Trump's Orders Missile Strikes Against Syria; Russia Condemns US Missile Strikes.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the program and just a quick reminder of the importance stories we're following and all two familiar whole mark of terror struck the heart of Sweden today when a truck drove into pedestrians on the busiest street in Stockholm at around 3:00 p.m. local. At least two people have been confirmed dead with many, many more injured. The Swedish Prime Minister is saying everything indicates a terrorist act. Police are now searching for the man that you see here. He has been described as a person of interest without any further elaboration as to why he is being sought. Now, in Syria it is less than 24 hours since multiple U.S. Tomahawk, cruise missiles, struck the Shayrat Airfield, that believed by the U.S. to be the base for war planes that carried out the chemical attack on a rebel-held town near Idlib this week. The Syrian government says nine people including four children were killed in today's attack. While Russia and China opposed to the use of force against the Assad regime, many countries including Turkey say they support the U.S. military action. Now Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman and advisor to Turkish President's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They called the organized strike on Assad facilities a positive response to the regime's war crimes, and he joins me on the phone. Mr. Kalin, welcome the program, you have called it a positive response. Where do you think it goes from now and do you believe that it will deter any further use of chemical weapons by the regime?</s>IBRAHIM KALIN, SPOKESMAN AND ADVISOR TO TURKISH PRESIDENT (via telephone): Oh, that's our hope. That's why we supported last night's air strike against the Shayrat Air Base, from home of Syria. Christiane, if you remember when the same regime, the Syrian regime perpetuated this similarly attack in Utah, Damascus suburb in 2013, the U.S. at that time had said to enforce what they call the -- what President Obama called the red line. Now, of course the Assad Regime has been permitting those war crimes with both chemical and dimensional weapons ever since then. So by retaliating against this Assad regime last night, President Trump has indicated the chemical attacks will not go unpunished. But of course there are other works that need to be -- other steps that need to be taken if they are to stop those work and prevent the Assad regime from committing further crime.</s>AMANPOUR: So what do you think? What does Turkey, the presidency, the Prime Minister, where do you think these needs to go from now? Because you hear many Europeans leaders now this is repeating now the mantra that there's no future for Syria with Assad in power. But it doesn't look like there's going to be a whole say of change of strategy. Where do you think this is going to lead?</s>KALIN: Well, we have two processes as you know going on at the same time. One is the Geneva process and the other one is the Ostana process. And that their common goal is to initiate and hopefully complete their political transition process. At the end of which Assad will not remain in power. That's the general understanding. How that will be worked out? Obviously, it's a matter of time and a lot negotiation. [0:04:55] But I think by taking a clear stance against the war crimes with the Assad regime, at least the new administration, the Trump administration have indicated that if you are going to give any substantive value to the political process, it will have to be in a way that will force the Assad regime to, you know, give up on its claim to legitimate powers in Syria. And the second things of course, what our president has been calling and that is the establishment of safe zones and neutralized zones in Syria, they've been arguing for this for a long time and they have not been given any concrete reasonable argument as to why it cannot be done even though some security issues and logistical issues have been mentioned as reasons. But if we have this safes zones, neutralized zones, you know, in Syria followed by this chemical attack and other capacities within have taken place. So we are in thoughts with allies, with the United States, with international coalition, the developed countries, we are also talking to the Russians because we initiated the Ostana process together. And the recent attacks of the Assad regime, obviously around diskette (ph), undermining the Ostana process to which we are both committed, Turkey and Russia. So we are urging all parties including the international coalition, Russia, Iran, that have</s>AMANPOUR: And finally, has your government spoken to the U.S. administration, to the U.S. Secretary of State today? And do you think paradoxically, because frankly, Mr. Kalin, these piece processes have so far produced absolutely nothing, do you believe that this current process will -- I know there will be some change now that there is this pressure on the Assad regime?</s>KALIN: Well, that's our hope. That's why last night's responds, retaliation I think is something that we have to take seriously and I've been following the U.S. response and position at the U.N. Security Counsel and other official statements. They are encouraging in the sense that they are ready to put really serious significant pressure on the Assad Regime, so that the political process move forward. You're right, number of the initiatives have been thrived in the past and they have unfortunately failed. And I think the lesson to learn from all of this is that we cannot fail again.</s>AMANPOUR: Ibrahim Kalin, thank you for joining us by phone, you are on the road with campaigning for the constitutional referendum coming up in a week. Thanks for joining us with the view from the Turkish government. And we are going to turn to the military ramifications of the U.S. bombing in Syria, and as we said the Syrian air strikes have been loudly denounced by the Syrian regime. But we are joined now by Andrew Exum, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Policy. You have reached on about what's just happened. Where do you think this puts the west, the Turkey, or the people who are trying to get an end to this war?