syria should be determined by the syrian people and territorial integrity of syria should be respected by all and in this regard also the two countries agree with each other and we continue our cooperation for peace and stability in the region. ronnie's the trip comes after us president donald trump said he is pulling out american military forces from syria the announcement surprise foreign allies as well as members of his own republican party trump said i saw had been defeated in syria and the u.s. troops need to come home. russia's president vladimir putin has welcomed trump's decision to withdraw the troops from syria he also said his country must normalize relations with the united states and putin was speaking at his annual news conference he says the u.s. military presence in syria is illegitimate he added his forces have not seen any sign of withdrawal yet look of sorts of the the view is for defeating arcel i generally agree with the president of the united states with the chief some major advances when it comes to defeating the terrorists and we have struck a major blows again

troops from syria. will congress in the us be able to do anything to counter this or should we expect this to play out the way trump has said it will play out there's not much congress can do and as far as i understand it he's the orders already been made to withdraw those forces i mean one of the arguments against the withdrawal was that the troops provided the u.s. with some leverage over the issues we're discussing so if there are two thousand troops in syria then russia iran and the syrian government need to have come to some accommodation with the united states to get them removed and the thinking was we would the u.s. would bargain that for we docked in the iranian presence and so on without that the only leverage the us really has are the pos prospects of reconstruction aid which we've now excluded and then you know ability to veto resolutions in the u.n. and so on so that was one of the concerns. people had about what rob but i think it's going to occur i mean there's not much the president has

together on syria in the future. in a major policy change the united states will start sending some asylum seekers who entered the country illegally back to mexico mexico has agreed to accept the migrants for humanitarian reasons that says it still has the right to admit or reject the entry of norman mexicans into its territory a judge in new york to squash the request to have a sexual assault case against disgraced hollywood producer harvey weinstein dismissed the sixty six year old whose alleged crimes inspired the me to movement is charged with rape and other sexual misconduct a pretrial hearing has been scheduled for march those your headlines we're back with the news hour after inside story with imran khan that's next. has also really been defeated in syria the u.s. president thinks so you know this is the total withdrawal of american troops america's allies a critical and what about. to help the u.s. battle i said this isn't such. a low morgan to the program. donald trump is defending his decision to withdraw u

look russia does not have a russian minority in syria historically syria was never a part of russian empire so we don't want to force anything on syrians what we want to avoid is that syria become said base for some kind of a islamist terrorist organization or islamist terrorist state. like isis tried to be let me remind you of that thousands of russian citizens unfortunately who became militant islamists they. emigrated to syria and they took part in the fighting against. the syrian government russia condemns these people. of course ok so all of what russia wants is that the syrians should rebuild their own country the syrian government should control the territory that is the unite here they want and we and we see now that the darker side doesn't object if if if there is no terrorist state or that there are two of syria was russia and turkey are great ally as you leave syria is and he joined us that you can see mali thank you elias is the fellas let me bring you into this the turds the kurds pardon me say that they feel betrayed. by donald trump should they be are they. yes they ar

there's not going to be two years from now a deal in syria. syria will be great. however it is, it breaks up, and it's over and it ends. i'm very skeptical it will end. it can go on and it will. >> success is, i would say, we kind of alluded to this. it bears repeating, russia has successfully to this point managed a coalition for the first time in a long time. in 2008 in georgia we had some of the chechen militias on their side. in some of the post soviet wars they dealt with using nonstate militias, this is the first time in a long time that russia is managing a coalition that includes iran, and lebanese hezbollah and assad regime and it includes sometimes some of the shia militias out of iraq. they've managed to fairly successfully do that friction points, i agree with michael. two big ones are the israeli/iranian conflict. with which i think both sides see as existential and is playing out in syria. and there's a very, very high risk of actual military confrontation. the russians have a deconflict shun line. israel notifies them when they're going to strike in

troops from syria. will congress in the us be able to do anything to counter this or should we expect this to play out the way trump has said it will play out there's not much congress can do and as far as i understand it he's the orders already been made to withdraw those forces i mean one of the arguments against the withdrawal was that the troops provided the u.s. with some leverage over the issues we're discussing so if there are two thousand troops in syria then russia iran and the syrian government need to have come to some accommodation with the united states to get them removed and the thinking was we would the u.s. would bargain that for we doctrines in the iranian presence and so on without that the only leverage the us really has are the pos prospects of reconstruction aid which we've now excluded and then you know ability to veto resolutions in the u.n. and so on so that was one of the concerns. people had about what rob but i think it's going to occur i mean there's not much the president h

