says it was a civilian place what i don't get that is why what was the logic of logic of actually sort of destroying evidence before the o.p.c. w. gets in there i.e. the pentagon saying there was something there that shouldn't have baby then they bomb the heck out of it before the o.p.c. could get in there and prove that they were right why would you do that. well it's really a matter of simple logic if if indeed that was the case why not wait for an investigative body to come if the u.s. has known it for a long time this was a chemical weapons facility why not notify the o.p.c. dove in the first place and most of all if this was a factory producing chemical weapons and you want to punish assad for allegedly using chemical weapons why would you hit a chemical weapons factory and disperse all of this air and gas or whatever they have manufactured there along to the civilian population are you not doing just the thought of doing in fairness it said the constituent chemicals could have possibly been there is there allegation and they say that they carried out precision strikes but yet totally how could they have known that they co

o.p.c. w. investigation there any concerns the that might be in jeopardy now yes of course because the o.p.c. w was supposed to begin its mission in syria on the ground in syria its investigation on saturday at the u.s. launched its strikes literally hours before with that investigation was supposed to kick off so obviously a lot of questions were raised by whether or not that mission is jeopardized whether or not any objects of infrastructure that were supposed to be examined by the experts over the o.p.c. w. were hit or damaged now the body has issued a statement it's a rather brief one literally just two sentences outlining the current state of events and they are saying that they will be going forward with their mission in syria no details as to whether or not they feel affected in any way by the strikes back to the reaction from moscow then anything more wider than the kremlin well yes the russia's foreign ministry has laid out its view of the situation right now they've said that basically the u.n. security council has to hold accountable the u.s. the u.k. and france for what they did in syri

wording in all of its statement is often very careful and had for good reason i suppose was the o.p.c. w. satisfied about dealing with chemical weapons in syria that. well there was a degree of sort of. satisfaction obviously in the context of removing the declared chemical weapons from syria and also dismantling the declared chemical weapons production could be a capability but as i said that's not just addressed to the syrian government but to the context as a whole they were both the issues of a continued use of chemical weapons improvised chemical weapons cloran mustard agent and sarin gas which was investigated by the fact finding mission and then there was the question of making sure that the declaration of the syrian government was in fact a complete declaration so that they were all the efforts to try and move forward towards a more comprehensive complains situation or the convention. bringing us up to date then no sooner this current team from the o.p.c. w. touched down than the mess are started to be fired is there any way that those missile strikes and air strikes might get th

information for about an hour the british government had it for twenty four hours now although the o.p.c. w. was never meant to be it was never tasked with saying where this nerve agents come from why do you think the likes of boris johnson are still rushing with saying well we know what it is therefore we must know where it's from. well because as from the very beginning of this incident did the behavior to push government has been to rush to judgment and to try to exploit i think the situation the broader political purposes so the kind of any desire to allow so that investigation and police investigation to take its course before the accusations leveled at russia will be made it was never any political will powerful that and so i think the british government is continuing as it has done for now with the o.p.c. w. report they're claiming did it i guess that it backs what they were saying and when it doesn't really back what they were saying in the sense that it confirms the nerve agent identified by porton down but that says nothing about who was responsible who produced the agent in the first

few years ago very few people are parts from a narrow circle of specialists even knew what the o.p.c. w. was say they only started to appear in global media after famous or infamous barack obama's statement on the red line if it weren't for that statement do you think we would be discussing the use of chemical weapons today. the point is that right now though we. the special position for western countries. responsibility for the use of chemical weapons to iraqi government. syrian government. makes it possible for all opposition groups shoe use the chemical weapon to pretend this is the fault of syrian government. because in this situation like today. western countries they do not wait for any investigation they assign the responsibility and then the punish for the chemical weapon use but when you see they punish both in this case with the latest strikes and in the previous case with the alleged attack on hunch a hole in. the response by the united states by its allies was definitely illegal from their point of view of international law but it was also very limited and it's also quite difficu

