the chief of nato alliances. it's a very rare event, only a handful of extraordinary nato alliances meetings being called in nato's 66 year history. for the last over the summer on want 28 of july was also called by turkey. back then, turkey urged nato to join it in considering a security response to the threat posed by isil. now once again, at turkey's request, it is asking nato to consider its findings as to where exactly the russian jet, where it was brought down in northern syria. it would be up to nato to formulate a considered response. >> the official went on to stress that the u.s. military was not involved in any way, shape or form in this incident between turkish fighter yet and the russian fighter jet, which was downed near the syrian turkish border. obviously, the situation is very quickly moving officials from both agencies are trying to get more information from their turkish counterparts. we don't know whether they've also reached out to their russian counterparts about what happened earlier on tue

joining us now from brussels, nato head quarters. will nato consider it a bit too late? >> reporter: i think it's very important to remember that, of course, as turkey is an nato member, one of the founding principles of the 28 nation alliance is that any kind of assault or incursion into one's airspace should be seen very much as an assault on all 28 nation states. i think nato are likely to respond to this very quickly and very strongly. we have just put in some calls to our contacts at nato who say they're currently looking at all different information that's coming into them. they need to put together a full investigation before they come out with any kind of statement, which we imagine will happen quite soon. nato headquarters here in brussels has been on maximum security because of the ongoing heightened state of security here in brussels, and we know some staff are working from home, so there could well be some delays before we hear back from nato. but in the past, referring to some of the string of incidents that have seen russia accused of violating turkish airs

as we heard from james there time and time again nato has resulted to reiterating article five of nato'sing principle really that an assault on one is an assault on all and with the turkish air space should be seen as in nato air space as well. we know that the turkish prime minister has called on the turkish and foreign ministry to open consultations not only with nato but with u.n. officials as well. of course all diplomatic channels are now open and this is exactly the kind of scenario that nato had been desperately trying to avoid ever since russia joined the conflict at the beginning of october when it began hitting what it saw as strategic targets within syria. the concern back then was that some of those targets may well be groups opposed to bashar al-assad but were actually being supported and sponsored by the united states. the concern at the time -- >> i'm going to interrupt you there because we do want to get to the next interview here on al jazeera and thank you so much for joining us out of brussels and we have a former brigadier general and is live from ankara and brigadier

close to nato borders. this highlights the importance of having and respecting arrangements to avoided such incidents in the future. as we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with turkey, and support the territorial integrity, of our nato ally turkey. we will continue to follow the developments on the south eastern borders of nato very closely. i look forward to further contacts and i call for calm and deescalation al jazeera is lye for the us inside nato headquarters. so the focus there as we heard was calming the situation down, how are we going to do that in practice? >> the key message, that they really wanted to push home, is that the calming the deescalation with russia is absolutely vital, but on the other hand, of course, nato is throwing it's weight behind the line member, and has reiterated the believe that the russian jet was indeed in turkish air space when the decision was made to shoot the jet down. for the time being, we believe that all diplomatic channels with russia, at leas

the history of the nato alliance. if the russians decide to retaliate against turkey, the nato treaty stipulates that an attack on one member will be considered an attack on all. indeed, the turks called for an emergency meeting of nato to discuss today's incident. the ironic thing is that turkey, russia, the u.s. and others say they are united around the goal of defeating isil in syria. instead, they're just playing with fire by backing opposing sides in syria's civil war and fueling potential conflict with each other. for month on today's turkey lsh russia tensions, we have this report. >> reporter: they have had a history of conflicts for more than 400 years ago through the first world what. in modern times relations were described as solid and based on mutual interests and respect. in the terms two countries trade tens of billions of dollars worth of goods every year. more than 50% of turkey's gas is supplied by russia. the war in syria has soured their relations. president assad is a major reason for the increasi

it's attended by all of those represented permanently here at nato headquarters and chaired by the natoecretary general. but already ahead of that meeting, we are getting a sense that the main thrust of this gathering will be on de-escalating things from getting any worse. the relay -- relationship already ever since the annexation of crimea last year, has been pretty poor. so the escalation like this, although predicted by nato because there are so many players operating in this theater of war, the intention is to reduce tension as much as possible. it comes at a time in which global powers around the world are responding unanimously in the wake of the attacks in paris, much more renewed effort in tackling isil, and destroying the group totally. so nato really has to tread very carefully indeed in its response and the kind of statement it gives later on. we believe already a very short written statement is what is expected, nothing like the kind of stronger responses we have seen from the alliance in the past, when there have been similar incurings by russia into turkey air space. >> a