look russia does not have a russian minority in syria historically syria was never a part of russian empire so we don't want to force anything on syrians what we want to avoid is that syria become said base for some kind of a islamist terrorist organization or islamist terrorist state. like isis tried to be let me remind you of that thousands of russian citizens unfortunately who became militant islamists they. emigrated to syria and they took part in the fighting against the syrian government russia condemns these people. of course ok so what russia wants is that the syrians should rebuild their own country the syrian government should control the territory that is they have the nation tonight who they want and they and we see now that the darker side doesn't object if if if there is no terrorist state or that there are two of syria wars russia and turkey our great ally as you leave syria is and he joined us that you can see mali thank you elias is it a listen we bring you into this the turds the kurds pardon me say that they feel betrayed. by donald trump should they be are they. y

troops from syria. will congress in the us be able to do anything to counter this or should we expect this to play out the way trump has said it will play out there's not much congress can do and as far as i understand it he's the orders already been made to withdraw those forces i mean one of the arguments against the withdrawal was that the troops provided the u.s. with some leverage over the issues we're discussing so if there are two thousand troops in syria then russia iran and the syrian government need to have come to some accommodation with the united states to get them removed and the thinking was we would the u.s. would bargain that for we docked in the iranian presence and so on without that the only leverage the u.s. really has are the pos prospects of reconstruction aid which we've now excluded and then you know ability to veto resolutions in the u.n. and so on so that was one of the concerns. people had about what rob but i think it's going to occur i mean there's not much the president ha

forces draw coming out of syria. yes indeed it's going to be a very difficult process james mattis has made clear that he is going to stay in position until the end of february to help with the transition but one must remember too that there's going to be a new chair of the joint chiefs of staff coming in at in the end of september twenty nine hundred so there's a massive shakeup looming within the u.s. military which makes all of its number of moves which appear to be going down the withdrawal of troops from syria the possible withdrawal of troops from afghanistan a whole change in the way that the military operates going to be very difficult for james madison's successor as defense secretary to deal with these tumultuous changes within the organization the question is to whether president trump is going to look into the military for the success or whether he is going to be like many of his predecessors and reach outside the melissa military and bring in a civilian as secretary of defense mike thanks very much. well

the iranians will be in syria. assad have been at the table and putin will be at the table t guess who won't be at the table? the united states of america. and so vladimir putin, of course he is celebrating this decision, because america basically walked away, gave up its seat at the table. we have no presence there any longer and we have just turned over this country and its future and its meaning in the region to vladimir putin and iran and assad. another reason why putin is a big winner is because you can just imagine those meetings now. when putin goes to the middle east and meets with the egyptians and the saudis and jordanians, frankly even the israelis, us know what he's going to say? i don't know why you are counting on america. i don't know why you are relying on america. they are unreliable. vladimir putin is going to say, look at me. i stood by assad, even after the whole world came after him. i stood by him. i didn't retreat. look at america. they abandoned these kurds to be slaughtered by the turks and

of that part of syria. but the president's decision which was announced by a tweet is dangerous, premature, and wholly inconsistent with the facts on the ground in syria and our own military's advice. i was listening to senator rubio earlier today talking about what's the plan, what's the plan if we withdraw. well, i'll tell you what the plan is. there is no plan. there is no follow-on what are we going to do if we withdraw from syria. what we know is that the work of our combined joint task force operation inherent resolve and its partner forces, the syrian democratic forces, is truly remarkable. again, we can see it. we can see it in this brown section of the country where we have control and there is peace and stability. senator graham and i, when we visited this summer, we went to mambidge which was controlled by isis for three years. we walked through the market there without any body armor, with no guards. we talked to people in that community about what life was like under isis. i talked to one woman

in syria badly damaged now one of this is happening as tensions in northern syria continue to escalate we are hearing from various sources that have been called consumed by our sources on the ground that at least forty pickup trucks to tens lobbies and armored personnel carriers belonging to the syrian army have arrived in the province of money in northern syria now the area is controlled by the kurds and just last week the kurds did issue a cord to the syrian army to come and assist them our sources on the ground saying that these are seen as reinforcements and we understand that when the syrian force winds arrived they were welcomed by the kurds and the area was handed over but just a day before there was a turkish backed syrian fighter dispatch of both fighters and armored vehicles to the front line along man bridge so we have the situation on the ground gearing itself up for a confrontation we're hearing from and that it is preparing for a major offensive all of this coming hot on the heels of the surprise american announcement that it was withdrawing its troops from syria and at t

