policy on syria. two or three times the president pulled the rug from under his feet, destroyed all of the progress he made diplomatically, military, in terms of sanctions or whatever and jim has had to start again. ambassador jeffrey traveled with the support of secretary pompeo. he did, i think, in my view all of the right things, which was to lend nato rhetorical support to turkey, to encourage turkey to do -- to assert itself more strongly in idlib, to say you have our support as the united states 57and nato. the national security adviser o'brien went on tv and essentially said, united states isn't going to do anything about idlib. this isn't our mess. we don't have any resources to do this. it's not our business. pulling the rug from under ambassador jeffrey's feet as he was still there trying to negotiate with the turks to encourage them to do more in idlib. that continues to be the problem. obama and his administration had huge faults, but there was a process. they took the wrong judgements, bu

what starts in syria does not end in syria. that should worry us all. and this issue belongs at the top of the agenda of policy makers as well as hurens. syria's trauma represents many of the since of commission but also since of omission. this is what we must seek to put right unless this decade buns one of impunity. thank you very much indeed. [applause] >> david, thank you for that very powerful talk. it gave us a lot to talk about. i was struck by that phrase that you used, the age of impunity. and there are arguments that some make that we need to recognize. that it is conquering the last remaining corners of the country and we have to deal from that reality especially because there is no diplomacy that is going to change that reality. how as a humanitarian who in many ways has had to work with repressive governments all the time, how should we think about he rehabilitation of the assad regime, the assad government and what message that sends about impunity for actions going forward? is that a reward to assad? >> if you are a humanitarian organizat

northwest syria. it is striking and instructive and in the former northeast there is a tenuous balance of power sustained by american military decisions and some scope of the power-sharing in the latter in the northwest as we are seen there is no similar balance, no constraints on the use of syrian, russian and iranian power and as prospect of power-sharing as turkey has proven both unable to deter syrian aggression and unwilling to emphasize civilian protection in its military efforts. i think all of us have a far more serious thinking to do by what is meant by quote unquote, a political solution but the truth of the last nine years is that it's been far clearer what people want to see at transition from, not what they want to see a transition to. we have to think much harder about what conditions are possible to bring about political solution and the consequences for diplomacy when those conditions are not present. while the presence of troops insufficient on its own to resolve the underlying challe

and in the roll, for syria .audible]. >> you mentioned these children, this areas under regime control. these people not to safe to return and live under those regime in this curtain situation. the regime needs to change or allow millions and left and also people who live outside of the country to be able to return the love and safety. thus far, we sing year after year, snowfall in lebanon. people live in tents covered in snow. and dying. they know what awaits them. in syria, they will be arrested and tortured. the people are able to return home. this is not a solution. >> focusing on syria, we are a society of civil provocations. the way we dealt with bosnia or south africa or other places like this. a couple of years ago the president asked why do syria and in earthquake. i said despite the homes in syria, one week after the earthquake, he sees more donations. >> the crisis, for the first time in their lives are the last 17 years in congress. and congress is that responsibility. they tweeted about the governmen

from syria that are in turkey from syria it's important to know that the syrian migrants and refugees can return home to re build the country you know real quick and in to follow up with what alex had to say here not only do you have these refugees slash migrants you also have jihad is probably built into this as well so not only is it a health issue it is a security issue go ahead let me just remind you in that state just the western press when they talk about isis fighters from germany and french and german nationals who went to fight in syria how did they get that it's all what they what they went to turkey and from the turkish territory they perceive it but unfortunately i cannot quite agree with what that accept because i am reading that statement of nato and the e.u. turkey is a precious ally i am quoting you have you spoken about. you know where the still ok but what is the punch backing it up i mean i some of the. same thing to me it's simply easy if you take it seriously i take it seriously you know several times i have seen that you were union destroying itself in the name o

syria that they don't have any problem with syria but their problem is iran but it looks from the outside like the ones turkey is now an ally of netanyahu is israel. i can hardly believe that because dan has a lot of problems with israel and his rate is often often say it. you do think it was a mistake to take the disproportionate number of refugees from the civil war into turkey 3600000 do you think he is wise the other one to now threaten the european union who have arguably not stood by their obligations under refugee conventions actually we have to divide this question into 2 separate part one is the arrival of 2 and 3 and half a 1000000 refugees in turkey and then the question of releasing those refugees to those who want to go to europe not preventing them by turkey to go there these are 2 separate questions the 1st part of the question that's to say whether turkey should have received that many refugees in the 1st place. no it should not have received that much even at the very beginning when. that would all lou was foreign minister he was saying that now we have something like 700