>> after the russian jet was shot down by nato member turkey, nato called an emergency meeting. ater the meeting, spokesperson briefly addressed reporters. >> the council has just held an extraordinary meeting, and we by the turkished ambassadors on recent events. i have also spoken to the prime minister. turkey and formed allies about the downing of a russian air while in turkish airspace. i have previously expressed my concerns about the applications of thetary actions russian federation close to nato borders. the importance of having and respecting arrangements to avoid such incidents in the future is highlighted. as we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with turkey and support the territorial integrity of our nato ally, turkey. we will continue to follow developments on the southeastern borders of nato very closely. i call for calm and de-escalation. diplomacy and de-escalation are important to resolve these situations. i am ready to take your questions. >> sir, the russians are saying down ines were shot turkish airspace. do you believe turkish airspace was

but turkey pushed the matter to nato, and nato backed turkey up.entially drawing a line, a line it seems now has been crossed with fairly tragic consequences. >> rory challands thank you. let's take you to brussels. neave barker is at the nato headquarters there. there will be an emergency meeting later today, neave. >> reporter: yes, that's right. we're about an hour away from the start of that extraordinary north atlantic council meeting. only a handful have been called in the alliance's 66-year history, but it is a key chance for all 28-member states to consider the evidence that is being presented by turkey, by either their military attache or turkey's permanent ambassador to nato. from what we gather the meeting itself will be chaired by nato secretary general, it could last anywhere between an hour to three hours in length. at the end of that, there will be a joint statement. we have been told that the rhetoric of that is likely to focus on unity in this difficult time. unity between all 28 nato alliance members. the last time an extraordinar

member and attack on nato member can invoke article five which means it's attack on all nato membersia has a red line to cross on this. >> can i push on this particular point and why would leader mr. putin go into something that could detonate in his face into a quagmire here and two months ago he moved away of what was going on in crimea and moved away from what was going on in ukraine and turned his gaze here and could see potential hiccups if that is what we are seeing today. >> russian behavior show no hiccups have been anticipated because russia seems to have thought it could engage in a short, sharp, military intervention in syria that would crush the syrian opposition and bring everybody to the negotiating table so that russia can use this military action to force a political solution that would be in its interest but it has been faced with lots of prepercussions and syrian opposition is not crushed and as we can see i.s.i.s. has also started retaliating against russia and now turkey is now the latest kind of hurdle for russia so i just think that russia really entered this ki

ambassador to nato.assador burns how do you do a negotiation if a negotiated end to the conflict is your desire when there as many war aims around the table as there are delegations? >> well, it is certainly an extraordinarily complex situation in syria, and the fact the civil war in syria has bled out into lebanon, iraq, jordan, and turkey, and now into europe with the flow of refugees there. and i any negotiations rarely succeed when the parties to the conflict believe that by fighting they can chive their aims. negotiations almost always have beater chance when the -- the protagonists, the people fighting understand that fighting cannot get them to the place that they want to be. we saw that in the bosnian civil war 20 years ago. it took four and a half years to end that war, until the leaders of the countries decided by -- diplomacy they would be much better positioned to gain the objectives they had in sight. i don't think we're there in syria now. diplomacy is not going to success until the assad g

>> turkey has the second largest army in nato and it's a usual ally for nato and therefore the wholeato is has this mutual defense agreement but this is something that is definitely now putting pressure on the international community to try to step in and find a way out of the crisis because stephanie the problem that you have right now in syria and iraq you have different key players acting and fighter jets pounding different groups, different areas for different agendas, different motives and different strategic gains and sometimes it gets jammed to the point for potential incidents like the one we saw today could be replicated in the near future and why the nato and russians and turks will have to agree on a protocol and rules of engagement in the near future to prevent further escalation but i don't think they will be able to come up to an agreement unless they agree on how to move forward in syria and what is going to be the fate of bashar al-assad and whether the syrian moderate groups some of them are backed by the americans are the one whose are going to take over if assad se

guest: nato's purpose is to defend the members of nato. i do not think that purpose has been outlived. if you look at invading georgia tense ukraine, very relationships with poland, also the black sea borders, i think that the risk of a nato member being undermined, or suffering some kind of hybrid attack israel. i think it is very important that nato demonstrate it has the capability and will to defend its members. in addition to that, nato has not only defended its members, it has projected security by projecting force several times over the last decades. you remember the bosnian war, to the bosnian war. the same thing with kosovo. they put in a peacekeeping force there. afghanistan the mission for a long time, and is still undergoing training. i think that nato has roles that are still very vital. it does not mean that nato should do everything. nato is not doing anything in the middle east right now. it is not involved in syria, not involved in libya. maybe one could make the argument that it should be. its core mission is those that i