</s>ANDREW EXUM, FORMER. U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST POLICY: It well all depends on where we want to go next. I think that what Ibrahim Kalin just said is exactly right that if the Trump administration and its partners and the Geneva process, and want to use this as way to reinvigorate talks about the political transition in Syria, I think they can do that. One of the things we are hamstrung by frankly in the Obama administration is that we weren't going use force, and folks knew that. I think that the Trump administration is now proven, it is willing to use force but nobody knows where the Trump administration wants to go with this. It's not a strategy, it's just a strike and there seems to be some worrying signs that they are saying that, well, this is just one-off or this is just -- look this is not a big change in policy. That's worrying because I think that they could actually use this to jump-start some negotiations. But what I think is also weighing on their minds is they don't want this to interfere with the other fights that's taking place in Syria, which is the campaign against the Islamic state and they don't want this strike to be used as a pretext for Russia or the regime to interfere on that fight.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, you did just hear Ibrahim Kalin say that his government is being in touch Russia, the two foreign ministers have spoken, we've just learned, presumably, to try to make sure that doesn't happen. How much stake do you put in Turkey and NATO member being able to convince Russia, well, first and foremost, you know, not to close its deconfliction channel and secondly, you know, frankly as David Phillip (ph) also said, too, what Assad has done can't be good for Russia either and to use this moment to get what everybody seems to want which is an end to this process. [0:09:57]</s>EXUM: Yeah. That's exactly right, first of, this is going to be embarrassing for Russia not just the strike on the Syrians but use of chemical weapons by the Syrian, but the use of chemical weapons by the Syrians themselves. Russia had, you know, had put themselves forward as kind of a guarantor that Syria wouldn't use these weapons. And then they have these weapons and had turned all these weapons over to the international community. So it's a bit embarrassing for the Russians. And it does perhaps present some leverage for Secretary Tillerson when he goes to Moscow. I'm not sure unfortunately and I -- we're deeply embedded to our Turkish partners for the role they've played and to fight against the Islamic state. But you remember that Turkey actually shutdown a Russian aircraft.</s>AMANPOUR: Right.</s>EXUM: And hasn't really been flying in Northern Syria since then. So I'm not sure that they're going to be the best on-voice to kick start the deconfliction channel. I will say that I think Russia's move to spend that channel I think is largely petulant. I think that that channel benefits Russia as much as it does the United States, because it's in no one's interest for Russian and coalition air craft to be flying into one another or to be engaged in unsafe actions over Syria.</s>AMANPOUR: Just put on that military hat again and try to explain how the international community, whether it's Turkey or Russia or the United States and its NATO allies can achieve an end to this by both cutting off and destroying in the words of a different administration, ISIS, and making sure that actually there isn't room for a dictator who uses chemical weapons. I guess I think what you just said is so important. The fact to this moment could be used to drive a wedge into that sort of feeling of lack of power to actually, you know, change the situation on the ground.</s>EXUM: That's right. I mean I figured there are really two problems but they're obviously closely intertwined. The first is containing the fight against the Islamic state, driving the Islamic state from Raqqa and then</s>AMANPOUR: Fascinating. It could be a game-changer. We'll see. Andrew Exum, thank you so much indeed for joining us. And a quick update from Sweden, an important one. The Stockholm Police tells CNN that one person has been arrested in connection with this afternoon's attack. They have not given any more details at this time. We'll bring you what we have when we have it, as always. And after the break, we'll move from international reactions to the human victims of chemical weapons in this world. We'll talk to those who bear witness to the devastating reality on the ground in Syria.</s>AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program. For years, we've been speaking to Syrians, whose way of life has been shattered by this war. Many of them have witnessed war crimes firsthand and survived to tell the story. One of those people is the award-winning citizen journalist, Waad al- Kateab, who risked her own life to document the brutal siege of Aleppo and captured some of the most compelling footage of the war. I sat down with Waad recently and I also -- what it was like to film the victims of one of the many chlorine gas attacks? We're protecting Waad's identity for her own safety.</s>AMANPOUR: I want to also play a piece which is equally important and may one day be used as evidence in trials. This is when you were in the hospital and they seemed to be the barrel bomb, the disposed chemical weapons.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): They're older than 4 or 5 years old. Her oxygen mask slips off. She tries to fix it herself but her hand is shaking too much. No one seems to notice in this Aleppo hospital. There are too many other patients needing urgent help. More are brought in, their clothes stripped off, their bodies hosed down. And it's chlorine they've been hit with. These doctors here suspect they need to act fast.