planes over syria. more recently on july 30, the "the new york times" reported that between the united states and russia now, except for in relationship to syria, "there is virtually no military to military conversation of the kind that took place routinely during the cold war." and "the times" also said with russian and american forces operating near the baltics and off the coast of europe, the chances for accident and miscalculation are high. "the times" also described the communication between the u.s. and russia about their activities in syria, as "mutually suspicious and sporadic." what is at stake here, as the united states continues its military actions in syria, including in the skies over syria -- what is at stake includes the real possibility that conflicts in the air could escalate into military clashes between russia and the united states that could spiral into nuclear warfare. so, the petition campaign that is ongoing is focused on addressing this escalating crisis. our petition so far to t

in syria. this went just under one hour. >> hello everybody. how are you all doing today. good to see you all back. i know it is friday, late in the day, summertime,'s though, you all get good camper awards for coming in today. thank you so much for being here this friday. we have our special envoy to the global coalition for isis here us, brett mcgurk. i know you heard from him a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to come in today to update you on where things hand. without further do, brett mcgurk. brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i wanted to do today, you heard from the secretary, about a trip around the world. everything going on in the world in activity at the state department. what i thought i would do is drill in a little bit more about what he discussed, one of our key priorities here in the state department about the campaign , against isis. so, i want to focus on the overall campaign, it is a global campaign. but dive in a little bit to the so-called caliphate

to face to iran iraq and syria it's true that they could rely on a proxy. in iraq but this has limit because of supporting the kurds. and here i mean you can understand the position of secretary of state who try to. set the bridges with russia because washington needs russia to pressure on iran to limit on iran at least in syria so because of obama administration policy. is that all would from. lack of clarity. washington lost a lot of tools. a lot of leverage it's true that now it's increasing its presence in terms of. presence on the ground and there are investing more but it's not easy to get back. to all the situation where they were the major force prevailing today their primary focus is to face up to iran but they need partners saudi arabia is deafening partner but they need other partners to this is where their son is trying to engage with the russian in it's very interesting is because i absolutely agree with sami i think it's the there are fewer and fewer tools of influence but there are more and more troops and troops are not a very good instrumen

the humanitarian expert we haven't syria was just -- have in syria, was just back in washington and he has led almost every major international response around the world. he is doing a great job and he has connections with all the ngo's on the ground. we are also working with the civilian counsel, a group of civilians from the area, they are based in iniesta. it is a temporary structure. they are committed in having an election by the end of the main next year. we need local people on the ground to help us deliver and facilitate. they have coordinated delivery of a hundred 30 metric tons of humanitarian aid to areas around raqqa and their instrumental in planning the day after activities. and in terms of stabilization, i want to really emphasize what the secretary said from the podium earlier this week. we are committed to stabilization, that word is important. it is not reconstruction or nationbuilding, stabilization is demining, setting the conditions for people to return to their homes. isis leaves landmines everywhere so people cannot return and we are committed to help to do all w

planes over syria." together with five other organizations, veterans for peace, taylor -- daily kos, the nation magazine, will be on war, and watchdog.net. u.s. government began bombing syria nearly three years ago. that was back in september 2014. since then, the killing from many sides has continued unabated. meanwhile, during the last three years, tensions between the world's two nuclear superpowers have escalated. and escalated sharply. in the process, russia and the united states have come closer to direct military warfare with each other. when addressing the overall tensions between the united states and russia, former senator sam nunn, who was chair of the senate armed services committee cosigned a letter recently and i would like to quote from it. it called for "urgently pursuing practical steps now that can stop the downward spiral in relations and reduce real dangers," between russia and the united states. and, "reducing military and other rests," yet, those risks continue to accelerate. that

over syria. what is at stake includes the very real possibility that conflicts in the air could escalate into military clashes the tween russia and the united states that could spiral into nuclear warfare. so the petition campaign that is ongoing is focused on addressing this escalating crisis. our petition so far to the u.s. congress and to secretary of defense james mattis has gained more than 50,000 unique signers, and the petition is very straightforward. it says we urge you to immediately remove all u.s. military planes from syrian skies and keep them out of that countries airspace. today at the newcomers will be hearing from four speakers will address their concerns, our concerns, from a wide range of vantage point. john, former official of the central intelligence agency is a cia whistleblower. matthew was a marine who had to deployment in iraq and later became a state department official. christie edwards is a legal authority on international law, as it pertains to armed conflict. and dav