i think the first thing the nato allies at nato headquarters will ascertain, the facts.urks have maps and have video footage that certify the russian aircraft did enter turkish air space. if that is the case, and given the fact that russians violated the turkish air space twice in the last month, and russian drones have, i think the nato alliance, including the united states, is going to have to support the turks in defending their air space. at the same time, obviously president obama is not going to want to see this crisis inflame. he'll work behind the scenes with both the turks and russians to make sure this is an isolated inciden incidence. the military pressure between the two doesn't ratchet up and you avoid a larger confrontation between turkey and russia. >> why do you suppose that russian fighter jetted was in that area anyway? it's not known as an isis stronghold. >> well, the russians apparently have been bombing turk -- syrian turkmen villages in the northern part of syria. the turks have warned the russians diplomatically in the last two weeks that that's v

so nato's on alert. nato member countries know what happened in eastern ukraine could foretell trouble for them with their minorities with russian influence. so nato's not about to roll over and say to vladimir putin, you're our savior in syria. but, of course, this is what putin would like. what he would like to do is get control of the refugee situation and have the europeans rely on him militarily and come back and say, let's get rid of the sanctions on russia. this, of course, would also fracture nato. and so this is also something that putin would be very happy to see. >> all right. thanks to general wesly clark there. vladimir putin was invited to the climate summit this week. and so far, putin has not responded. >> still ahead, ben carson just released a statement about his surprise trip to visit syrian refugees in jordan. his comments next. people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. us

a nato country. it represents the major escalation in the regional conflict in syria, but potentially could worsen relations, which are already strained, of course, between russia and the nato military alliance. this is an extremely serious development that could have far reaching consequences. >> this is president hollande to head to washington to convince president obama to work more closely with russians over syria. and there was so hope he might be able to get some agreement, at least on practical coordination with the countries, but this will throw this further off course. >> reporter: it potentially will be a complication, yes. the russians will be furious about this, obviously. and that will depend on what happens to the pilots. the french president hollande is going to washington. he is also coming to moscow on thursday in a couple of days and meeting with vladimir putin. a french/russian alliance on the attacks in paris. russia is close in positions in terms of having to destroy and wanting

nato secretary general made it clear that it is nato's belief now that, indeed, that russian jet hadcurred into turkish air space when after a series of warnings the decision was made by the turkish authorities to shoot the jet down. the response at the same time for nato is one of calm, a call for de-escalation between nato and russia. the relations between the two were already extremely low, ever since russia's annexation of crimea last year. we know that for the time being that diplomatic channels between nato and russia are closed for the time being. we assume that that may well change in the coming days. the clearcut message nato headquarters, it is one of calm. >> let's go to washington, d.c. where the former u.s. ambassador to nato, thank you very much for being with us. why do you think turkey made the decision to shoot the jet down. were there other options available? >> well, they had pursued a lot of other options already. they would call in the russian ambassador on previous violations. they'd given warnings to other war craft and they had given warnings to this war craft

i'm not sure nato is ratcheting up tensions. if you like to obama and hollande at the white house today as well as the comments from the nato secretary-general -- >> agree with you. i agree nato is not ratcheted up tensions, but turkey has with the shootdown and that caused tensions ratcheted up when nato comes to turkey's defense. >> that's certainly a potential here, and look, you can see from the nato response the measured nature of the response that no one has an interest in the russians and turks getting into a more complicated conflict over this. we need to keep in mind but for the fact russia crossed into turkish territory, this wouldn't have happened. they've done so several times over the space in the last few months. at some point they would send a message. it's unfortunate they did it in this instance. for the better part of two years they're flying around turkey and united states and the united kim dom their trans upon theeders turned off. >> russia sent a message about turkey tonight. they say that they have sent ne

>> turkey has shared a lot of information with nato and nato allies and also had a special meeting of the north atlantic county where turkish ambassador went to all the information and all the details connected to the incident last week. and the information that we have also from other sources is consistent with turkish assessment about what happened last week and i think what we have seen under line sir and what we have stated several times and that is the concern related to all the increased activity and presence of russian military capabilities in syria and of course to nato borders. turkey has its right to defend itself and turkey has the right to defend its air space and my message now is that a welcome all on any context between moscow and antara and the important thing is to calm the tensions and i think also the incidents last week or so under lines the importance of us focusing on the mechanisms to avoid these kind of incidents in the future and if this happens again to do what we can to prevent them from escalating and coming out of control. >> second and last question bbc.

