that line was crossed, and i responded. that seems to me just as likely an explanation as to why he this attack, and that he was willing to co nfro nt this attack, and that he was willing to confront the russians. point taken, barbara. thank you very much indeed. you were an intelligence operative for many years. you know the region well. what do you make of this news? i think it is good for the middle east and good for syrians and bad for iran and bad for bashar al—assad. it gives people hope. what imean by al—assad. it gives people hope. what i mean by that is that these are precision strikes on bashar al—assad was matt air force, chemical munitions, and other places. it did not put american pilots into danger and did not hit civilians. it is a message not to use the air force of bashar al—assad to hit civilians. what does it mean for russia when asked about the possibility of strikes, there ambassador said considered the negative implications. i think they got plenty of notice. i am sure russian targets were avoided. there is no reason for russia to have their defence is there because they cannot shoot down cruise missiles. they said their support for bashar al—assad is not unconditional. if he did this he crossed the line. even iran condemned the attack today. i think the message was whether you liked it or not, you knew something was coming, and something had to happen in response to this chemical attack. it is a shame we do not pay attention to carpet bombing or a viral bombing. it takes a chemical attack to get the world's attention. i think it finally got the attention of bashar al—assad. i think it finally got the attention of bashar al-assad. to be specific, how much damage to 50 plus tomahawk cruise missiles do? if you are heading from a base to another which released these chemical agents, will that based release chemical agents? sarin gas destroys lifespans. if they were harbouring illegal munitions, it is not like the sarin gas will float into a city for more than an hour. if he was stockpiling these weapons, it is not a concern. i know it sounds harsh. these bases we re i know it sounds harsh. these bases were away from the population. they we re were away from the population. they were far away on purpose to protect them from attack. in your experience, do you see this as, clearly a big attack, but a token strike, something contained ?m clearly a big attack, but a token strike, something contained? it is symbolic. it sends a message. it is symbolic. it sends a message. it is symbolic and effective. it is symbolic and effective. it is symbolic in that bashar al—assad will not use his air force tomorrow to do the same types of attacks. it sends a message to north korea, it sends a message to north korea, it sends a message to north korea, it sends a message to iran, it sends a message to vladimir putin as well, there is a new president that is willing to do things. it also sends a message to the western press that donald trump may not necessarily be a russian puppet. do you see more assets, from chemical weapons inspectors? last time we tried to inspectors? last time we tried to inspect these chemical weapons we outsourced it to russia. there was a key phrase used, he had no registered munitions. if you put that in quotes that means their race other stuff out there. i am sure that hr mcmaster is looking at this, what i am concerned about is russia's response. i do not see bashar al—assad and russia responding. i see russia responding with proxies. not in syria where we can deal with it. but what about iraq were us personnel are outnumbered 50—1 ? —— iraq were us personnel are outnumbered 50—1? —— where. iraq were us personnel are outnumbered 50—1? —— wherelj iraq were us personnel are outnumbered 50-1? -- where. i am sure you have thought about the a nswer of sure you have thought about the answer of russia. that is the biggest question. iran sent out a message today that is very important. they condemned bashar al—assad's use of chemical weapons. that is telling. they are worried about this new push towards pulling russia away from iran. and they are the odd man out tonight. so, how do you expect them to respond? well, in syria, they have limited opportunity to respond. in iraq, and iraqi proxy leaders, like two iranian proxy leaders, like two iranian proxy leaders, if you go against iranian interests in syria we will attack and kill americans. we have known about this for 18 months. we have taken precautions about this for 18 months. we have ta ken precautions hopefully about this for 18 months. we have taken precautions hopefully to make sure we are on a high alert and intelligence services are looking to make sure there is no traffic from these proxies hinting at an attack against american forces. that is one of the biggest problems. that was by design. to get the iran deal we had to limit the amount of us forces in iraq. then we parted with these proxy munitions. we were already warning we were making ourselves targets in iraq if we went against policies in the region because we are training their proxies and the proxies know who we are and where the bases us. i am sure we are taking precautions. in the longer term, what do you make of rex tillerson's quote, there is no future for bashar al—assad as the leader