was made by the u.s. envoy to the un's chemical watchdog the o.p.c. w. british news interview rob says he can guarantee that nothing of the sort happened he also reiterated that all of the evidence pointing to the alleged attack appears to have come from media and other social media reports that investigators from the o.p.c. are currently in the region to assess the claims but one part of that delegation does say that they've not been able to visit the site of the attack we'll have more on that interview a little bit later in the program. next an italian journalist claims he's living in fear for his life over his work to expose an infamous maffia clan last week italian investigators say they obtained a phone conversation between members of the gang in which one of them allegedly tells his son to murder paolo bottom netty. always. leave the. level. where you are this is. investigators believe there was an imminent plan to assassinate he's now under round the clock police protection the journalist says mafia bosses of made numerous death threats against hi

o.p.c. w. investigation there any concerns that that might be in jeopardy now yes of course because the o.p.c. w was supposed to begin its mission in syria on the ground in syria its investigation on saturday at the u.s. launched its strikes literally hours before with that investigation was supposed to kick off so obviously a lot of questions were raised by whether or not that mission is jeopardized whether or not any objects of infrastructure that were supposed to be examined by the experts of the o.p.c. w. were hit or damaged now the body has issued a statement in a rather brief one literally just two sentences outlining the current state of events and they are saying that they will be going forward with their mission in syria no details as to whether or not they feel affected in any way by the strikes . the white house said it is confident the syrian government did use chemical weapons against its own people but believe however appears to be based largely on media and n.-g. o. reports. this conclusion is based on descriptions of the attack in multiple media sources the reported symptoms experien

o.p.c. w. investigation there any concerns that that might be in jeopardy now yes of course because the o.p.c. w was supposed to begin its mission in syria on the ground in syria its investigation on saturday at the u.s. launched its strikes literally hours before with that investigation was supposed to kick off so obviously a lot of questions were raised by whether or not that mission is jeopardized whether or not any objects of infrastructure that were supposed to be examined by the experts over your p c w were hit or damaged now the body has issued a statement it's rather brief one literally just two sentences outlining the current state of events and they are saying that they will be going forward with their mission in syria no details as to whether or not they feel affected in any way by the strikes a number of countries including china and iran have condemned the strikes beijing called them a violation of international law we spoke to world affairs commentator andrew young about the operation and the reaction to it he told us that domestic factors may have played a role in the motivating presi

their inspection visit reports to these plants as late as november two thousand and seventeen the o.p.c. w. was stating in its reports reports only published in march of this year just a couple of weeks before the strikes that there was no evidence of any illicit chemical weapons activities or storage going on at these plants and i guess the rule of thumb is listen to everybody make your own mind up for now security analyst and former british army officer charles schubert to really appreciate insight on this again thanks very much. ah that's the news for now thanks very much for watching i'll be back with more and often i'll see them. when the whole make its manufacture come sentenced to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the financial merry go round listen to the one percent. nine week old middle of the room say. no no no real news is really. a fight for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside guides. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money kill you nar

o.p.c. double had given syria a clean bill of health when it was in fact anything but clean and the o.p.c. w makes that point to this day they made it again last month they still haven't had satisfactory answers from syria on a number of outstanding questions. well do want me to respond to your question or do you want to somehow look into a broader picture which i'd love you to answer the question right so the answer is they declare its chemical arsenal was completely destroyed under stringent international control with very much aerial involvement of a number of countries russia included us included and so on so forth. subsequently in some time the op c.w. and the technical secretary of the organisation started to introduce additional questions and or points which syria was supposed to answer in terms of what they were doing in the research center in bars or how about a number of facilities which were empty bob by that time in terms of hungers and tunnels and so on so forth and what about the number of munitions that were unaccounted for the syrian side the syrian government. for provided p

stansell reports it was the first nerve agent deployed in europe since the second world war the o.p.c. w. was ordered to carry out an independent investigation into the poisoning of. last month when they were found slumped in a park in salisbury yulia was released from hospital this week her father is still receiving treatment while the o.p.c. w. isn't responsible for finding out the source of the chemical it didn't stop the british foreign secretary boris johnson from pointing the finger only russia has the means motive and records the kremlin has to give answers. the chemical identified is said to be of high purity suggesting that only a sophisticated laboratory could make it very high purity is very important it's very difficult to make a highly toxic chemicals to this high level of purity without a lot of effort don't worry about purity because they don't get in the way is the nature tossed that you're using the chemical for which is to poison so you only release the impurities if you try to make it difficult for people to point the finger back at you russia has consistently denied its in