military role in syria. this was hosted by a number of dc-based organizations who are calling on the u.s. to remove all military aircraft from syrian airspace. >> good morning and welcome to this news conference. my name is norman, i am a cofounder and coordinator of the online group which is hosting this event today. roots action is a cosponsor of a petition campaign calling for no u.s. plans over serious. together with five other organizations, veterans for peace, daily coast, the nation magazine, world beyond war and watchdog.net. u.s. government began bombing syria nearly three years ago. that was back in september 2014. since then, the killing on many sides has continued unabated. meanwhile, during the past three years, tensions between the worlds to nuclear superpowers have escalated. they've escalated sharply. in the process, russia and the united states have come closer to direct military warfare with each other. when addressing the overall tensions between the united states and russia, former senato

including syria. we have engaged more closely probably with turkey on syria than any other country because we believe these issues should be dealt with through dialogue and multilateral discussions. iran, turkey and russia i said are parts of the process and we've been able to do some good. >> rose: this was before the election of 2016. occasionally i would hear someone say five to ten years now the united states will be closer to iran than it is to saudi arabia. >> we're not competing. >> rose: i believe the political world is changing. >> i think the united states need to reevaluate the achievements of the united states and the failures of the united states in our region. >> rose: but does iran -- >> and based on that reassessment, it will see. the role and the place of various countries in the region. we're not competing with saudi arabia. we believe that iran and saudi arabia should be a part of a regional dialogue forum. i wrote an op ed in the "new york times" several years ago. >> rose: i remem

in syria. it is not on this map, obviously, bowing your dan -- when you are done with the points on the map, do you have plans for idlib in the future? and another question, regarding iraq. as far as i know, when there was a problem about the turkish president, and you brokered a them in baghdad, the deal was that mosul would be liberated. can you confirm that the turkish president is coming to an -- the turkish presence is coming to an end especially with the turkish troops in the region? brett: a lot of complex questions there. [laughter] so i did a 90 minute panel and about 30 seconds of the panel got some attention, i think was very badly mischaracterized and i think we have spoken to this. and i mentioned, we have worked closely with turkey to seal the border. i mentioned in the battle of , working with the turks to open up the corridor. this promo time, foreign fighters is a problem for all of us. 40,000 foreign fighters that came to join isis came from 110 countries all around the world.

you don't hear much about syria in the u.k. general election campaign nothing about u.n. special envoy for syria stefan de mistura saying in the past seventy two hours that russian backed. geneva peace talks are to work in tandem and certainly nothing like this from british prime minister tourism a back in october we need to political solution a political long term solution which sees a syria without assad could one reason she doesn't say that anymore b. that her own defense secretary has been caught out partying with president assad of syria i suppose if you judge people by that you spend time with the question asked do you know what do you remember where you are on the twenty seventh of may two thousand and seven. going to tell me yes i am so you are in syria and you were sent . bracing as a reception there reelection of president assad with a ninety nine percent percent of the vote in fairness to michael fallon who has accused russia of helping donald trump being elected us president and who says that saudi arabia is defendi

bases in northern syria and move seen as retaliation for u.s. support of the kurds which turkey opposes these are comments from the s.d.s. to just even if the united states failed in its initial goal of ousting syrian president bashar al assad it has been successful in and trenching its military and influence in the country for decades to come in washington on your part until r.t. to continue this conversation i was joined by author and investigative journalist max blumenthal i first asked him why the u.s. will remain in northern syria long after the job is have been defeated. it's kind of ironic that the u.s. has managed to benefit or maybe it's not ironic maybe this was the intended goal but the u.s. is clearly benefited from a long standing project of destabilizing syria they've carved out as own of influence in eastern syria along the iraqi border and in the northern areas all the way up to ko bani using the kurdish syrian defense forces which is actually a front for the. us general basically told the kurds rename the y p g d s d f so that w

coming up on our team america several reports of ceasefire violations in syria as we hear new calls for the removal of u.s. warplanes from the country. at least forty are massacred in an afghan village with isis and the taliban reportedly to blame we've got expert analysis on that never ending the war next. new reports say north korea has developed a miniaturized warheads for its nuclear arsenal those stories and more coming up right now. good afternoon it's tuesday august eighth four pm in washington d.c. i'm on your part and kill your watching r.t. america we begin this afternoon in syria where the country has been engulfed in war since two thousand and one there have been many efforts to deescalate but those attempts have been unsuccessful largely thanks to outside actors just recently the defense ministry of russia and downs there have been several cease fire violations in the country since a peace agreement went into effect last month now there is renewed effort to get u.s. warplanes out of that war torn country here's our t.v. correspondent ashley bangs with more on that according