look russia does not have a russian minority in syria historically syria was never a part of russian empire so we don't want to force anything on syrians what we want to avoid is that syria become said base for some kind of a islamist terrorist organization or islamist terrorist state. like isis try to be let me remind you of that thousands of russian citizens unfortunately who became militant islamists they. emigrated to syria and they took part in the fighting against. the syrian government russia condemns these people. of course ok so what russia wants is that the syrians should rebuild their own country the syrian government should control the territory that is the other day she said unite who they want and we see now that the darker side doesn't object if if if there is no terrorist state or that there are two of syria was russia and turkey are great ally as you leave syria is a major illness that you can see military thank you alliances if ellison we bring you into this the turds the kurds pardon me say that they feel betrayed. by donald trump should they be are they. yes they

syria for saudi arabia means one major thing which is that a move all of the iranian influence from syria which is not going to happen because iran has invested so far seven years military finance and the troops on the ground it's not going to influence for money and for that reason that's the only thing that saudi arabia would be an incentive for so that it to finance and to pay for the reconstruction process there is no political settlement there is no political agreement that has been breached between the parties which would allow saudi arabia to pay for this and the other major problem actually when we talk about funding any construction process in syria we're talking about the most conservative numbers two hundred to three hundred billion dollars saudi arabia does not have the money to pay not even fractions of this one and dual which is more important to be taken into consideration in terms of saudi arabia's preordered it is yemen refund the financing the because structure process in yemen is saudi arabia's number one priority yemen is saudi arabia's war it's not the kids in syria a

companies syria. it's not the first time that the donald trump announces the withdrawal of troops from syria but last time that happened he backtracked pretty quickly you turning and staying in syria for another year or so well now yes indeed and he is taking the credit for it and just to give him the credit that he deserves in really the united states did do a lot to defeat eisel in syria i mean that can really be taken from them they pretty much liberated all of the eastern and northern much of the northern syrian regions of course not their soldiers not their troops but their proxy a sort of army as the kurds i mean the self-proclaimed capital of the caliphate rucka was liberated by the united states and their allies the thing is the means that the because they did kick eisel out with the their favorite tool with their favorite approach and that is blunt stupid force so that's what they used on rocket for example they pretty much a blitter rated the city with bombings once a flourishing prosperous

this is news coming to you live from berlin president donald trump orders american troops out of syria and provokes a storm of protest from fellow republicans president declares victory over so-called islamic states but senior republicans condemn the pullout as a costly mistake we'll have analysis of trump's surprise move. a safe landing for the crew of the international space station we'll find out from the german commander about his life and work on for the on the sets. and in the book his league of i'm going to put more pressure on monday at the top of the table it wasn't pretty with two red cards but biden fought their way to a tightly contested one nil victory over leipsic. hello i'm terry martin thanks for joining us president trump's decision to withdraw american forces from syria has been met with criticism from both parties in congress leading republicans are calling it a premature and costly mistake one that would benefit a remnant russia others question whether so-called islamic state has in fact been defeated two of america's allies britain and france say isn't finished yet

-- in syria. [laughter] aside, using every single source available to us is extremely important across the conflict. noty source of information, to take it at face value, but say ok, this is something we can work with, and a higher competence assessment of facts on the ground, as is completely important. one of those sources is the russian and syrian regime. the facts of the attack, and i would encourage you to read the report, because it goes into details about cluster munitions, it incendiary munitions, all of it. there has been a widespread disinformation campaign. the commander of operations in syria said it on record, very useful. they are very forthcoming on tactics and behavior. in the context of the april 7 attack, the precursor for the attack included a widespread disinformation campaign. that's in part while we are having this conversation today, because they are still doubts about whether this actually happened or not. dated -- it did. here is how the disinformation works. as internatio

with us now leaving syria, that creates what? guest: it gives iran free reign, more or less, to build what is its land bridge to provide weaponry and missile technology without having to fly it in from tehran to beirut to provide the offensive weapons to hezbollah and iran against israel. number two, it gives bashar al-assad a lease on life. number three, and most importantly -- and i think this is what bothered general mattis the most -- the battle on the ground in syria has been fought largely by syrian and kurdish forces that are our most important ally in the battle against isis. when we withdraw our troops, the turkish military is going to move in and try to vanquish those troops because they consider them to be supporters of the outlaw terrorist organization the pkk. president erdogan of turkey is desperate to prevent the syrian kurds from creating an enclave that would appear to be an independent enclave in syria. host: our guest is marc ginsberg. our phones are open for u.s. troop withdrawal from syria, and now reports ar

