government of syria and syria have been facing we do believe if. they stumble. and russia which are available in syria leave early should remain there. to. maintain these three against a terrorist group if you get there on syria the latest states. its allies will continue the search for supporting of tourists once again. the dumbest of the champions of. syria will be in danger and dangerous situation and once again we'll face is the. development of new development of the two. issues still. to the syria because the main. responsibility of the defend the country. of the people of syria. yet is here just. what it out the iranian policy is has no relation to the american policy do not correlate but i'm sure you know very well that russia does try to your cards made its policy with all the actors on the ground with a specific reason of achieving a point when all foreign troops i assume including russian troops would they could be withdrawn from that country and syria would be able to provide its security on its own is that concurrent aware of how iran sees the out ce

the americans but what about the rest of syria the conflicts in the rest of syria exactly i mean the question of that with all of the absence of the or the presence of the u.s. forces in syria is not only about isis it's not only about iran although i mean these two key factors are very important for the for u.s. policy and u.s. thought that here in the region but it's also about finding a political solution to the conflict in syria. not a son to former secretary of state he put to what's most people actually believe as the most comprehensive clear us syria policy. last year in january last year during his famous speech before the hoover institution in stanford university when he when he actually identified the key objectives of u.s. policy actually in syria and why the united states should actually stay in syria with its military presence number one is but a venting. from coming back number two is but eventing iran from having a land door from iraq through syria to lebanon i eat continuing iranian influence in the region and number three. he's using the u.s. military presence in syr

chunk of syria. how to sustain the gain there, you do it by stabilizing these areas, maybe not nissly by american taxpayers, because there are other countries who are willing to contribute. turkey would be one, but has to be done by -- in a way that addresses their political grievances. that goes back to also the original plan by the obama administration to somehow ignore turkish priorities, not read history, and somehow just decide, oh, we're going to go there, use these bunch of fighters who seem to be great warriors and fight ice and i say get offensive there. that's not how it works. >> thank you, hassan. andrew, my last question to the panel, and then we'll turn to the question from the audience. do you see going forward, jeffrey, ambassador jim jeffrey's syria mission as more ike hassan is suggesting, it focused on politics while managing the withdrawal, and how that could play out. >> well, of course now he's dual-hatted. he is the isis czar, as we say, and also special envoy for syrian engage

what happens in syria doesn't stay in syria. i think we have seen it is terrorism, refugees, and a terrible humanitarian situation that the spillover has man affected in to europe in ways that i think are very hard to forecast going back to 2011, 2012, timeframe. when we saw the grass root roots revolution in syria uprising. i think the other thing to keep in mind is that our competitors can very easily fill the gaps into which we are departing. they have been actively exploiting our vulnerabilities in the region for the last years, whether that's russia in 2015 and turning itself into syria, iran, certainly over the last decade increasing destabilizing activity in the region and now through its activities and capabilities in syria itself, announcing an expeditionary ability that can be leveraged in multiple ways of whether it's in yemen, and other places in the region and yet forces working in close proximity to these competitors has afforded these competitors an opportunity to learn from our operation and put stress on the us

and of people of syria is a poor the whole integrity oh the syria. the. fighting you are helping the syrian go and if you close syria for fourteen games terrorist groups. with the help of russia and some other countries fortunately we have overcome me even cosies the. government of syria and syria have been facing the do believe if. they stumble. and russia which are available in syria leave early should remain there. to. maintain these three against a terrorist group if you interrupt syria the united states. its allies will continue their search for supporting of tourists who once again. the dumbest of the champions of. syria will be in danger and dangerous situation and once again even face the. development of new development though the. issue still. to the syria because the main. responsibility of the defend the country. of the. syria. has just. pointed out the iranian policy is has no relation to the american policy do not correlate but i'm sure you know very well that russia does try to your cards made its policy with all the actors on the ground wit

the power of the syrian government in syria in order for russia also to have a stake in syria's future including as a military state they want a foothold in the middle east i'm not so what they're trying to get out of this whole situation ok well turkey has a very different view it's proposed a safe zone going thirty two kilometers into syria that it would control could sit in with russia's strategic interests in northern syria. well the safe zone is certainly something that turkey has been pushing for very strongly. and i think it's very much a turkish plan so it could be kind of something that russia would be willing to compromise on however russia also knows that the assad regime the assad government have been strongly against a turkish controlled safe zone they have come out and said that is categorically not ok with them and putin has previously proposed a sort of compromise where syrian government could truly could be in charge of that safe zone and we heard in the report as well that love rauf said this month that that is the only solution for those territories to be kind of pas