commission on syria. tells a swisse magazine the investigation has had absolutely no success and she could no longer be part of a body that simply does not do anything. beenommission has reporting on human rights violations in syria six years. our correspondent has more. >> i am frustrated. i give up. reporter: former war crimes prosecutor carla del ponte had harsh words for the ewing commission on syria. >> this commission is useless. it is ridiculous. it has been seven years. what is the point? seven years of doing nothing. i'm going to do more for the outcry of help. in an interview with a swiss magazine, she accused the un security council of failing to hold war criminals in syria accountable. she also complains the commission was never able to enter syria. since it began in 2011 it has relied on interviews, photos, and documents, but such reports are useless, according to carla refusese, if the human to create a special tribunal for workers in syria. >> therein lies the responsibility. nothing happen

they were too close to iran so i think that conflict again between syria and iran. us are choosing between saudi arabia and iran overshadows the entire region their sectarian proxy wars their conflict has to be brought to an end and some kind of an accommodation between these two regional powers they're not going anywhere there has to be a balance of power there the united states if it wanted to be a great power they're the only ones that have the leverage on both parties to bring them together to end their their their conflict because that spreads all over from grain to afghanistan certainly lebannon syria and in iraq the iranian saudi conflict is the overall issue right now and it has so many complex local localized conflicts that has to be dealt with and it doesn't look that way at all the trump administration is not doing that they are lowering themselves united states to the level of the sectarian combatants they are just taking sides are taking a sunni side in a frighteningly complex sectarian war that goes across the region this is the major issue in the issu

the same transparent numbers for iraq and syria today? >> each operational theater is different and we have to consider different concerns. we are reviewing iraqi and syria and the same guiding principles that govern how we will allow those numbers as well. >> i would just add that it is noted that the fight is different is a rack and syria and afghanistan but both theaters will apply the same two pillars, balancing transparency of reporting with a requirement to protect the forces on the ground and give the commander maximum operational flexibility. those numbers will be forthcoming. >> as we are all very aware, one of the issues of concern in iraq is political sensitivity with iraq government. are you suggesting that that would be taken into account thus diluting the transparency portion of this or will you do the same exact manner of accounting in iraq as you are doing in afghanistan regardless of the political sensitivities. >> iraq in syria are still under review and we think about every country differently and when we have details w

it is the business of the people of syria. we should provide them with the opportunity to decide for themselves. charlie: it is none of your business? is aou to say that -- copout. it is not my business, it is his business. no matter what he does >> i think what has happened in syria have been the consequences of people outside syria imposing that this gentleman should not be in the government. we reject the use of chemical weapons. charlie: iran more than any other country because of what happened to you in the iraq/iran war should be at the top of people saying if siri uses chemical weapons, it is a crime against humanity. >> we set it. charlie: you should not be supporting a regime that uses chemical weapons. >> you have got to stop there. the facts?ablished i cannot accept the united states, which is a party to the conflict, along with its allies who are parties -- charlie: you were a party to the conflict. you are funding hezbollah. >> that is why you do not have to listen to me. you have to establish an independent, inte

we have chosen the theater of syria as a place to work together. isisare the common view of as a threat to both countries and we are committed to the defeat of isis and other terrorist organizations. we are also committed to the stability of syria, following that battle, to defeat isis. russia aligned itself with the , which we dosad not find to be acceptable. we are working with russia to figure out a unified syria that has the opportunity for the people to put in place a new constitution, have free and fair elections, and select new leadership all stop it continues to be our view that the assad regime has no role in the future of syria. the sequencing of all of that is something we are open to, as long as all that is achieved. forcessence of iranian must go home. whether they are revolutionary guard forces or paid militias and foreign fighters brought into syria in this battle. this is shared by many of our coalition partners the world over. we are working with the russians and we have achieved a small measure of success by establishing working i