completely destroyed under international supervision write only that wasn't what they said was it what the o.p.c. said o.p.c. w said was something different they said syria's declared stockpile had been destroyed declared not the whole thing but the declared stockpile correct and just a month before you made that statement director general. had voiced serious doubts about whether syria had got rid of its weapons syria's that you're nodding your head you knew that i can't tell you the whole story when you know you knew that they'll sell you the story i was part of it i literally was part of it from the very beginning from the day one when president putin offered to at that time president obama while in st petersburg not to resort to military power but start chemical design element in syria and every single day since that september the bitters book i am involved in three so i understand the minister but you pretended that the o.p.c. w. had given syria a clean bill of health when it was in fact anything but clean and they'll be c w makes that point to this day they made it again last month they still haven't had

was also on able to pass vetoed by russia so at the u.n. security council no clear point of agreement could be reached and as the o.p.c. w. inspectors were on their way to syria no clear mission for what they would do there was clarified at this point the o.p.c. w. inspectors have been offered the protection of the russian military as they go to syria to find out what's going on the russian military and in the russian resolution it was pushed that they actually visit the site of the alleged attack and find out the truth about what's going on however it's not clear what the o.p.c. w. will be doing as the u.n. security council could not reach a consensus on that matter at this point as we hear different voices from the usa we see one thing on trump's twitter page we hear all options on the table from the white house we hear from the state department and the secretary of defense it becomes clear that it's possible there may not be a very clear strategy and that a lot of people are left guessing about what may be coming next trump may be

under the town was under the control of the rebels and it's now under a new authority now the o.p.c. w. was supposed to enter do soil samples other samples talk to eyewitnesses there are concerns that eyewitnesses could be intimidated by the new authority on the ground but at the end of the day the o.p.c. w.'s findings is not going to trigger a retaliation because western countries already retaliated saying that they had evidence to prove that the syrian government was responsible for this chemical weapons attack still ahead on al-jazeera. this is the news my life and my situation syrian. refugee girls face forced marriages as the civil war drags on plus. a. lot of the old anything new to the prepares to open another chapter. welcome back as we look at weather conditions across southeastern parts of asia you see a lot of showers across on the borneo also had some showers been reported around the gulf of thailand region spoil in the sunshine for the holiday makers likely to be a problem i think you're in the course of thursday with further showers here a few showers for kuala lumpur and sing

o.p.c. w.'s latest findings now the british ambassador was the first to speak and even though the o.p.c. w. didn't assign blame or a specify the chemical origin she declared with absolute certainty that russia was behind the crime saying quote there is no plausible alternative explanation then russian state responsibility for what happened and then the o.p.c. w.-a seem to implicitly parrot the british government's narrative. no other d.s. tales analysis nor the b.c.w.s. report identifies the control of the origin of the agencies in this attack there is no plausible to this if explanation for what happened in souls breathe and russian state for sponsibility who believe the only russia had the technical means operational experience and the mates if to target the script files but believe it or not it didn't even end there are things to an even stranger turn when the british representative went on to accuse president putin of being personally involved in the attack president putin him so it was closely involved in the russian chemical weapons program when we knew that you wouldn't do it london a

get the nine votes as well many members believing that it was a superfluous photo because the o.p.c. w. was already at work its inspectors will be on their way to investigate what happened in syria this past week and so we saw today the usual war of words between russia and the u.s. at the security council this time over the terms of an investigation into chemical weapons use in syria what are you now hearing about the possibility of a unilateral u.s. action in syria. well there's been no talk at the united nations apart from something the us ambassador said in the course of the discussions the past twenty four hours saying that the u.s. was going to take action whether or not the security council managed to get some kind of resolution through that is a suspicion that the u.s. was waiting for this resolution waiting for the establishment of a viable independent investigative mechanism that as not happened also it must be pointed out too that it's not necessarily just the u.s. that's contemplating unilateral action old though we've heard the u.s. president say that he will be deciding within

