this is what membership does. let s get more on the breaking news on syria, the country s u.n. ambassador saying syria has now become a full member of the international convention banning the use of chemical weapons. let s dig a little bit deeper with cnn s chief political analyst, gloria borger. time magazine s international editor, bobby goesh. this is the cover of the new
al assad is really capable of doing, it s members of his own family. and joining us now, ribal al assad. he s in london. he s the first cousin of the syrian leader, bashar al assad. ribal, thanks very much for joining us. and i just want to get the connection between you and bashar al assad together. your father and his father, the former leader of syria, they were brothers. but your family fled when you were a little boy. tell us what happened. yes, wolf. thank you very much for having me. actually, you know, from what i remember, of course, is that my father had to leave syria because there was a lot of argument going on inside the party, also between my father and the president. as you know, my father set up the first arabic magazine calling for democracy in syria and all the middle east in 1967. and he started, you know, fighting against president assad
of all the fighting forces are somewhere between moderate and conservative islamists. and the official says the opposition s criminal element cannot be understated. is there a risk in arming the syrian opposition? if they can t succeed, then the alternative is either assad or al qaeda. so that s a huge risk if you don t help them. representative adam smith says while the u.s. and russia work together on chemical weapons, both are arming opposite sides in syria s civil war. if all this does is gives russia a green light in order to arm and equip assad so he can continue to kill his people by different means, then we have not achieved our policy objectives. reporter: right now, there seems to be no signs that russia is stopping its flow of weapons to the assad regime. and we ve also learned from some of our sources that there now are at least 2,000 hezbollah
is a guy who grew from the kgb to be the head of it. and he is still, from my perspective, still very dominated in his mind by kgb and the desires for a greater russia. reporter: among democratic leaders, some shoulder shrugging. reagan said it all. trust but verify. but is it frustrating that he s our negotiating partner? well, you know what, it is who it is. that line, it is who it is, was probably one of the midweos telling of the day. no one in washington is happy to be relying on russia, even less so after putin penned such an in-your-face letter. but everyone knows they don t have much of a choice, and wolf, clearly putin knows that too and he s reveling in it. thanks, dana, very much. good report. up next, is north korea s leader trying to pull a fast one himself while the world focuses in on syria? we re watching a possible show of nuclear defiance. and later, bashar al assad s first cousin knows the syrian strongman s brutality first hand. stand by for his an
we don t want to see what went on in iran over 30 years ago. we don t want to see what went on in egypt to happen in syria. obviously, your bottom line, you might despise the dictatorship in damascus, but you certainly don t trust the rebels, the opposition fighter who trying to remove him. we re going to continue this conversation, ribal. thanks very much for joining us, ribal al assad, joining us from london, first cousin of bashar al assad. thank you, wolf. thank you. and remember, you can always follow what s going on behind the scenes here in the situation room. follow us on twitter. you can always tweet m me, @wolfblitzer, you can tweet the show, @cnnsitroom. that s it for me. thanks very much for watching. i m wolf blitzer in washington. cross fire starts right now. tonight on crossfire, putin s syria plan. is it a solution, a delaying tactic, or a trap? i am hopeful that the