The Battle for Aleppo Newsnight


The Battle for Aleppo

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After years of war, are we finally seeing the endgame in Syria?

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I trusted them 100 metres, not more. Anyone they see, they would shoot

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him immediately. With a ceasefire now

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apparently in place, we're devoting the whole

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of tonight's Newsnight to Syria. Is Assad now on the brink of victory

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in the Syrian civil war? Is the international

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order being reshaped, And could anything have

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been done to stop this? Are you truly incapable of shame? Is

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there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of

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barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under

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your skin? That creeps you add a little bit?

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Strong words from the Americans, but is it too late for Aleppo?

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We'll attempt to answer these questions with the help of experts,

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politicians, and witnesses on the ground.

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The House of Commons heard today that doctors in improvised clinics

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in the Syrian city of Aleppo are wearing boots because there

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Their surviving patients are, in many ways, the lucky ones.

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According to the United Nations, pro-Government forces in the East

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of the city have been killing civilians, among them

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women and children, in their homes and on the streets.

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Streets which the UN's Human Rights office described

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The rebels, who have held the East of the city for four years,

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Tonight, as Russian's UN ambassador said a ceasefire was in place

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and a deal allowing them to leave the city would be enacted

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within hours, we ask whether that defeat would signal

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of the Syrian civil war and deliver victory to the Russian

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and Iranian-backed President Bashar Al-Assad.

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And does Vladimir Putin's crucial role signal a further

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crystallisation of lasting change to the established world order?

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We will also consider whether the West, most obviously

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the UK and Barack Obama's America, could have - even should have -

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done more to staunch the flow of civilian blood.

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Before social media, a besieged city would trap not just

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Now, as pro-government forces advance on Eastern Aleppo,

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horror stories seep out like blood under a locked door.

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To everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a genocide

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More than 50,000 civilians who rebelled against the dictator

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Al Assad are threatened with field executions or dying under bombing.

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These people, shown on Syrian television, appear able to escape.

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However, not everyone encircled by pro-government forces feels it's

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We are close to them, maybe 300 metres, not more.

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They capture any neighbourhood, first thing they do,

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They entered this building, anyone they see, anyone they see,

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Anyone they see they will shoot them, immediately.

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We cannot of course independently verify any of this, but the physical

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Aleppo's medieval fortifications blown apart by modern war.

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The UN is convinced that what is happening here is - quote -

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The reports we've had are both being shot in the street or trying

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Obviously people are being killed by the incredibly intense

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So we've also had reports that, you know, bodies lying

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in the streets and people unable to pick up those

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Because of the intensity of the bombardment and the fear,

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This is the image that the Syrian government wants the world to see,

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grateful residents returning to a liberated city.

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We don't know how many people, though, are left

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As the remaining rebel fighters are squeezed into a smaller

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and smaller footprint, so the suffering of the civilians

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The civilians are stuck in a very small area that doesn't exceed

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Tonight at the UN, Russia - which supports the Syrian government

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The counterterrorism operation in Aleppo,

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announced Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, will conclude in the next few hours.

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The battle for Aleppo, four years of grinding,

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bloody conflict, looks like it might be about to end, in victory

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for the Assad government and their Russian backers.

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David Crossman reporting on the events of today. Time to turn our

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attention to tonight. Our chief international

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correspondent Lyse Doucet has been Lyse, no shortage of contradiction

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or confusion, what can we say of the latest developments with confidence?