at the syrian passy which was very extensive and you know largely the work of this organization o.p.c. w. was quite successful things could be much worse right now if they had not gone after the large stocks of the syrians had what seems to have happened always as washer al assad has become more confident in his own survival is also become you know less constrained about using these weapons bear in mind you know he signed an international treaty thing he would get rid of and not use chemical munitions is down violated that truth so you know he's he's not without a lot of blame and sadly for the syrians these issues are only about syria for the syrians everyone else has a much broader perspective from the perspective of washington they've also got their eye on the nuclear issues having to do with both north korea and iran so if kim young room is watching what's going on here if nothing happens the boss real assad washington's got a great concern that he's going to get the wrong message and if if president from sees him in next month that's a big issue likewise there's a big issue with the iran

on secure work of the special mission of the o.p.c. w was blocked. e were assured of that and the fact that such a document was not necessary we were told that the mission without any additional efforts by the security council will go visit the chemical the site and conduct an investigation of the chemical incident now it is clear that we were absolutely right. yesterday some of our colleagues some of them naive li some of them cynically told us that the reason of the situation is supposedly a lack of an independent investigative mechanism. the aggression has shown that that isn't this is not the issue at all as we stated. it during last year's attack against the sharon airbase there was the joint investigative mechanism of the un o.p.c. delhi that did not prevent the united states from conducting a missile strike afterwards the gym and fact made sure that its conclusions coincided with the reasons for the american strike we said many times you don't need any investigations but you didn't need them then and you don't need them today . the organizers o

o.p.c. w. said it was unable to identify the source of the nerve agent used to poison former double agents out of a script and his daughter r.t. samir khan has more on the un security council session. now the u.k. called for this security council meeting to discuss the o.p.c. w.'s latest findings but even though the o.p.c. w. didn't assign blame or specify the chemicals origin in the statement to to the o.p.c. w. the u.k. declared with absolute certainty that russia was behind the crime saying quote there is no plausible alternative explanation than russian state responsibility for what happened and then be open c.w. seem to implicitly parrot the british government's narrative. no the d.s. tales analysis nor the b.c.w.s. report identifies the control of the origin of the agencies in this attack. the explanation for what happened in souls breathe and russian state for sponsibility but believe the only brush had the technical means operational experience and the mates if to target the script files believe it

o.p.c. w. but that request has been rejected artie's peter oliver reports now from the hague . and the day started with russia's permanent representative i'll extend the should again putting forward russia's proposal which was for what he called a communal a inclusive. investigation involving all members of the the o.p.c. w now that was dismissed by the by the executive council it was voted down by by fifteen to six with seventeen abstentions however russia's representative he was speaking to us just behind me now at the embassy here in the hague he said this also the motion didn't go through it did show that more people didn't support of that they were actually in favor of it. unfortunately we didn't manage to get the needed two thirds of votes for the resolution to pass obviously the brits and americans voted against and then nato and some e.u. member states and u.s. allies followed suit but twenty three countries have a huge one way or another take this western viewpoint that's more than half of the executive council well it was viewed very differently by boris johnson the british foreign secretary he referred to the motion put forward by russia or is being ludicrous and said that it was defeated because

stansell reports it was the first nerve agent deployed in europe since the second world war the o.p.c. w was ordered to carry out an independent investigation into the poisoning of yulia and sergei screwball last month when they were found slumped in a park in salisbury yulia was released from hospital this week her father is still receiving treatment while the o.p.c. w. isn't responsible for finding out the source of the chemical it didn't stop the british foreign secretary boris johnson from pointing the finger only russia has the means motive and records the kremlin has to give answers. the chemical identified is said to be of high purity suggesting that only a sophisticated laboratory could make it very high purity is very important it's very difficult to make a highly toxic chemicals to this high level of purity without a lot of effort don't worry about purity because they don't get in the way is the nature tossed that you're using the chemical for which is to poison so you only release the impurities if you try to make it difficult for people to point the finger back at you russia has

o.p.c. w in to investigate this this year of these events however the o.p.c. w. was already in the process of doing that so there's no real agreement among the security council members at present in terms of exactly what to do next likely another argument coming up in the course of tuesday if that u.s. proposal is brought to the security council for vote russia in the past has vetoed similar such proposals setting up an independent mechanism to investigate chemical attacks particularly within syria so no clear light at the end of this particular tunnel the security council remains completely divided and in this division remains it appears able to act particularly in the face of the crisis that we're seeing over this weekend all right mike let's leave it there but bring in jim welsh is a senior associate at the mit security studies program he joins us now from watertown massachusetts good to see you jim welsh we are waiting on donald trump now what should he do what do you think he will do as far as syria is concerned. well what i think he will do is i think the chanc