brokend syria are both states. the baghdad government exists, but the idea that their loan can go into the sunni areas and provide governance in a way that will be accepted by the people there is a fantasy. it is not going to happen, did -- happen, they do not trust them. we promised them after the surge that we would make sure the majority shia government in baghdad, which is highly influenced by iran, would treat them well. them, whiche by share well and to all the things they need to do. that did not happen and the rainy and stash iranians took more control and essentially those guys got burned. now we are going to ask them to do it again. trust us again and the central government will do fine by you and don't worry about the iranian influence and shia militias that slaughtered their way across that territory to push isis out. one thing that has not been covered much as how about that was. secretarytarian and and slaughtered during the reconquest there was outrageous. so, we need help there. well, there are two

s existence in northern syria. certainly he himself actually certainly does not want any kurdish formation in northern syria. considering the fact that the united states has been providing a lot of significant support to the kurdish forces. as well as the y p g against the isis so that's that's been their main concern you know the kurdish existence not a matter of y p g or p y d it's just a matter of kurds being in control and the northern syria but where is the us relationship going to stand in this obviously the us decision to arm the kurdish militias. in they've been the most successful right in fighting isis in terms of the local forces apart from having. allied forces coming into. into syria to fight isis the kurds have been doing all the heavy lifting and they've been doing it for quite some time now so what's the relationship where's the balance here between the u.s. and turkey going to be if if the kurds are the ones showing that they can do it absolutely i mean again the state department and. have stated t

you don't hear much about syria in the u.k. general election campaign nothing about u.n. special envoy for syria stefan de mistura saying in the past seventy two hours that russian backed. geneva peace talks to work in tandem and certainly nothing like this from british prime minister tourism a back in october we need to political solution a political long term solution which sees a syria without assad could one reason she doesn't say that anymore be that her own defense secretary has been caught out partying with president assad of syria i suppose if you judge people by you spend time with the question asked to be you know what do you remember where you are on the twenty seventh of may two thousand and seven. going to tell me yes i am so you are in syria and you were celebrating as a reception there reelection of president assad with a ninety nine percent percent of the vote in friends so michael fallon who has accused russia of helping donald trump being elected u.s. president and who says that saudi arabia is defending its s

it's also an insurgency across syria and iraq. and it's a terrorist movement to us here in the west. it occupies all of these three states simultaneously. just because it's being pushed back as a state, that does nothing to resolve its other two dimensions. so, what does this mean for the uk terror threat? around 850 jihadists from britain have gone out to syria to fight with is. 15% have died. half of the remainder, about 360, have already returned here. but many of these are early adopters and may pose a lesser threat. people who went in 2012 were motivated by very different things to someone who went in 2015. the drivers of their radicalisation, the pull, the alure, was all very different. when we talk about returnees in the uk, people who have come back, they are pretty much people who went earlier on. many of those still in syria will want to stay and die fighting. and even if they did try to return, security sources have told newsnight that m15 knows the identities of most of the 850 british fighters who volunteered. so, get

coalition as well as its allies in syria on the ground the s.d.f. they've besieged for months now and slowly making progress dislodging isis from the city but a tremendous course not a week goes by without new reports of an ass strike going wrong another house being hit and killing dozens of civilians with more buried under the rubble of course reminded of what happened in mosul and the rent discourse that civilians that paid for the city's liberation this talk of up to twenty thousand civilians killed during the liberation of mosul and indeed that the united states kept on apologizing saying it was worried about the civilian deaths that took them seriously yet the airstrikes never ended and that is now beginning again in a thought of which is an area eighty kilometers west of mosul where the u.s. led coalition the iraqi military have now launched another operation to clear the area of isis which has held it for three years there leveling tremendous firepower as strikes tag jets many cells and in the midst of that hello forty thousand civilians acco

in syria so geographically speaking it would be huge. especially now after the syrian army has made so many victories elsewhere in the country but i think that you have to when we talk about zia daters order we have to think about what's beyond syria as well regionally because there is an important linkage area you know a land area linking iraq to syria and i think that when we talk about this what comes to mind is what israeli is in saudi like to say is the shia are christian or the land bridge linking to hold on to beirut because daters ruled it would be decisive in that land bridge so i think that the more and more likely the syrian army will achieve victory and they resort to more and more likely you might see israel and saudi arabia two of america's main allies in the region trying to obstruct or prevent such a scenario from being fulfilled that perhaps maybe maybe by pushing the trumpet illustration into more intervention through to prevent war to stop the syrian army from taking the resort except for so the importance of those or

