247 news live from moscow this is r. T. International good to have your company as always i mean and neal. The u. S. Secretary of state defended americas assassination of irans top military commander solo money in a drone strike in iraq on friday mike pompei o has said the attack at Baghdad International airport saved american lives to send a strong message to tirant. I think the arabian leadership understands that President Trump will take action we made very clear that these responses would be swift and decisive i hope that the iranian leadership will see that will see american resolve and that their decision will be to deescalate the Early Morning or raid also reportedly killed 9 others including influential air rocky and lebanese shia militia leaders there believed to be leaving the airport in 2 vehicles when the strikes took place. A money led the powerful quds force an elite branch of the arena and revolutionary guard corps charged with spearheading foreign operations the units has been heavily involved in the conflicts in iraq syria and was instrumental in the territorial defeats. Well to go on pick this story further live by our north america correspondent kill up and kill of an already volatile situation has upped drum must sickly and the language from both sides is not dampening down indeed at this point weve got the u. S. Secretary of state mike pompei all making his rounds in American Media and trying to make the case that somehow this effort by the United States in this recent killing is an effort to deescalate the situation with iran hes been referring to qassam solomonic as the worlds number one terrorist and saying that this was an act that the United States did lead to Greater Peace and save american lives this is my tale. The u. S. Remains committed to deescalation that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot deter further aggression from qassam salami in the Iranian Regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation. Now qassam solomon is often described as the 2nd most powerful person in the Islamic Republic of iran he was many believed in line to be the next Supreme Leader of iran as a possible successor to ayatollah calm and they furthermore he was very very key in the defeat of the i still terrorists throughout the region however as we hear from the u. S. Department of defense this was a defensive measure they argue that somehow this was done it was necessary to protect american lives in order to take the life of this very very very prominent leader of the Islamic Republic this is how the u. S. Department of defense has defended the recent strike. At the direction of the president the u. S. Military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u. S. Personnel abroad by killing costumes still in money this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world now it certainly has been a dramatic week for the United States in the middle east and the pentagon seems to believe that qassam solid money was himself a response a ball for what has taken place in the last few days lets review. Draw some indications that they may be planning additional attacks if that happens the new act and by the way we get word of attacks some type of indication will take preemptive action as well to protect American Forces to protect american lives. Now Irans National Security council held its meeting and said that at the emergency meeting that was convened they made quote the necessary decisions and that there is going to be some retaliation at the right time in place for what they say was the u. S. His biggest strategic mistake in the west asia region now the iranian side is basically completely unified in saying there will be a retaliate or remove from the Islamic Republic for this killing this is what weve heard from iranian officials the u. S. Next of International Terrorism targeting and assassinating general saloon money the most effective force fighting dies Isis Al Qaida hes extremely dangerous and foolish escalation the u. S. Busy responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism. Now how the Islamic Republic will respond is not yet clear no missiles seem to have been a launch to and its not clear what exactly will happen though voices are very unified that there will be a response from the Islamic Republic of iran now it is important to note that the u. S. State department and u. S. Media seem to be echoing very loudly that qassam solomonic is somehow responsible for the death of thousands of americans and that is somehow a very bad guy they echo these allegations though there have been strong criticisms of of donald trump from the democratic side his democratic opponents seem to argue that that he essentially took this action which could lead potentially to an all out war in the region without consulting the u. S. Congress this is what nancy pelosi representing democrats in congress had to say. The administration has conducted tonight striken iraq talk getting high level iran in military officials and killing Iranian Quds Force commander money without a new through zation for use of military fools to gays to run for though this action was taken without become full titian of the congress. Now as he is known for donald trump has not been shy on social media defending his decision to take out qassam solomonic however its important to note that in his responses donald trump has actually said that solar money should have been killed many years ago and indicated that there were previous occasions in which this assassination could have been carried out now what is interesting many critics are now wondering if the timing of the killing of a solomonic is