policy in syria is the same as the u.s. policy in iraq provide training intelligence air support but let the people on the ground let the locals do the fighting not the americans alexy clinical if in moscow well it's the russia us relationship like now what should it be now that we've had this decision to withdraw on the ground advises from north east and syria. well just as i mentioned and now we're go put in actually praised the. expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between russian and united states military intelligence security services on on syria but also i wouldn't jump into conclusions that after u.s. withdrawal or even scaling down of their presence russia is happy about that i wouldn't say so because it also brings certain. risks and limitations because even they say gesture or statement of the u.s. withdrawal from from syria i think it's just as trumps general policy as announced a lot of things like withdrawing from different trade deals and basically he's trying to renegotiate and they know jump

in syria is far far far worse than anything we've seen in yemen so in fact the situation in syria is far worse and has been far worse for many years there is a political process of some sort under way in both syria and yemen of course most recently in yemen the parties agreed to a cease fire as well as a prisoner swap i continue to think that not enough parties have been involved in that effort just as not enough parties have been involved in the syrian war effort and unless there's an inclusive effort that brings all sides the table it will be very difficult to resolve i also don't think it's fair or accurate to summarily dismiss don't position forces head choppers we all know what isis his role has been and what some of the most extreme elements of the syrian opposition forces have included those who have committed atrocities of their own but i don't think they represent the vast majority of syrian fighters much less the syrian people who are as up against their government with the basic demand for rights and justice those will remain the demands of the syrian people in a time of w

troops from syria plus. wrapping up the presidential question and answer session on two thousand eight hundred biggest events. gives at moscow's stance on the threat of nuclear war the ukraine crisis and among much much more. many western politicians experts and even ordinary people trapped they even think that you want to rule the world of course i do some fun there international journalists even pressed the russian leader about potential plans for a global takeover thankfully everyone sees the funny side of it all. broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our international thomas really glad to have you with us we start with a very developing a breaking story this hour u.s. defense secretary james madison well he's announced his resignation following trump's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria minorities killed and picks up the story for us is known as mad dog mattis the u.s. secretary of defense one of the military men that trump referred to as one of my generals well it seems h

operation inside syria. yes ok so mcgurk was also there to ensure it's fortune met in two thousand and seven no idea where he was working on the status of forces agreement were good is is is good at getting in front of somebody and telling that person what they want to hear the problem is other people are listening if you simply talk to that network that you talk about it's long been time to leave his post was supposed to leave at the beginning the time and inspiration disposed to leave last summer he was now supposed to leave two weeks from now so now he's resigning to head to head of the syria issue citing the president snarkily troops out of syria is the reason and it's just it's just not the case as to that drawdown of u.s. forces from syria very specifically just that specific. kariya first for the next minute or so. ah there are potentially all that negative consequences to this because there have been for example a couple of low level terror incidents in europe in the last year the genesis of those ha

ground forces from syria within 30 days, writing, quote, we have defeated isis in syria. my only reason for being there during the president trump presidency. that was followed up by another tweet, which included video somebody conducted and posted. like you have a whole communications department not in sync with the rest of the white house, including the national security council and foreign policy cabinet heads. this is incredible. right? i mean, could they be on board with this? i don't think so. on the president's official twitter page, this was posted. it was shot by a government camera. there was no press present. take a look. >> we have been fighting for a long time in syria. i have been president for almost two years and we have really stepped it up and we have won against isis. we have beaten them and we've beaten them badly. we've taken back the land. now it's time for our troops to come back home. these are great heroes of the world. because they fought for us. but they've killed isis, who hurts the world and we are proud to have done it. >> you know, i think g

in syria is far far far worse than anything we've seen in yemen so in fact the situation in syria is far worse and has been for worse for many years there is a political process of some sort under way in both syria and yemen of course most recently in yemen the parties agreed to a cease fire as well as a prisoner swap i continue to think that not enough parties have been involved in that effort just is not enough parties have been involved in the syrian war effort . unless there is an inclusive effort that brings all sides the table it will be very difficult to resolve i also don't think it's fair or accurate to summarily dismiss don't position forces head choppers we all know what isis is roles been and what some of the most extreme elements of the syrian opposition forces have included those who've committed atrocities of their own but i don't think they represent the vast majority of syrian fighters much less the syrian people who are up against their government with the basic demand for rights and justice those will remain the demands of the syrian people in the time of war or in