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We can say with confidence that the rebellion in east Aleppo is over, a

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rebellion which began in July 2012 and which at one point in the years

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that followed seemed at the point of capturing all Aleppo to the point

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that a pro-government command of militia told me last week that in

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Aleppo they had been reduced to only three streets. What a turnaround for

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the Syrian army and its allies, most importantly Russia, and an array of

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militias backed by Iran, it is a huge victory, the most significant

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of the war, for the Syrian government, for President Bashir

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al-Assad. But the future of Aleppo, a city divided, shredded, where

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kilometre after kilometre, new you drive to the east

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of the city, or that there are streets drained of life and colour,

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haunted by the memories of what has gone on in the past four years. What

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we do know is that tomorrow morning, if it is on time, the fighters and

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their family will leave the battlefields of Aleppo, leave their

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dreams and defiance behind and go to the city of Idlib in the West and

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the stunner opposition control or go north to fight another day in the

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area controlled by Turkish fighters and Turkish troops. Lyse Doucet,

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thank you. Lord Ashdown was the UN

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High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the aftermath

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of their civil war. First, Bashar Farahat fled to Syria

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in 2013 and arrived in the UK Bashar, it is harrowing enough to

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see such pictures from a country one has never visited. What is it like

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to see such pictures from one's home? We are used to watching these

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pictures, and fortunately, this ongoing massacre for six years, it

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is sometimes getting to the point where it hits the top news. It has

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been the same since 2011, the killing of our people every single

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day. The Assad regime killing them. Aleppo is my city and I spent quite

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a lot of time in Aleppo and it is a disaster. We expected Aleppo, the

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resistance to fall down and to end but we always expected that it might

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be the same as what happened in a different areas of Syria, at least

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keeping a safe passage for civilians to survive, and what is going on now

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is a massacre and they are not giving any opportunity for these

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people to survive. Have you been in touch with the people in the city

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recently? Yes, I have many friends there and colleagues who used to

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work in the hospital there, trying to help people, and hospitals of

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course have been targeted for a long time, so there are no working

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hospitals for two or three weeks. Today I could be in touch with a

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colleague who is a medical doctor there. And he just could say that he

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is still alive. And all our colleagues and friends are sending

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their very last messages knowing that they will die at any moment.

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They expect to die at the hands of government forces? Yes. After

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hearing of filmed executions, killing people who fled to resume

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areas, no one wants to experience that, to be detained, tortured, or

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killed by militias, they preferred to die where they belong, to die in

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their homes and their hospitals with their loved ones. There is no

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optimism, for want of a better word, to be derived from this apparent

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ceasefire announced tonight? We hope so. I think there is always

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optimism, we are speaking about ours and every single hour hundreds of

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people are being killed, but if I speak of 50,000 people trapped in

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two or three square kilometres, every bomb could cause a massacre,

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so the optimism of a ceasefire tomorrow might cause 20,000, 30,000,

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we don't know commit huge numbers, the civil defence yesterday could

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not count the number of people killed, the bodies on the streets.

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They could not count them. So are speaking about tens of people being

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killed every single hour. Bashar Farahat, many thanks indeed for your

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time. Paddy Ashdown, it is stating the obvious to say that some people

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watching will feel some desperate need to do something. Is there

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anything that we could have done or could do now? James, listening to

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Bashar, it is impossible to find words, you ask what is going on in

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the ground, the answer is that it is an trained, you ask if this is the

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end for Aleppo, it is although it must not be the end for the people

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dropped inside, every bomb is a massacre, Bashar says that is the

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risk. The West, I'm afraid, in these last five years has deliberately,

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almost thoughtfully, manoeuvred itself into the position where it is

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now an impotent bystander. It has no leverage. It has leverage to do one

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thing now. List must be the first priority of the Western effort.

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Those 50,000 people. There must not be another subunits. But Bosnia. I

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was there when it happened and there is nothing of that matters in the

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next 36 hours than those 50,000 people trapped in four square miles,

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we have to get them out and get them to safety. Beyond that, there are

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things that the West can do. I would like to come back to the 50,000

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civilians in need of rescue, as you say. Do you have faith that the

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ceasefire will hold? Surely regardless of your answer we can

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only do what the Russians would let us do? I don't have faith but there

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are things we can do, send in a UN mission, I found it difficult to

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believe that the Russians would not permit that. Why hasn't it happened

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already? A very good question. All sorts of reasons. I go back to that

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vote in 2013 when our parliament refused to act in the face of Bashir

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al-Assad using chemical weapons. I said at the time it was the most

