are to have russia's ambassador to the u.s. saying that there will be consequences to these strikes what actions do you think russia might take in response. well first of all there are approximately two thousand or more american forces on the ground in syria so the parties who are being attacked have a right to be fundamentalists and i think there was a question i bet you might be saying what i mean for force protection because we have two thousand troops there and now you're launching these aerial strikes and he's saying we had on alert and so on but i think there are a lot of forces in the region who do not want the united states presence and give the escalate the. approach on the gromit so low are you going to expect

a higher i'm going to you guys who are these in this all are watching my sister saying yes to their own prices but it looks like he didn't really start again as i said before he's too mean to hunker down and maintain a permanent presence there despite trumps all in his situation the beachhead wants an american presence in northern syria especially on the kurdish areas which they're somehow protecting to some extent against the turkish infringements across the border so i think a lot of strategies and build a presence there used to come to the iranians and will also monitor what's going across the border in iraq and of course there are some going into isis no doubt about it but that is right now it's a very cynical thing to say that we are still there for terrorism and for counterterrorism because the main targets it seems to be are actually the syrian state no longer any jihadist groups you did really a concern to were there is a vision wipe out all of these jihadi so are now assembling even in the north of syria generation islam i don't jump on the big jihadist groups have been bussed out

through exchanges with the syrian state over the last seven months due to the northern provinces so why deny access not attacking them why are there back in the city and state what is the priority of united states is it to counter terrorism are to maintain the money in the region. staying with the russian involvement we do have from the russian defense ministry saying that none of. the missiles from the u.s. or their allies entered russian air defense zones we also have heard from general dunford at the pentagon saying that the u.s. took measures and case of a response from the russian side what sort of measures might they have taken. i think you know the deep confliction seems to be operational and tend bar for that we don't want to or want to be but as far as the you know the question of the targeting and the cooperation the broader issue i think that the something very what is some because these kind of attacks reduce the chances of any bromidic

solution and money as i could always write them she says of the time was actually for all the major players to get together and in the water itself who are trying this and you did right is arguing no east to basically prolong the end of the wall degenerates stop the end of the war because they've already as i said lost a lot but the adam beast is somehow find it go whole bit and to be a blip in the endgame and the final settlement so i think it's a major setback for below missy and for peace and adams to find justice and accountability greedy for want crimes that have been committed in syria and to the issue is not of selective targeting and because the one problem is that humanitarian imperialism is very selective and district egypt it is not modeled and that is i think the crux of the shooting so dr childish on thomas here again. we're getting information here just to keep our viewers up to date as the latest information that's coming in at least three civilians have been injured in western

coalition strikes on syrian military facility in the holmes province those that report coming from a syrian news agency correspondent there just giving everybody the latest. so right now it is about seven eleven in the morning on a saturday in damascus in syria the o.p.c. doubly experts were supposed to start their work on the ground today in fact so what about the timing of this all why. are the western coalitions deciding that they want to strike before an investigation takes place. sean first i want to think of the civilian casualties shoot you know of the united states has been very very disingenuous on this count but we had ever been how far these humanitarian was if you go back a few years they claimed that there was not a single casualty in the blue outfit they were doing over yemen or somalia obama's sonnen or afghanistan but it was proved to be other whites hundreds of civilians

working in the u.s. or drone attacks and still there have been living in a kind of alice in wonderland you know are trying to spin something like that for the public consumption likewise the at the start on mosul and for liberating it from isis control let the loss of thousands of lives of innocent lives those don't come in the american logic if we kill civilians that's just collateral damage but if somebody else does it then that is a you know i'm not trusty and that must be stopped so this is a double standard that we maintain ascot as the o.p.c. government goes i think its work is really being constrained nor going back in time that they know what they have and ledged w m d weapons of mass destruction as the main problem they have tried to manipulate these international agencies and beat the international atomic energy agency which is a nuclear watchdog of the the o.p.c.

w. the united states is trying to pressure are going to try to more meet ask but it's just a matter all vested interests so we have seen the scene up on the out not interested really in any multilateral body east conducting any serious investigation because their logic and in fact trump the spirit that he's opposed to monday institutions in general and he believes that unity of purpose and what they call a coalition frankly britain and france is not really a coalition the germans have said they're not going to be part of this so it's clear that they don't really have a big support of the international community therefore they want to weaken o.p.c. the wooden stool and do as starvation. a fait accompli and to spin the same thing again and again in the form of a propaganda that the assad regime is the only one using chemical weapons and in the process they just want to get ahead with the job because this is what we see that we as an obstacle to a saving their military dominance and all peace you don't need because of the institution and because it's and seem to be one system as