and now syria. i'm focused to do my job as a football coach this is my mission and this is my job what other people put in our sport in football if i read all this nonsense that superstars should not shake hands this putin should not be a world cup in qatar and all this. things to put politics in our sport is not very helpful football is similar to ping pong it's just a bit of fun and my game with us money is free of politics the rookie in the team plays football in the netherlands a very open society now he plays for a country cut off from the world wife born in syria. so when i come up play for the national team of all and then i will play for the national team of syria to show the people and to give them back also because my parents also from syria and i want to give something back to the people of course i don't speak arabic as good as the other ones so. it's really difficult and but the only thing i know is when everyone is together here no one speaks about politics because everyone is so focus

troops to to leave we've already seen equipment leaving syria in northern syria u.s. troops would follow i think he's made a choice. president trump and that is to withdraw u.s. troops and i think part of the concern in washington and this is been a challenge with this administration president trump is that he does not value allies and he's incredibly transactional and for the kurds i would be worried and i don't think that the u.s. is a reliable partner right now with president trump in position to determine what the policy is but we saw it just last week an attack on u.s. military personnel with isis claims it's obviously a disconcerting situation i think the worst case scenario for the united states is that isis reemergence and that you continue to have a destabilize region. jonathan accounts with the german marshall fund of the united states and we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you thank you thor germany's chancellor angela merkel has told the world economic forum that global institutions need to be reformed to avoid what she calls the fragm

the americans but what about the rest of syria the conflicts in the rest of syria exactly i mean the question of that with all of the absence of the or the presence of the u.s. forces in syria is not only about isis it's not only about iran although i mean these two key factors are very important for for u.s. policy and u.s. thought that he and the region but it's also about finding a political solution to the conflict in syria and a son the former secretary of state he put to what most people actually believe as the most comprehensive clear us syria policy. last year in january last year during his famous speech before the hoover institution in stanford university when he when he actually identified the key objectives of u.s. policy actually in syria and why the united states should actually stay in syria with its military presence number one is but a venting. from coming back number two is but eventing iran from having a land door from iraq through syria to lebanon i eat continuing iranian influence in the region and number three. he's using the u.s. military presence in syria as a

today update on the war in syria it's a show that you our community voted for so join us with your syria related comments and questions live on you tube or on twitter. my name is the marker for the boy on the beach and you are. a big thanks to everyone who voted in last week's twitter poll to help us choose today's topic you can follow us at the lookout for future polls so today we're looking at some of the latest headlines from the war in syria and a pullout of u.s. troops rebuilding diplomatic relations with bashar al assad and how displaced syrians are coping with harsh winter conditions with us to talk about all of this in istanbul turkey me an architect and activist also in istanbul dillema missa vice president of the national coalition or syrian revolution and opposition forces. a journalist and activist really good to have you with us everybody or we begin with the u.s. troop withdrawal last month president donald trump made a surprise announcement that u.s. troops will begin leaving from syria have a listen to what turkey's president said during a meeting with russian president v

not to mention that hezbollah is in syria. there is a wing of hezbollah that's inside of syria. so imagine now if you're israel. you already face the threat of hezbollah. hezbollah has already developed rockets they're making. they are now building these rockets. they are developing these rockets in lebanese territory. and they're not the rockets from the last time they had a war with israel. these are precision-guided. they can aim hit to him certain areas and avoid hitting others. and they have a lot more than they used to have. by volume, they could overwhelm israeli forces potentially. you already have that problem in lebanon. imagine that exact same problem not just from lebanon but to the north of you coming from syria just across the golan heights. so you're israel. you have your mortal enemy, iran, your mortal enemy had a assad, and your mortal enemy from the groups north of you in that country. so israel is taking action. they are increasingly and openly acknowledging as they launch these attacks into syria to try to put thumb selves into that position. they cannot allo