and that happened in her village in syria. when the regime taken area, most will die or get arrested. that's what happened to them. what i mentioned, the mental torture is serious. nothing will help you understand. because of the charge you, if you don't express you don't understand it. it's the same thing, if we don't help them. the people of syria are suffering. it is not pain. in his fear. the fear not being able to see the children, the fear being arrested and captured and tortured to death. it is not torture, is worse, is waiting torture is the worst. sometime, it seems impossible but as someone said, the way seems impossible until it is done. you have to do something. i will conclude by saying the words, it's an animal. i hope you all agree with that. i do pretty thank you. >> is a powerful testimony. lesson questions for you in a moment. we will turn now, to our second witness. he is the head of the syrian civil defense were commonly known as the white. he manages a network of over 2800 volunteers who saved about hundre

i know people in syria and even people outside syria, they are tired of just hearing talk and speeches. but it is our right to go to action. so i will do my best all the time. to haveas been amazing the support of these kind of people around me, who never get tired of what they are doing. and i ask every human being to us by just listening to the story, or maybe just helping your neighbor who may be a refugee from syria, iraq, any country, care a little bit more. that is what we need, people to care. to senators, i talked to them as human beings before senators, because i want them to care as people, not only as a senate person. of all, sincere gratitude to the u.s. holocaust memorial museum into the m. night shyamalan foundation, and the senate foreign relations committee for the incredible work that they did. the senate foreign committee -- foreign relations committee staff and chairman shift and senator menendez -- and chairman risch and senator menendez. at least half a million people have been murdered. the u.n. stopped counting after 400,000. 14 million people are displaced in sy

syria. and. emphasize the fact that we are fighting international terrorism and we are going to agree a a $3000000.00 international memorandum which is going to be signed by our ministers of. foreign affairs. council and in the course of. today's more than 6 negotiations we have come to other agreements with the president. on and we believe that these kind of agreements will pave the way will be the foundation for further. cooperation and will put an end to the suffering of the civilians in syria in this terrible crisis and will create a dish and for a peaceful settlement of the syrian arab republic problem is i should like to thank the president before considering that it was necessary to come to moscow today and i'd like to look affirm our commitment to the cause and saying of all. turkish colleagues for the very tense but constructive attitude which everyone has displayed in these negotiations dreck. so. i would like to also thank you mr president and the ministers and the distinguished m

this is still going on in syria. people are dying every day. contact with any person, he tells me torture is unlimited, starvation is horrible. we have to stop them, and have the leader of the free world speak up for these people and take action. doesn'tay be the u.s. have a great relation with turkey, europe doesn't have it, but if we are going to support turkey, we are going to support turkey for the syrian people, not for turkey itself. and right now it seems like that is the only thing you can do, because there is no intention to send in troops. i understand that. but europe has their own allies in syria, they can support them. do you have the nato alliance, you can support them by providing material assistance in stopping the killing. turkey, a lot of syrians talk about how much they like what turkey is doing, even though turkey is coming into their country, it is the only way to survive. it is the only way to be protected. it doesn't matter who protects us, just protect us. just protect us. i even have a video of my father being killed by

to open what he calls the floodgates of refugees if european allies didn't provide more support in syria recip tiber when accuses the e.u. of failing to keep its promises in the 2016 deal to send billions of dollars in return for sheltering syrian refugees. well migrants who made their way to the greek border by boat and are now stuck local media say that 10000 people have been prevented from entering since saturday many though are determined to keep going until they reach western europe. i've been here at the border for 3 days the situation here is tragic i'm not here alone there are some young men alone and it's fine they don't care about tough conditions but i have my whole family with me and it's very difficult no one is helping us no one gave us anything to protect ourselves from the cold everyone is taking advantage of us they take us here and there people are merciless. we won't give up we system going through god willing because we can't live here anymore we're working for nothing here everything is pointless and we can't go to school we can't do anything. much this war in our co