a whole did think these i mean princes and they're slowing down the process be saved and butyl craddick this is their slow and they say we need quick action and they need to be reformed and there are deficient but the real reason is did boom to the u.s. interests of natto western interest of the us and therefore then i'm having them so recently. dr shriram a professor at the gentle school of international affairs in sunny india thanks for being with us here on r.t. international we cannot cross live to correspondent. who is a local journalist from damascus now could you tell whistles more about the situation in syria's capital. well it's. you know the day has begun and it seems more of a normal day now that the aggression has passed as i think we have spoke

before. the first part of it was launched probably around four am city at timing. the center of research in bed is a area which is in damascus inside the city not outside like the americans are saying and we have had not yet of any casualties although they're saying that the official media is saying that they have been three casualties and almost in the center of the country the strikes lasted around fifteen minutes although we felt that it was lost last longer because until the. whole of five thirty we are rockets being launched maybe anti missile rockets or anti aircraft rockets that wasn't clear and. the smoke is still rising from the better that is self-centered which we was the targeted life is beginning to return to normal into damascus it's been seven years of war at the

back this threat the threat of the aggression today has been in the air for you know a few days and people are what expecting it where did they know when it was going to happen in this scale of it and where they were going to hit but people were at least anticipating that it's going to happen any hour any hour of night probably actually people were joking about it and were saying if the trump was impulsive enough to. restrain from my back in syria the. security council meeting yesterday and also gave a feeling of. people felt that it's not going to happen. it's going to be delayed because of the noise you know the inspectors are supposed to start their work day in regarding the incident the chemical attack incident. as you want incident. but. clearly of the americans and the

americans and the and their allies the french and the british didn't wait. they didn't even wait until the inspection team arrived at duma they launched their question before that. thomas here you mentioned that the situation on the ground the mood of the people they were a little bit even joking that this might not happen before but as we look at the scene behind you there are a few cars on the street we know it's about seven seventeen in the morning on a saturday life just getting going in the city if you will we can also see the syrian flag flying in the background. what is the the mood now that the strikes have happened i mean are people defiant are they just i mean is it kind of business as usual give us a sense of what it's like to be there in damascus right now.

well it's you know saturdays are. the part of the weekend we consider is friday and saturday so it is a normal weaken day usually there is less traffic than normal and it's still early in the in the day after the strikes many citizens went into the streets some of them may be anxious or worried about the strikes and some of them just out of curiosity in the square in the center of damascus just near the syrian t.v. and the army headquarters and where the you mentioned the flag is very many citizens went and went and met with the syrian t.v. reporters that were standing there just after the strike now the mood is normal you have to remember we have to know that this is been it's been for seven years this is the this is the sort of scale of what dissidents have been going through for the past seven years and that although this is like

a bigger thing than the united states the superpower you know threatening damascus with two other superpowers but at the same level this syria has has lost it to last and every day there will be a new morning people will go to work will try to you know raise their living and life will continue no matter how how the how how far the americans are willing to go with this life will continue in syria and we know that this is not just related to the syrian conflict this is related also to american affairs to american internal affairs to the problem is that mr trump i'll use its own administration and discount many scandals that are in his personal and political life that is also related to his. relation with the gulf the. demand for money always from the gulf states is related to his to his relation with

russia to its relation with. iran so in a way this is this is going to continue or not no one here things that this is going to be the last of. the trump showing his his muscles but at the same level life continues people go to work and. the way the american syrian army and its allies are operating it's going to stay. with. the can in their way. they are stuck and again i just wanted to ask you a while ago we had heard some reports that there may have been civilian casualties due to these strikes have you heard anything to that effect. hello. all right it seems that we had some technical difficulties there and we lost our connection with ziad. now the u.s. has launched the strikes alongside its european allies the u.k. and france take a look this evening i have authorized forces to conduct coordinated

and targeted strikes to degrade the syrian regime's chemical weapons capability and deter a use we cannot tolerate the commonplace use of chemical weapons which pose an immediate danger to the syrian people and to our collective security british and french fighter jets could be seen taking off and landing from their bases in the region initially france stressed it would not allow any us collation and britain's prime minister gave a green light to the u.s. led strikes without a vote in parliament opposition party leader jeremy corbyn earlier cited an intervention that would only complicate the current situation in syria. russia america the european union all the neighboring countries iran saudi arabia have got to be involved in the meeting sure you know is the real she's trying on the political process to just give hope to the people you see in the future you will

bomb you will create more wars will not save lives we're just taking a low use sport in the war i think military strikes in syria will help solve anything you know i don't know so helpless at the moment when i've been very anxious about considering 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 that. there's a real danger of war escalating way beyond what we expect the scenario and the way to target them to send any sort of signal. pushup you know the basic military you mentioned the outset i think we have five back to two where these countries have the have the civil war we trying to fix it but we had all when the americans had their civil war nobody went to us we got this side we have now they

