retired brigadier general mark kimmitt.rigadier general mark kimmitt. is this part of a problem that we have not set up to putin enough, reason for him to back down? what leverage do we have right now in the middle east? he has really entrenched himself in syria. mark:enough, reason for him to k candidly on the issue of syria, this would happen with or without the russian involvement. thatis the last major area bashar al-assad need to take back to return entire sovereignty of the country to himself. it is the last talk in a resistance of the opposition. whether the russians or the iranians are helping bashar al-assad, bashar al-assad will , andhis fight in idlib will use whatever brutality is necessary to do that. to me.explain this everything seems to be connected to everything in the middle east. a report in the bloomberg today troops toy is sending tripoli because there are syrian rebels now fighting there. is that correct? that is true, but the real issue is against the russians. attemptians backed the of taking over go

well retired general mark kimmitt was a u.s. assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush also served as deputy director of plans and strategy it's uncommon he joins us live from washington d.c. sir very warm welcome to the program and good to have you with us what's the most pressing issues in terms of bringing this conflict to some sort of a close even if it doesn't happen soon well i think 1st russia and the syrian regime must on or the united states the united nations security council russia resolutions are allowing humanitarian aid inside the city the 2nd issue is there's got to be a clear warning to russia that there bombardment of it is in violation of every tenet of. rules of law land warfare and i think 3rd there needs to be a decision between all parties the turks the iranians the syrians and the russians that the removal of the joe hockey's that are inside of it would must occur but not in the method that it's being used now what is the u.s. position right now. but i think the u.s.

let's hylas together now with mark kimmitt who served as assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush he was also deputy director of planning and strategy at centcom is to kimmitt thank you for your time is it as simple as laying this blame at the feet of the iranians maybe old so just there are a lot of iraqis who are upset about the fact that there are strikes in their country no i think we've got to understand that the majority of iraqis ever since the protests started on october 1st have said we don't want iranian influence inside the country i would actually lay the blame at the feet of the government itself the government of iraq they are the ones that had been on able to address the protesters demands inside of tehran square here square they're the ones that we have told time after time after time to stop these rocket attacks by your p.m.s. that you've incorporated into the security structure the government again failed today by failing to keep the international zone locked down and they failed because they were unable to protect the american emba

continue and it won't release that many details until it's certain that it's accurate general mark kimmitt is a former assistant secretary of state under president george w. bush he says despite concerns the training program is too valuable to abandon. the entire system should be inspected top to bottom there's no doubt about that but this is a process that a decade a decade ago when i was doing this i know that it was very scrupulous very detailed and it was detail on the part of not only the local country but also the united states before they would come over i don't think we should throw the baby out of the bathwater as i said this program is important we have 10000 students coming over a year it allows us to conduct interoperability training and allows us to promote our interests and our values and it has proven itself for years and years that this is an important program in our bilateral relationships with the other militaries but it's not perfect and it needs to be looked at here. in hong kong the strike has been cold to mock 6 months since the start of government protests on sunday

sanitation or water or any other amenities wherever they have set up but come retired general mark kimmitt was a u.s. assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush he says the international community needs to put pressure on syria russia and turkey for resolution to the crisis. 1st russia and the syrian regime must on or the united states the united nations security council russia resolutions allowing humanitarian aid inside the city the 2nd issue is there's got to be a clear warning to russia that there bombardment of it is a violation of every tenet of. rules of law land warfare and i think 3rd there needs to be a decision between all parties the turks the iranians the syrians and the russians that the removal of the joe hockey's that are inside of it would must occur but not in the method that it's being used now i think the u.s. position is to stand back to condemn but not to get actively involved in the situation we've never been actively involved in that sector of syria prefer him to work in the northeast area which i think everybody is quite aware

toour second hour, we talk mark kimmitt, but the u.s.trikes in iraq and syria against an iranian black militia. we basically have a proxy war going on in iraq between the u.s. and iran. the general has just returned from the region and has a full report about what we are doing in iraq and why we had to go after these militias. that is coming up in the second ho half hour of balance of power on bloomberg radio. this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. ♪ beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. ritika: i'm ritika gupta with bloomberg first word news. . kim has been threatening to take a new path in nuclear talks if the president does not sweeten the deal by the end of the

anchor: retired general mark kimmitt joining me from washington, d.c.nk you, as always, for your thoughts. guest: sure. anchor: government forces say a warlord's fighters carried out an airstrike near the trinity and -- tunisian border. the national oil company says no one was killed. libyans came out in large numbers against have to are and his forces, his anger after two airstrikes that struck a busy shopping center. our correspondent is in tripoli and says the airstrikes could be in response to the turkish president announcements. he's planning to send troops to help the tripoli government. hashe airstrikes recently been targeting civilian areas. anddential areas, killing wanting innocent civilians. this can be read in terms of the the anger reaction to the news about the turkish government's planning to send troops to libya. upon official request from their governor to recognize the united nations. recently, the forces have an area by airstrikes, near the oil refinery. about 40stands kilometers to the west from hasoli as anti-are and it in its custo

saudi students until we are absolutely confident in our vetting process let's bring in general mark kimmitt he was an assistant secretary of state on the former u.s. president george w. bush who joins us live now from washington d.c. general kimmitt the u.s. defense secretary marcus has now ordered a review of the screening process for foreign military personel training in the u.s. but what does the current vetting procedure entail who does it and how robust is it . well listen i was in charge of this program at the state department and for setting up the policies in the department of defense is the one who implements this program so i'm very very familiar with it 1st and foremost the country does the vetting before they send an application in for that student come to the united states that application then goes to the united states embassy in that country where an entire review from all the agencies inside the embassy the drug enforcement agency the consular officer and candidly our intelligence agencies review each one of those students that vetting is signed off by the ambassador before

syrian regime has lost the opposition over the last few years and so then i wonder if you heard mark kimmitt in that report just now when he said it's neither the russians or the turks that a key to the solution actually it's up to everyone else do you agree with that absolutely and i think what the russians and everybody else seems to be willing to fight with until the last drop of syrian blood to me i mean they are just bargaining over the over over the civilians how to gain more actually by using this this conflict and nobody actually as i said before is being to price but the syrian the sea and civilians some of the pictures we've seen and maybe we might be able to run some of them as well of the absolute devastation that's been seen all throughout syria i mean it makes you actually question almost what they're fighting for now so much of the country has actually been. it's just been destroyed hasn't it obliterated absolutely it's becoming for for some time now it's it's meaningless war to be to be precise because we don't know actually what the syrian regime or the opposition are fighti