the only solution, is nato.u don't go that way, isis will win. >> one way to get ahead of the president is showing urgency with that speech though. i don't think the details are going to be based on what i'm hearing so far. dramatically different. you are right. she needs to bring urgency which president obama did not do in his news conferences. >> of course not. he is arrogant. he doesn't think that this rises to any kind of a crisis. it's the way he believes. you know what's interesting about president obama and henry did cover the president for a few years for us, he is not leaving any cya room, henry are. we get hit, we get hit, he goes down as the worst president in u.s. history, no doubt. >> hillary clinton is struggling with the fact that she was supposed to be bringing the best resumed to the table and she certainly has better credentials on national security than, say, bernie sanders who is a democratic socialist and barely wanted to talk about it in the debate saturday 24 hours after the paris attacks.

security council and nato. they claim to be fighting against d.a.e.s.h. however, they are in latakia and the north area which is for other reasons. there is no d.a.e.s.h. there. we know the locations where d.a.e.s.h. are. they are in other areas in the east and the south. for a long time we exerted extensive efforts in order to prevent such a regrettable accident making necessary warnings to relevant countries. however, we have explained our sensitivity towards this issue to our neighbour. until yesterday the reason why such a thing did not happen is because of the cautious and well-intended behaviour of of the government of turkey. turkey is never on the side of tension or hostility. we are always for peace and diplomacy and we will maintain our attitude from now on through. no-one, no-one can demand from turkey that turkey will ignore all the acts violating turkish airspace and the infringement of sovereignty rights and the breach of law. turkey does not have a particular negative - we don't have any invention to escal-- intention to eescalate the situa

prices talks at nato, russia accusing turkey of stabbing it in the back.russels, emergency meeting after turkish planes shoot down a russian fighter jet near the syrian border. turkey says that the airplane was in their airspace, russia's as they were not. and america backs france in the battle against the self-proclaimed islamic state. barack obama saying that the terrorist group must be destroyed. ♪ >> it is good to have you with us. the russian president says there will be significant consequences for turkey. an angry warning after turkish warplanes shot down a russian military jet near the border with syria. the foreign minister of russia has already canceled a trip to turkey that was scheduled for next week and nato is trying to get clarity and prevent escalation in the first military clash of its kind between a nato member and russia since the end of the end -- of the cold war. >> the moment a russian military plane plunged from the sky, roughly 300 kilometers north of damascus. the fate of the pilot is unclear. a syrian rebel group produced this foo

the ball sbak in nato's court? what happens from now on. >> the russian strategy will be to outflank turkey by appealing to the senior nato partners. obviously russia's relations with the united states which is the only nato partner they have is really tense. so that's difficult but as i mentioned the united states position is quite balanced in reality wean turkey and russia. but france is the key the major na, to ally with president holland due this evening and the russian strategy will be to freeze out bilateral relations with turkey. regarded as a traitor. and try to get over their heads and to get some new accommodation with the head of nato. the headline of the country of nato. >> i saw on twitter briefly someone saying quote neither nato nor russia care too much about the syria turkish border zone air rights. if this were the baltics at a moment of high tension in europe i wouldn't be like that about it. does this go back to your point on ukraine? do they really care -- >> obviously there's no threat to the i

one that nato will and you'll have an escalation, the other is nato won't, and if nato doesn't, can natotinue to exist or does it look like an absolute paper tiger. that's why this gets into a very, very dangerous situation. among the long-term ambitions and i think we know putin has, one would be to see nato collapse. he'd think that's a very good day for opening vodka and celebrating. tom: seems like he's poking at it. certainly the paris matter is a total different matter. paris could say we need to you get involved militarily with us president obama. you said you'd back us up, and seems on the turkey matter that putin is poking at nato and saying how far will you go? >> yeah, i think it's true. nato is looking largely irrelevant when you have both turkey being hit by russia. well, not turkey hit by russia, but turkey's borders invaded by russian aircraft, and more important, have you isis attacking on french soil, and nato essentially doing nothing about it. what's the purpose? people have thought for a long time that putin might want to see if he can collapse nato for example invadi