in fact suspicious people wonder if trump did this for political reasons as an attempt to frame himself in a good light as kind of a war hero for the upcoming 2020 Reelection Campaign so the timing is something that many critics are looking at but regardless all eyes seem to be on iran as iran is making very clear it intends to retaliate its not clear how iran intends to retaliate but many fear this could escalate into a very very Dangerous International situation could have feelings for tickets through the timeline of events there a killer blow up and. Well lets try and answer some of the queries that kill bush bringing up im always happy to welcome former u. S. Congressman ron paul onto the program mr pole welcome to you. Is the assassination of general salim on the i am much in the justification for self defense would be used how strong was the evidence in this case to warrant the killing do you think. 00 i mean thats nonsense and sort of like assad gassed his own people and therefore we have to go you know into syria several things no theres no justification under International Law and moral law our constitution is just aggravation and the fact that were there in a way as a gas then have an embassy there wed never had been given any authority to do what we did i think its morally wrong and if they are doing this to make us safer they said that we had they had to do this to make americans safe complete nonsense i feel less safe because there will be retaliation and expansion and who knows what is going to lead to i think the best thing that could happen as a consequence of this is not more fighting but to encourage iraq to do what theyve been talking about doing is ask the americans to leave tell them where theyre tired of say and send them home he already said today its dangerous over there all american citizens should leave well our soldiers american citizens through id say they all want to leave i think they ought to pass that and say that we should and get worldwide support for this i think that would be a step in the right direction rather than saying the only thing you can do is a large more missiles and kill more people we just heard from nancy pelosi on the program there she the democrats in congress have strongly criticized Donald Trumps move saying he should have gone to congress 1st are they right or is it a matter of scoring political points than what she is saying. All politics because she party Neither Party are for staying out of the region the democrats did it was obama out of that wanted to really escalate in libya and also in syria and thats thats just pablum theyre not theyre not serious about that. Both parties indorse you know interventionism when trouble at times hell say the right thing im coming over im serious im bringing troops home who yelled and screamed the most not about the constitution but it was palosi and her gang was oh no he shouldnt do that he should do that. At that time you know removing troops is what we want as a libertarian no nobody should depend on switching parties or at least at this time of year because its all politicized you have to separate the 2 groups of people who think the United States has a has an empire to fan and that they are morally justified to do it versus those of us who believe that we should be noninterventionist and follow the constitution and follow International Law and the extra 3 fellows into u. S. Troops are actually being deployed to the region growing tension was not on the table from the start do you think what what this washingtons strategy for the reason for the region as it styles. Well i think its been very clear this is one thing that trump deserves credit for hes been consistent in his campaign and everything is going on he always wants to escalate you know the antagonism toward iran other places its up and down and back and forth and i sort of im always hopeful that he really doesnt want another war and i think pompei when he gets up there and says all these really challenging aggressive things and he says we dont want war war why are we doing those things. And i believe that is true you know people. Who are pushing it in an aggressive manner in our country they probably dont really want war but they want peace on their terms as long as people listen to us and do our obedience and follow us and make sure they dont challenge the dollar and they know they dont they dont want war but i think trump has been very consistent from the very beginning his allies in israel and saudi arabia have been very consistent they are delighted in a tremendous allies in our country you know with the neoconservatives who really. Control the media message and its all the people in this country are going to hear is the fact that. You know hes a bad guy he was killing all these people and he was coming in there to kill more americans that is so much nonsense its just a shame that the propagandists can get away with this killing happened in iraq of course the u. S. Led invasion of iraq began 16 years ago its essentially being discredited ever since does this latest move further undermine americas adventures in the mideast. Absolutely and i think i think to some degree this is good and i think i predict that we will be coming home but it wont be because all of a sudden we changed our opinions who run our country but were going to come home because theres going to be a financial crisis and we still right now have people in charge republicans and democrats in the media and the neo cons that we should be there because they claim were spreading america goodness and peace but no its a lot different than that and unfortunately theres a lot of people still