this is deja vu news line from the land of tensions simmer in northern syria syria and turkish backed forces close in on a king kurdish held town damascus says the kurdish moves militia have requested the regime support to break down the situation also coming up the. security is tight in bangladesh ahead of sunday's general election violence and intimidation mob the campaign now correspondent reports on voters' hopes and fears as the country decides its future. and we had to china for a look at the muscle power behind the construction of a spectacular city made entirely out of ice. i'm rebecca races welcome to the program top government officials from russia and turkey have met to discuss their response to the u.s. military pullout in syria the talks also camas turkey's threaten to launch an operation against u.s. backed kurdish forces in the city of money beach the areas east of man bitch a controlled by the kurdish forces seen here in red which turkey ses as a terrorist organization and has vowed to eliminate most cohen ankara's say they'll coordinate ground operations in syria desp

not very hopeful in syria would be a. he put back together again how the books were in the study but the rush not know if enough sort of walked. out of the aisle methadone is still a. man. of the city and about not in the way we use in the above of our let's shoot the mission and know. that the whole rule will look at being the only he. said the don't really need to stand then. i could feel. the conflict in syria has become increasingly sectarian it has caused internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the international exodus of refugees on an unprecedented scale in the modern world. some think that a form of federation is the only solution. is a set of the young do insects vehicle among them could only i should do while i sit on that dual hazel's act and know and know that at the technology you just lit. it could be a power where there was to decay and we took libby and we shot at the mouth about it but the one with the so we are doing well i hope and i will if luck will fit any . i figure there near m

come and help these guys in syria these people in syria they're in big big problems that that's a world away from america though isn't it what do americans think about the trouble is the left behind yeah if you want to if you want to help people voluntarily obviously some pictures of aleppo and some other places that have been retrieved under the control of assad and these got back to normal much faster anybody predicted they said well if you leave it and. then the radicals take over an o.b. it will be much worse so some of those cities can recover and that's why i say get foreign governments i love the way you get our troops out of the way and and the people just leave the people along and return the liberty to the people and they have an incentive to take care of themselves that they don't have to worry about foreign powers and they don't have to worry about their own government interfering in their affairs the human person beings are very capable of working in their self-interest and taking care of themselves and that's what we're libertarians because we believe that people have an i

saw from this tradition as part of a free syria. now at the same time tensions are also increasing between israel on the one hand and syria and lebanon on the other the lebanese are drafting and urgent complain to the united nations security council over what they say is israeli military jets infringement of lebanese airspace it follows his way the strikes overnight tuesday in which israel hit a number of targets in the damascus area this is what the lebanese transport minister has to say. humanitarian disaster which could have affected passengers of two civilian aircraft in lebanon airspace during the israeli air cross invasion force strikes on the south of damascus was narrowly avoided. now at the same time b. russian defense ministry has issued a statement in which it says that when those israeli strikes were happening there were two civilian planes that were coming in to land in beirut and in lebanon and that the israeli operations endangered or could have potentially endangered civilian lives b. is radio operations happened an

troops from syria creates. suspects for a political settlement that's what the russians believe and then there's a statement from the pentagon as well which says the coalition has liberated the isis held territory but the campaign against isis is not over let's discuss some of this with joshua landis director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma he's with us now from nocona norman oklahoma first of all just the fact that the seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to everyone do you think it's just it might be one of those donald trump things where he said something and then it's and it's triggered a whole lot of things maybe that weren't supposed to happen yet all of this is a commitment to get out well we'll have to wait and see obviously mislead both pompei o and bolton will try to be will try to walk the president back on this as they have done before but this seems to be a fairly determined you know fairly strong statement and turkey has been escalating turkey has been send

in syria is far far far worse than anything we've seen in yemen so in fact the scituate. in syria is far worse and has been far worse for many years there is a political process of some sort under way in both syria and yemen of course most recently in yemen the parties agreed to a cease fire as well as a prisoner swap i continue to think that not enough parties have been involved in that effort just as not enough parties have been involved in the syrian war effort unless there's an inclusive effort that brings all sides the table that will be very difficult to resolve i also don't think it's fair or accurate to summarily dismiss position forces head choppers we all know what isis is roles been and what some of the most extreme elements of the syrian opposition forces have included those who have committed atrocities of their own but i don't think they represent the vast majority of syrian fighters much less the syrian people who are up against their government with the basic demand for rights and justice those will remain the demands of the syrian people in the time of wa