of syria. surely he will step down, but there is no shortage of people in his regime and they will be around. russia will not allow anyone to threaten there military interests in syria, surely. syrians will say is bashar al—assad steps down and his successor is from his family orfrom down and his successor is from his family or from the down and his successor is from his family orfrom the regime, then it makes no difference at all. it will continue to be a destabilising force. damascus will be a destabilising force. and everything else that comes with it. that cannot be good for the united states and the international community. but i am afraid that if bashar al—assad stands down and is able to determine his successor, they will call it a victory in the west and the international community and people on the ground in syria will know that nothing else has changed other than a face. and when you leave, if bashar al—assad leaves, he will still control that proxy in his position, he willjust not be responsible for that proxy‘s actions. with a barrage like this, as human rights groups have been pointing out, there is no substitute for something that might stop resident bashar al—assad touching all civilians, but no hope of that. —— president. all civilians, but no hope of that. -- president. this is a warning. free hit military targets at night and we gave sufficient warning to the russian. —— ??macr01 that and we gave sufficient warning to the russian. —— ? ?macr01 that is a warning. if he does that i think you will have international security support, even a russian support, and the iran will have to be quiet on the iran will have to be quiet on the sidelines to ground the air force completely and start the removal force completely and start the re m oval process force completely and start the removal process with russia, meaning vladimir putin, president erdogan, donald trump, they have all hinted, at least vladimir putin, that bashar al—assad is a bargaining chip. there was this chemical attack yesterday. president erdogan and donald trump are on the same team right now looking to replace bashar al—assad. soi looking to replace bashar al—assad. so i think there is a huge shift in attitude when it comes to whether or not bashar al—assad has any staying power. michael, thank you so much. thank you for having me. we will go back to barbara plett—usher at palm beach. i think we are expecting something from donald trump, a statement. what are you hearing? we are still waiting, actually. we are waiting for an audio statement by the president. as well, we are waiting to get a briefing rum the white house spokesman sean spicer, and national security officials, who are here at mar—a—lago. —— from. they will give a briefing as well. but what we have discussed, the tomahawks were fired from two navy destroyers and hit an air base in the city of homs. it seems to have been a small—scale and limited strike. we don't know much about the damage or whether there we re about the damage or whether there were any casualties. it seems to be the airbase that the planes that carried out the chemical attack took off from, therefore, symbolic. the russians operate the air defence systems and help the syrians do that as well. that would presumably have been triggered by the farage of incoming tomahawk missiles. —— barrage. we don't know whether that is the case. from the limited information we have it seems at this point that this was more of a symbolic striker registering anger at the chemical weapons attack. perhaps a warning that it should not continue or that there should be a change of course. but then, we do not know if this is a warning that will lead to further action or if this is just will lead to further action or if this isjust a one—off will lead to further action or if this is just a one—off that the donald trump administration wanted to do quickly after the attack to register that it was very displeased with it. i guess that is the question, isn't it? whether this is a contained attack, token strikes, making a specific, almost political, points, or whether this is a whole new american policy in the region. points, or whether this is a whole new american policy in the regionlj am doubtful about the latter because it was decided very quickly after the chemical weapons attack and it was such a pivot from what president trump has been saying so far. of course, the us military keeps options ready to provide should they be asked. the obama administration asked the pentagon many times to come up with ideas for how they would intervene if they needed to. those options are there. to make a decision like this so quickly would strike me as not having been part of a completely strategised and well thought out shift in policy, more of a response, sort of a visceral response, really, to the chemical weapons strike. and as i said before, it is a chance for donald trump to say that the syrians crossed a red line and i responded, unlike president obama. having said that, it is a change on two fronts. one is the american practice in syria in general because president obama never directly attacked bashar al—assad's forces. he did support the opposition with some training and some weapons, but never targeted president bashar al—assad directly. that is a