great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by by pricewaterhousecoopers, llp. - [narrator] next time on great decisions. after decades of relative stability, the us energy revolution is beginning to shift the geopolitical dynamic, where once it was dependent on the middle east for much of its energy, the us is now producing more of its own, allowing it to potentially forge a new foreign policy, the geopolitics of oil, next time on great decisions. (soft music) >>> hello and thank you for joining us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. syria has denounced u.s. air strikes on an air base and vowed to defeat rebel groups in the country. the u.s. military carried out the first operation against the government in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on rebel held territory. the office of bashar al assad called the air strikes rash and irresponsible and said it increased resolve to hit what it calls terrorist agents in the country. syria's closest ally, russ

. - [announcer] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association, in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhousecoopers llp. - [narrator] afghanistan sits at the crossroads of the middle east, russia, and south asia. for centuries it has been a focal point of both trade and war. - afghans are very proud people, and because of our strategic location, we have been resisting the super powers. we have fought ghengis khan, tamerlane, alexander the great, the british, the soviet union. so really the idea of accepting the dominance of another country, is not in the gene of the afghans. - afghanistan has been referred to as the graveyard of empires because it's a very rugged, dry generally, typography. neither the russians, nor the british, nor the americans, have been able to, for a significant period of time, subdue afghanistan. and, it's not that you can't do it, it's what costs are you willing to incur. - [narrator] the costs were too high for the soviet union when various ethnic groups united as the mujahideen to drive them out of

(jubilant orchestra music) - [announcer] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhousecoopers llp. (soft music) - [narrator] the 1960's in latin america was an era of political revolutions. the reverberations of which are still felt today. - latin america was really defined, the 1960's by the cuban revolution. there was a greater push for independence, sovereignty, autonomy from the united states. - it was a region where some of the battles between capitalism and communism, oritarianism, played out with the greatest drama. it was an era of military coups everywhere from central america down through brazil and argentina. - there were movements not just in latin america, but in other parts of the world in the 60's and 70's to bring more left progressive government into power and in reaction to that, military dictatorships took hold in much of the southern cone and brazil. - [narrator] inspired and at times supported by cuba, a half dozen nations saw political revolutions in the

foreign policy. a geopolitics of oil. next, on great decisions. (trumpeting music) - [narrator] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhouse coopers, llp. - [narrator] nations have always been in competition with each other. often, it's in the search for natural resources like oil and gas. a steady supply of energy is needed to fuel the country's economy and military. - [sachs] typically, american foreign policy like british imperial foreign policy before it, paid a tremendous amount of attention to securing oil for the economy. that includes who we have befriended, but it has also included us launching wars; stationing military bases; engaging in coups and orienting a massive amount of our foreign policy around oil. - [mcnally] by world war one, oil was transitioning to becoming the lifeblood of modern civilization. if electricity is literally the circuitry, without which modern life is impossible, oil is the lifeblood. - [jacobs] it's both vital to our economy and it's vital to our military. and that became true once we switched to an oil ba

foreign policy. these are america's diplomats. - [voiceover] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association, in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by the nelson b. delavan foundation, price-waterhouse coopers, llp, and the una chapman cox foundation. (heartbeats) - if you walk in the front door of the state department, you will see plaques and plaques of the names of american diplomats who've given their lives for the united states in acts of violence and diseases acquired abroad, ships sunk, planes crashed. - somebody was targeting president marcos. it was a small bomb. - we get deathly ill because there is no medical care. - [voiceover] we were told people were going to come up and try to assassinate me and burn the embassy. - two of my absolutely favorite bosses were killed. - midday for a trade mission in town, our consulate was blown up. - [voiceover] and he was lost at sea. - hijacked, held hostage, blown up, shot at. - they started firing at the aircraft. - i was number one on their target list. - richard brought the coffins back the next day. (chanting) - [kathleen] in 197

(jubilant orchestra music) - [announcer] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhousecoopers llp. (soft music) - [narrator] the 1960's in latin america

foreign policy. a geopolitics of oil. next, on great decisions. (trumpeting music) - [narrator] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in associationson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhouse coopers, llp. - [narrator] nations have always been in competition with each other. often, it's in the search for natural resources like oil and gas.