there are 4 million refugees outside of syria, living primarily in jordan and lebanon and turkey. and so there's an enormous need for international organizations like care and the larger global community to help supply support for shelter, for food, for education, the most basic necessities, to allow people to continue and to start to rebuild their lives. >> one of the things i remember when i was in kosovo with care in 1999 and 2001 were huge refugee camps with thousands of people in them. and they were clean, and they were well-organized, and it was a great structure for people who had no place to go. but that is completely different now with this group of refugees. the model is changing. >> the model is changing. there still are camps, and care is active in supporting those camps, but 80% of the refugees are actually living outside of the camps. they're living in local communities. and you can imagine the responsibility that this brings to a country like jordan, where 1 out of every 10 people living in jordan now is a refugee. in lebanon, it's one out of every four. so it would

in syria as many as twenty five thousand terrorists are believed to have regrouped and are now fighting. it includes some previously backed by the united states. a rally against hate violence in the u.s. city of. leftwing rioters clashed with protests demonstrators. global news from the studios of. monday afternoon at three in the russian capital first to the telephone in iraq and it's not over yet we're going to show you these are some of the latest pictures from a village to the north of tel of. an hour ago now the iraqi army announced victory over i saw in telephonic couple of days ago but pockets of militant resistance and now the main target of the security forces there you can see the columns of smoke in the distance where a battle is raging as for itself there's a long way to go before the city can return to anything like normal many terrorists are still holed up in basements and underground tunnels and reports that deadly surprises around almost every corner. but the islamic states remain you'll find. like that plastered over the bridges and buildings in tied up frog iraq he sen

similarly, in syria, we assist with the liberation of roqqa. however, all of us are clear eyed that the battle has resistance and it will be a tough fight to liberate all of it. again, we are taking the approach. when the areas are cleared, people come and rebuild the communities and rebuild their lives. we replicate the success we have had in mosul in other communities. we have a cop was a lot of this through a grand coalition to defeat -- we have a cop wish -- we have accomplished most of this through a grand coalition to defeat isis. it now consists of 68 countries and five international agencies. we convened the coalition in march lay out a plan of how we two are going to address liberation areas and we were able to raise more than $2 billion of commitments from the coalition and the money has showed up as we needed it and we are not resource-limited in these efforts i have described to you. $1have raised $3 for every that we have put in of the u.s. money. we are collecting pledges and revenue to replicate that in roqqa. our next steps to d

more wars or the opposite we've been moving from one reckless intervention to another kid in libya syria iraq iran this destructive cycle bad decisions we cannot be a policeman of the world polls show that promises of peace were key for trump voters more than half of americans said they would prefer that the next president curb u.s. involvement in military conflicts and trump isn't the only president to have gotten the job writing hopes of peace but as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules. i believe the united states of america must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. that is what makes us different from those whom we fight you got it they even gave obama the nobel peace prize preemptively but by the time he left office he had droned bombed and intervened even more than his predecessor many hoped that the donald would make a difference however it looks like he may be set on a similar track with words of love being replaced by war and i don't ordered a targeted new jersey story or if you can see who we are sending an armada very powerful we have submarines v

the point is syria is now trying to play russia. because if you ban on soft power try bad attitude towards america and american policy. will be not as usual as before we have lots of news stories still coming your way here on r.t. international today we are back in just a. manufactured two sentenced to public will. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final. we can all middle of the room see. the real news. you can. import healthcare from china it's all very local. cases of price gouging by monopolists in america and as a result people south is declining life expectancy is falling childbirth deaths increasing because of these banal pleas and a lack of competition. thank you joining us here on r.t. but to syria now where a new deescalation zone is swiftly coming into force that's according to russia's defense ministry a little bit of what it was according to the agreement today on the third of august starting from the local time moderate opposition forces as well as government troops will cease fire from all types of we

with russia frequently vetoes actions on syria. delponte says by the government of president assad and the opposition a guilty of committing quote terrible crimes time rush has the story. yeah i am frustrated i give up. former war crimes prosecutor carla del ponte tay had harsh words for the un commission of inquiry on syria. which is tasked with investigating war crimes there. this commission is useless it's ridiculous when the seventieth and we haven't done anything source the point. seven years of doing nothin. so i'm going to give notice more an act of publication. morgan out quite help these victims of this injustice don't yeah you know been living the way because they were just the. in an interview published sunday by swiss magazine flick she accused the un security council of failing to hold war criminals in syria accountable. she also complained that the commission was never able to enter syria. since it was set up in twenty eleven the commission has relied only on interviews photos and other documents for its reports. but

