president obama as a way to arm, fund, and train a moderate opposition force to syrian president bashar al assad. joining us now nbc news bureau chief ali arrouzi. if true, this will be -- appear to at least be a big win for both russia's vladimir putin and syria president bashar al assad

in the case of bashar al—assad, let me be clear.ty council to request for any case to be referred to the icc. it is the un security council that has been mandated under the rome statute, and also acting under chapter seven, that can take the decision. but you have a say, you can present a case to the security council. you can present evidence or you can say, yes, we approve of this or not. have you done that? no, because, under the rome statute, this is not my mandate. i can only, when a case has already been referred to the icc, then i can make periodical reports to update the un security council on where we are. what about allegations of torture by us personnel at bagram airbase in afghanistan? afghanistan is one of the signatory states to the rome statute, and it is member of the icc. would you open formal investigations, for instance? to be clear, afghanistan is a state party to the rome statute, as signed and ratified, and afghanistan is one of those situations that have been under preliminary examination for some time now befo

are you suggesting that president bashar al—assad's forces have not been guilty of atrocities?if a case is referred by the un security council, as sudan has been done, and libya, we subject them to the same tests and see that legal requirements under the rome statute are met. in the case of bashar al—assad, let me be clear — we do not go to the un security council to request for any case to be referred to the icc. it is the un security council that has been mandated under the rome statute, and also acting under chapter 7, that can take the decision. but you have a say, you can present a case to the security council. you can present evidence or you can say, "yes, we would approve of this" or not. i mean, have you done that? no, because, under the rome statute, this is not my mandate. i can only — when a case has already been referred to the icc, then i can make periodical reports to update the un security council on where we are. all right. and what about allegations of torture by us personnel at bagram air base in afghanistan? afghanistan is one of the signatory states to the r

will have to put pressure on the shallow sad for him to even step down the pipe thank you. —— bashar al—assad—— down. a controversial art collection is soon to go on display at a museum in switzerland. around a 150 drawings, lithographs, and paintings have arrived at the bern museum of fine arts. they belonged to a german collector, and there are questions over whether some of the work may have been looted by the nazis. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. opening the door on the past. works of art hidden away for decades which can now be seen for the first time. according to officials, this work was all acquired legally, confiscated from german museums by the nazis. this treasure trove was only covered in 2012, an almost unprecedented find. this exhibition and this whole case is not about art history alone, this is always and forever about history and modern history in the 20th century and post—war history, war history. the owner of these p(aintings had kept them hidden away after inheriting them from his father, but not all the material has been maintained in prime condition. we have mould problem

it was meant to put so much to bring bashar al-assad to the negotiating table and obviously this wasn't going to happen and it didn't. >> sreenivasan: is bashar al-assad happy now that there is a deescalation of support of arms against the people he's against is this. >> i think it's good news to him. it's going to become official u.s. policy, he knows he's in the clear as far as a u.s. intention to pose a threat to him. without the united states backing one or more to have the groups in syria, there isn't any way to pose arious threat to the regime given that russia and iran are fighting on his side. >> sreenivasan: the senate armed services committee said john mccain said, even while recuperating, i want to read his quote, if this is true, the administration is playing into the lands of vladimir putin and making concessions to bashar al-assad and syria is irresponsible and short sighted. >> i think what john mccain is saying is he doesn't agree with leaving bashar al-assad alone, focusing only on i.s.i.s. and letting the russians dictate the way it plays out in terms of cease fire. if

syria president bashar al assad to see one of the major players pull out of that fight. >> that's right, if the reports, as you said, from the washington post are correct, it will certainly tip the favors even further in favor of putin, assad, and the iranians who shared militias have been fighting the rebels on the ground there. as you mention, the cia began the covert operation in 2013 and trained some 10,000 fighters, but a u.s. intelligence official tells nbc news that the program wasn't particularly successful because numbers of fighters it diminished over the years and many of the arms supplied by america ended up in the hands of al qaeda and its affiliates. the rebels made some limited gains in 2015, but that's when russia got involved and started pounding them with air strikes. now, even though the program wasn't really effective, some u.s. officials both past and present see it as a concession to russia and where america will lose even more leverage in a region where their influence is already limited.