(upbeat music) great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomsonfunding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhousecoopers llp. (rhythmic ethnic music)

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including who trump was meeting, who the trump team was meeting, what the views were of trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration. >> if that report is accurate, it begs a lot of questions about what was going on. people who want to dismiss it as routine are uncurious. >> what if dick cheney had asked for the unmasking of names for barack obama's incoming administration? it's a very simple question to ask the next time anybody says this is much ado about nothing. again, we don't -- there are a lot of things we don't know, a lot of questions we don't know. i do know this, though, i heard the hallejah chorus come immediately on queue last night saying nothing to see here, move along, move along. let's replace susan rice's name with dick cheney's name, the incoming trump administration's name with the incoming obama administration's name and willie, let's go from there. >> remember what the standard is for unmasking, it's foreign intelligence value, not political value which is broad enough on its own. that can be used broadly, too. maybe what susan rice did was leg

let's go to josh letterman, foreign policy reporter for the associated press.ave any reporting on this? >> shep we're confirming at the a.p. from paris police that one police officer has been killed along with an attacker. still a lot more details that need to be fleshed out about whether there were multiple attackers or other potential injuries or the motivation that we've talked about. we do at this early stage know about those fatalities and will press for more details. you can't underi emphasizemphas pivotal this is. the election is being watched for which direction europe is going in. now the first round taking place sunday under the crowd of this attack in paris. >> shepard: a little bit -- a 101 basics of the -- we're getting a weird feedback from josh. josh, marie lepen on the far right. a far left candidate. both of those candidates are steering away from membership of the eu? >> that's right. the far left candidate wasn't on the radar as a major player in this election until recently. now seems to be searching. those that are hoping that europe will s

the trump transition team such as whom the trump team was meeting, the views of trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration. just two weeks ago, susan rice was specifically asked during an interview on pbs if she knew about members of the trump team being caught up in incidental surveillance. she says no. watch this. >> i began by asking about the allegations by house intelligence committee devin nunes, trump transition officials may have been swept up in surveillance of foreigners at the end of the obama administration. >> i know nothing about this. i was surprised to see reports from chairman nunes on that count today. >> sean: oh, really? i know nothing about that? that's what you just heard her say. wasn't she lying in that clip? new reports indicate that yes, yes she was. keep in mind this new information about susan rice comes on the heels of the smoking gun tape that was uncovered last week that we played on the program of former obama official dr. evelyn farkas admitting not only surveillance took place but the names were also unmasked and they want

josh letterman out foreign policy reporter for the associated press. he used to work in the white house now works in matters of this time's josh, to say that it's complicated would be the understatement of tonight. you want to the degree to which the next stage have been game plant. tomorrow has already come in at syria. and whatever is going to happen is about to happen. >> you can be sure that the u.s. military and other parts of the u.s. government have done extensive continuously plantings, not only for events like this, but for what happens afterwards under a whole different range of scenarios that could play out on how other countries respond note most notably syria's government itself and russia. but as you point out, so much of this is now out of the u.s. control. trump launch this attack, it takes a very aggressive step in that it sort of goes out there. you see what happens to people, including assad say hold on a second, this is what's really put me in a situation that could escalate rather quickly. i'm going to back down. or you see assad s

information on the trump transition such as whom the trump team was meeting, the views of trump associates on foreign policyr the incoming administration. now, on friday, chairman nunes again said they have nothing to do with russia. >> the reports i was able to review immediately gave me -- gave me very serious concerns about what i call incidental collection. maybe legal but i'm not sure it's right. when you add on top of that the unmasking of an american's name, then thatas the end. i mean, and it had nhing to do with russia at all. i've said that over and over again. >> rice was national security adviser at the time of the apparent requests and the report suggests her calls for unmasking were allowed under law. >>> susan rice who served as president obama's u.n. ambassador and then national security adviser for almost all of his second term has not publicly commented since the reports emerged but two weeks ago when chairman nunes made his claim that the president-elect and his team were at least monitored, rice said this to pbs. >> i know nothing about this. i was surprised to see reports from chairman