look russia does not have a russian minority in syria historically syria was never a part of russian empire so we don't want to force anything on syrians what we want to avoid is that syria become said base for some kind of a islamist terrorist organization or islamist terrorist state. like isis tried to be let me remind you that thousands of russian citizens unfortunately who became militant islamists they. emigrated to syria and they took part in the fighting against. the syrian government russia condemns these people. of course ok so all of what russia wants is that the syrians should rebuild their own country the syrian government should control the territory that is the unite here they want and we and we see now that the darker side doesn't object if if if there is no terrorist state or that there are two of syria war through our share in turkey our great ally as you leave syria is a major illness that you can see military thank you elias is a phyllis let me bring you into this the turd the kurds pardon me say that they feel betrayed. by donald trump should they be are they. yes

syria but last time that happened he backtracked pretty quickly you turning and staying in syria for another year or so well now yes indeed and he is taking the credit for it and just to give him the credit that he deserves in really the united states did do a lot to defeat eisel in syria i mean that can really be taken from them they pretty much liberated all of the eastern and northern much of the northern syrian regions of course not their soldiers not their troops but their proxy sort of army as the kurds i mean the self-proclaimed capital of the caliphate rucka was liberated by the united states and their allies the thing is the means that the because they did kick eisel out with the their favorite tool with their favorite approach and that is blunt stupid force so that's what they used on rocket for example they pretty much a blitter rated the city with bombings once a flourishing prosperous city now it still lies in ruins i mean we've heard a very very big outcry coming from human rights groups for instance who have been accusing the united states of indiscriminate bombing and

stay in syria? ,cross the political spectrum political establishment, mainly the democrats and republicans in the senate are attacking president trump, especially his republican allies. there are number of anti-interventionists and people in the peace movement who are saying this is a good idea. phyllis bennis, your thoughts? >> i think thehe answer to yourr questionons is no and no. isis has not been defeated and the u.s. should not remain in syria militarily. i think the notion of a military defeat of terrorism -- we know -- if we want to talk about fitness, that is been a classic piece of take news for the last number of years the so-called global war on terror. we do not defeat terrorism militarily. terrorism is a phenomenon that emerges out of social, economic, national, and all caps of crises in all kinds of countries. and stopping it does not mean playing whack a mole with your military, slapping them down here and they rise up there and letting them d down h here and y rise again there. that

rip off took his tongue scrolling to syria. unca has been bolstering its military positions along its southam border as it prepares for what it calls a full fledged offensive on the cottage held city of mumbai is syria syrian rebels back by tuckey also on the move inside areas of syria under techies sway and along the eight hundred twenty two kilometer border between the two countries kaddish forces a miles from friday that they had been forced to cut a deal with the regime of president bashar assad after they were abundant by donald trump or nonstop the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria a little over a week ago here syrian troops deployed in support of cottage forces us seen on the edge of mom beach their deployment creates a government buffer achi across north from syria which fully separates the tukey and its proxies from the kurds but they are yet to enter the city of money bitch as they claimed on friday. we haven't seen any movement of the syrian army in miami beach all we see are the military council of money

troops into syria certainly not the u.n. recognized president and official leader of syria bashar assad but as far as the united states are concerned well are they deal with whatever problems with the face with the one tool the with the one method they know best and that is just blunt force just stupid blunt force so they just came they saw and they well they wrecked the place pretty much and you don't have to go too far for any examples like take rocket for example this is something of a pinnacle of the u.s. fight against isis what they did they left no stone unturned in this once flourishing city and it was a defacto capital of it was a self-proclaimed capital of the caliphate and so but they just they just bought the hell out of the place there was very very loud. cried coming from human rights groups and i mean in terms of when the talked about destruction the scale of destruction civilian casualties i mean speaking about those killed in iraq or during the bombings well one facts for you bodies are still being found the

breaking news tonight donald trump takes credit for defeating islamic state terrorists in syria and is now considering a total troop withdrawal had to. cut. the budget i know i. i. a feisty exchange in the british parliament is treason may faces all round hostility over a contingency plans for a no deal bricks said. after weeks of tackling violent yellow vests demonstrations french police launched their own protest over working conditions unpaid time and with media blaming russia for those yellow vests dressed protests we've been out looking for those suspected of in pill trade to keep. you in paris to make people protest known that to look neat. up when you're pretty interesting is. a lot of the art international world you sent here in moscow is just an eight pm here now my name is kevin owen welcome moment to this wednesday night news update starting with this top story the u.s. president has announced the defeat of islamic state in syria it came in the tweet of the end old chum took to twitter giving us out himself much of the credit for the victory of the terrorist. we have defeate

