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With the congress to get the backing the president seeks for the use of force. i think it was timed, obviously, to fit in with his effort to see if he could stop the threat of force to use this proposal to dismantle and destroy syrian chemical weapons. well have to wait and see. i dont think its going to have a resounding influence. it was unusual. it was kind of un-putin-like to reach out that far to the american public. a number of pieces of it fell pretty much on sterile ground. >> interestin...

They can see that, ncin fact, commanding the whole operation. i think as well they will get an opportunity if, in fact, they play ball with this to join the u.s. in creating a step forward in syria, which in my view ought to be followed by a move to the geneva peace process and begin a negotiation which is the one way i believe we have of getting rid of assad. >> ambassador thomas pickering. thank you so much for your expertise. >> thanks, andrea. great to be with you. and earlier on the "toda...

Verification process. the rebels are not getting the airstrikes they had been counting on. >> well, i think the rebels and airstrikes we were a little bit uncertain whether they were going to be limited or wholesale. what the rebels are getting is getting rid of the most dangerous weapon that could affect them because they dont have the kind of wide scale protection they would need to fight battles against sarin. so i dont think its a zero issue for the rebels at all. they are also getting assad...

They know here, the u.s. officials, that the opposition are really distressed by this u.s.-russian diplomacy on chemical weapons. first of all they want to see punishment for the attack on august 21st and they want to see real support for their opposition. they are afraid this means assad stays forever. >> they thought the u.s. government was going to degrade assad. that was the plan, to degrade his militariable, which would have given the opposition -- they are -- theres a lot of upset folks on...

His ally, assad, once they get rid of the chemical weapons, they will say what more do you want from us. is this a ploy to keep assad in power and diminish the effectiveness of the opposition. >> i believe, first of all, the only reason that the russians pulled this card at the last minute is because there was a credible use of military force. they believe that not only were we going to attack the ability of assad to degrade and deter his delivery systems of chemical weapons, but that in doing s...

the bloody crackdown. for 12 months now, assads regime has lied about killing it is own people. night after night we called them out on their lies but we havent been able to say what the dictator and his wife were thinking, what theyve been worried about, what they have been talking about. well, now we can. in an e-mail on august 4th, assads wife ordered jewelry from a cousins boutique in paris. she writes, sorry i took so long to reply but ive only just got back the final request. one...

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Assad. even if he signs onto the chemical weapons treaty ban, there is no enforcement mechanism under the ban. youre back at the united nations. we have to see how serious the proposal is and whether it has enforcement mechanisms as part of it. >> my reporting is that the russians are holding firm against enforcement mechanism. do you have any concerns that the administration might waiver and go soft on this, or should they hold firm that there has to be some kind of military enforcement mechani...

>> thats the discussions that secretary kerry had with foreign minister lavrov as well as make of the other players in this can yield a concrete result. i know hes going to be working very hard over the next several days to see what possibilities are there. >> well ask senate foreign relations chairman senator bob menendez for his reaction to putins snipes. is this a real crack in assads armor. the syrian dictator tells russian state tv he will give up his chemical weapons after long denying the...