there is a long history of dishonesty by the searing government by bashar al-assad. no shred of evidence whatsoever to back up the claim that this wasn't done by the syrian government. you can look at a few months ago where after the chemical weapons attack, bombs were used and the assad regime was claiming that they didn't use barrel bombs come even though they absolutely did. in 2011, for a side order of violence that resulted in thousands of serious and common men, women and children ended up being killed. i thought claiming that he had nothing to do with ordering the violence. we can't really look at these claims with any bit of credibility or legitimacy. i have not seen a shred of evidence to back them up. julia: meanwhile, not only that, but the government has kind of gotten the message because they had the one chemical attack. how about a second since the trump administration wants those initials? let me play you a sound bite from u.s. ambassador nikki haley, referring to that specifically when she testified about this. >> i think that by the president calling

bashar al-assad. >> bashar al-assad, i know you mispronounced his name a few times. >> who didn't evennk of using chemical weapons. jonathan, somebody's asking questions, it's not your press briefing. major, you want to come on up? and with that, i'll take some questions. steve holland. >> steve holland's not here. >> david jackson. >> david's not here. >> i'll let the tweets speak for themselves. that's the silliest thing i've ever heard. this is silly. stop shaking your head again. >> sean, come on, sean. sean... >> sean... ( applause ) >> trevor: good buy -- goodbye, spice. we'll -- we'll -- we'll miss -- we'll -- we'll -- we'll miss -- we'll be right back. here ya go. awesome, thank you. thank you. that's... not your car. your car's ready! wrong car... this is not your car? i would love to take it, but no. oh, i'm so sorry about that. you guys wanna check it out? it's someone else's car... this is beautiful. what is this? it's the all-new chevy equinox. this feels like a luxury suv. i love this little 360, how do they even do that? i made a bad decision on my last car purchase. wel

bashar al-assad. >> bashar al-assad, i know you mispronounced his name a few times. >> who didn't evenusing chemical weapons. jonathan, somebody's asking questions, it's not your press briefing. major, you want to come on up? and with that, i'll take some questions. steve holland. >> steve holland's not here. >> david jackson. >> david's not here. >> i'll let the tweets speak for themselves. that's the silliest thing i've ever heard. this is silly. stop shaking your head again. >> sean, come on, sean. sean... >> sean... ( applause ) >> trevor: good buy -- goodbye, spice. we'll -- we'll -- we'll miss -- we'll be right back. ♪get up. ♪get down. ♪you're gonna rock the party. ♪get down. ♪party up. ♪always fun. ♪get up. ♪rock this party up. ♪get down. ♪you're gonna rock the party. grecalculating., come to a complete stop. ♪ in one mile, arrive at a place where you make your own lane. only to discover... ...it has traffic jams too. your all new compass. well-qualified current lessees of competitive vehicles get a low mileage lease on the all new 2017 jeep compass latitude 4x2 for $199 a mont

but syria is a unique example because it's bashar al assad's country, isn't it? as the russians and the iranians behind him. you get isis out of raqqah, how soon before bashar al assad and his forces come back in. >> that creates a hole. and who fills that hole? assad still rules syria. so, michael, help me understand something. secretary of state tillerson had a long statementy e. and he writes, isis can get out of syria, if all parties focus on that objective. he writes that russia must remove the obstacles to defeat isis. he pointed out russia. what are they? does it signal to you that he has russia's confidence on that front? >> when russia went to war in syria in september of 2015, they didn't go after isis, though that was the fanfare of intervnginte interventi intervention. they went after rebel groups and other oppositions groups that are deemed more a menace. not to say jihadist, but the -- when bashar -- >> michael, stand by, having a hard time hearing you. we're only getting about every other word. barbara, let me go to you on that front. >> well, look.