they through nato out of paris in the 1960's. french have said and i don't agree with them but a militaryhave said it mission there have been a law and order and i think it would have been to their advantage to invoke article 5. i think what president obama is trying to do here, he is putting together a coalition. he did announce with president hollande today more intensified air strikes against the islamic state, which is positive, but where they need to go next. they need to build a ground force by arming the peshmerga and the syrian kurdish troops and they haven't done it yet. >> wouldn't you say it's a little bit late and nobody believes they are going to be doing it because it's been going on close to three years now and, come on. you know. people are dying. attacks are being launched. >> i wouldn't agree with >> where am i going wrong with that? >> we have been bombing the islamic state for 18 months. the idea. >> it hasn't slowed them down. >> the ideas that we now intensify the bombing is the right instinct that president

i have previously's fres my concerns closeed my to nato borders. this highlights the importance of how arrangements to avoid such incidents in the future. as we have repeated and made clear, we stand in solidarity with turkey and support of the integrity of our nato ally, turkey. we will continue to follow the developments on the southeastern borders of nato closely. i look forward with further calm andnd i call for de-escalation. areomacy and de-escalation important to resolve this situation. i'm ready to take your questions. believe russians -- they say it was shot that over syrian territory and never went into turkey territory. are you convinced it was shot turkish airspace and it was not violated? mr. stoltenberg: the assessments alliesave several surveying the area. that wermation we have have been provided with by turkey. the information we have from other allies is consistent with what we have from turkey. >> how could it be this situation -- is there tension between russia and turkey? continuethat you will looking at the developments. how c

i would like to see the president: nato together to -- c all nato together to help the french. isis would like to attack us and has killed americans. isis has also attempted attacks we saw that earlier this year in texas. this is something we need to be focused on to protect our country and our homeland. josh: what is necessary to get five? sen. ayotte: first, you invoke article four, calling nato together. i would like to see the president do that. you can bring all the players of nato to get a to discuss how can we work together as a coalition. after 9/11, the u.s. invoked article five and the nato nations stepped up to support us qaeda. right now, it has surprised me that nato has not even been called together to say how are we going to work as a coalition. you see the french stepping up with airstrikes last week. we finally went after some targets we should have been including 116 fuel tanks taken out with ac130 gunships. there are 1000 of those trucks that isis controls. we should be increasing our efforts there. bringing the coalition together, reaching out to our arab pa

we are nato in lots of ways. at the beginning, you crossed our air space, nato ally and we should the plane down, not debatable. we won't wring our hands and say this is terrible, we won't get any relativity on this thing, you shot down, you cross your space, we shot you down and we will do again. maria: gary kasparov was on the show, he said isn't it just the beginning, this will get a lot worse. based on what we have seen some of aren't terms a terrorist activities, do you think it gets worse? >> we will take down your king if necessary. we have the capacity and demonstrated that capacity, he pushed beyond the rules. crossing the airspace of a nato ally and his plane got shot down. you cannot equivocate. that sort of stuff, you are in trouble. there is the iran deal. what does that yield? >> hard-liners in charge, makes it difficult to negotiate on anything. made a terrible mistake, the president had the international community, but syria crossed the red line and used chemical weapons and double right war insid

there could be an incident with turkey, a nato ally. they could fly over their territory and be shot down. they did it in the baltic states and now he don't over turkey. what will the russian response be? this is a critical moment. if russia believes they can respond and retaliate against turkey because nato is not going to do anything about it. they are making the farm nato is no longer viable it's a feckless alliance. so it's important for us to be clear that we'll respond and defend turkey if they counseled assault with the russians, otherwise the entire nato alliance comes into question. jenna: dan says in our chat in the u.s. is forced to defend turkey and you have china and russia on the other side, is that going to start a war? >> x sense is the russians would not test it. they do not have the capabilities in the region toan, particularly the united states other turks for that matter. so at end of the dayhough vladimir putin is a gangster and a criminal web's also a geopolitical actor who makes decisions on a cost benefit analysi

it flies close to nato territory but doesn't fly over it. why, then, would russia risk ignoring the warnings from turkey because it has done so repeatedly there? >> it is hard to know exactly what happened it could be that the russians did not fully understand where they were, that they had a navigational error. again, it could be that they see turkey as the weak link of nato. clearly if you violate brilt issue airspace, that's one thing that long-time special relationships between the united states and great britain, they may see correctly that the united states is not particularly happy withtie given the lack of enforcement with their border, allowing jihadists to move and, therefore, see turkey as a somewhat outlier inside nato and perhaps a vulnerable flank. >> to that point, the russians argue they have been looking in that area for isil supply lines between syria andey. the turks said they are turning a blind eye to smuggling goods and people? >> i don't think there is anyone who believes there is still apply line that comes through sf