find a way towards discoloration in and syria. and will help prevent a humanitarian crisis and to create conditions to continue the peace process in the syrian arab republic between all the parties involved i'd like to thank mr. i thank you for coming to moscow and to reaffirming the stages of our relations i like to think of all of our colleagues for this difficult but very constructive work which results very positively thank you. if you do. so. i would like to thank mr putin. the minister and. media ladies in jail. so i like to express my deepest respect for. everyone i like to thank mr putin for my team me for meeting we see that these tensions persist and it's good to have had this meeting. today we pay special attention to. syria and to the recent developments in the province of idlib as i don't put in the we spend 6 hour worse. toking over this a she. i can say that we had a very frank conversation. and we discussed. every issue. on the agenda as you know relations between turkey and russia go deep into history. we have a 5

syria obviously it's a defense. case we have and i just say it and closes the school and i cases we just can't imagine the outcome for millions of people who have been. the news of war and how would this outbreak affect these people i mean how defenseless are people living in environments that include war zones and refugee camps. the main issue is specialized services in syria for example half of all doctors have left the county since the war started 9 years ago and today we are starting that thence a year in the north east for example. would be 10 beds for the 10000 people who were very far from this figure and the northwest and the recently we saw massive this placement of populations due to 3 months of aesthetics and minutely offensive so those civilians women and children are living in overcrowded camps and you can imagine if there is a now to be what would satisfy summation look like it's practically impossible our eyes will get into a little more detail about the camps in just a moment but let me cross over to

the crisis of syria.ressure and under the fa ct under immense pressure and under the fact that they are being targeted in their hospitals and their clinics, and many of them will go to work, to the hospital, not knowing if they're going to come back or not. can i quote you and see if this chimes with the view expressed by some of your colleagues, doctor macro taref working in idlib has described in an interview with aljazeera last month what conditions are like, he said there was always the thought i would go to the hospital and never come back. it was mentally exhausting because we had to work under co nsta nt because we had to work under constant bombing. whenever i heard of jets constant bombing. whenever i heard ofjets in the sky i've thought the hospital would be the next target, that put most of us in the medical field under enormous psychological pressure. just imagine, since april of last year, there have been 95 direct attacks on hospitals. and since the war started in syria, you know, sams and t

they know syria very well. they understand syria better than me and better than many of us.ation. but, they also face frustration, too, because a lot of times, their hands are tied. it depends on the internal politics, international politics, and all that stuff. trump dismissed what was happening in syria as a country of sand and dust. very unfortunate statement. very, very unfortunate statement, but i'm not going to try to comment on what trump said, but that was very hurtful, from many point of views. one, is because i'm syrian, number two is because as a humanitarian you can't dismiss the killing and the suffering of people in syria as death and sand. the foremost state department official frederick hoff who advised president 0bama on syria, said to make it clear to the syrians and the russians that they would not be attacked by the us no matter what they did to civilians, has allowed them to abandon all caution. for people like vladimir putin and bashar al—assad, he says this is a bright green light to do what they wish. do you think, whatever the intention of president

syria some of the country are there. and sometimes colliding interest between the major powers made the situation if and worse and arguably as with a lot of criticism of kurdish groups across the whole spectrum for their different positions what is your position for instance on the assassination by don't trump forces of customs and the money of the arabian general because as far as i understand it london has never condemned the assassination well we were really concerned about the situation because we want to maintain a good relationship with everyone. and we don't want iraq to become a battlefield for these major powers to settle their differences on iraqi soil so at the beginning when the incident happened we. we try to play a role in the escalating the situation and surprise and condemn these as nation london had their view on that incident and they made the statement on the incident and you should ask the government of britain about this question how representative thank you thanks so much for having me and i don't k

they made for a different part of syria the north east part of syria last october which also led to apply the science situation at that time and at that time also they managed to deescalate the whole situation by having food for him to fold and making a secure zone next to the border so it seems that putin and erdogan are trying the same strategy here in force we have to all a war in the in the past cease fire have been broken many many times before so we all have to wait and see but i think this why the fire for leave in many parts of the world right now that at least this urgent situation between turkey and russia seems to have deescalate and of course putin stressed again that even in difficult situations there friendship is always something that they can rely on and make sure that they can come up with some kind of agreement which they apparently did again today i guess the question is stamp will president bush and be able to implement this with bashar al assad's forces i mean as you said they did have a deescalation zone agreement already for live that hasn't held although i was inte