manafort and -- on behalf of a foreign policy and made that after lying about contacts with a foreign government. this information comes on the same day that the associatedhat paul manafort received some of the money that was ear marked for him in a secret ledger mainta maintained by the ousted pro-russi pro-russian -- payments was real or that he had received any payments listed in that ledger. he now basically admits that he did receive those payments but he says there's nothing wrong with them. he says they were not illegal off the books cash payments. they were wire transfers. and wire transfers aren't cash. so there. nothing to see here. it is an amazing fact that the sitting president's former campaign chair receiving off the books payments from a dictator routed through brazilians and that's not even the biggest story unfolding in this news cycle about the trump campaign and its connection to foreign governments. last night "the washington post" broke the news that this past summer the fbi obtained a fisa warrant for the trump campaign because they were able to persuade a judge that he was knowingly acting as an agent of a foreign power, specifica

foreign policy is hard. he probably doesn't want to be associated with that. with proximity comes responsibility.e it to the professionals, do not try this at home, it's not for amateurs. let him go back to what he is doing. >> you said something very interesting the russians have a very clear strategy been they have a port, a naval base, the only naval base on the medtarian, this is an expansionist russia that wants to go in other places. as a result they have a strategy and they need mo make sense of that. >> vladimir putin is doing the most with a rotten hand. he is exercising leverage like no one's business. they are reintroducing themselves into the middle east. this was essentially banishes in the cold war years. they have secured their rips with assad and iran. so we have to kind of get to the bottom of this. >> let me get to kristen welker on the white house. >> this is all still evolving, but i spoke to a source close to steve bannon, and his reaction is that this is another job done nap is in relation to the narrative that he was put in place to oversee the operations by mike flynn, the

he was loosely associated with the trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser, but paige now admits thathe was in contact with at least one russian spy back in 2013. now, the russian he corresponded with was eventually charged by the fbi for his actions as a spy, but paige released a statement saying that he simply shared research with the russian who he understood to be working in moscow's united nations office. paige stressed that the information was immaterial and amounted to lectures he gave at nyu on policy. but whether he knew it or not, it turns out that russian spy was part of the same spy ring as another russian who worked for the bank veb. if that name rings a bell, that's because it's the same bank whose chairman met with jared kushner in december during the transition. it's a state-run, russian bank, and the meeting with jared kushner was set up by russian ambassador sergey kislyak. so, this is a display of back-channel meetings and efforts by the russians to meet with trump associates and the trump team. one other for you. the "washington post" is also reporting that secreta

associates directly to russia. what we've learned about the former foreign policy adviser carter page and the campaign manager, paul manafort. new information and it's next. (vo) my name is bryan. i'm proud to make dog chow in davenport, iowa. dog chow's been a part of my family's life for over 40 years. my grandfather made it and now i'm making it. as a micro-biologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients. but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount >> shepard: there's breaking news on fox news channel. the u.n. vote has come earlier than expected. the vote was to condemn syria for its attack on its own people. the vote was 10 yes and three abstentions and two no votes. one of the no votes was by one

. >> there are pieces on trump's foreign policy and in "the washington post" this morning, "the new york times," the associated press as well about the mixed signals coming from this administration as it relates to how we're dealing with russia, iran, syria. do you see a method to this madness or is it general incoherence at this point. >> it's pretty incoherent. the theme that's been coming up in a lot of the discussion you've had so far about, for example, health care is, how does the administration deliver on a lot of campaign promises? on foreign policy, trump as a campaigner, was promising to do everything different. to do a lot more of some things a lot less of others. in office he's found it very difficult to actually make any of that a reality. and the result has been, some mix of slowly drifting toward conventional policies but with a lot of confusion in both rhetoric and implementation. >> i want to talk to you about russia here for a moment. this story -- >> sure. >> -- that broke a few hours ago that exxon now apparently wants a waiver from these u.s. sanctions on russia to drill. this is another s