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shameful vote I'd ever participated in an parliament and it was true and

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now there's a price to be paid for that. The West has lost any potency

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in terms of what it might do, Russia has taken advantage of that and

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moved into the vacuum, thousands of people have been killed. My bleak

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guess, what can the West do now apart from trying to save those

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50,000, the answer is, bluntly, not much. It does not have much leverage

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on the ground. Moving away from that... Let me tell you what might

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happen. Ceasefires don't work until both sides believe they have nothing

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further to gain on the battlefield. My guess is that Assad and the

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Russians decided that they were not in that position. They had to take

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Aleppo before there could be a ceasefire. Russia does not want to

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be involved in this in the long term, I think. They don't want to

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get bogged down, I suspect both sides have reached a position where

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everything they can gain on the battlefield has been more or less

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gained, Aleppo is theirs and the conditions are there for some kind

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of peace. Let me warn you it will be rough, bloody, untidy, dominated by

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warlords, Bosnia on a large scale. The right thing now is to have

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original agreement way you assert the integrity of the political space

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of Syria as unassailable. That involves the neighbours, Iran,

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Turkey, underpinned as guarantors by the great powers, that could bring

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some kind of peace, it will be horrible to observe but I can

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promise you that every citizen living in Aleppo, trapped between

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the bombs of asset and the knives of Isis will prefer peace, however

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untidy, to war, I saw it in Sarajevo, it's the same conditions.

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Lord Ashton, thanks. Bush Lord Ashdown, thanks.

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After a stint as an army doctor, Bashar al-Assad was doing

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postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital

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in London when he was recalled to Damascus in 1994 after his

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brother - and heir apparent to the Syrian Presidency -

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Six years later, he succeeded his father to the Presidency

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and when ripples from the Arab Spring unfolding

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across much of the Middle East reached Syria in early 2011,

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his uncompromising response to pro-democracy protesters

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effectively constituted the opening shots of what would become

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A war he now seems vanishingly close to winning.

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It didn't always seem such a sure thing.

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Months into the conflict, the UN condemns human rights

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violations in Syria with US and EU demands that Assad stands down.

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An attempt by the UN Security Council to pass

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a resolution condemning the regime fails after Russia

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An early peace plan devised by the Arab League also fails.

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Amid continuing international condemnation of the regime,

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President Obama threatens intervention if there's any use

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A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons

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By the end of the year, a series of countries including the US,

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Britain and some Gulf states formally recognise the opposition

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National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

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In August, a chemical assault on a Damascus

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The US blames Asad, despite denials by Damascus,

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President Obama says he is resolved to take military action but will

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In the UK, Parliament defeats proposals by Prime Minister

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David Cameron to take action against Assad.

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By the end of the year more than two million refugees have fled

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to neighbouring countries and more than 100,000 are dead.

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Attempts at peace talks in Geneva come to nothing.

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And a report by Human Rights Watch concludes that Assad has used

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The report suggests Syrian forces dropped by bombs containing

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By the end of the year forces from the US and five Arab countries

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are carrying out air strikes against IS.

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A game changer, Russia gets involved and carries out

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air strikes in Syria, targeting IS in September.

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However the West and the Syrian opposition claim the attacks

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overwhelmingly target anti-Asad rebels.

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After another vote, the UK joins bombing raids against IS in December

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A US-Russian brokered partial ceasefire was concluded

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And now, here we are, with Assad and Russian forces

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finally seizing Aleppo's rebel held areas.

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We tried to speak to representatives of the Russian and Syrian

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governments but no one wanted to talk.

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Our Middle East Editor is Jeremy Bowen and joining us

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from New York is Reza Afshar, who is a diplomatic advisor

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to the Syrian Opposition and former head of Syria policy at the Foreign

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The picture painted by Paddy Ashdown was bleak, do you think that Assad

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will feel like a winner tonight? He will, at the beginning of the war

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there were even reports he had taken refuge on a Russian battleship in

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the Mediterranean so to go to this is huge, his biggest victory of the

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war but I would say not the end of the war. The war is changing its

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shape and perhaps they have now got to a point where they have fought

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each other to a standstill, and let's not forget Islamic State still

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hold their corner of Syria. They have actually retaken parts of the

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mirror in the last few days under the curtain of everything that has

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been going on in Aleppo and the Rebels themselves hold quite a bit

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of territory. So while a lot of foreign powers are still very

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involved in what is happening in Syria, it has become almost like a

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miniature world war, it is therefore more difficult to try to bring a

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diplomatic solution to all of this. And we saw today in the Security

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Council tremendous acrimony between all the sides, they will have to

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agree something to get them altogether. And the era of Assad,

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would you accept that? I think the Russians have the ear of Assad. If

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you go to the offices of generals in Damascus, they're full of textbooks

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in Russian about military tactics and commemorative shields from units

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they visited in Russia, the kind of thing that senior officers give each

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other. They really are that tight. So as a result, not only does tend

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to have the era of President Putin and the other way round, the

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Russians know who was further down the chain as well when it comes to

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Syria. The West, their problem has been a lot more ignorance relatively

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speaking with what has been happening and of course the Russians

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have had this remarkable, a lot of clarity in their policy. They knew

:21:55.:21:58.

what they wanted, to support their man, Assad, but the West in

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comparison has been all over the place. The western side has shown

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the complexity of the issue and been a bit befuddled about what to do

:22:11.:22:19.

next. The consensus seems to be that while things may not be quite over

:22:20.:22:22.

yet, perhaps it is the beginning of the end. Would you agree with that?

:22:23.:22:31.

I would wholeheartedly disagree. The fact that Aleppo is on the brink of

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being taken and Assad feels he is winning does not mean that he is

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winning. He has to take and hold ground, he does not have the

:22:43.:22:46.

military capability to hold ground. And we have seen what happens when

:22:47.:22:50.

forces are focused in one place like Aleppo, other places get taken and

:22:51.:22:54.

retaken and the moderate rebel groups who in fact were fighting IS

:22:55.:22:59.

also have to focus their efforts on the regime, killing people on a

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day-to-day basis. Because only they are in a position to protect the

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civilian population. So we are getting a continual opening up of

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fronts all over the country. And I would take issue with something

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Paddy Ashdown said earlier, the idea that the West has no leveraged to

:23:20.:23:24.

deal with the issue is simply wrong. You create that leveraged by

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creating consequences for the actions that the Syrian government

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and Russians are taking. If you fire a cruise missile from a ship onto

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the end of the Syrian runway I think that behaviour would change quite

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quickly. The Obama administration could have done that at any point in

:23:43.:23:46.

the conflict and has chosen not to. You say at any point but up until

:23:47.:23:51.

the point the Russians got involved surely because to fire a cruise

:23:52.:23:58.

missile at the Syrian runway being used by Russian planes would be an

:23:59.:24:02.

act of confrontation. Not at all, with the amount of Assads in the

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region, with some clarity we could see which targets have that risk of

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hitting Russians and which do not. At the end of the day the Russians

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do not respond to negotiation, they respond to a stepping up of military

:24:23.:24:26.

action. And the Obama administration has failed to do that and I think in

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the Security Council it was said today that the Russians should be

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ashamed. They ought to be but also the Americans have to answer why

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they did not take action to protect civilians in Syria. Do you think

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that is likely to happen because they talked about a red line with

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the deployment of chemical weaponry, Barack Obama famously said that line

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could not be crossed but they did and nothing happened. What has

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changed now? I'm not optimistic, I do not think this president will do

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anything in that regard. But the point is that there are tools that

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can be used to bring the conflict to an end and when Paddy Ashdown talks

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about a process like Bosnia, I agree, there needs to be some kind

:25:17.:25:22.

of negotiation. But what brought the Serbs to the table was when Nato

:25:23.:25:25.

started to bomb them. At the end of the data has to be chorus of element

:25:26.:25:30.

to policy in Syria and that is completely missing. That is why

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people are suffering and why we face a daily terror threat in Europe and

:25:35.:25:40.

the US, why there is a refugee exodus tearing apart the fabric of

:25:41.:25:43.

Europe. Syria touches everyone of us in terms of the consequences it has.

:25:44.:25:49.

And it is in the US self-interest and European self-interest to take

:25:50.:25:54.

action to reduce the impact of this conflict. And they have the means to

:25:55.:25:55.

do it. Thank you very much. When Barack Obama elected not

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to intervene in what he saw as another Muslim civil war

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in the Middle East, the then Saudi ambassador to Washington,

:26:05.:26:06.

Adel al-Jubeir, reported back to Riyadh that "Iran

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is the new great power of the Middle East,

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and the US is the old." Talk of a new world

:26:14.:26:16.

order traditionally seems a little over the top but if 2016 has taught

:26:17.:26:19.

us anything, it is that what once seemed fanciful can

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quickly become reality. Factor in also that Russia, Iran's

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co-sponsor of the Assad regime, subsequently came to play a massive

:26:28.:26:32.

part in the suppression of the rebellion, and you are left

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with a very real sense of a seismic shift in the power structures

:26:37.:26:40.

of the region and so the world. We asked the historian

:26:41.:26:45.

Timothy Garton Ash to give us his assessment of where the world

:26:46.:26:47.

stands as 2016 draws to a close. I think Vladimir Putin

:26:48.:27:03.

will have a very happy Christmas. In fact, he's been known to croon,

:27:04.:27:07.

and I think he may be crooning In Syria he has relentlessly

:27:08.:27:10.

and successfully prosecuted a war at the side of the Assad regime

:27:11.:27:19.

with cynical indifference to massive civilian casualties and suffering,

:27:20.:27:23.

and he's almost won. In the United States,

:27:24.:27:26.

Russian hackers have contributed directly to the defeat of Hillary

:27:27.:27:30.

Clinton. So Putin has now got the most

:27:31.:27:34.

Russia-friendly president he could possibly

:27:35.:27:36.

hope for, in Trump. And now a new Secretary of State,

:27:37.:27:40.

Rex Tillerson, who is an oilman, a buddy of his, who actually opposed

:27:41.:27:43.

sanctions over Crimea. In Europe, Putin can contemplate

:27:44.:27:49.

with delight the rise of populists in every corner and the partial

:27:50.:27:53.

disintegration of I've just come back from Paris,

:27:54.:27:58.

where he has an amazing prospect in the second

:27:59.:28:06.

round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen of the National Front

:28:07.:28:09.

versus Francois Fillon, the one almost as

:28:10.:28:14.

pro-Putin as the other. And now in Germany they are talking

:28:15.:28:19.

about the danger of Russian hackers again influencing

:28:20.:28:22.

the election results. I think that's been a great

:28:23.:28:25.

year for Vladimir Putin. So some would say,

:28:26.:28:34.

is it a new world order? I would say, if you mean

:28:35.:28:37.

by a new world order an old world disorder,

:28:38.:28:42.

then at the moment, yes. We're back to a world where great

:28:43.:28:47.

powers are relentlessly pursuing their national and imperial

:28:48.:28:50.

interests, also by the use I think one of the lessons of modern

:28:51.:28:53.

history is that dictatorships tend to win in the short-term,

:28:54.:29:04.

but democracies win Sir Anthony Brenton

:29:05.:29:06.

was British Ambassador to Russia. Everyone tonight seems to agree that

:29:07.:29:31.

Vladimir Putin emerges from this unholy mess greatly enhanced. I

:29:32.:29:38.

think that is right. The Russians have gone into Syria was a much

:29:39.:29:42.

clearer view of what they wanted than we did. What did they want?

:29:43.:29:49.

They had a problem of their own at home, they saw the choice in Syria

:29:50.:29:55.

as being between Assad, who believe they do not like, and the

:29:56.:30:00.

alternative is being extremist Islam taking over. And while extremist

:30:01.:30:06.

Islam is a threat to Russia, really Assad is not so they firmly put

:30:07.:30:11.

their money on Assad. And they have vigorously supported him through to

:30:12.:30:17.

the situation we're in now. Much of the covers suggests they have

:30:18.:30:19.

dedicated more attention to what we could describe as a moderate rebel

:30:20.:30:25.

-- rebel groups than the actual jihadists or Islamist. I think their

:30:26.:30:30.

view is that the backbone of the opposition are in fact the

:30:31.:30:36.

Islamists. So therefore western politicians to say we are backing

:30:37.:30:39.

the good guys but the core of the opposition and this is pretty clear,

:30:40.:30:46.

were Islamists. If they're one, even the nice moderate faces put in

:30:47.:30:52.

charge, this Islamists would rapidly have over. --.

:30:53.:31:00.

So David Cameron was wrong to talk about moderate leaders that we could

:31:01.:31:11.

deal with? History was against him, remember the CIA training exercise,

:31:12.:31:15.

at the time that David Cameron said that, which was designed to produce

:31:16.:31:20.

moderate soldiers and produced about ten because they all defected to the

:31:21.:31:25.

extremists when they had trained. So Barack Obama was probably right not

:31:26.:31:29.

to get involved because if he had done he would not have been able to

:31:30.:31:34.

pick a side. That's right. We made a huge mistake at the beginning by

:31:35.:31:40.

saying Assad must go. It then became apparent... What would you have

:31:41.:31:53.

done? I started my career as an Arabist and I have seen the region

:31:54.:31:56.

getting worse and worse and I have seen Western interventions on the

:31:57.:31:58.

whole making it worse rather than better. I was heavily involved in

:31:59.:32:01.

the Iraq exercise, I watched President Mubarak leaving in Egypt

:32:02.:32:03.

and in each case it has left the situation worse than before. I am

:32:04.:32:08.

afraid that this is a region that finally house to solve its own

:32:09.:32:13.

problems. There's always talk about atrocities, some appalling but in

:32:14.:32:16.

the absence of any clear ability on the part of the West to improve the

:32:17.:32:22.

situation rather than damage it, we should be very careful about getting

:32:23.:32:27.

involved at all. In a slightly different direction, reports that

:32:28.:32:32.

Russia may have interfered in the election of Donald Trump, with your

:32:33.:32:36.

background which you have described how important may that story proved

:32:37.:32:41.

to be? I think it will go away but it is pretty clear that the Russians

:32:42.:32:46.

did the hacking. It is not clear why they did it. I am not entirely

:32:47.:32:50.

persuaded that they backed Trump because at the time everyone

:32:51.:32:53.

expected Hillary Clinton to win and they would not set themselves up

:32:54.:32:58.

against a winner. It is a sign of a new technological means for Russia

:32:59.:33:03.

to interfere in our processes and we must equip ourselves for that. Sir

:33:04.:33:07.

Anthony Brenton, thank you very much.

:33:08.:33:10.

British politicians remain fiercely divided over

:33:11.:33:11.

the question of what, if anything, they could

:33:12.:33:13.

David Cameron's actions are seen as one of the reasons behind Barack

:33:14.:33:30.

Obama's decision not to intervene. Perhaps the best illustration of how

:33:31.:33:33.

confusing it was happened two years later when parliament voted in

:33:34.:33:37.

favour of air strikes on Syria, then the parts of course occupied by ice,

:33:38.:33:43.

themselves opponents of the Assad regime.

:33:44.:33:45.

The former Chancellor, George Osborne, told the Commons today

:33:46.:33:47.

that the tragedy was born of a "vacuum of Western leadership"

:33:48.:33:50.

and accused Parliament of having "prevented" action by voting

:33:51.:34:00.

against military intervention against the Assad regime in 2013.

:34:01.:34:02.

The tragedy in Aleppo did not come out of a vacuum.

:34:03.:34:05.

It was created by a vacuum, a vacuum of Western

:34:06.:34:07.

Of American leadership, British leadership.

:34:08.:34:09.

I take responsibility as someone who sat on the National Security Council

:34:10.:34:12.

Parliament should take its responsibility

:34:13.:34:14.

because of what it prevented being done.

:34:15.:34:16.

And there were multiple opportunities to intervene.

:34:17.:34:22.

I'm joined now by the Labour MP for Wirral South, Alison McGovern,

:34:23.:34:25.

and the Times columnist, Matthew Parris.

:34:26.:34:27.

Matthew, I will begin with you, if I may, it seems that in the world of

:34:28.:34:34.

politics and journalism there seems great compunction to pick a side,

:34:35.:34:39.

should we have picked a side sooner and more clearly? I think we picked

:34:40.:34:43.

the wrong side. I do not think we were in any position to know who the

:34:44.:34:47.

rebels were and what form of government they might be able to

:34:48.:34:51.

establish, or how we would underpin that government. I am far from

:34:52.:34:57.

saying that we should have supported Assad but I am not sure we should

:34:58.:35:02.

have opposed him. I think we should have stood back. As it turns out

:35:03.:35:08.

Assad had won. As it turns out he was in a much stronger position than

:35:09.:35:11.

diplomats, our ambassador said that he would fall within weeks and our

:35:12.:35:17.

security and intelligence advisers advised us. I think it is a mistake.

:35:18.:35:21.

I heard George Osborne saying that there were many into opportunities

:35:22.:35:27.

to intervene, there are but you must know what you are going to do when

:35:28.:35:31.

you intervene and I don't think we had a clear view of who the rebels

:35:32.:35:35.

were, which rebels we wanted to win, what sort of government they could

:35:36.:35:39.

form or whether the West could underpin that government. So we did

:35:40.:35:42.

not make the mistake that we made in Libya by toppling Gadhafi without

:35:43.:35:50.

knowing what would follow. Alison McGovern, the question of what we

:35:51.:35:54.

should do now, what the House of Commons contended with today, it

:35:55.:35:58.

might have been nicer to see a few more people sitting on the benches,

:35:59.:36:04.

is it a priority for British politicians, for Theresa May's

:36:05.:36:08.

government? I want to make it one because I think the kind of events

:36:09.:36:14.

have seen in Aleppo over the last 24 hours and over months and months are

:36:15.:36:19.

an offence to basic humanity. I think all of us look at that and

:36:20.:36:25.

think, it is easy to have a counsel of despair and say that there is

:36:26.:36:29.

nothing we can do but we do have tools at our disposal. And rather

:36:30.:36:33.

than seeing this as picking sides, ten years ago we all stood up and

:36:34.:36:37.

said broadly people in the international community think there

:36:38.:36:42.

is a responsibility to protect civilians and it is not about one

:36:43.:36:46.

tactic that can make this happen, it is about a range of things we can

:36:47.:36:51.

do, whether it is sanctions, diplomacy, judicious use of credible

:36:52.:36:55.

force to shift the balance of power... Whatever that strategy is,

:36:56.:37:00.

that is the way that the world should lead, to say that this is not

:37:01.:37:04.

acceptable. And all people were asking for in the House of Commons

:37:05.:37:07.

today was for the Foreign Secretary to bring forward such a strategy to

:37:08.:37:12.

protect civilians and there is a perfect opportunity at the end of

:37:13.:37:15.

this week with the European Council of the Prime Minister still at this

:37:16.:37:20.

late stage to show leadership and say, the international community

:37:21.:37:22.

believes there are certain things that are not right and this is what

:37:23.:37:25.

we will do to uphold those valleys and offers civilians, people who are

:37:26.:37:33.

not combatants, innocent victims- Mac those values, and in French and

:37:34.:37:39.

get them to safety. Russian involvement permitting. Three years

:37:40.:37:43.

ago, your party worked against intervention and you presumably

:37:44.:37:47.

voted against. George Osborne effectively suggested today that you

:37:48.:37:53.

have blood on your hands. First, the Russians have previously signed up,

:37:54.:37:57.

we are only asking them to do what they said already. And I said in the

:37:58.:38:03.

House of Commons... George Osborne implied that people like you were

:38:04.:38:08.

responsible for it. I think he and I agreed in the House that all of our

:38:09.:38:11.

with our votes come in 2013... Do you accept his analysis and

:38:12.:38:28.

regret the way that your party whip and its members? It is not a trick

:38:29.:38:31.

question. I know, let me explain. When the Prime Minister responded to

:38:32.:38:34.

that vote and said words to the effect of, I get that, what I regret

:38:35.:38:37.

is that we left it there. Whether or not we were right at that moment,

:38:38.:38:39.

whether or not the government had proved the case, to be honest with

:38:40.:38:42.

you, I think you can argue it either way. I regret in my own actions not

:38:43.:38:50.

challenging them all, not bringing it forward more, but in the end,

:38:51.:38:54.

David Cameron was the Prime Minister and George Osborne was the

:38:55.:38:59.

Chancellor, and as he and I agreed today, we all must take our share of

:39:00.:39:04.

responsibility. Yet even at this late stage I still think we should

:39:05.:39:08.

be pushing for Britain to take a lead along with our international

:39:09.:39:12.

partners, and do something. I understand. Matthew, one phrase that

:39:13.:39:16.

resonated, from Crispin Blunt, the chair of the foreign select

:39:17.:39:21.

committee, he spoke about being relieved of our imperial intentions,

:39:22.:39:26.

as he suggested, it was not our fight to get involved in. "Ought". I

:39:27.:39:35.

agree with Alison entirely, this implies "Can" and there is a limit

:39:36.:39:38.

to what we can do. I think there was an understanding and there still is

:39:39.:39:43.

a limit to what we could do. It is probably necessary now that somebody

:39:44.:39:47.

wins in Aleppo. It cannot carry on like this. Perhaps we can do

:39:48.:39:53.

something to mitigate whatever harm Assad might do, perhaps we can do

:39:54.:39:57.

something to protect people but probably somebody has to win and on

:39:58.:40:02.

balance it is probably better that it is Bashir al-Assad at the moment.

:40:03.:40:08.

Even though our guest earlier, the refugee now working as a teaching

:40:09.:40:12.

assistant in a Scottish secondary school, he is clear that he thinks

:40:13.:40:15.

everyone might end up dead if this continues. I imagine that, whoever

:40:16.:40:22.

wins, a lot of people will end up dead. I don't think there is any

:40:23.:40:25.

sense in which anyone can be described as winning best. It is the

:40:26.:40:30.

most horrific situation. I know what you are trying to say but it is such

:40:31.:40:35.

a disastrous situation. I do not want to sound cross but it is war,

:40:36.:40:42.

ugly and bloody and rarely brings about neat resolutions. This is why

:40:43.:40:47.

Andrew Mitchell and I have said to the House, this is about

:40:48.:40:51.

international humanitarian law, the rules by which war is governed, any

:40:52.:40:58.

sense of protecting hospitals, doctors, vulnerable children, that's

:40:59.:41:01.

gone out of the window in this conflict so of course you are right,

:41:02.:41:07.

this is a step beyond. If we are to protect hospitals, doctors and

:41:08.:41:11.

refugees we probably have to protect Isis, whatever we call them,

:41:12.:41:16.

probably have to bomb the Russians, attacked Russian warplanes, we are

:41:17.:41:20.

not in a position to get into that. And sadly we are not in possession

:41:21.:41:25.

of enough time to get into this sort of observation, Matthew Parris,

:41:26.:41:26.

Alison McGovern, thank you both. We'll leave you with images

:41:27.:41:29.

from the city of Aleppo, where it seems President Assad's

:41:30.:41:33.

forces may soon be back Good evening, a mild start to

:41:34.:42:27.

Wednesday across the board, cloudy for much of England and Wales

:42:28.:42:31.

although that cloud should melt from the south with good spells of

:42:32.:42:33.

sunshine coming. It

:42:34.:42:34.

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