on the one side the u.s., russia, and iran all have a vested interest to make sure that isis does not extend its grip over syria, because if syria implodes and isis takes over, that s a massive blow to the middle east. the problem is russia and iran believe that syrian president bashar assad should be a partner in the fight against isis but the u.s. saying, assad has done overing things to his own people horrifying things to his own people and it s part of the,yç solution problem note, exclusion. the state department says again that assad must go. also a signal that iran is trying to assert itself out in that they have struck a nuclear deal with world powers. it s no longer frozen out of the process, and that s a big concern to countries like israel and saudi arabia that don t exactly have this trusting relationship with iran. but no connection still between the nuclear deal and this. no. experts think that both sides in this countryksg1nj+ are dug in e
that come along with it or not. you cannot guarantee what will happen in retaliation. and then the next move. and tamron, to your point, there was an exchange that stands out in my mind where senator menendez was questioning secretary kerry. it was a week ago tomorrow, i guess, when they convened the senate foreign relations committee. and it was the question about boots on the ground. secretary kerry tried to answer he painted a worst case picture. look, we have to leave all options on table because his word choice was, if syria implodes, we re going to need to have all options available to us. that s exactly what people are fearful of. no matter what the word choice is, they don t want that. i ll speak with you tomorrow. thank you. still ahead, michael bloomberg making headlines just a day before the primary election to pick his successor. the mayor criticizing the democratic front-runner for show
floor. shepard: you expressed concerns yesterday. can you tell our viewers what they were and are and whether any have been alleviated. they have been alleviated somewhat. i wanted to make sure that the little problem that secretary kerry created about the boots on the ground, oh, perhaps if syria implodes, that s the one thing americans don t want is boots on the ground, another military direct involvement by the u.s. forces, the best fighting men and women on the planet. they re not for that. they may not really be very much for this limited targeted strike but for sure no boots on the ground. and today i think that he was more specific about that in the house committee debate. he was more forceful. he does absolutely wants no boots on the ground. i had the opportunity to ask him about who is going to pay for this. all these attaboy papers and letters of congrats from around the world, according to them,
to them in black and white terms. why does the stability affect us? if syria implodes and you drag in countries like syria, then you start understanding why these things matter. the u.s. has israel, the strongest allie in the region. if the israeli/syria border begins to have problems, you have the humanitarian aspect which you talked about. that is draining resources from the neighboring countries of jordan and others which the u.s. comes in to support. these are allies of the united states. it is more of a domino effect. as syria implodes, you drag the united states into it financially and economically. can you prevent it from getting worse? many people have made the argument yes? others are making the argument the united states should stay
bad as that is, why is this also important? you heard one of the senators there talking about the concern that these chemical weapons as syria implodes, becomes more disorganized, could the chemical weapons wind up in the hands of al qaeda and become a terrorist threat? there is a much deeper, believe it or not, concern as well. iran. in the last several weeks iran has considerably stepped up its power influence and operations inside syria. we talked to people today who tell us there are at least three iranian militia training camps inside syria, perhaps thousands of iranian and hezbollah fighters. why is that so key? as iran extends its influence and looks for more power, more influence in the region, there are economic concerns. this could embolden iran. many people worry in regards to the persian gulf oil shipping