troops from syria. i think the relationship between putin and air to one has grown substantially over the last couple years just this past year they've had seven one on one meetings and this is in two thousand eight hundred eighteen phone calls they had one recently so the cooperation between turkey and russia and syria has grown substantially so this conversation these conversations have been taking place regardless of what's taken place in the united states by president but of course the u.s. pull out of syria has prompted i think a push to try to address some of the challenges and concerns that turkey sees and also it's an opportunity for russia to solidify what it sees as the right position in syria what do you make of this talk about a buffer zone in northern syria between turkey and the kurds does that say that turkey is not willing to intervene militarily against the kurds in other words it's not willing to go against the wishes of washington. i think that's to be determined of course turkey has

syria,u.s. pulls out of as many people want to happen, countries like iran have moved into that vacuum. we do have to ask ourselves, is that something we are ok with? host: democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. jones beingfor mr. on this morning and hearing what he is saying. my point is that the u.s. is ignoring all of the terrorism that is taking place in africa and most recently, the bombing in nairobi, kenya. i think that diplomatically, the u.s. should start to pay more attention to the african nations because kenya is strategically located and with mr. johnson's experience in somalia, it would be very helpful for the u.s. to deal with kenya in this regard. thank you for taking my call. guest: it is a great question. in africa, the primary focus of terrorist activity at the moment, there are four areas. one is in west africa in nigeria , the second is in north africa, particularly out of libya, we have a number of different jihadist groups. a third is in east africa, the hor

for example you have on the jordanian border with syria but inside syria internal territories we're talking about internally displaced refugees you have the rock band camp so this camp if we're to speak frankly is basically besieged from two parties the jordanian government and the syrian government that have equally closed their borders prevented medical supplies and food supplies from going in. which has resulted in horrific things happening this meant for loan i think the number is eight children have died in this camp a lot. not forgetting obviously the freezing conditions right now. in particular story there was a there was a man who one of these eight children her father was basically went to the syrian side to try and get his bill to somewhere to get treated and he had to pay a bribe that's the only way that he could get into syrian territory because that's the way it works and i saw territory and he doesn't have that money he went to the jordanian side and they rejected him there and said they weren't letting any refugees in the case wasn't serious. twenty four hours later and i thi

troops from syria. we'll hear from the former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs in the george w. bush administration and a group of academics. this was hosted by the foundation for political economic and social research. it's about an hour and twenty five minutes. >> thank you for joining us this morning on this discussion on the u.s. withdrawal from syria. as you all know, on december 19th, 2018, president trump announced the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria. and ever since, there's been a big debate about how to pull out of syria, when, and who would replace u.s. functions on the ground and what will happen to the forces on the ground that allied with the u.s. to fight isis and what would be the regional implications. so there has been a lot of debate, and we are hoping that we won't cover all of it, because that will take probably many hours. we are trying to focus only on the withdrawal decision, and what it could mean on the ground and the relationship with turkey. how

withdraw out of syria. i think the debate has been abysmally superficial and anytime you get a bipartisan consensus on anything in this town, you have to question it. i'm afraid that many decisions and views on the raw were because people just alike trump. i'm an analyst and it is not my opine, it is my decision to lay out the analytics on this. as i have laidns -- that there remains legitimate reasons and perhaps overwhelmingly positive reasons for the united states to -- out of the area syria rather than stay in. let's talk about the legitimate reasons that may have been in the consideration or the with drawl. defeated. not be it is certainly degraded. their ability to operate his military forces no longer is based or threat. nobody doubts that. but they are not next scheduled threat divides dates. it's 25 different countries and we are in two of them. using this argument stay in syria to complete the destruction of isis carries over to if they are not completely defeated we need to stay in the question i

for example you have on the jordanian border with syria but inside syria internal territories we're talking about internally displaced refugees you have the rock band camp so this camp if we're to speak frankly is basically besieged from two parties the jordanian government and the syrian government that have equally closed their borders prevented medical supplies and food supplies going in. which has resulted in horrific things happening this meant for known i think the number is eight children have died in this company. not forgetting obviously the freezing conditions right. in particular story there was a there was a man who one of these eight children her father was basically went to the syrian side to try and get his will to somewhere to get treated and he had to pay a bribe that's the only way that he could get into syrian territory because that's the way it works in there terry and he doesn't have that money he went to the jordanian side and they rejected him there and said they weren't letting any refugees in the whole case wasn't syria. twenty four hours later and i think that's wh