your question regarding bashar al-assad, let me put it simply -- we now have a new approach on syriase we want some results and we want to be closely working together with our partners, including the united states of america, which has one main goal, which is to eradicate terrorism, no matter who they are. we want to build an inclusive and sustainable political solution. against the ground -- that background i do not require , assad's departure. this is no longer a prerequisite for france to work on that. because i can only tell you that for seven years, we did not have an embassy in damascus and still -- we have a common line together with president trump. he intervened before i was elected. i said to president putin when i was elected, no use of chemical weapons. any use will lead to reaction and a reaction regarding -- next we also want humanitarian corridors. also we want to build a sustainable political stability for syria. this is our roadmap. in order to stick to it, we have made diplomatic initiatives beyond military action. this is what would be agreed upon because we want t

country and is going to proceed with national interests from the viewpoint of vladimir putin, bashar-al assadaintaining power is very much in their national interest, russian influence in the middle east, we know that bashar-al assad is the butcher of baghdad, and we want to mount, we think that he is part of the problem and part of russian influence, and also iranian influence in that part of world. >> shepard: you mentioned the objects of them getting along, i have been reading from lots of different folks today who are not so sure that is a great thing, after all, this man interfered in our election or at least attempted to do so, according to our intelligent se see, first time the kind of thing has happened since world war ii, he backs his murderous dictator, who is killing hundreds of thousands of his own people, it doesn't seem like a guy that you should get along with. >> well, we get along with a lot of people that we don't like it, we have gotten along with at the height of the cold war, i mean that we had civil meetings, with soviet dictators, with russian dictators, and various oth

why would he do it because he's evil the murderous syrian dictator bashar assad has been a brutal dictator bashar al assad's a murderous regime in syria assad is the worst kind of brutal war criminal a classic super villain both stupid and evil beyond any logic the kind a villain man would go off and america is batman. if mr assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons he and his military will pay a heavy price britain is already on board if it does something really dumb for no reason again the u.k. will join the us in punishing him we think it's absolutely right if we can to prevent the use of chemical weapons and we will fully support any u.s. action and if you've been following events in syria recently you know they'll hitting the united states has attacked i said times and what they say is self defense. problem is justifying the prolonged conflict isn't easy western voters don't want another gung ho campaign they learned their lesson off the first few times the international community sick of reckless interventions the only thing left is to wait for asset to give them a cools

next, your question regarding bashar al assad, which is an important one, let me put it simply. indeed we now have a new approach of syria because we want some results and we want to be closely working together with our partners, including the united states of america. we have one main goal which is to eradicate terrorism, no matter who they are. we want to build an inclusive and sustainable political solution. against that background i do not require assad's departure. this is no longer a prerequisite for france to work on that because i can only tell you that for seven years we did not have an embassy in damask and still we have no solution. next, we also have a common red line together with president trump. he intervened before i was elected and i said it to president putin after my election, no use whatsoever of chemical weapons. any use will lead to reaction and attack against -- reaction regarding the storage places. next, we also want humanitarian corrido corridors. also, we want to build a sustainable political stability for syria. this is our roadmap. in order to stick

host: on the government of bashar al-assad. guest: that obviously does not .ean we are leaving syria we have to be engaged, a country like syria. there in the south -- in the ceremony, what happened after that? needs to bea engaged in one way or the other. as a part of a special operations task force that focused on high-value targets, it gave me a sense of what was going on in the middle east and what has been going on in the sense it is very focused and targeted and we need to continue the strategy. let's hear what our caller has to say. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to talk about civility. i stayed over to talk to you, sir, a democrat. the day after the election, democrats and certain societies trump toher to stop they have to do everything are in step with each other against everything he brings msnbc arethat cnn and going along with him. the only time i get any kind of good news, i feel like our government has fallen down because there is so much against trump. host: let's have the congressman respond. guest

regarding syria, as mentioned by president trump, is france ready to talk directly with bashar al—assadld you paris is no longer paris. you are implying at the time that paris was not safe any more, you have also said that france and germany are infected by terrorism and quote, it is their fault because they let people enter the territory. those are strong words. would you repeat them today and you still believe that france is not able to fight terrorism on its owi'i not able to fight terrorism on its own territory? you had better let me a nswer own territory? you had better let me answer that one, it is a beauty. he is the one that asked the question, that was in one of my pics. you know what, it is going to be just fine because you're a great president, somebody who will run this country right and somebody who will run this country rightandi somebody who will run this country right and i would be willing to bet because i think this is one of the great cities in the world and you have a great leader now, great president, tough president who will not be easy on people that are breaking