troops out of syria. this in spite of loud indignant opposition to that move from lawmakers of both parties, even some of the president's closest supporters. even some of his own officials. the president declaring, and i quote, time for others to finally fight, to which gop senator lindsey graham, typically among the president's most ardent supporters responded, when it comes to fighting isis, do i not believe it is wise to outsource the fight to russia, iran, and assad. they do not have america's best interests at heart. the president also lashing out this morning at democrats who he is blaming again for not funding his wall. he appears to be warning that he might not sign a short-term spending bill that needs to be in place by saturday to head off a partial government shutdown. i'll remind you, that's a spending resolution supported by republican senators as well. much more on that in the hour ahead. we begin with the battle over syria, which our abby phillip is watching from the white house. is there a

syria but last time that happened he backtracked pretty quickly you turning and staying in syria for another year or so well now yes indeed and he is taking the credit for it and just to give him the credit that he deserves and really. the united states did do a lot to defeat eisel in syria i mean that can can't really be taken from them they pretty much liberated all of the eastern and northern much of the northern syrian regions of course not their soldiers not their troops but their proxy a sort of army as the kurds i mean the self-proclaimed capital of the caliphate rucka was liberated by the united states and their allies but the thing is the means that the because they did kick i sell out with the their favorite tool with their favorite approach and that is blunt stupid force so that's what they used on rocket for example they pretty much a blitter rated the city with bombings once a flourishing prosperous city now it still lies in ruins i mean we've heard a very very big outcry coming from human rights groups for instance who have been accusing the united states of indiscrimin

troops from syria plus. bring up the presidential question and answer session on the two thousand eight hundred biggest event putin gives moscow's stance on the threat of nuclear war the ukraine crisis and. much more. many western politicians and even ordinary people. they even think that you want to rule the world of course i do. international journalists even press the russian leader about potential plans for a global takeover thankfully everyone sees the funny side. of broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is our two international thomas glad to have you with us. u.s. defense secretary james mattis has announced his resignation following chumps decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria artie's him up and picks up the story is known as mad dog mattis the u.s. secretary of defense one of the military men referred to as one of my generals well it seems he'll be leaving the job at the end of february here's what we saw on social media trumps tweets about the departure of the u.s. secretary of de

withdrawal from syria. lefty hughes for israel it's very important to have united states support and the fact that american troops were on the ground meant that the american troops would contain iran and iran the main policy is to be targeting israel or at least taking israel that would be more appropriate to say because of the palestinian issue so when the american troops leave this is before israel because supposedly these troops were containing iran not that's not happening which means that the has a lot of. proxy insignia and the iranian militias other medicines that iran supports would have sort of freed rein so to say that because. there's an ally or that it is a magic concern for israel at all when the syrian war israel has attacked the star it's the iranian and it's blocked a good sense of you know one hundred times from what benjamin at the hour now says that would continue but i'd also like to bring your attention to the fact that among these changes there is another change that's taken place over

the asian place in syria. one year after his release in twenty eleven his friend and fellow activist to chris had ducted the figure of all forat in the syrian legal world to this day nobody has seen or heard from him since . we'll need feels it is his duty to continue their common struggle for justice and the key issue here at the jails run by the intelligence agencies. everybody in syria from him say oh from the stories of that they she needs who were released or their parents. but the patient they got in the jail or in the station. they didn't spoke about because afraid they didn't spoke loudly or public the more secret weapon of these three seeing to put the people in fields in here or just feel to head up or. feel. the secret weapon was a as a petition. to make the people silent. marzan darwish also has a photo of missing lawyer to con his war alongside photos of friends and colleagues who have likewise disappeared darwish is a lawyer and activist for the syrian center for media and freedom of expression.

campaign in syria the united states. have been changing the rules of this game as it said game was and go in when it comes to why they are in syria in the first place because it certainly wasn't an official invitation from the un recognized leader bashar assad into the country saying they want to fight terrorists i saw so now they've defeated unlike the how to already introduced a new reasons a new pretext as why the should stay for example come combating and kind of countering iranian influence in syria where did that come from so now they say that their priorities have shifted again we're not asking for regime change we're not asking for the russians to leave we're asking for is a compromise settlement there's a strong. readiness on the part of western nations not to get money for that disaster unless we have some kind of idea that their government is ready to compromise a notion. create yet another horror in the years ahead the united states did do a lot to defeat eisel in syria i mean that can can't really be taken f

troops being pulled out of syria up next inside story up. is the cold war. of a nuclear weapon is another are about to start this is inside story. and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey it's twenty seven years since the end of the cold war but the heat is on again between the united states and russia over missiles and nuclear weapons accusing the russians of violating a thirty one year old arms treaty and says the.

