national security adviser robert o'brian has met the turkish foreign minister have a solid blue the high ranking diplomatic push is happening as critics back in the united states accuse donald trump of clearing the way for the offensive by pulling american troops out of the region meanwhile turkish forces and couldn't fighters continue to battle in the border town of russell and considered a strategic point for both saying the hardware has more now on the fighting from the turkey syria border. the kurdish syrian democratic forces are holding out. using tunnels and trenches to mount their defense it's been just over a week since the turkey led military operation began. the battle here is key if that operation is to succeed fighting has been fierce. the fighters are mainly from the syria have kurdish y p g group that make up the bulk of the s. the f. forces turkey considers it a terrorist organization. this border town is where turkey wants to create what it calls a safe zone that will stretch 30 kilometers into syrian territory the united states which not only about the s d f and pulled i

president in the situation room surrounded by the vice president the national security adviser robert o'brian as well as the defense secretary and joint chiefs what we could take from all of this is there's no question this is a u.s. president that wanted to dominate the news cycle with this announcement he repeatedly underscored that he believed this was even bigger than the killing of osama bin laden under his predecessor barack obama highlighting in his view that this was a leader who had overseen its height enormous caliphates and that he felt this was prominence he wanted to inject this into the headlines we should point out the timing of this coming the very important closely watched sunday chat shows here in the united states the u.s. president dominating much of that time in obliterating their news rundowns in order to get his message into the news cycle kimberly he also did kind of broaden it out to what his his policy is and syria and in turkey he was pushed on that how would you characterize how he what he had to say about that there's no question this is a president who is trying

national security adviser robert o'brian has met the turkish foreign minister met lute never saw glue the high ranking diplomatic push is happening as critics back in the unit.

we had some tremendous backup robert o'brian secretary esper secretary pompei oh pence i told you he was great we this is a very small group of people that knew about this we had very very few people we it a leak a leak could've caused the death of all of them now this so good that i think nothing was going to stop them anyway you want to know that that's how good they were we had them also surrounded by mess of air power up in the air yesterday surrounded at very high levels with very low we had tremendous air power all of this from those who were you with. secretary esper a few of the joint chiefs mark milley some generals we had some very great military people in that room and we had some great intelligence people robert o'bryant. really good yes with. the us is the very last month to retire with this phrase we are all over the pullout right shirt straight question and you do a great job by the way your network is fantastic they're really doing a great job please let them know. know the pullout had nothing to do with this in fact we found this out at a similar time it's a very goo

of that delegation with the vice president mike pence and also the national security advisor robert o'brian what they expect to be discussing with the president of turkey is a couple of things 1st they're looking for a resolution to the situation in syria and also underscoring the importance of making sure there is no so-called security vacuum in the area as well they say they expect this to be a face to face meeting according to the secretary of state there had some been doubt about that but as we've been reporting the turkish president saying initially he wasn't sure he was going to meet with anyone but donald trump but then backing down on that and now the secretary of state underscoring that he believes this will be a face to face meeting now it's important to point out in all of this that the u.s. president has been pretty clear about what he hopes to gain with this delegation heading over number one he's hoping that in fact there will be a cease fire in all of this and also threatening more sanctions if the ones already in place don't have any impact now we do expect that the u.s. pre

yesterday when he came oidz of the west wing after graham was meeting with the president that he and robert o'brian, national security advisor will be traveling there to meet with erdogan and other officials to dial down the increasing in escalating tensions there. trace. >> busy day, john roberts, live in the white house. thank you. fox news reporting live from syria ahead. first, joe biden's son hunter talking for the first time about the ukraine controversy and president trump's accusations of corruption. hunter biden denying he did anything unethical in his dealings with the ukrainian company, but we'll tell you what he is admitting ahead. from all the journalists of fox news, this is fox news reporting. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. >> trace: live look at the white house, president trump is set to congratulate this year's stanley cup champs, st. louis blues. we will show it to you. for now, hunter biden responding after president trump accused him of improper business dealings in ukraine. the

calling those families and jordanian pilot, i think that's important, new national security adviser robert o'brianas formally the envoy for hostage affairs, he has an eye to understand that this was justice for them and the thousands of others executed brutally. maria: very good point, you're right, he was almost saying in honor of those families who lost loved ones under al-baghdadi's rule. >> do we know if they had been planning another attack, what kind of treasure trolls had been left behind where our special forces would get hands on. >> isis and the caliphate is growing and so, you know, i think senator graham, aye said this many times myself, absolutely right, we have to stay forward, we have to keep a presence, we have to have assets in the region to keep our foot on the next, these groups to allow them, to prevent them from reconstituting and growing again, operationally i don't know that this will have a huge impact but public relations and symbolic standpoint and their ability to recruit and ability to inspire attacks in the united states this is huge. and i really give the president a

calling those families and jordanian pilot, i think that's important, new national security adviser robert o'brian was formally the envoy for hostage affairs, he has an eye to understand that this was justice for them and the thousands of others executed brutally. maria: very good point, you're right, he was almost saying in honor of those families who lost loved ones under al-baghdadi's rule. >> do we know if they had been planning another attack, what kind of treasure trolls had been left behind where our special forces would get hands on. >> isis and the caliphate is growing and so, you know, i think senator graham, aye said this many times myself, absolutely right, we have to stay forward, we have to keep a presence, we have to have assets in the region to keep our foot on the next, these groups to allow them, to prevent them from reconstituting and growing again, operationally i don't know that this will have a huge impact but public relations and symbolic standpoint and their ability to recruit and ability to inspire attacks in the united states this is huge. and i really give the president

our national security adviser robert o'brian embassador jim jim jefferies and investor david satterfield is a great privilege and each of the members of this team contributed equally to achieving this outcome which is a great contribution to security in this region and it's a great contribution to the strong and enduring relationship between the united states of america and turkey lastly i want to express my appreciation to millions of americans. who i know were carrying this moment in prayer we heard from people all over the country whose hearts were heavy with the loss of life in this conflict over the last week long to see it brought to an end. and i believe their prayers. the strong leadership the president trying provided to this moment and the cooperation with president arafat won and turkey has made this possible and so again. let me say. you have a week after turkish forces crossed into syria turkey in the united states of america have agreed to a cease fire in syria. it will be a pause in military operations for 120 hours while the united states facilitates the withdrawal of y.p

house is sending a delegation led by vice president mike pence and new national security adviser robert o'brianey, turkey's invasion and attack on the kurds followed president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from northern syria but the white house insists turkey was planning to invade syria no matter what. the president is just protecting u.s. soldiers. >>> turkey's invasion of northern syria highlights the complicated relationship between the u.s., turkey and the kurds. it's the latest chapter in a long history of tension in the region. the roots of turkey's offensive against the kurds date back nearly a century. the kurds are a largely muslim ethnic group native to the middle east. they have their own language, culture, and traditions. at the end of world war i, western powers promised the kurds an independent state, but it never happened. instead, the kurds are among the largest groups of people in the world without a state. at least 20 million strong, spread out across turkey, iraq, iran, and syria. but statelessness hasn't kept the kurds from being an ally of the united states. th