would like to back there on from the precondition which the americans used to have of president bashar assad stepping down and so i think this new more pragmatic i think that the russian president put it best when he said this more pragmatic american approach which normal give sets conditions like the ruvell of the syrian president i think this fact does indeed make clear the chances for. this latest ceasefire to be more successful it increases the likelihood of success because we do indeed appear to have a new merican a recognition of the reality of war pragmatic as i said the american approach with regard to the three regions that we chose and why do you think they were chosen why this area of syria. well look the us time and again has spoken about the importance of jordan the jordanian ally obviously jordan it was one of the us the main allies in the region and the u.s. would like jordan to remain the spared from the clear from the terrorist violence which has wreaked havoc you know war throughout the region so i think that's one reason the u.s. is keen on preserving the jordanian allies

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

. to even step down the pipe thank you. —— basharal—assad. —— down.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 problems, we have to check precisely so that is our first thing. we really have to l

has been a brutal dictator bashar assad's a murderous regime in syria assad is the worst kind of brutal war criminal 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 and said point in time and what they say is self defense. problem is justifying the prolonged conflict isn't easy western voters don't want another gung ho i mean campaign they learned their lesson all for 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 and since he's a comic book supervillain th

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

bashar al assad has one really bad habit and that's how it is and he only does this when he's winning he ruins everything by doing something really stupid for no reason to. take me now they crushing islamic states liberating vaal swathes of syria and out of the blue comes this. the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the saddam regime that said knows the pro-ball consequences of a chemical attack it's the only thing really right now who could ruin him by giving his enemies pretext to attack him. 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

has been a brutal dictator bashar 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 but 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 the 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'll know they'll hitting the united states has attacked as i said five 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 i mean campaign they learned their lesson after 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 and since he's a comic book supervillain

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.

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

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

russia support syrian president basharal assad and back to the rebels fighting him and both sides are trying to push isis out of syria. tillerson talked to others off camera about the agreement. >> i think this is first indication and of u.s. and russia being able to work together in syria and as a result of that we had a le lengthy discussion regarding area areas in syria we can continue to work together on to deescalate the areas and violence once we defeat isis. >> still unclear though how the cease-fire will be enforced and it goes into effect sunday noon demascus time and southwest area of syria near actual tillerson border. the two countries have different views on how to handle north korea nuclear ambitions. it was not just the trump meeting there was a lot of other things going on. president trump sat down with enrique and toll the first meeting of the lawmakers. he's making progress renegotiating nafta with mech mex and mexico will still be the one paying for the poder wall. they say no. >> head of european council spoke at g 20 today and encouraged by the speech he after in

people started asking what would happen to president aside question -- bashar assad?you're putting the carrot before the horse. because, if we are putting closet -- if we're talking about constitutional reform, the role of the president -- charlie: the syrian people should decide? javad zarif: yes, they should decide who is in it. so, the people who have longed this conflict, for at least four this idea wasse on the table since 2013. as secretary kerry has said, time and again, this idea -- my plan, formed the basis for a security council resolution 2254 on syria which was unfortunately adopted four years later. so, we are talking about real situations. we need to bring these conflicts to an end. bring the war in syria to an end. we need to bring the senseless bombing -- how do we do that. javad zarif: exactly as i said, cease-fire -- charlie: do you think a cease-fire in that region will hold? javad zarif: i believe that iran, russia, and turkey -- based on third a plan a few months ago. you see the amount of killing and suffering of the syrian people, it has been dr

bashar... al... al assad. you have mispronounced his name. bashar al—assad.nly 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 been forecast for a while. to what extent was that

relations with moscow the rebels were being trained to fight against the russian backed government of bashar assad. the cia program was launched by in twenty thirteen under the obama administration it's proved training for providing training for commanders from the free syria army at bases in jordan and supplied certain opposition groups with weapons and also equipment from the scheme has reportedly cost over a billion dollars per year and it's not been without its critics in twenty fifteen overall spending on the program was reduced following claims of ineffectiveness. in twenty six being clashes between two different rebel groups one armed by the cia and one by the pentagon raised further questions as did reports that some of the weapons intended for syria were repeatedly stolen by jordanian intelligence agents and resold on the black market one former u.k. for former u.k. a former ambassador to syria excuse me told us the significance of the decision to end the program is being overblown. it is hysterical quite simply if you can put rusher in a headline in the mainstream media in the west that

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

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

launched back in twenty thirteen under the obama administration to put pressure on syrian president bashar assad. bases in jordan it provides training first selected commanders from the opposition free syrian army as well as supplying weapons munitions. well some media were quick to call the possible halt of the program a victory for a lot of your putin saying it shows trump's willingness to work with schools over syria well let's delve a little bit deeper into this because brooks professor of government. durham university joins us live in the program term of course in the north of england very welcome and if this report is true because it's not totally verified of course what reasons are behind the move. well it will be will have to see what the move is and what discussions were really were held but it would seem that what might be behind this move is could be a softening of. approach moments of the americans changing course in syria and i think it could also mean some suspects. focusing more on domestic politics the united states and withdrawing from other parts of the world so a bit of. the m

has caved in to the rebels were being trained to fight against the moscow backed government of bashar assad. well the cia program was launched back in twenty thirteen under the obama administration it's been providing training for selected commanders from the free syrian army at bases in jordan as well as supplying weapons and equipment the scheme has reportedly been costing over one billion dollars every year. when twenty fifteen the program was criticized as ineffective and overall spending on it was reduced by twenty percent a year after that it was said that groups of syrian rebels supported by two different u.s. agencies had begun fighting each other over territory it also emerged that weapons sent to syrian rebels have been reportedly stolen by jordanian intelligence agents and then sometimes sold on the black market so a lot of details let's get further into some of them with former u.k. ambassador to syria and bahrain peter ford always good to see you sir the media has called the cia program coming to an end a victory for vladimir putin in somewhat like a slur against trump more so

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