out of all its military entanglements approach specifically syria he mentioned syria a lot in two thousand and three in many tweets so he ran on these things and if he doesn't fulfill these election promises he's going to be in big trouble in two thousand and twenty but what he's running up against peter is the permanent state the deep state call it what you will whether it's the generals whether it's lindsey graham john bolton mike poppy or whether it's the mainstream media who is also urging trump making you know putting all their all their might and all their muscle into trying to convince the american public that trump is making a bad decision by leaving syria and all of a sudden peter the narrative now is the kurds no one was talking about the kurds for so many years but all of a sudden everyone is an expert on the kurds of what's going to happen to the kurds should trump get out of syria so that's the narrative now ok game a but i mean if you were to go to our own turf and to and i would say real media sorenson's. the kurds are already talking to the government in damascus not only w

presence in syria are considerable as a result of what has been taking place in syria. large numbers of people. have returned to troublous region afrin also there is another area where people have felt safe enough to return. it is now opposition to turkey has always done its duty to protect innocent people in syria including the kurds and turkey will continue to act in this in this fashion on the other hand p.k. k. and its syrian army people idea why peachey. being is in the same sentence as under the umbrella of kurds is not acceptable and we have response reacted to this way of. the the use of the word kurtz and president also has responded to this. therefore just to reiterate the p k k or its syrian army why p.d.p. why she cannot be the representatives of the kurdish brothers and sisters and. and this will be this position turkey has always. worked hard to protect innocent people during its operations military operations as well while targeting terrorists in syria. like to retreat that determined fight against terror and terrorist organizations and terrorists in syri

cross talking to syria policy i'm joined by my guest. in london he is a lawyer and an independent political analyst as well as an expert in iraqi affairs in damascus we have amar why cough he is founder and director of an organization expressing stakeholder opinion in syria and in the middle east and in norman we cross to joshua landis he is the director of the center. middle east eddies at the university of oklahoma are right gentlemen. rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate joshua let me go to you first in norman i have a very simple question but i don't think there's a simple answer is foreign policy is befuddling. frustrating to understand and it seems quite fluid so what do you make of his policy as his major foreign policy advisers including the us secretary of state is essentially contradicting their boss on their middle east tour go ahead joshua. well you're absolutely right and for americans it's just as confusing as it is for the rest of the world because the foreign policy. elite re

syria. i am focused to do my job as a football coach this is my mission and this is my job what other people put in our sport in football if i read all this nonsense that superstars should not shake hands this should not be a world cup in qatar and all this. things to put politics in our sport is not very helpful football is similar to camp it's just a bit of fun and my game with more us money is free of politics the rookie in the team plays football in the netherlands a very open society now he plays for a country cut off from the world wife. syria. so when i come up play for the national team of all and then i will play for the national team of syria to show the people and to give them back also because my parents also from syria and i want to give something back to the people of course i don't speak arabic as good as the other ones so. it's really difficult and but the only thing i know is when everyone is together here no one speaks about politics because everyone is so focused on their

now kuwait verse to syria. the last warm up game before the asian cup time for the pre-match press conference within the gulf region coup why just regard it as liberal it's a monarchy we're only one family rules but journalists who criticize the king can go to prison for up to five years. for me it feels like a different planet but for my fellow countrymen totally relaxed down the deliverance phrases we hear from football coaches all over the world we have no reason to under you in the world here but you going to speak to tom ridge. as a fellow journalist and experienced sports reporter for whites public sports channel . was there a discussion within quiet that the syrian team comes to quite yet because the. government or. the good with. the years is like a lot of what. other countries they wouldn't invite the syrian national team because of of the politics of the of the obvious no no no sidewards smallgoods is. a long way from home but. so i wonder of politics is always be. the how not. the left side the right

out so-called islamic state i a says lost almost all its territory in syria syria is marked in red and that's led to president trump to say he would draw the two thousand american troops supporting the kurds and do one regards the kurdish militia as terrorists and he sees their presence along turkey's border as a threat to national security in a telephone conversation with president trump he proposed a turkish controlled safe zone along the border and that's the area which you see she added on the map turkey is also seeking control of mom beach a city the kurds captured from the ice in two thousand and sixteen and that is visible clear that in this gray area now with the u.s. poised to would draw the cause of trying to avoid a full on turkish military a sort and they've been to russia for diplomatic had the goods of long dreamt of establishing an autonomy region in northern syria one day but city cheekily the position of the kurds goodish forces has become very precarious in the wake of washington's planned withdrawal. this was the scene in northeast syria two days ago when a convoy of