change for american practice. and of course it is a big change for president trump because he came, he has said many times, he is not that interested in the civil war or a bashar al—assad, he is only interested in fighting islamic state. he has even been quite ambivalent about bashar al—assad's role, he suggested that perhaps if bashar al—assad together with the russians were to fight islamic state, that would be a good use of their time. and he has said he did not want to get involved in foreign entanglements, foreign ventures, and now, in the space of 3a hours, he has completely changed his mind on bashar al—assad and syria. —— 24. he has changed his mind. it seemed like a very trump—like action to me. has changed his mind. it seemed like a very trump-like action to me. in terms of loss of life and human suffering, it is not the first or worst attack like this, but it is the one that brought this point and force right now. yes. and if they wa nted force right now. yes. and if they wanted to try to prevent any future chemical weapons attacks, or indeed, the types of barrel bombings we saw in the past year that was such a outcry, military intervention would be to take out the warplanes, ground the military air force, which would bea the military air force, which would be a huge operation and would have a larger risk of casualties from russian and syrian military because they are working together. that would actually have an impact on the direction of the war. i don't think, at least from what we know so far, that this strike will have any impact on the direction of the war. and it seems to be as limited a risk as possible in terms of the kinds of fallout for the americans and the american military. now, having said that, again, there are between 500 and 700 american troops, special operations forces and troops, in the country, in the north of the country, in the north of the country, helping local forces country, in the north of the country, helping localforces to prepare for battle against islamic state group in raqqa. so if there was going to be retaliation, they would be vulnerable. that is something under consideration, whether to launch this strike or not. that is one of the reasons it was probably limited, though there are probably other ones. that is a factor as well. stay with us, by robert usher in case we need to recap. president trump has made a statement. he is saying, just to paraphrase, i call all supplies nations seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in syria, and there will be more of that. —— all civilised. tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on an airfield in syria from which a chemical air at strike was launched. i call all civilised nations to and this bloodshed in syria. we understand 59 cruise missiles fired from two navy destroyers have hit a bashar al—assad air base. on the political point, this statement has come through from two of president trump's strongest critics in his own party, john mccain and lindsey graham, that he confronted a pivotal moment in syria and took action at that. he deserves the support of the syrian people. i think we can expect that kind of statement from mr mccain and mrgrahm, that kind of statement from mr mccain and mr grahm, they are the republican hawks and they have all on advocated more of a military intervention in syria —— mr graham. they were constantly encouraging president obama to do that, to send ground troops in and test certainly to conduct air strikes to cripple bashar al—assad ‘s at ports, and preventing killing as many civilians as he has been killing —— airports. i don't know whether the entire congress will be as supportive, i think there will be criticism perhaps from democrats. some congress people on the left, about whether this will make things much more messy and complicated for the united states. is this going to be opening anotherfront united states. is this going to be opening another front in syria, rather than just focusing on opening another front in syria, rather thanjust focusing on islamic state, even though president trump is calling it a limited strike, will it open affront with the syrian government, and even with the russians? we will wait to see what sort of reaction other congress people have. also he didn't consult congress, which is something that president obama did. i don't think he has to do so, president obama decided to do so in 2013 after the british government voted against military intervention in syria. president obama thought he should consult congress and then he got word that he probably wouldn't get the support he needed, and that that point the russians stepped in and said we have a plan, actually, which is better. we can convince president bashar al—assad to give up his weapons, so that is the route that president obama took, and he was criticised for that by mr graham and mrmccain. he said criticised for that by mr graham and mr mccain. he said he would only respond to the threat of force. just before the strikes were confirmed we heard from russia's deputy envoy to the un saying think about the negative consequences but a former intelligence operative said just now that he wouldn't expect the russian response to this. the russians would have had a heads up to it. he wouldn't expect a syrian