question: what about bashar al-assad in syria? pres. trump: assad? question: assad. pres. trump: i'm not a fan of assad, okay? he will tell you that, because we hit 58 out of 58, or, you could even say, 59 out of 59, when we launched the tomahawk missiles. no, i am not a fan of assad. i certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible. so, i have been saying that for a long time. i am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do. and he did it a number of times -- when president obama drew the red line in the sand. and then he should have crossed that red line, because some horrible acts against humanity took place, including gas and the killing through gases. that was a bad day for this country. and i'd go a step further that, had president obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, i don't believe you'd have russia and i don't believe you'd have iran to anywhere near the extent, and maybe not at all, in syria today. ok? thank you very much. question: [no translation provided] pm hariri: [

they say as a matter of fact they did not want bashar al-assad to stay in powe power. russia has a military base in syria that is incredibly important to them which way they where they can project power. iran, hezbollah, generally democracy in the middle east is jaundiced to stay the least. the idea that somehow, tillerson went as far to say that even on some issues, the russians might have the better policy and we might have the wrong policy. i'd really like to hear more about what those policies are. >> bret: michael, what was the deliverable, do you think, that vladimir putin came out of that meeting with? we probably aren't going to know all the details for that for some time. but if syria might have been the u.s. deliverable, what, potentially, is vladimir putin's? >> i think vladimir putin, as jonah was talking about, is probably very happy with the statements coming from secretary of state tillerson. to see to make say that there are some issues that the russians were right on and were wrong is a big coup. look at the way the russians are treating the north kore

bashar. .. al... did not even sink to chemical weapons. bashar... al... al assad. puts russian salad dressing on his salad and suddenly he is connected to russia. put your hand up like a big boys. are you 0k? to russia. put your hand up like a big boys. are you ok? i can sense the love—in the room. big boys. are you ok? i can sense the love-in the room. sean! sean! sean! sean! donald trump says it is all fine. with us now is james boys. are you surprised he has gone so soon?m has been on the cards for a long time, to be honest. he was the face of the donald trump administration coming in injanuary. in the last few weeks he has been replaced by his deputy. his replacement had been touted for a while. those briefings have gone off camera for a while. it was acknowledged donald trump was not happy with how the presentation had gone. that clip showed he was mocked by everyone on saturday night live. that did not go down well at the white house. for the last couple of weeks and months, many people have been going in to be interviewed. some from fox news. his demise had

charlie: what do you think about president bashar al-assad what -- and what has happened to syria? javad sharif: it is not my business to think about bashar al-assad. it is my business to think about the people of syria. we want them to decide for themselves. charlie: not your business? it is not say that -- my business, it is his business, no matter what he does -- mr. javad sharif: i think what has happened in syria has been the consequences of people redlinesyria imposing that this gentleman or another gentleman or lady should or should not be in the government. charlie: the issue is the use of chemical weapons -- mr. javad sharif: we reject the use of chemical weapons. because of what happened to you and the iraq-iran war you should be at the top of the list to say if syria uses chemical weapons, it is a crime against humanity. you should of said it. and you should not be supporting a regime that uses chemical weapons. mr. javad sharif: no, you have to stop there. because who has established the facts? accept the united states, which is a party to the conflict, along with its al

this is a guy whose annexed crimea, forces have gone into ukraine and supporting bashar al assad. he is a relative player and he knows it. he is a convincing person as well, it seems. to appear comfortable and at ease with people. >> again, these were the firgs pictures, prior to the meeting taking place as we speak between u.s. president donald trump and russian leader, vladimir putin. thank you so much for being with us, helping us understand the very brief exchange the diplomatic analysis. fascinating, really appreciate it. that's going on inside. outside hamburg, protests over the last 24 hours. well over 100 police have been injured. we'll get an update on that, coming up. ♪ when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites. >>> these are the pictures from moments ago. the first sit down meeting between u.s. president donald trump and russian president vladimir putin. president trump looks forward to a positive discussion. positive happening with russia and the united s