iraq in syria are both broken states. the baghdad government exists and they're fine and doing things but the idea that they alone can go into the sunni areas and provide governance in a way that will be accepted by the people there is a fantasy. it's not going to happen. they don't trust them. the party got burned once and we promise them after the surge that we make sure that the majority shiite permitted by dead which is highly influenced by iran would treat them well and would do fine by them and would share wealth and do all the things they need to do. that didn't happen in the iranians took more control and essentially those guys got burned. now we will ask them to do it again and trust us again, really? in the central government will do fine by you and don't worry about the iranian influence on the shiite militias that slaughtered their way across that territory to push isis out. one thing it has not been covered much is just exactly how bad that was. the humanitarians and secretary and slaughter during the reconqu

we we re us what we did wrong in syria. we were covering syria very professionally. maybe it's because, forgive me for interrupting, but winnie together group is, maybe one of his problems was that when you have been covering the growth in radical islamist militant groups in syria, for example one of the al qaeda affiliate groups, you have had on air commentators describing them as" moderate opposition" to basher al—assad. anyone who thinks al qaeda affiliate is moderate is taking a veryjaundiced view of what's happening in syria, aren't they? yes, but at the time when he resigned i don't think this issue was raised at all. not with us, by him or by any other... this is an issue i'm raising. ijust want i just want to finish with him. i ijust want to finish with him. i am not accusing him of anything, i am just saying that maybe he was forced, he was threatened. he never came to aljazeera and said, this report or that report was wrong. it has never happened. i can challenge him and he can come and show me with whom he talked. when we cover syria, like we cover every

starting in syria, for example. let's talk about aktham suliman, who was your correspondent based in germany. he quit in 2012 because he says your coverage of syria since the rioting began in 2011 has become so partisan and one—sided he could not stomach it any more. yes. aktham suliman was a very good reporter. he was the editorial chief in germany for aljazeera arabic and he is one of two or three people who actually left aljazeera on their own. i mean, they decide to go. not the ones where we asked them to go and then they went outside and claimed they resigned. so aktham suliman resigned for a very simple reason — he is 100% with the assad regime and he couldn't swallow the fact that we were reporting from the field about the revolution, about the resistance, about the opposition, et cetera. this is what he couldn't take. well, hang on... i don't have any information, i don't have a sure information, but i assume that he was actually forced by the government to do so. well, you can't. .. you can't besmirch h

similarly over in syria, we are assisting with the liberation of roqqa. however, all of us are clear eyed and understand even there, that battle will hit a core resistance and it will be a tough fight to liberate. again, we are taking the approach. we have pre-staged humanitarian assistance, pre-staged equipment so that has areas are liberated people can immediately go back and and retake their community and rebuild their lives. we will replicate the success we have had in mosul in other communities. we have accomplished a lot of this through this grand coalition to defeat isis that was convened. that now consists of 68 countries and 5 international agencies. we convened that coalition here in march to lay out this plan of how we want to attack the liberation areas as those are freed up. we were able to raise more than $2 billion of commitments from the coalition. that money has showed up as we need it. we are not limited in these resource efforts i have described to you. we have raised three dollars for every one dollar that we have put in of the u.s. mo

. >> woodruff: now, to the fight against isis in syria and iraq. last month, iraqi forces and the u.s.-led coalition finally re- took iraq's second largest city, mosul, after a brutal nine-month campaign. and the fight to re-take raqqa, the isis makeshift capital, is ongoing now, with syrian militia pressing the fight, again with u.s. support. for more on where the battle against isis stands, i spoke a short time ago with brett mcgurk. he is the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isis. i began by asking him how big a footprint isis has now? >> well, what's really more important is the trajectory. if you go back to 2014, they were dramatically expanding movement. since then, they've lost about 70,000 square kilometers. in the last six months alone, they've lost about 20 square kilometers. so one-third of losses in iraq and syria have taken place in the last six months. so it's radically shrimping. the people under their domain, less and less every day. operations enabled by coalitions for iraqi and democratic forces doing