response as such, but an arabian response did seem likely, quite possibly through proxies, possibly in iraq —— iranian response. that is possible, and even if they will was a response, whether it would be telegraphed as such is not entirely clear. but given the limited nature of the strike i think neither the russians nor the syrians would see any value in retaliating in that sense. i think there will be more of a question what this does to political relations with the russians, or whether, you know, if this was a warning, if it is seen as america putting its foot down, whether there will be results. i mean, that has been the argument, hasn't it, from people who urged president obama to take that step. he said this will only escalate the situation. so this will be a test of actually what the result is. this situation has changed since president obama was considering this, and at this point the syrian government, the syrian army, has a much more upper hand in the war. after the battle over aleppo, when the opposition was defeated there, it has gained the upper hand in crucial parts of syria. so it is in a much stronger position and might not feel the need to respond in order to strengthen its position. but it is a message from the american government. we will see what the response is, not only in the words that are said, but also in the words that are said, but also in the actions that are taken. thank you very much indeed for that. michael, i know it is slightly outside yourfield, michael, i know it is slightly outside your field, but i wondered what you are hearing from your contact. the chemical weapons that we re contact. the chemical weapons that were used here, is the assumption generally that these were weapons that were missed during the chemical weapons inspections, were not declared and were therefore left in the country, or that syria has been manufacturing new weapons? we believe that they were not registered, they were not declared. so basically, when you outsource making sure assad doesn't have chemical weapons to russia, this is what happens. the key phrasing when secretary kerry at the time saying that russia was going to ensure that assad's declared chemical munitions would be removed. i don't like to hear declared, i want to hear that all of them would be removed. so we believe it is what he already had. it is possible that despite 59 cruise missiles, chemical weapons will still be used. yes, i mean, and it doesn't mean that some of those chemical munitions didn't get into the hands of al qaeda affiliates or isis. it isjust the hands of al qaeda affiliates or isis. it is just the method the hands of al qaeda affiliates or isis. it isjust the method of launch, you have to put them in a plane and drop them in a bomb, or re—engineer them to be able to use them in an improvised explosive device, for example. the issue, it wasn't just chemical device, for example. the issue, it wasn'tjust chemical munitions depots which were hit, it was also airbases, fuel depots and traditional conventional munitions as well, hopefully a lot of barrel bonds as well. thank you very much indeed. we can speak to max abrams, international relations professor at northeastern university. what is your thinking about all those?” just can't believe how rapid the trump pivot has been on syria. i mean, this is a guy who campaigned against regime change. that was one of the key ways he differentiated himself from hillary clinton. also, of course, his close relationship with the russians, particularly in syria. and here he is, you know, just a couple of days after basically saying that assad could stay, here we are targeting regime assets. so it isjust stay, here we are targeting regime assets. so it is just a stay, here we are targeting regime assets. so it isjust a remarkably quick transformation. yes, it is quite a pivot, isn't it, given that backin quite a pivot, isn't it, given that back in 2013 double trouble was urging president obama not to attack president assad. he has more recently blamed president obama's wea kness recently blamed president obama's weakness for the chemical weapons attack. that's right, i mean, i think part of it is that trump has very low approval ratings, and he wa nts to very low approval ratings, and he wants to be seen seriously as a tough leader. also the sort of the us foreign policy elite, if you will, they have been in favour of regime change, so he is getting co nsta nt regime change, so he is getting constant advice that he should really escalate against assad. and also i do believe that he, like many other people around the world, was personally moved by the vivid imagery of those children who were gassed. and so all of this together has really, you know, pointed him in this direction, but remarkably quickly. there is a particular power, i suppose, in quickly. there is a particular power, isuppose, in moving images, imean, power, isuppose, in moving images, i mean, literally moving images, video, of suffocating children. so you think that the people who voted for you think that the people who voted foertrump, you think that the people who voted for mr trump, confident he would not get involved in conflict outside the united states, were willing him to do this? i mean, well, trump has had a lot of