</s>AMANPOUR: I mean, it is so dramatic to watch that because we've heard for years now about the barrel bombs, about the chlorine gas, the chemical weapons and this is potentially evidence of that. Did you recognize what you were shooting, what you were filming at the time?</s>WAAD AL-KATEAB, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Of course, yes. What we have to do that's everything was happening in Aleppo will be an evidence to what the regime was doing in Aleppo or in Syria all. You couldn't see blood. You couldn't see interrupted maybe hands or legs, but you see a lot of people couldn't to breathing. And you also, when you were in the E.R. room, you smell the smell, and it's very bad things. And there were many people that's injured by the chemical weapons. Especially in the last days of Aleppo, every day at the evening, there was chlorine gas attack. And that was very difficult.</s>AMANPOUR: A vivid reminder that this week's chemical attack was by no mean the first. President Bashar al-Assad's office has spoken out against the U.S.'s air strikes, calling the action nothing but foolish and irresponsible behavior. So let us get the view from Damascus. The Syrian freelance journalist Alaa Ebrahim joins from there live. Welcome to the program Mr. Ebrahim. I guess that you all have been seeing what's happening, seeing how it's being reported around the world. What is the reaction from the officials there and all the streets?</s>ALAA EBRAHIM, FREELANCE JOURNALIST, SYRIA: Well, for officials in general, they remain committed on that, which is -- that did not carry out in the chemical attacks against any other -- any place in Syria including the recent attack in Khan Sheikhoun. And as far as the people on the street are concerned, there is a great state of concern and we call it at some stage as panic among people because they're afraid that this new intervention and the Syrian conflict could further escalate bombings (ph), could further promote certain groups and certain rebellious actions to prolong the fight, feeling that they have the support now of the United States, especially after recent reports that they might be also receiving</s>AMANPOUR: Can I just ask you to comment on some of the reporting we heard from Syrian state news agencies today, you know, that we are going to, you know, fix up the airfield, we're going to fly again out of it or -- and we're going to continue to do our work they would say. Have you any evidence that there have been any flights out of that airfield since this cruise missile attack?</s>EBRAHIM: Yes. According to my enough resources, in the afternoon today, there has been Su-22 jet that tool off from one of the airfields in the airbase flew for 20 minutes and then came back to land in the airbase</s>AMANPOUR: Can I ask you also? Just to give us a sense of how the people in the government controlled territory, those who you come into contact with the elderly (ph) civilians, were they even officials? I mean are they tired? Do they want to see an end to this war? Would they prefer to see, you know, the government actually, you know, making real steps just to some kind of solution around the negotiating table, because the government just keeps saying, "Well, you know, these are terrorist and we can't negotiate with them."</s>EBRAHIM: Well, this is not a fair collectivization of what's going on across the country. One thing that goes across boundaries and across frontlines, and on both sides of aisle in Syria, that both populations under the government</s>AMANPOUR: And very finally then I wonder if you could comment on the interview that president Assad gave to the Croatian newspaper this, in which the headline was that, "We will have to continue this war. We have no option." So, basically saying that, as far as he's concerned, this is an ongoing military campaign.</s>EBRAHIM: Well, most of the areas outside the control of the Syrian government was controlled either by ISIL or by a coalition of rebellious actions. And in most cases where there's a coalition of rebellious actions, there is a strong presence for al Qaeda Syrian</s>AMANPOUR: All right. Thank you so much indeed for joining us from Damascus. And when we come back, we imagine the incredible compartmentalizing act that the world leaders are often forced to perform, hosting the formal banquet for a fellow head of state while also launching his first presidential air strike. That's next.</s>AMANPOUR: And finally tonight, imagine the world where America's first strikes on Syria coincide with the main course of steak and Chardonnay as President Donald Trump sat down to dinner for his first meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping at 7:00 p.m. in Mar-a-Lago, Florida estate (ph). He'd also just given the go-ahead for his first presidential active war. Less than two hours into that lavish meal, Tomahawk cruise missiles descended onto a Syrian airbase. Perhaps President Trump, took a lesson (ph) in the fine arts of high dining and high states military action from his predecessor President Barack Obama. Six years ago, he had just given the order for a Navy SEAL way to capture Osama bin Laden's compound, just before cracking jokes to the gilded White House correspondent's dinner where he also ruthlessly needled none other than Donald Trump who is in attendance.</s>BARACK OBAMA, FORME PRESIDENT: We all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example -- no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice," you didn't blame Little John or Meat Loaf, you fired Gary Busey. And these are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night.</s>AMANPOUR: All these years later, who would have thought that President Donald Trump would be taking a page from the same playbook. It is breath taking to imagine a world of such high adrenaline action and the need to keep calm and carry on in public. That's it for our program tonight. Remember, you can always listen to our podcast, see us online @Amanpour.com and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for watching and goodbye from London. END