there is a nato emergency meeting happening today. turkey, being an ally of nato. as recent before, france could invoke article 5 of nato. turkey could, if they say this was an act of war by russia. how do you go about invoking article five? guest: that is intriguing question. some people argue the way you have to do it is use article four of the nato treaty which requires the parties to consult together when they pick one of them has been attacked or its security was threatened. i think it would apply even without an article-four-based meeting. regardless of those sorts of legalities, however, as a practical matter, it is unlikely article five would be invoked unless at least one of the parties try to do so. so far i am not aware turkey try to do so with respect to this russian incident, nor, even, has france tried to do this with respect to the attack in paris, which clearly was an attack of the sort the treaty apply to. host: the united nations approved a resolution urging action against the islamic state. what does that mean in the context of our conversation?

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nato is fine and nato is good and nato is critical here and frankly, it needs to be strengthened andneed to work together more closely because we can see what happens when we're really not united but it's also important that we include countries that are in the region and what first jumps out at you, of course, are the saudis, perhaps jordans, i think they would join a coalition. the least administration can do is make sure the kurds are armed and taking a fight to isis in iraq really, really critical that the kurds are strong and you know, people say why? it's because they have been defending their homeland for so long and why do they like the united states? because we have been helping them to protect their own homeland and the kurds are really critical in all this and it's complicated, as well, because there are disagreements within nato, particularly with turkey in regards to the kurds but we need turkey to understand the kurds are critical in terms of taking on isis. there are a number of things we can do and i think we need to have no fly zones on the turkey border and jordan b

for nato, this is an exercise in deterrence, but russia isn't playing games anymore. it's engaged in syria, and as the secretary-general noted, building up forces from the black sea to the mediterranean. with the military capabilities of both nato and russia separately on this plane now, the possibility looms of a catastrophic confrontation, but is it possible they could become partners working together to end the war in syria? >> the important thing now is that there's a renewed effort to find a political solution to the crisis to the war in syria. russia's part of these talks. i welcome that, because all the country's which are in war with one another have to sit down and finds a political, peaceful settlement. >> reporter: that prospect made all the more difficult by a nato/russia rivalry nearing cold war levels. jonah hall, al jazeera off the coast of portugal. >>> refugees from couldn'ts like syria and afghanistan are finding new ways to reach europe. some even braving the cold of the arctic circle. this remote region might be freezing, but it's seen as safer tha

charles: too you talked -- mentioned nato, turkey is a member of nato. nato has a big meeting, i think article 4, you meet you talk. they are supposed to stay in o solidarity, including america. so what happens next? after the paris attack, it was talk of nato invoikin invoking article 5, we would all be forced to step up our efforts against isis, today we hear the rumblings. we know that americans lack leadership but where is nato on this. >> u.s. officials have been telling me, in brussels that they are frustrated with the lack of american leadership. the french are going to have to lead this, the brit vish t british have to step up, but this administration is not interested in escalating this they think it is going, fine. they think that the paris attacks are something that will happen in europe, but not in the u.s. look, the president was clear today, that we should just go out and continue shopping. that this is not going to be anything out of the ordinary. and i think that what happens is thats president sends a message he is unserious, not taking

and where is nato?er 9/11 and involved after afghanistan, and now missing in action with this war on isis? where are they? >> well, if you go become a year ago in wails, they resolved to tighten the noose on isis and double-down on the intelligence sharing and diminish and degrade isis, but trying to do it from the sides, and nato has not come in as a unified entity, and it has been this way pretty much because the national politics in countries back home like britain where the prime minister david cameron cannot get the government to agree to air strike, so they are hobbled by their own politics. that is part of the problem when you try to bring together this coalition. >> because when the president of the united states says that 65 nation nations are involved in the coalition, and many of the nations may support some refor the cal support for this, but are they doing anything? >> well, sole of the gulf states had a bigger role, and not so much now. and the uae, the united arab emirates is still there,

now i think putin is well aware of nato's capabilities, more in question are nato's intentions, and nato's determination, and nato's will, and i think those may be tested by putin. he is clearly thinking about that. the way he would do that if he wanted to is to look at estonia, latvia and lithuania, those are members of nato, those are members of the eu, if he were to invade estonia, would the u.s., would germany send troops to fight it? lou: what do you think? >> his gamble would be nato would fall apart and collapse, that turkey certainly wouldn't and france and germany probably wouldn't either and the u.s. might not have the leadership to push him out of a place like estonia. he hasn't tried that yet, that's the contingency, and the u.s. better have a policy and needs to be a good one. europe is in precarious position for a lot of reasons, that could be the thing that pushes it over the line. lou: and turning now to iran and the middle east, they continue to carry out cyberassaults on the white house, for crying out loud. they are demonstrating absolute disdain and a lack of even minor