is the complex foreign policy chess game when their involvement in syria, the hacking inquiry into the links between trump campaign associatesnd the russian government or its affiliates. two big developments this weekend. first, the "washington post" reporting a fisa court found there was probable cause to believe carter page was acting as an agent as a foreign power. the clearest evidence of trump campaign ties to russia. page is talking though he is not saying much. >> who brought you into the trump campaign and what did you do for them? >> george, i don't talk about that because there are always various conspiracy theories that anyone i work with -- >> that's a pretty innocent fact. who brought you into the campaign. >> i don't want people's lives disrupted. >> another primary player in the russia inquiry. paul manafort, who received $1.2 million. not denying it. he says his firm receives legitimate payments. the house investigation ramping up this week following what might be the manafort money trail. democratic congress mike quigley conducting interviews, collecting documents all in the mediterranean island of cyprus. h

the buzzfeed one was that carter page was once an associate of donald trump campaign, even if in a peripheral way. he was a foreign policyssed on documents to a russian spy unknowingly. but he did so. his name was found in a criminal complaint. then also that there was a secret meeting between the founder of blackwater who happens to also be the brother of betsy devos and who also happens to have contributed $250,000 to the trump campaign. he went out and represented himself as somebody who was representing donald trump and met with somebody, a russian offici official, who is close with vladimir putin to talk about a back channel. those are two pretty big headlines. rick? >> well, it was the -- it was the uae who had done that because what they wanted to do is -- they have a common interest with us which is to get the russians away from iran. so they wanted to do that. the russians in any manner have seemed to be very overly aggressive. and there is an investigation going on about trump meddling -- i'm sorry, the russians meddling in the campaign. but some of this seems like amateur hour, like the carter page. on the oth

it is possible associates of his and supporters of his were freelancing and talking to the russians. they shouldn't have been and influencing his foreign policyhought. it will be interesting to see whether or not this will reach closer to him. it could have been he was influenced unknowingly which is an issue, but less of an issue if his administration is treating the russians the way they should. if he stops apologizing for putin. >> abby? >> i think we need to keep in mind one of the reasons we're talking about this in the first place is russian interference in the election. one of the quos investigatoques investigators are trying to answer is was there collusion? we don't know the answer to that question. it is a very serious claim and it is one that i think goes beyond the question of are we trying to broker more favorable relationships with russia on the diplomatic stage. i think there is an element here of inafter fet interference in of international scandal. that's the core of the point. i think if they were trying to broker a better relationship is not out of bounds of what they would be doing in a campaign or administration. that wou

associates. now an investigation is widening. catherine herridge with the latest on that. >> the former trump campaign foreign policy adviser carter page didn't have anything to add about the allegations of susan rice, but he did emphasize to fox news that any fbi surveillance order on him was based on bad evidence. >> there was a tremendous amount of false evidence, and there's various reporting about where that false evidence may have come from such as the dodgi dossier. we shall see how that plays out. >> the trump to the trump dossier that was compiled by a former british intelligence officer. in addition, we have been able to review court records here at fox news that alleged that in 2013, carter page passed energy records to a russian intelligence operative. when we asked him about that, he said the records were university lectures. >> i have nothing that i want the hide. the more that the truth comes out, the better. because there's just been so much lies. and now potentially false evidence, which is the next step beyond lies. so that will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. >> the associated press is reporti

foreign policy. nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning. we have known for some time that u.s. investigators obtained these fisa warrants to monitor one or more trump associatest we are now learning for the first time more definitively the subject of at least one of those warrants. it's carter page. he is a former foreign policy advisor to the trump campaign. he's someone who was already on the fbi's radar screen because he was approached by russian intelligence agents back in 2013. now, fisa warrants are not easy to obtain. if u.s. investigators want to monitor a u.s. citizen, they need to provide a secret court with evidence that the subject is acting as a foreign agent, possibly to spy on or conspire against the united states. these warrants are valid for just 90 days and they grant permission to carry out electronic surveillance on the subject. unnamed officials have told "the washington post" that this warrant was renewed more than once by the fisa court. now, page himself has denied any wrongdoing. he's told cbs news, quote, it will be interesting to see what comes out when the unjustified basis for those fisa requests are more fully disclosed. page is