there was one man who was particularly against the jews it was danny b. o.p.c. w. head that was john bolton who at the time was the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs he's now been appointed as the u.s. national security advisor will shortly take his seat because it was tanny says his intentions to make iraq a member of the o.p.c. w.'s third in the way of u.s. ambitions. i got a phone call from john bolton from washington the first time i had contact with him it said that i do structures to to to tell me that i should resign from doing decision and i asked him why he said your management style was not agreeable to washington to the vice president is set to receive no way i don't accept that so he came to the hague and you keep to my office and he said you have to resign and i give you twenty four hours this is what we want and i said no way i don't have any reason to doubt it to you i was elected by acclimation by all the member states of a goodish issue and it's only you you out there see if they are challenged my management

the syrian capacity which was very extensive and you know largely the work of this organization o.p.c. w. was quite successful things could be much worse right now if they had not gone after the large stocks that the syrians had what seems to have happened or was as fleischer all assad has become more confident in his own survival he's also become you know less constrained about using these weapons bear in mind you know he signed an international treaty thing he would get rid of and not use chemical munitions is now violated actually so you know he's he's not without a lot of blame in this and it's been the subtext of president trumps and now some months the fact that he president assad of syria has been provided with the opportunity if you like to regroup and and to rearm himself provide he's been provided with cover by by the russian managed. well that's the case i mean you know bashar al assad you know probably wouldn't be alive today if weren't for the russians you know that he is very much dependent on the russians and seems to me it's incumbent upon the russians to solve this problem wh

o.p.c. w but the request has been rejected or it is bitter all reports now from the hague . and the day started with russia's permanent representative i'll extend the should again putting forward russia's proposal which was for what he called a communal a inclusive. investigation involving all members of the the o.p.c. w now that was dismissed by the by the executive council it was voted down by by fifteen to six with seventeen abstentions however russia's representative he was speaking to us just behind me now at the embassy here in the hague he said it's also the emotion didn't go through it did show that more people didn't support of that they were actually in favor of it. unfortunately we didn't manage to get the needed two thirds of votes for the resolution to pass obviously the british and americans voted against it and then nato and some e.u. member states and u.s. allies followed suit for twenty three countries which are huge one way or another take this western view that's more than half of the executive council that was viewed very differently by boris johnson the british foreign secretary he referred to the motion put forward by russia or is being ludicrous and said that it was defeated becaus

o.p.c. w. of being involved but it did not follow the formal of that it was through the technical secretariat rather through the through the formal procedure prescribed by the convention why would they do that and why would the o.p.c. w. agree to be engaged in such an unconventional way through the technical secretary at the rather than through you know challenge inspections and what have you. well. step by step first of all why do not it start to to. bring to politics. you first of all you have to understand actually killing one person is a criminal case so it's not the use of chemical weapons like the brother of. military grade the nerve agent diverted on the territory rather of compassion in the literal for north korea it was killed with v.x. that was new to a great agent not the choke was never proved to be chemical agent if you take. w. who considered in two thousand and eleven they said there is no confirmation that this is chemical. neutral agreed agent so why oh why do you think. it was in the interest of the u.k. to engage the o p c w that then you can blame not just in the criminal. case b

was the reaction to that vote in a bit more detail. well when they started this extraordinary meeting of the o.p.c. w. that was called by russia and the day started with russia's permanent representative i looked down the chute in putting forward russia's proposal which was for what he called a. communal way inclusive. investigation involving all members of the p.c. w now that was dismissed by the by the executive council it was voted down by by fifteen to six with seventeen stations however russia's representative as he was speaking to us just behind me now at the embassy here in the hague he said with the motion didn't go through it did show that more people didn't support it they were actually in favor of it. unfortunately we didn't manage to get the needed two thirds of votes for the resolution to pass obviously the brits and americans voted against and then. you member states and u.s. allies followed suit for twenty three countries have refused one way or another to take this western viewpoint that's more than half of the executive council. well it was viewed very differently by boris johnson the