nato has called an extraordinary meeting at turkey's request to discuss what happened. we have a report from the turkey-syria border. >> we haven't heard from president erdogan or the prime minister, but the army posted some statement, a radar map they say shows how the plane violated the turkish air space and then a statement saying that 15 kilometers before the so-called 24 got into the turkish air space, it got a first warning, then a second, a are and then it crossed into the air space. a body of one of the pilot is with them for the time being. fighting is taking place between the opposition and syrian government. four days ago, the turkish prime minister summoned the russian ambassador expressing concerns about russian airstrikes striking turk mapp minority on the border with turkey. turkey has been saying that also that russia is not after isil, russia is intervening in syria to support bashar al assad and to take on the moderate syrian opposition, so you have two conflicting perspectives here. if any in curses continue, this will follow and this is what happened

for nato, this is an exercise in deterrence, but russia isn't playing games anymore. it's engaged in syria and as the secretary general notes, building up the presence in the black sea. >> the possibility looms of a catastrophic confrontation, but it is possible they could become partners, working together to end the war in syria? >> important now is that there is renewed effort to try to find a political solution to the crisis to the war in syria. russia's part of these talks. i welcome that, because all the countries which are involved in one way or another have to sit down and find a political, peaceful settlement. >> that prospect made all the more difficult by a nato russia rivalry nearing cold war levels. jonah hull, al jazeera off the coast of portugal. >> the united nations says cholera spread from iraq to syria and could develop into a regional epidemic. it's partly because of ref jeers living in unbearable conditions in camp. some have decided to leave and seek better conditions elsewhere. we have a report from tripoli in lebanon. >> many ships of bound for

nato seems to be the obvious institution, but i believe russia is not part of nato.to fit into the view forward? ryan: it is a very big question because even if president obama and president putin agree on what to do in syria, just acrimonious the relationship between the two countries has become and how difficult it will be for the intelligence communities in the united states, the militaries in the u.s. and russia to work together. they are basically enemies, so that will be very difficult. obviously russia will not have anything to do with nato and nato will not have anything to do with russia. they are targeting each other in other parts of the world. the french airstrikes we have last 24syria, in the hours, the only reason why those are happening is because the u.s. has offered new targeting information to the french. the french and the americans are close allies. imagine how much more difficult that will be if it was russia they were supposed to share intelligence with. francine: what solution will we have for syria? we had the vienna talks. there was no one fr

they are consulting with nato. this isn't at the point of nato-russia confrontation.is is is the culmination e've observed ever since the start of the ukraine crisis. a russian policy of more aggressively probing and penetrating nato airspace in the baltics. even my own country of ireland has had one or two incidents of this kind. up until now, most have ignored this. the turks made it very clear in october as russia's operations in syria started to ramp up that they were extremely displeased by these penetrations of airspace and if they continued, that they would respond. that has tragically led to the loss of life of one of the pilots. francine: is anyone in the wrong in this? the u.s. is saying, the planes may be in turkish airspace. do we need to forget who is in the wrong and move on or have resolution? does somebody need to apologize? i'm not sure what the next step is. >> it would be extremely surprising to see either side issue an apology. what we would expect to see is something more along the lines of what is playing out right now. statements while his spoke

a nato member blasting a rush be jet out of the sky awakens all of putin's animosity towards nato bloc. we could see more complications in a very complicated piece of airspace. >> alarming headline when a nato member shoots down a russian plane, only over turkish airspace for 30 seconds. is that enough time, warning to give to the russian jet? >> reporter: hard to tell. in defense of the turkish here, russians have put videos of their planes buzzing u.s. drones over syrian airspace. they've been clear to tell the world they're there have they want to be there and they want to be wherever they want to be, to some degree. we'll never know with great transparency precisely how long they were in turkish airspace. russians say they never were in the first place and the strike occurred inside syrian airspace. it's moving around, it's moving in and out, the border itself can, some say, be hard to define in many stages but doesn't take away escalating rhetoric. we have to forget -- remind ourselves we're not in the '80s but the idea of nate to and russian aircraft duking it out over a cwar zon