we have senior associate with the east asian program here at stimson center with deep expertise in chinese foreign policy, us title relations generally and she brings us very valuable insight into the thinking of different constituencies within china's government and private sector alike. incidentally speaking of which you just returned on saturday from a short visit to beijing, so we might hear a bit about that later on. to her left, bill is a distinguished fellow here at the stimson center and former president of the national foreign trade council in 2001 to to honey 16 he also served as a member of the us china economic review commission and previously served as the undersecretary of commerce commerce for export administration under president clinton, so fantastic tagteam as i say and i'm going to do my utmost for the most part to stay out of the way and feed what i think will be an interesting discussion here. let's dive into it. we will come to the analysis and the sort of scorecards in a moment, but to start let's try to do some brief stock taking and put some facts together coming out of thursday

first to me immediate left, sun is senior associate with the east asia program here at stimson. she has deep expertise in trounce foreign policy, u.s. china relations, generally, and she brings us very valuable insight into the thinking of different constituencies within china's government and private sector alike. speaking of which she just returned on saturday from a short visit to beijing so we might hear about that later on. to her left, bill reinch, a distinguished fellow here the stimson center and former president of the national foreign trait couple from 2001 to 2016 and was a member of the u.s.-china economic security and review commission. he also previously served as the undersecretary of commerce for expert administration under president clinton. so, a fantastic tag team, and i'm going to do my jut utmost to stay out of the way. late dive right into it. we'll come to the analysis and the sort of score cards in a moment, but to start, let's try to do some brief stock-taking and put some facts together, coming out of thursday and friday's meeting. we know that in the runup to the meeting, many analysts expected the m

first, to my immediate left, yun sun is senior associate with the east asia program here at stimson. she has deep expertise in chinese foreign policy, u.s.-china relations generally. and she brings us very valuable insights into the thinking of different constill t still thsi china's business and public sector alike. to her left, bill reinsch is a distinguished fellow here at the stimson center and the former president of the national foreign trade council. from 2001 to 2016, bill also served as a member of the u.s.-china economic security and review commission. he also previously served as the undersecretary of commerce for export administration under president clinton. so a fantastic tag team, as i say. and i'm going to do my utmost to for the most part stay out of the way and see what i think is going to be a very interesting discussion here. let's drive right into it. we'll come to -- as i say, we'll come to the analysis and the sort of score cards in a moment. but to start, let's try to do some previous stock-taking and put some facts together coming out of thursday and friday's meeting. we know, we know that in the run-up to

foreign policy and economic policy. that is enough of a key development to get into on that program. if the french stop toying with trade deals and associate them with addressing north korea, how do you see that? >> it is a new way of approaching that. we have questions about how exactly trump is going to address the concerns. and what we have seen subsequently, we know trade is an important issue to them. also, for example, discussions we had about dealing with mexico. what we have seen subsequently is less than the rhetoric suggested. on the one hand it seems like tensions have lowered. a be an attempt to deal with this within the framework of the deputy negotiations we have already had, but if on the other hand as you suggest, you start to put in foreign policy, it is unclear what the implications are. >> we heard from russia they just want to know what foreign policy is here in the u.s. markets over the the last six months has been domestic policy, tax reform, stimulus, infrastructure. focus on foreign policy. is that bullish or bearish for the markets? >> the markets are going to want to see some more on the domestic policy front. tha

associated press first reported the trademarks and the dates coinciding. it's just the latest example of the continued entanglement of the trump family buses and the foreign policyof the united states under the trump administration, and it's today owes conflict of interest watch. here with me is cnn's cristina alesci. what steps have ivanka trump taken to try to clear up these potential conflicts? >> she stepped away from managing the business on a day-to-day basis and put her financial assets in a trust, but at the end of the day she still makes money off of her companies. ethics experts say keeping that financial stake raises the potential for corruption here. their point is why take that risk and open yourself up to questions like the one we're raising today about the timing of these approvals. ivanka's company says there's nothing to see here. at first they told me earlier today the brand has filed, updated and rigorously protected its international trademarks over the past several years in normal course of birks especially in regions where trademark infringement is rampant. later the company added it needed these protections because third parties are increa

