be sanctions interesting ok patty thank you for that update from washington let's all speak to robert ford he's a former u.s. ambassador to syria he's joining us via skype from the u.s. state of maine good to have you with us again on the avs your news our ambassador so the ceasefire is being portrayed by the president of the united states as a victory but as you've been hearing there are many across the political spectrum over in the u.s. who say this is in fact just a safe saving measure for trump because of his decision to pull u.s. troops from the northeast syria where do you stand on this. well i think the turks got what they wanted in the short term they wanted to occupy a space between the syrian cities of tel aviv out in russell lane. 20 miles deep inside syrian territory and the reman between turkey and the united states allows for that so the turks essentially got in the short term what they wanted and when trump calls the deal when it was made at the time he said this is a great day for civilization but at the end of the it doesn't really address the root causes of the root caus

robert ford, interesting to talk to you, thank you very much. my pleasure.cknowledged that aid to ukraine was held up — partly to pressure for investigations into the democrats. mick mulvaney‘s comments came after president trump's ambassador to the eu gordon sondland gave evidence to the house impeachment enquiry. mr sondland told the committee he had been uncomfortable with the involvement of the president's personal lawyer rudy guliani in foreign policy. the bbc‘s north america correspondent, peter bowes, has the latest on mick mulvaney‘s admission. it really came out of the blue. he was talking to journalists at the white house and he appeared to acknowledge that there was a quid pro quo scenario in relation to ukraine, the withholding of funds, of military aid, in return for an investigation — not an investigation into the former vice presidentjoe biden, but an investigation into the hacking of that democratic national committee server that has also been the subject of an investigation. but the key point being the possible withholding of funds in return

and in many ways that is true, but we elected a mayor in our largest city, robert ford, in toronto, he premiere of the province and he ran on a single quote we the people' campaign against those institutions that i read. there are similarities to what populist leaders have said in britain, in europe, we aren't immune from the disease. one other thing we might want to mention is when the united states shocked us the way we did, lively discussion opened up in this country, not for the first time, diversify, diversify. well, diversify to china? that is of course the second big shot. we did something that the united states asked us to do and the chinese retaliated in a ruthless way. —— big shock. it's that sobering experience which i think is changing canada. shock. it's that sobering experience which i think is changing canadam the polls are correct and justin trudeau's liberals return with a minority—owned government, will canada still champion its progressive agenda around the world, do you think? i think it will because he will need the support of another party in the house, and that w

robert ford is the former us ambassador to syria from 2011 to 2014, now a senior fellow at the middleute in washington. he spoke to bbc news a little earlier. it's hard to say that this turkish incursion is helpful to american interests, and if it facilitates, say for example, the escape of isis prisoners from some of the camps that the syrian democratic forces that syrian kurdish militia i referred to, if those isis prisoners escape, that would not be helpful for american interests at all. i also have to say, however, that there really was no game plan for what to do in eastern syria over the long term, and people who say, well, the americans should just keep their forces they are, is there ever going to be an exit, or is this just we keep them there as far as the eye can see? paul adams, some developments in the last few minutes or so. it seems after a day of air strikes and artillery bombardment, there is some kind of evidence that the forces in the syrian allies have crossed the border so the ground operation, if you like, may be beginning. it is worth noting that this won'tjust b

the hype [ laughter ] it's like when the movie "the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford out, i mean -- they should have called that [ bleep ] hottie with a gun. [ laughter and applause so republicans love -- they love the intelligence agencies when they were abusing their powers and trampling on civil liberties, but now, suddenly, they hate them because trump is being investigated at this rate, they're going to have to pass an updated usa patriot act called the uniting to support a pathetic and tarnished red faced idiot otherwise known as trump act [ cheers and applause and hey, hey, hey, hey hey, democrats, democrats, side note here, but just because they're going after trump now, doesn't mean you need to become cia and fbi super fans you can applaud and protect the whistle-blowers and think trump is a corrupt, lawless criminal who should be impeached or removed from office without building a shrine to james comey. although, i have to say, if trump does gets impeached, it would be pretty cool if he was airlifted out of the white house by a government drone. [ laughter a

robert ford is the former us ambassador to syria from 2011 to 2014, now a senior fellow at the middle what was the strategic endgame for the americans in northern syria? i'm sure it wasn't this, was it? the americans never had a strategic endgame in syria — that's their big problem. all they had was a stopgap measure of supporting one syrian faction, one syrian kurdish militia, against isis and that worked well in the short term, caused lots of other problems and the bill is now coming due for that short—term decision. his former envoy to the region, brett mcgurk — who also worked for president obama — had some pretty strong things to say about american diplomacy this week. he said, "there is a defect at the core of it, across board. maximalist objectives for a minimalist president combined with no process to assess facts, develop options or prepare contingencies". is that fair? and notjust fair about this president? i think that could absolutely be applied to both the obama administration, of which i was a part, and the trump administration. maximalist in terms of giving a big set of

robert really wants to break out from petersburg and give up petersburg and get to the open, field he fights a terrible battle at ford statement with 20,000 soldiers, his last great attack but the grand poll says the attack and realize he's much fifth and his other lines to do it to the union strike back at the white old road. and they will breakthrough confederate lines on april 2nd, 1865. lee will be forced to give up petersburg and flee to the west. 1865, so lively to the west he is trying to join justice on union and he suffered a terrible defeat at the battle, where he loses a third of his, army sees was happening he says, my god, has already been dissolved? a terrible situation, that lee will be brought and compelled to surrender. on april 9th, sitting 65 at the mcqueen house in virginia, and that's not the only surrender, joe johnson will surrender as well, william to consist, a much larger surrender and if asked any story, if you ever read about it. here is that a place in it's not the last one. the civil war effectively over upon what's left it terribly burned richmond just break district was fascinating to