the u.s. and russia are this close to a conflict in syria and that is the table as it will be set for mr. tillerson as he comes here next week. that suspension may increase the chances of that. paula newton, thank you very much. let s go to athena jones who is near mar-a-lago the president s resort there in florida. he s waking up this morning there. athena, we heard from ambassador haley, ambassador to the u.n. that the u.s. is prepared to do more. but hoping that it does not have to. what is next? do we have an answer to that question? reporter: hi, victor. we don t have an answer to that question yet. what the u.s. does next will depend a great deal on what syria does next. it sounds like ambassador haley was communicating that all options remain on table. secretary of state rex tillerson had a briefing with reporters at mar-a-lago yesterday and he said the future will be guided by how we see their reaction the syrian s government reaction. the u.s. is monitoring the
appease those voices who said he was against intervention. that was the million dollar question. he criticized basically every element of the obama administration s foreign policy and now he s really at a crossroads with syria. does he get more involved militarily, diplomatically or is this a one off attack? for president trump this missile strike and maybe the joint address to congress in february are the only two times in his presidency that he s received bipartisan praise. so for now i think the administration is riding on a high, soaking in all of these c accolades and come down from that and figure out what to do in syria because it s untenable to leave this missile strike as the only indication of the u.s. s approach in syria moving forward.
welcome to the party, now that you re here let us tell you about the seven other things we want to you do in syria. most of which he s going to hate and not want to do in the end. but he s already paid the rice for people in the alt-right. they are not going to forgive him very quickly for betraining everything he ever said about syria and intervention in the middle east for his entire life. that s a sunk cost. so as donald trump goes forward, politically he can think okay should i capitalize on my new friends or, you know, should i play the middle and try to make everybody equally happy or unhappy. none of that has anything to do with what s good for syria and there s no way to please both sides. if you think the best thing is not touch that problem and let them sort it out and not in america s core interest or something that we have to do because it impacts europe, the region, america, terrorism, refugees, and if you think that, then this missile strike is not much. it s just the beg
sara, a top administration official when briefing senators yesterday on this said, essentially the policy is reaction, military reaction when chemical weapons are used. but to josh s point there s a lot of these quote-unquote new friend, some previous critics of donald trump like john mccain they don t want to see just a response to chemical weapons attacks. they want to see a response to barrel bomb attacks and other attacks on syrians. right. the only thing we know about trump s approach to syria is that the administration is not interested in regime change. they are not interested in taking out president assad. they don t want to have to deal with the aftermath of putting together a new government in syria. that s really the only thing we know. that s what the administration has been telegraphing for several weeks now. that is not a line with mccain or graham or even some of these democratic critics who are
there, the strikes there were happening on that syrian airfield. what do you think president xi gleaned from president trump s decision to strike syria in the context of the president saying that if china doesn t take care of north korea, we will. this now is not just bluster i guess. absolutely. i think the chinese like everybody will be concerned by the potential unpredictability of trump and i think the americans will be pleased that in a sense the military option is put on the table because it s useful to have your adversaries slightly worried. i think we both know that north korea is a very different case. sending cruise missiles to an airfield in syria is one thing. china trying to take out the north korea nuclear program is a completely different deal. i m sure xi tried to make that point to trump that this is not an easy thing to do or wise thing to do. good to have you. thanks. brianna.