we need to bring the war in syria to an end. we need to bring the senseless bombing -- charlie: how do we bring the war in syria to an end? >> as i said cease-fire. believe ayou cease-fire in that small region will hold? >> there is a de-escalation in three larger reasons, iran, russia, and turkey, and now the cease-fire is holding more or less. the amount of suffering of the syrian people has been drastically reduced since december of last year when this initiative by iran russia, and , turkey has been in place, and we believe it should he enlarged to include all of syria, except for fighting against isis and al-nusra. they cannot be part of the cease-fire. charlie: do you believe that iran and russia and america can work together to change syria? guest: i think everyone should work together in order to end this tragedy in syria. charlie: are you prepared and would like to work with the united states and russia? thee were a member of international syrian support group, which included the united states and russia, but we did not

t is critical today -- the fight against isis culminates in syria. we just heard that isis has lost significant amounts of terrain in iraq. also in syria, that we are at 40% of raqqa has been recovered, and we are entering the final stage against the islamic state. we've heard this before, that we're in the final stage of this fight against the islamic state, against al-qaeda in iraq, in afghanistan, yemen. and yet we still face a massive threat from these groups. part of the reason we're facing that threat is we've misdefined and misunderstood what the enemy itself is. we've defined the enemy to be various groups that have pointed their guns at us. we have only gone after those groups that have chosen to shoot the gun, which means that as over time we've looked at this, there are groups choosing not to start shooting us. al qaedald say that has chosen that today, which is why we are defining it as a long-term threat, something to deal with this at the end of this problem. but i think that putting off that fight puts us in a position where it's harde

arabic became one of the latest casualties of the war in syria. died last week in shelling near homs province while filming a story on the syrian army's operations against islamic state we can now bring you his final report and the testimony of his dedication to shutting light on the horrors of war as told by his camera about who was also caught up in the crossfire . do you see this ridge built on the left no the big one this round see if it means we're filming. oh. we came to the eastern countryside of homes called beggarly a with the army it was a place of direct confrontation with i still as we arrived the army was ordered to deal with the terrorist forces facing us the first show hits i still fight is then another one was fired shortly. after the second show i'm not really sure whether i still fired a missile or a more tough but it was quite accurate hits a group of people khalid was there and the brigadier who was killed and the driver who was with us and is still in hospital was critically wounded we tried to do our best to help each other b

social and it's interesting the dynamics between syria and yemen both countries that we in one way in one fashion or another that the united states. was into whether it be missiles or small arms or whatever it may be but i think you're starting with the good news it is nice to see that some of the you know syrians are coming home and going back to the cities that they were originally displaced from yeah i think you have to credit the stabilization of aleppo obviously once the syrian army got you know got hold of the city and was able to secure it. mainly with support from russia not coming from the u.s. but really that the it created the ground for this return and to say that everybody is you know necessarily stabilized there are still some rebel rockets coming in but for the most part it seems that aleppo has been secured it's back to stabilize and that's what we you know we've always discussed on this show is the idea of look you cannot destabilize the country and expect things to get better i mean you can't basically destabilize and say well we're going to get rid of assad. no it's

military has been doing for decades with all of these sort of what they call interventions and in syria absolutely illegal they should get out and leave it to the legitimate parties or the legal parties to deal with the i. this problem the ice is supply lines are more or less been cut at least to turkey and some of these other rat lines that were allowed to exist when the u.s. was flying over in two thousand and fourteen fifteen and sixteen there they're cut off now there's no reason why the united states should be in over syria at all let russia let the syrian arab army and let their legal partners deal with the problem within syria that is the core or given patrick we appreciate you coming on giving us your thoughts geo political analyst and editor of twenty first century wired dot com patrick. now the u.s. state department has blamed russia for a new low in its relations with moscow after president donald trump signed his approval to the latest sanctions bill on wednesday. are you saying that russia is to blame for the relations right now. russia's been involved in a lot of activitie

i still suffers another blow in syria as the russian defense ministry says a large islamic state convoy heading to do yeah as all was hit by an asteroid killing more than two hundred terror. hello there and thank you for joining us you're watching r.t. international with me macie air and we start with breaking news this hour coming out of the french city of mass say media reports suggest one person has been killed and another seriously injured after a car rammed into people two bus stops we can now cross live to auntie's kate partially to thin songs for us to find out more kate good to see you what else do we know about the situation at this point. well nicky as you were saying most of this unfolded this incident was twofold and it unfolded this morning during the morning russia what it was it was a man in a rental car drove towards apparently purposefully drove towards a bus stop that was packed with people this is around nine fifteen this morning in the surtees district of mar say and there he seriously injured one man he then he fled the scene as ambulances and the emergency services