nato has been quick to rally to support turkey. during the course of the extraordinary north atlantic council meeting on tuesday, the turkish delegation presented its findings and video and data as to how and why the decision was made to shoot down the russian jet. according to the turkish version of events, the jet was over turkish airspace at the time the decision was made. according to the turks a series of warning were given to the pilot of that plane before the decision was finally made. that now, according to nato is the shared position of all 28 members states. of course, nobody at the moment is interested in seeing this play out militarily, but we may well see in the coming days more assertiveness from turkey an russia. there may well be a war of words, if nothing else, and at the end of that, of course, nato may end up playing a much more assertive role also >>> the u.s. president obama has reiterated his stance that turkey has a right to defend itself. he hopes that russia will give us the support for syria's president. a

and nato support turkey's right to defend its sovereignty. also agreed on the importance of deescalating any conflict between russia and turkey which is, after all, an nato member >>> a state of emergency has been declared in tunisia after an attack on a bus. at least 12 people were killed. the president says his country is at war with what he called terrorists. >> reporter: the remains of the presidential bus hit right in the heart of the city. it was picking up officers at a bus stop when the explosion happened. on one of the capital's streets it was why commuters at the time. the president called it an act of terror and imposed a state of emergency. >> translation: after consulting with the prime minister and head of parliament i would like to declare a state of emergency extending for 30 days as per the law. secondly, there is a curfew imposed across the country starting from 9 this evening until tomorrow morning at 5. >> reporter: it is still recovering from two attacks on tourists this year. security forces were criticised they for not

that now, according to nato, is the shared position of all 28 members states. of course, nobody at the moment is interested in seeing this play out militarily, but we may well see in the coming days much more assertive in turkey and russia. there may well be a war of word if nothing else, and at the end of that, of course, nato may end up playing a much more assertive role also >>> on the dmaund commuter trains have run again and schools have reopened after a four day security alert in brussels. there was an imminent threat of attack similars to the paris atacts. many of the attackers had ties to brussels and the police suspect the mastermind may be hiding out in belgium. a suicide bomber is suspected of causing a bomb blast on a bus in tunisia. at least 12 people were killed. a state of emergency has been declared. they're at war with terrorists says the president. >> reporter: the remains of the presidential bus hit right in the heart of tunis. it was picking up officers at a bus stop when the explosion happened. on one of the capital's main bona fided, it wa

. >> and that is the immediate situation, and nato is meeting in brussels in the current moment right now in a couple of hours, and obviously, they want to make sure that there is no es kalation, and that russian does not retaliate. and we wonder whether the statements from both presidents were significantly in the turkey nato members' favor in order to deter the russian retaliation. that is one issue. and then the other issue as jim said that the president hollande said that in syria, he would not put any boots on the ground, but he said that there needs to be a closure of the syria/turkey border, and that coupled with president obama's comments about how russia is acting too close to the turkey border, and there's no known isis in certainly in the area that russian plane was today, a implying that russia is going off after the wrong targets to bolster the assad, there is a sense that hollande is apparently talking about the no-fly zone, and other former nato officials have said that along the syria/turkey border if there was a no-fly zone, it would stop this business of the incursio

ambassador to nato.from his post at harvard's kennedy school of government about this drama between nato and russia now. ambassador burns, welcome to the program tonight. >> thank you very much. >> this is really an extraordinary day. i mean, the sort of developments that who knew could have happened. first of all, president putin saying downing of russian jet over syria is stab in the back. donald tusk, the eu commission president in this dangerous moment after downing of russian jet, all should remain cool-headed and calm. from your vantage point as a former ambassador to nato, what do you think happened and what is going to happen? >> if the turks can convince the nato countries that the russian jet entered arpgs, i think nato will have no option but to defend the right. the president ard juan publicly warned the russian government more than 30 days about previous incursions into turkish air space, and they called into the russian ambassador to complain about syrian turkman villages. there's a history

and therefore nato has to respond to that.s what we are doing when we are increasing the readiness, preparing our forces and doing exercises like this. >> reporter: it's nato's biggest show of collective force in over a decade. and as these maneuvers take place on the northern spanish plains, russia is expanding its presence in the middle east. in the skies above syria, on the ground and with its warships and submarines in the eastern mediterranean and black sea. this is nato's answer. >> the combination of rushing a going in to syria as well as isis being in syria that's what has generate the i think such a significant spike in the refugees coming out of there. that's a significant threat as well. so our alliance, which is built on collective defense has a serious threat from the east, which is russia, it has a serious threat from the south, which is a combination i think of refugees problem that will be around for a long time and islamic extremism. >> reporter: 36,000 troops, 140 aircraft from 30 countries, and with a mariti