he wins and he gets all of syria back. >> well, that's the consequence of our leaving syria. announcing to the world we are leaving syria. i did a lot of negotiations with the russians on syria. i understand where they come from. those negotiations are tough. what gave us leverage at the table is the fact that we were present on the ground and influenced over a significant portion of syria. we drew lines on the map to make clear to the russians don't cross this line or you will have a bad day. that gives you leverage with the russians. we are getting to the point where with the defeat of the physical caliphate we would be able to sit down with the russians and have a serious conversation about the future of syria. announcing to the world we're just leaving, basically all of the leverage evaporates. >> not to put too fine a point on it, the main reason you stated at the beginning for the u.s. presence and the u.s. campaign and the coalition campaign was to defeat isis. the president described isis as defeated, that's a quote, absolutely obliterated in terms of territory. of co

i assess lost almost all of its territory in syria and syria is marked in red on this map that led president trump to say he will be draw the two thousand american troops supporting the kurds now regards the goodish militia as terrorists and he sees their presence along turkey's border as a threat to national security in a telephone conversation with president trump he proposed a so-called turkish controlled safe zone along the border and that's the area that you see shaded on the map that turkey is also seeking control of mom bij that's a city the kurds captured from the two thousand and sixteen and you can see in gray now with the u.s. poised to withdrawal the kurds are trying to avoid a full on turkish military assault and have turned to russia for diplomatic help. the gods of long dreamt of the stab autonomy's region in northern syria one day but strategically the position of the kurdish forces has become precarious in the wake of washington's planned withdrawal. this was the scene in northeast syria two days ago when a convoy of u.s. and kurdish led troops was bombed in an attack claime

withdrawal from syria because they are being targeted and we're now seeing. physically the impact of u.s. troops leaving. well the problem with don't trump is that he never wants to admit that he meant she made a mistake so i suspect that he will still insist on withdrawal of american troops and convince himself that it's what those troops were doing could be done away for american forces base in our region of cause is not possible given the fact that american troops in iraq also are used so. but it is definitely a great deal of pushback within the american democracy to with all the pentagon is definitely against suit most seen brett mcgurk used to be the main interlocutor and that coming out in the washington post and on television yes very and the talk shows are doing very strongly against a change in policy. and bent but every tool and trump seemed to have essentially struck a very nice friendship these last few days or so they have now spoken three times and the first time they didn't present talk without consulting his he's a ties it just gave up on the

inside syria in the coming weeks and months. to somalia now where the government says it's planning a major offensive against the group al-shabaab in the coming days and that is when it comes just a day after the u.s. military said it carried out an airstrike killing fifty two fighters was launched hours after the group attacked a somali army base. controls large parts of rural southern and central somalia and continues to carry out attacks in the capital mogadishu and in neighboring kenya since two thousand and seventeen the u.s. military has stepped up air raids against the armed group in somalia carrying out forty seven strikes last year. is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government. has this report and a warning you might find some of the images disturbing the destruction caused by u.s. warplanes targeting al shabaab fighters near the port city of kiss my you in southern somalia bodies and vehicles sliced through not a moment to remind us of the intensity of the airstrikes they killed what the command cente

the kurds inside syria. well turkish officials keep emphasizing that they're ready to launch a new military offensive there in recent weeks the turkish military has reinforced troops and equipment some say this is also present and on trying to appeal to nationalist voters ahead of the local elections coming up here in turkey in march but in the end i think it strongly depends on what the u.s. is doing next let's remember when president trump announced the withdrawal in december quite surprisingly he said it would be swift now a few weeks later you know we know that this pullout will probably take much longer so they won't just leave this space this territory to the turks and i think president out it has to take this into consideration and he'll not you know just act without having any kind of agreement with both washington and moscow. reporting from thanks very much for. some of the other stories making. tens of thousands of young people are gathering in panama city ahead of the pope's arrival for the cathol

in northern syria. today. what we were. when we were. even percent of americans or something and really experience hardship. for.