about people loosely associated with president trump having these sort of back-channel meetings with the russians. so, let's start off first with carter page. he was a foreign policy adviser who worked briefly with the trump campaign. page now admits that he was in contact with at least one russian spy back in 2013. page, though, says he thought the spy was working for moscow's u.n. office. page says he shared research on energy policy. you can see there he's an energy executive. but that russian that he shared it with was charged by the fbi as part of a spy ring. the trump team all along has tried to distance itself from carter page, but take a listen to then candidate trump last march. >> perhaps we heard you might be announcing your foreign policy advisory team soon, if there is anything more on that. >> we are going to be -- well, i hadn't thought about in terms of doing it, but if you wanted me to give you some of the names. >> i'm be delighted. >> whalid farris, who you probably know, ph.d, adviser to the house of representatives caucus. he's a counterterrorism expert. carter page, ph.d. >> reporter: so, president trump, then candidate trump, talk being cart

foreign-policy displayed such remarkable continuity from the 1890's?o the because i think it was self contained by four prudential checks. first was the doctrine associatedwith the james monroe, but drafted by john quincy adams, and indeed implicit in the writings of almost all the founders, which declared the new and old world's to be worlds apart, separate spheres, and to keep european powers from mucking around in their neighborhood, americans had to refrain from mucking around in their neighborhood. was one.nroe doctrine containment was westward expansion, precisely because no american, no sane american, wanted to risk the nations manifest destiny by picking fights with overseas powers. third, with the lessons learned from the collapse of republics both ancient and modern. , at leastry americans the elites, new their classics, new them very well, and they caesarn fear of a julius or a cromwell or robespierre in their midst, and so they fiercely guarded their constitutional checks and balances. and forth was the classical acr itself, which was based ultimately on a kind of residual christian anthropology that reminded americans their human nature was

associates of donald trump and russian officials during the campaign. the intercepts were captured during routine surveillance of those russian officials. this, as, of course, carter page, one of donald trump's former foreign policy advisers during the campaign, has been trying to downplay his links to russia and his role with the campaign. listen. >> in any of these conversations with russians, either in russia or back here in the united states, did you ever suggest to any of them that president trump, candidate trump, would be open to easing sanctions on russia? >> i never offered that, no, nothing along those lines, absolutely not. i mean, it may -- topics, i don't remember. we'll see what comes out in this fisa transcript. i don't recall every single word that i ever said, but i would never make any offer or intimate anything that -- something may have come up in a conversation. i have no recollection and there is nothing specifically that i would have done that would have given people that impression. someone may have brought it up. i have no recollection. and if it was, it was not something i was offering or that someone was asking for. >> let me bring in right now rick santorum, cnn political commentator,

associated with that? that is what it is going to come down to. stuart: a total 180 from the foreign policylly with russia, certainly with china and north korea. are you comfortable with this, because it's a series of confrontations? >> listen, of course. there is going to be confrontation before you can have normalcy. don't forget russia's economy is very, very fragile right now. they're teetering, the ruble is weak and the stock market is puffed up, et cetera. that is where the real power is. i'm hopeful that the big people, the real people will come to the table and sit down once they get through this kind of chest-pumping approach. they will work it out. i think having a relationship with russia is in everybody's interest. stuart: i want you to check this out. this is a new conspiracy theory coming from the left. the theory is president trump struck syria to show he is not close with putin. just listen to this. >> increasing the size of our nuclear arsenal, deregulating energy sector, backing keystone pipeline these are all things russians hate and for good reason yet you're saying stil

associate justice of the u.s. supreme court. there are also reports that the white house might be investigating potentially placing duties on countries that dump their products into the u.s. but again, foreign policyhe center of attention as secretary of state rex tillerson meets g7 leaders today before russia's foreign minister wednesday. this comes as the u.s. steps up criticism on russia over supporting bashar al assad. on "meet the press" u.n. ambassador nikki haley again voiced the need for a regime change. >> in no way do we look at peace happening in that area with the iranian influence. in no way do we see peace in that area with russia covering up for assad. in no way do we see peace in that area with assad as the head of the syrian government. and we have to make sure that we're pushing that process. >> north korea has said u.s. air strikes in syria justify its nuclear program, just days after china's president xi and president trump agreed on denuclearizing the region. a spokesman for the north korean foreign ministry saying this. quote, our tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force as its pivot serves as a treasured sword of justice capable of foiling the u.s. shameless high-hand