so they are defending bashar al-assad. there is a civil war going on. what does it really entail? i'm not understanding the nuts and bolts of what this de-escalation zone and cease-fire is. >> okay. it's very important to understand the challenge of the tribal nature of what's going on over there, okay? so assad represents a tribe in syria that has held power for many thousands of years. it's important to understand that because he's not going anywhere. he's entrenched, he will fight to the last person, and there is a blood oath among his people to do that. against him are the -- >> eric: write, write, write, right... for the sake of our audience, if assad goes ahead and chemically bombs his own people again, will we not attack him? >> the president has made clear no more chemical weapons. if you continue to use chemical weapons, there will be greater military intervention by the united states. >> eboni: is that a redline? >> i think it's a bright red line. i think he made that really clear and he'll enforce the redline, unlike what happened in the past. >> eric: is russia saying

it's still bashar al assad's country and he is backed by the russians.anage to get raqqah back, what happens when syrian forces backed by the russians also with some iranian influence begin to move back into these areas? will these people be -- could isis move back in? what about the money that it's going to cost? these are all questions that the trump administration has yet really to answer. and there is another complication. turkey, a close u.s. ally just to the north, turkey not happy about most of this because it's going to ato the kurdish influence in northern syria, something that turkey objects to. so this really just the beginning maybe of the middle but not even the beginning of the end for the complications for the trump administration. according to everyone we talked to. fred. >> nick, back to mosul, iraq, there are conflicting reports about the potential timeline about the fall of mosul. what are you hearing? >> reporter: as i say, it could be hours, it could be days. i'm hearing anything from potentially five days, the reality of the fightin

as limited ability to remove bashar al assad from power. >>> more than 4,000 people are out of their homes in central california because of a massive wildfire. the detwiler fire has destroyed at least 29 homes and threatened thousands of other buildings. its size nearly doubling in one evacuation centers are open for residents as they wait for these flames to die out. >> i'm not going to worry about it. i'm alive. i'm not going to stay there for it to get to me. we'll come back, we'll rebuild if it happens. >> the fire is now moving away from yosemite national park which is now open, but there is still thick smoke in the air, which may affect visitors with breathing problems. >>> search crews believe they may have found the body of the tenth victim of last weekend's flash flood at an arizona recreational site. hector garnica and nine members of his family died. the remains have to be identified using dna. >>> carrier corporation is laying off 300 workers today and another 300 in december. the layoffs are part of a deal that was once celebrated by then president-elect trump, six month

with the bashar al—al. .. bashar al—assad in charge. the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that about the russian connection. hey, jonathan, somebody‘s asking a question, it's not your press briefing. julie's asking a question, please calm down. ok, you don'tjust get to yell out questions, you've got to raise your hand like big boys and girls. major, i... you want to come on up? hold on. at some point, report the facts. don't make me make the podium move. are you 0k? i can sense the love in the room. thank you so much. all: sean! come on sean! sean! what about the putin call? his future is bright, he may well be missed by many. joining us from our london newsroom is matt zarb—cousin who was the spokesman up until april for labour leader, jeremy corbyn. good morning. what do you make of sean spicer out of the job in six months? i'm not surprised. one of the key things you have to have in a job like that is credibility. you have to have the credibility and the trust of the press, even if they don't particu

moscow and vladimir putin support bashar al-assad. a consumer alert to tell you about.at any gas station. that is a gallon of gas under a dollar. it is happening in brookfield, illinois. this is just outside of chicago. the driver who snapped the pic said he only waited 20 minutes. a neighboring gas station was down a very special day at one montgomery pontypool pool. it was renamed the sarah e. hour western pool. she served as the swim coach for the pool barometers and the swim club. she died tragically in a car accident in december of 2002. the county executive join members of her family for the swim meetafter a mini- in her name, which raised money for scholarship in her name. coming up on abc 7 news, police stop and arrest a man in tennessee. it takes an unexpected turn, but has a happy ending. we will show you, next. a gorgeous day to get outside. you still have some time, but josh is tracking rain to start fios is not cable. we're a 100% fiber optic network. and with the new fios gigabit connection... ever. with download speeds up to 940 me