and andrew tabler, a senior fellow in the program on arab politics at the washington institute. andrew tabler, you heard margaret talk about the anger, the bitterness and vitriol, what do you think assad wants out of had? >> it's very clear. he wants to frame the war in syria, the uprising in syria as a war against terrorism and one that as margaret said the rest of the world can bandwagon behind him. but actually what assad wants to do is force a solution in syria. he does not want this kind of negotiated solution as we've seen here in month roe. -- montreux. he wants to held for his re-election for a third seven area term as president. he talked about that in a recent interview leading up to today's talks which actually with the precursor to moualem's comments today. >> ifill: what do you think about that joshua, landis, what is he is up to here. >> i think assad, you know, the americans want him to step aside. the syrian opposition want him to step aside. he's quite strong on the grouped. he's got a powerful military with an air force and tanks and artillery. the opposition c

and andrew tabler, a senior fellow in the program on arab politics at the washington institute for near east policy. joshua landis, let me start with you. what do you take there first round of talks? >> well, i think many people were expecting-- were expecting that the united states would be willing to take half a loaf, that it would be willing to compromise to the point of not asking for regime change in syria in order to get, perhap, some access to stafbing people, to victims inside syria, and perhaps the beginnings of a cease-fire nor to alleviate the suffering of the syrians and the big outflow of refugees that risks to bring down and trouble neighboring states but the u.s. stuck to its guns and said that there has to be regime change in syria. as soon as the assad regime sensed this and heard the opening speech, it began to take away offers of cease-fire access to humanitarian agencies and the conversation became one of accusation, counteraccusation, very heated. and we haven't seen any progress. and we've seen stalling on chemical weapons. i think that the regime want to geneva, i