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Going into local cease-fires with the assad regime which are guaranteed by the russians. thats having one major effect which is actually something that the trump administration wanted in the past, is its freeing up assads forces to fight more against isis. and you know, we talk a lot about the fight against isis in syria and raqqah. assads forces are fighting isis in a different place, a town to the south. theyve been making major gains. the russians concentrating firepower on that region, as we...

The thing is operating on many different levels. the end result, if all you do is try to be realistic then any attempt the de-escalation is a good thing from an aide perspective. humanitarian perspective. decreasing the killing as you pointed out, the carnage. possibly give any read half a million people killed so far in the civil war. millions offended. and forced to live as refugees. so anything that we can do to help de-escalate is a good thing. we have to also understand the is that much is ...

Stable with the head as assad. warning tougher sanctions with the two countries is not off the table. all ahead of the high stakes meeting with russian foreign minister. the message is already clear, quit propping up assad. >> now that the smoke has cleared following the strikes has anything really changed? >> we want to bring in cnns international correspondent ben wedeman. for the syrian people has anything changed? >> reporter: certainly if you speak to people inside syria in the rebel cont...

Their support. and warning that tougher sanctions against the country is not off the table. a high stakes meeting with the russian foreign minister this week, the message is clear, quit propping up assad. >> reporter: good morning. the big questioner the trump administration is whats next when it comes to the crisis in syria? is a strike on the airfield a one time thing specifically desi designed to keep assad from using chemical weapons or the start of a u.s. policy to support the removal of as...

Outcome than some people might have anticipated, but i think there may be possibilities of trying to move forward. we will continue to encourage that. i will encourage it from the outside, not as secretary of state, because there is no military solution to the problem in syria. now, when president putin came in, he came in partly to prop up assad, but also because isil, daesh, was gaining huge ground, the radical extremists were gaining huge ground against assad and assad was in a very fragile p...

Delegitimize the election process, cause mayhem, trouble whatever. have influence. we believe responsible for hacks. not the person you want to be chummy with but in addition real geopolitical politics. primarily right now concerned about syria and whether or not the russians are behaving responsibly, helping to defeat isis or prop up assad. thats a concern for us because we have interests there and trump is saying hes going to commit some sort of resources, maybe bodies or not. these are real i...

Claimed or at least the fbi believes may have been directly involved in recruiting isis. >> colonel jacobs, when we look at what it will take in terms of the coalition, which we have discussed a number of times, ambassador ginsburg bringing up the need for some of the arab nations in the region, but when it comes to players like russia, it is, in many ways, a strange bedfellow. they do not have the same goals as the united states and france do. how do you align the two? >> well, russia, first of...

Some of your opponents note that back in 2013 when bashar al assad, the syrian dictator used chemical weapons, crossed the red line and used chemical weapons against his own people, that you voted against the use of force allowing president obama to use force against assad. why is that, sir? >> well, first of all, i dont support air strikes against assad now. no one is calling for those either. i thought, number one, it would be counterproductive, especially when the president was describing the...

In opposite to assad. but this mornings revelation, the russian announcement, that theyre convinced their airliner was brought down by a bomb, that may change their minds about whether or not theyre going to focus on isis or just focus on propping up assad. indeed it makes an opportunity for the united states and russia and perhaps even iran to work in concert to get rid of isis to focus on them, although its going to require the united states to stop talking about dumping assad and maybe take t...

Not about isis. they are about transitioning and getting assad out. as long as assads in power, i think the strategic mistake the russians made, they cant prop up assad and fight isis at the same time. assad and isis are evil twins. assad brought isis into being by being so brutal against his mostly sunni population. we have got to get assad out and then turn the attention and heres where we and the iranians and the russians have a similar interest, of taking care of isis. but i also think youre...