if we don't go to syria. day we'll divide turkey she was. showing their consciousness of. our end of the consciousness that our intellectuals couldn't show and you can see. many examples like this my dear friends yes i believe. and by being inspired by our ancestors i said no and the hill of the martyrs will not be empty and i will continue saying for. sure. now. to the screen here and you can watch on the wall as well maybe this will inspire mr kemah. 100 years ago if stumble i don't now after the month ok we've been listening in that speech in the turkish parliament from turkish person richard type parents of why in his speech the. very rich in imagery it has to be said they're taking our show in some some footage there in the parliaments and we did hear. russia type part one talking about a lot about solvency about how noble it was to die for one's country saying the soldiers who have been killed did not die in vain let's remember that this comes after yet another soon turkish soldiers have been killed in those operate. provence let's get some analysis now from sin and

his is precisely why we championed the syria -- excuse caesar syria protection act which authorizes sanctions against the assad regime and its backers. it's been a long road to get here. i'm proud to sponsor this stand alone s a bill last year and to pass it out of committee. hard work to get it included in last year's annual prevailed l but we and it's now law. we're greatly honored to have bill here e for this with us today. what began with one man's expose us effort to assad's atrocities has become the means by which we will hold his backers accountable. as with any law, implementation the key. while working closely with the administration to ensure that he caesar act is fully implemented and impunity is of such the face depravi the people give me hope. presenting us with remarkable of enduring suffer. as we proceed today with the go ing, we're going to without cameras of any kind, and without cell phones. there will be no recording. request of our witness, and that request is going to , and we're honor it. will ill happen is, there be a transcript made of his testimony, which will be shor

themselves with washington in syria given the president assad of syria now saying we won't even talk to the kurdish community in syria until they stop being the tool of outside proxies well so very complex situation in. in the area especially in syria the major powers conflict. in that region made there this conflict the high representative in london and the kurds aligned themselves according to us and according to putin according to rouhani you guys allied with the cia you know that's not true statement. presenting couldn't some region of iraq not present in there the kurds in syria or could see in. in turkey and or quoted in iran. we maintain a very good relationship with the united states of america and other countries as well they were there for us at the time of need united states helped could have some region throughout that. conflict and. without the support of international community we wouldn't be able to model these victories and specially juden the isis war to you fine with the united states'. support for kurdish groups in northern syria and elsewhere and your final donald

turn calling on russia to leave syria and leave him quote face to face with the regime. these are his words so on what's going on in and around syria i don't like him or putin ended up in the guns meeting here in moscow here's my report. and you wave of refugees flooding towards europe nato losing his patients turkey russia relations plunging to new lows this is all fallout from the evil of crisis serious last rebel held province dominated by terrorists is a province just the largest al qaeda safe haven since 911 tied directly to iman also hearing this is a huge problem private seems to be a magnet for terrorist groups all of them are new sense of menace and a threat to the civilians damascus with russia's help is fighting them on the ground it says to protect civilians turkey one of data strongest arm is alongside militant groups is fighting the syrian military on the syrian territory also it claims to protect civilians. separating hardcore terrorists for a moderate armed groups opposing assad was turkey's responsibility according to 2018 memorandum but it was never don

and you hope that she can call syria home one day yes of course and she knows now she's from syria and not just me i'm going to take on behalf of all of our like 6 many of the war syrians we are all like sleep and wake up on the day off like looking at the news and say like and have it over and now that like breaking a new was. something. one thinks very much is nice to me thank you so much thank you. well that was syrian filmmaker walt al-khateeb her documentary for some has won awards and global attention she told me that she still hopes the world will soon give her this year we get the attention so desperately needs before even more people have to die when the day is almost done as always the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either you can follow me at brit golf t.v. don't forget to use the hash tag that every member whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see that. desperate people. families overcome by fear and distrust dramatic pictures from the great turkish border. once again refugees are caught between competing political inte