forces but kurds in syria fear they will be attacked by turkey if the u.s. goes also coming up north korea's leader makes a surprise visit to china the trip comes as piece of verse between john yang and washington appear to be faltering but there are reports that kim jong un will be discussing plans for a second round of talks with president. bush and actor kevin spacey appears in court to face sexual assault charges a man says spacey groped him two years ago when he was eighteen. and born to be wired germany's b.m.w. hopes self driving motorcycles could end traffic jams just one of the innovations of this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas. brian thomas thanks for being with us u.s. national security advisor john bolton could be facing a difficult day of diplomacy in turkey he's there to discuss the withdrawal of american troops from syria turkish president juan has hailed plans for a pullout as the right call and said turkey is the only country that can stabilize syria after america was drawn but kurds inside syria fear they will be attacked by

syria currently has. boot and s. three hundred as far as we know from what the russians have said it was only the panacea and boot systems that they used to defend syrian positions against the cruise missile attacks and guided bomb attacks etc from israel over. overnight and in the attack that took place at the end of the week and there is as you say diplomacy going on as well we have the gear peterson who is the new u.n. envoy to syria arriving in moscow sitting down and having a meeting with sergey lavrov the russian foreign minister this is pedersen's first .

army is in syria illegally let's take a listen. americans were emotional relationship with the american military remains on syrian territory illegally there is no ground for their presence sanctioned by international law there is neither illegal invitation from the syrian government nor a decision from the un security council we discussed how the decision of the us to withdraw troops from syria will affect the situation in the country if such plans all implemented this will be a positive step. so it is clear that following u.s. troops withdrawal from syria the reason a lot to be done to be discussed to be called an aid to on the ground between russia and turkey both at the gun and putin today reiterated also they are afterwards to bring peace to syria and to stabilize the situation there through so-called asked enough form and we've done so it is clear that the countries are going to work together on that but still it's clear that the rug disagreements big . we the parties involved back to you from international reporting for us fr

in every time there's a negotiation to end the conflict in syria the u.s. seems to upset it maybe once what once it does leave it'll leave the the players on the ground because if they have real genuine interest they can resolve it joshua it's been reported that in september john bolton went to the pentagon and was asking for. a menu of ideas how to react militarily to iran for an alleged terror attack within the green line in baghdad. there's i tell you everything we need to know about john bolton in the middle east. well you know it's not only that but john bolton and. therefore he got his present job he was. he was lobbying for regime change in iraq he was talking to me reaching change in iran excuse me was he was talking to figure running groups united states and saying that he was all in favor of regime change in iran so he has a very aggressively anti iranian and which i presume is part of the reason he was brought to the top of the pick for president trump so president trump is sitting on a very anti iranian foreign policy crowd and we say that from

troops from syria will not jeopardize america's efforts against their own battle continues our presence to signal to withdraw our folks from syria in no way impacts our capacity to deliver on that and you'll see the coming days and weeks we are redoubling not only our diplomatic but our commercial efforts to put real pressure on iran to achieve what it is we set out for them back in may and these are simple asks we ask of the islamic republic of iraq to behave like a normal nation and the coalition is just as committed to it today as it was yesterday. all right let's bring in our guests nala joining me here on set is three professor of political science at kota university from norman in oklahoma via skype we have joshua landis director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma gentlemen thank you very much indeed for joining us george if i could start with you there in oklahoma and let's take a look at a u.s. perspective of this initially my pump has trip mostly about the trump administration's strategy towards iran tell us more about that strategy and then we'

the same is true for syria. and the syrians don't overcome the jihad it's at home they will enter iraq and then our country. and spread throughout the region that. we get we learned that one of the. that is why the security of the muslim world and that of iran depends on the security of syria john is. that we. so to defend its borders iran openly sent soldiers from its codes force an elite unit of the republican guard to both syria and iraq. you know i think iran has influence and commitment in iraq was present well before mozilla in the summer of twenty fourteen really go all the way back to the us intervention in two thousand and three. the empowerment of a shiite majority government that the role that iranian militia played. since then the arena in presence was both opportunistic to expand its power expand its influence in the region but also defensive because first of all didn't want to return to power of the baathist party in sunni arab domination secondly it didn't want the united states to use iraq as a p