detractors. and hillary clinton was actually quite hawkish on syria. and so many of those people really really like the escalation. and frankly, many people in the republican party thought that we should take a stronger line in syria, and also against russia. and soi syria, and also against russia. and so i think that this is a popular decision, i think that this will resonate with the american public broadly, i think that there will be sort of a rally around the flag affect, if you will, particularly if, in my opinion here, he is smart enough to stop at some sort of symbolic show of force, without going too far, toppling the regime and then basically owning the resulting chaos. so i hope that, you know, i mean, based on reports what i have seen as there have been 50 or 60 tomahawk missile strikes. i personally hope that is the end of it, that this will show assad that he can't use with impunity chemical weapons against the population. but i have not been a fan of regime change in syria, because i understand that the alternative to assad is nusra, the al qaeda affiliate that, groups a lot like it. islamic state is taking a beating but basically the alternative is not moderate. i don't wa nt alternative is not moderate. i don't want the us to be sorted in charge of that power vacuum that gets filled up with all sorts of different terrorist. so i do hope that trump will call off the strikes quite soon. because this is, what, third president in a row elected as a p pa re ntly third president in a row elected as apparently the less interventionist candidate, to go to get involved in conflict outside the united states, the president saying the strike on syria is in a vital national security interests of the united states. that's an interesting point to make. i view this more as a normative statement that we are going to uphold the ban on chemical weapons, and that we are not going to stand for civilians being massacred. i disagree that this action needs to be taken to protect the us homeland, i think that that is really a stretch. i think that this is more of a humanitarian operation, and so yes, i disagree that it needed to be done to protect americans at home. i don't follow that kind of logic. max, thank you very much indeed. just in case you have just joined very much indeed. just in case you havejustjoined us, we should update you. 59 cruise missiles, we understand, fired from two american navy destroyers, have hit the shayrat airfield in syria, not far from the city of homs. that is believed to be where the syrian government's chemical weapons attack was launched. on a rebel held town, killed dozens of people, and you have all seen the pictures. the pentagon has been quoted as saying 59 tomahawk missiles fired at that base. we understand that the runway, fuel ports and aircraft were targeted, syrian state tv has said american aggression target syrian military targets with a number of missiles. president trump has had the strike on syria was in the vital national security interest of the. he has also said, give mejust national security interest of the. he has also said, give me just a moment, that to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons. we have more, i think, from our correspondent at palm beach, where president trump has been meeting the chinese president. what more are you hearing from that, barbara? well, we have had that statement, from president trump, in which he connected this decision to the vital national security interests of the united states, your guest was taking your mac talking about that earlier saying he didn't think that was accurate, and it is to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons and he said there is no dispute that syria used banned chemical weapons. he started his statements by saying he was calling on all civilised nations in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in syria. he called the strike targeted military strike, which was launched on the airfield, or was launched on the airbase, from which the chemical attack was launched. and he said that president assad used nerve agent to kill many. as you were saying earlier, there is a bit more clarity on what the targets were. it was this one airbase in homs. aircraft, the airstrip and fuel stations were hit. there is some debate amongst the media here about whether the russians were informed ahead of time. that would have been normal practice, i think, in the communications line between the russians and the united states, and the number of outlets are reporting that they were in fact informed before the missiles struck. you are watching bbc news. the breaking news the sour. it is now confirmed that we think 59 cruise missiles have been fired by navy destroyers onto an airbase in syria, just near homs. it is thought it is the airbase from which the syrian government chemical weapons attack was launched earlier this week on a rebel held the town, killing many people. it is understood the runways and fuel points were targeted. syrian tv has spoken of american military aggression. president trump has spoken of the strike in a vital national security interest of the us. barbara is at mar—a—lago in florida, where president trump is meeting the chinese president.

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