the people on the ground there are other worries zain ahana reports from on the turkey syria border these syrian refugees have been living in this turkish border town for three years they say they can't return home as long as their towns and villages are controlled by the syrian armed group the white peachy while fighting eisel the why p.g. backed by the u.s. had taken control of predominantly arab and mixed areas across northern syria their residents say those territorial gains are about creating a kurdish state an accusation tonight. in two thousand and fifteen the white b.g. enter tel aviv under the pretext of fighting isis but they forcibly displaced the autopen looted their homes they started to impose the kurdish language and what they call democracy close like preventing us from practicing religion. the y.p. she could lose the autonomous enclave government in north eastern syria a plan to pull out of american troops will leave it vulnerable the group controls an area rich in oil and agricultural land valuable economic assets for the government and to mask this which is strugg

troops in syria, instead of fighting terrorism, they're supporting the number one terrorist in syria and that's bashar al assad. >> let's get to your phone calls. fred is first up. good morning from st. paul, minnesota. go ahead, please. fred, are you with us? we'll go on to joe in east point, michigan. good morning. >> caller: good morning. cut right to the chase, i think that the least of trump's worries about august of next year will be pulling troops. i think that he will be out of office, having cut a deal, a plea, to keep his kids out of jail, to keep himself out of jail. this man is rotten to the core. i'm 83 years old. i remember a lot of bad things and many good things in this country. trump is the worst thing that could have ever have happened. he's ignorant and knows nothing of history. he cares nothing of history. he is going to be gone. when the democrats get in and begin to open investigations into his mafia regime. i will be very happy when they do. it's too bad the founding fathers didn't make it easier to rid ourselves of a cancer in the white house. thank you. >> fr

troops in syria. blindsiding the pentagon, capitol hill and countries in the region, the commander-in-chief delivering his decision in a tweet, saying, we have defeated isis and syria. my only reason for being there during the trump presidency. the president has long been wary of american troops on the ground in syria. >> we're knocking the hell out of isis. we'll be coming out of syria very soon. >> yet his declaration that isis was defeated is roundly rejected, even by some of his closest allies like republican senator lindsey graham, who blasted trump's decision as weak and dangerous. and compared him to president obama. >> i don't think general trump is going to be any better than general obama. >> graham later told reporters, if obama had done this, we would be going nuts right now. senator marco rubio saying the u.s. will lose influence in the region. >> i just think it's a bad decision that eventually will lead to greater risk for the united states. >> the president has wanted to make the move

it gets to syria. ofterms of internal conflict what we have known and basically been focused on for the last ande the fall of the wall , over 11he big issues million people, more than all the inhabitants of chicago driven from their homes. the rise of isis, as a manifestation of this malignancy , the waves of refugees that have destabilize the entire political system in europe to a in which we have seen the end of. this is the internal conflict. it has become a great power conflict. there are five outside armed forces inside of syria. militaryh the syrian to the extent we can call it the military. the americans, the russians, the turkish, the iranians and the israelis. they are each pursuing important national security objectives which in a couple of cases, in the case of the turks, they would see as an extension. on theicy that focuses situation in syria cannot simply focus on the internal conflicts. they would ignore it because it is crucial. they feed on each other. as we go forward, we have to focu

and syria. that was hopeless of life policy will be changed and families will be reunited with heavy rain in northern syria is causing major flooding forcing thousands of internally displaced families from their makeshift homes. he reports. thousands of families displaced by years of war in syria are being displaced again two days of torrential rainfall in the country's northern region caused major.

that gets to syria. in terms of an internal conflict of the sort we have known and basically been focused on for the last almost 30 years since the fall of the wall and the end of the gulf war, syria is almost in a class by itself. yuan of the figures. you talked about -- you know all the figures. you talk about them today. the000 people killed, largest humanitarian crisis i believe since world war ii. over 11 million people, more than the total of all the inhabitantss of new york city and chicago, driven from their homes. half of syria's prewar population. the rise of isis as a manifestation of this malignancy. the waves of refugees that i would say have destabilized the entire political system in europe, to a degree we have yet to see an end of. the aspects of this conflict, but this has also now become a great power conflict. there are currently five outside armed forces inside syria, along with the syrian military, to the extent we can still call it a military. that is the american, russian, turkish,