need to go through this oh. right inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog are due to start work in duma saturday which is today the announcement on this appeared on thursday just days after the suspected chemical attack organizations on the ground such as the white helmets and sams have reported the deaths of more than forty people and hundreds injured after arriving in duma inspectors are expected to gather samples from people who could have been affected and from the surrounding area of the inspectors reportedly will also interview doctors patients and other witnesses as well russia's ambassador to the united states says the u.s. has no moral right to charge other countries with possessing chemical weapons. our worst apprehensions have come true our warnings have been left unheard a predesigned scenario is being implemented again we are being threatened. we warn you that such actions will not be left without consequences all responsibility for them rests with washington london and paris insulting the president of russia is

unacceptable and inadmissible the u.s. the possessor of the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons has no moral right to blame other countries. and now we're joined a lot of our correspondent in of the region policy or politics for being with us here on r.t. international of course now what is the reaction in the middle east towards the u.s. led strikes in syria. well it's still very early here in the region so we still waiting for the initial official responses to come i can tell you at least that we are hearing from the syrian presidency they have tweeted and i quote that good souls will not be humiliated at the same time the syrian state t.v. is saying that the u.s. led strike is a flagrant violation of international law now we are hearing from israeli sources but these are i'm named and they are not speaking on record but it is apparent that the u.s. officials informed israel off the timing of the attack here in israel it is still

the sabbath so we are likely to get any kind of official response from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu until saturday evening but no doubt when that was spawns comes it will be words of welcome this will be something that both the israeli government and many in the israeli public will be pleased to have heard happened now earlier in the week israel did reject comments from the russian foreign ministry who said that israel had quote worsened the situation in syria by carrying out a legit air strikes there earlier israel of course is concerned about the military expansion of iran's inside syria across its border so it is hoping that these kind of strikes will limit both the syrian government and also iran's involvement with the very often the very opposite could happen and that is the concern in the region that this could lead. a greater conflict that will see iran and also russia being sworn in just yesterday rainy and straight into to tel aviv to dust and at the same

time we heard in the rain an official saying to quote that they plan to expel the american occupiers we're still waiting for their wish an official reaction to come from tehran we have heard from the nato secretary general he has supported the actions by the united states the united kingdom and france and he says that he hopes they will reduce the syrian regime's ability to further attack the people of syria with chemical weapons and that is a direct quote and also as you've been reporting we have heard from need british defense ministry saying to quote that the initial indications show that the strikes against syria again to quote produced a successful attack on syrian military facility so we'll be keeping braced all of the reactions we expect that they'll start coming in the next few hours as the region indeed wakes up to the latest developments in our policy there for the region thanks for we know that you'll stay across the situation as this story develops. and we are continuing our live coverage of president donald trump's

announcement that the u.s. france and the u.k. have launched strikes against syria some information coming in at least six civilians were injured when western coalition missiles fell on to a military depot west of homes that sources the security agencies there my name is sean thomas my colleague will be taking over for me after a short break i'm here with a jacqueline. stay with us to watch an arch international. you never know what's around the corner you never know what's in the pub you can walk into excitement it's that not knowing that's where the adrenaline in much comes from. and you can easily move on definition and the extremes will put most of. the violence in the pot and it's almost

a schizophrenia gang culture where you can do all these things and behave badly. they're going to befall the horse by the fall for us both more so focused on the last. punishment and infirmed. role. in the start. of a broader way enough i figure out a really good uphold i don't want to get. the meaning in these images that beast if you don't and the involves it's constantly evolving and if. something happens in this case it was the chemical attack on civilians in syria and then the public in the media are waiting for the response and i think it's very clear now that if president trump said that there is going to be a response then it will be i just think that our expectations in

a way that this american response will be so severe that it will be a game changer i think this is not the case it will again be misadjusted very careful calculation by the americans not to deteriorate into a clash a direct confrontation with russia. join me every thursday on the elec simon chill and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sport business i'm show business i'll see you then. hello and welcome back you're watching our international with me nicky arran and jacqueline a very go welcome to the program we're bringing you breaking news folau is for the past few hours since president trump announced that the u.s. france and the u.k.

have launched it military strikes against syria our correspondent caleb maupin from new york joins us live now with the beef kaleb good to see you tell us more on this please yes we heard from u.s. president donald trump he announced that the usa was taking action against syria in response to the alleged chemical attack in duma he used the words strong deterrents to describe his motivation and furthermore in his remarks he called out iran and russia saying what kind of nation would want to be aligned with mass murder this is donald trump announcing that he was attacking the syrian arab republic in coordination with the united kingdom and france short time ago i ordered the united states armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons.