President Trump has claimed that Iran is the world’s “leading state sponsor of terror”. But is that fair? Before he became president, Trump said the “world’s biggest funder of terrorism” was Saudi Arabia – not Iran. So is his latest claim is just political rhetoric?
President Assad’s government has been accused of launching a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian town of Douma. But Russia claims the attack was faked by Britain and anti-Assad rebels. FactCheck examines the evidence.
Gary Gibbon
Theresa May is pushing back against the relatively new convention that governments should always ask Parliament before military action. Jeremy Corbyn wants to go further and make that convention a law.
Gary Gibbon
Parliament could end up with three debates on Syria and related matters under plans being discussed behind the scenes in Westminster. The Speaker received so many requests for emergency debates that he is said by some to be pondering granting two of them. Some speculate that the government could then add its own debate in…
International Editor Lindsey Hilsum on what the airstrikes mean for international relations with Russia.
Earlier I spoke to Former Russian General, Evgeny Buzhinskiy. He was closely involved in Russian – NATO relations and is now Chairman of the international non-proliferation organisation, the PIR Centre.I began by asking him if he thought we’ll see some military action by Russia in retaliation to airstrikes in Syria.
Diplomatically, one of the impacts of the air strikes will be on the further deterioration of the relationship between Moscow and the West. The arguments over what happened in Douma a week ago and the threats of retaliation by Russia mean that maybe President Trump wasn’t exaggerating when he tweeted that the US relationship with…
It’s thirty six hours since the missiles were aimed at targets in Syria. Today the diplomatic battle returned to centre stage. The Foreign Secretary says it’s been important to show the world that the use of chemical weapons is intolerable, but Boris Johnson admits there’s precious little the Government can do about the humanitarian disaster…
The Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has warned that the latest military action risked “dangerous escalation”, insisting UK foreign policy should be set by parliament. SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald discusses.
The Pentagon said the strikes were designed to “cripple Syria’s ability to use chemical weapons in the future” – calling the operation “precise, overwhelming and effective”. President Trump also tweeted the words Mission Accomplished, which might conjure up some unfortunate connotations and then later added, for good measure, the USA is still locked and loaded.
Joining us now from Hertfordshire is the Justice secretary David Gauke.
The Government has already published the detailed legal advice justifying the airstrikes on Syria. This after the Prime Minister defended going ahead without seeking Parliament’s backing. Mrs May held telephone talks with Presidents Trump and Macron this afternoon – with all three leaders hailing the joint bombing campaign as a “success”. A warning, there are some…
British-Syrian journalist Danny Makki, in Damascus speaks about what it was like in the city last night.
105 missiles aimed at three targets: a military tight rope. Enough to send a message to Syria. Not enough to provoke the Russians. Theresa May declared chemical weapons must not become normalised. Downing Street later added the airstrikes met international laws on humanitarian grounds – although Jeremy Corbyn called them ‘legally questionable’. The attacks began…
I’m joined by Karin Von Hippel who leads the defence and security think tank, the Royal United Services Institute.