supportive of this aggressive policy but not as many as there used to be people who are sick and tired of it i think tropp is in a trap because you know he has a hot if this gets out of control and he cant control it and its going this be very very damaging you know for his election and i know he thinks about his reelection but if he realized how dangerous this is he would be pushing this and making up these stories about how dangerous it is if we dont go over there will be dangerous to the American People i dont happen to believe thank you very much for your time and your thoughts this are very happy new year to you as well former u. S. Congressman ron paul. Well it around me was widely. The nation has triggered on the outpouring of grief and 3 days of mourning been an annoyance than ever really and turned out in cities across the country to the general. U. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo has discussed the fence with russias foreign minister in a phone conversation with the circle of rolf he accuses counterpart of violating International Law or is to abandon the use of force to achieve Political Goals for more reaction from an across the world to the killings heres polis leader. World has been responding with the number one concern being the issue that this will escalate tensions here in the middle east now we have heard from iran that it will retaliate Irans National Security council calling this americas biggest security mistake its biggest strategic mistake which isnt being echoed by turkey it has said that the american actions will be stabilized in this serious is that the americans are feeling tensions weve heard from going to. The iran bet to group based in lebanon has an astrologer and he has urged the worlds resistance to get together and exact revenge at the same time from us which also sees backing from gaza has expressed its condolences not iraq where the killing actually took place condemned what are called and aggression that it said would lead to a devastating war the assassination of an Iraqi Military commander is an aggression on iraq as a State Government and people its a flagrant violation of iraqs sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u. S. Troops on iraqi soil. Cowardly u. S. Aggression will only strengthen determination to follow in the path of the resistance is mansard leaders now this way the Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu earlier cut short a trip to greece to return home an emergency meeting was held here in tel aviv between the military and intelligence chiefs to assess the situation all israeli institutions around the world have gone on high alert while on the northern and southern borders here in israel the army too has become more vigilant this is what netanyahu in praising the attack had to say the president wrote deserves all the credit for acting swiftly forcefully decisively israel stands with United States in its just struggle force Peace Security and so the birds and the american action. Was a reaction to a series of military provocations for which iran is responsible we also see with great concern to around 60 of it is in the region we stand before dangerous escalation now the European Response has been somewhat moderate although there has been concern expressed that this will lead to a deescalation it doesnt seem of this anyone is brave enough to come out and strongly and openly criticize the american President Donald Trump nato says it is monitoring the situation particularly keeping an eye on its Training Forces in iraq also monitoring the situation is the Egyptian Government and they have called for a normalization to prevent a new escalation but at the same time were hearing from the United Kingdom it says wanted to recognize as the phrasing that sort of money pose it is urgent for a deescalation earlier there was a phone conversation between the russian president Vladimir Putin and his french counterpart emmanuel micron and both leaders agreed that the American Strike would lead to a deterioration and were hearing from france iran not to take steps that would lead to that to tell you and weve also heard from the u. N. Secretary general he has urged maximum restraint saying that the last thing the world can afford is another war in the gulf. Lets turn attention the program to europe where French Police say one person has been killed 2 others wounded in a knife attack in a suburb several kilometers south of paris officers have shot the assailant reportedly attacked passers by run them or 2 fronts correspond show. Talk to assure shocking the horror in paris is yet another knife attack is taking place in the city in this one to the south of paris in an area called villager if we understand that one person has been killed as a result of that attack and 2 others have been injured they are currently receiving treatment for those injuries no details on exactly how badly. Did they all now i would say that the man who carried out this attack was wearing a traditional arabic and screamed out the woods. As he tried to stop those individuals some details coming through about the individual who is dead as a result of that attack the french media saying that he was a local man in these fiftys he was actually a man with the area and they named him as being found the. People saying that he actually was trying to protect his wife that attack and now we know that following that attack the amman flight this seems chased down by the police shot up 3 times and has been neutralized i. E. He is dead now no lou camera and somebody here we suggest that this was an attack the police are investigating to see if he had any accompli