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U.S. Military Air Strike In Syria; Senators In Closed Briefing On Syria; Possible Russian Involvement In Syria; U.N. Security Council Meeting; Haley Speaks at U.N. Aired 1:00-1:30p ET

Aired April 07, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 7:00 p.m. in Stockholm, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, breaking news. There are new developments in Syria right now following that U.S. military air strike. President Trump ordered the strike in response to the horrific chemical weapons attack just a little while ago. The White House released this photo of the president consulting with his national security team after the strike was launched. And, right now, members of the Senate are getting a closed door briefing on Syria.

The attack is the first direct military action by the United States against the regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria's six-year civil war. The U.S. launched 59 tomahawk cruise missiles at an air field in Syria. It's believed to be the base where Syria launched this week's horrific chemical weapons attack.

Let's go right to our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, we're hearing the U.S. military is now looking at new evidence potentially showing Russia was complicit. What are you learning?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PEBNTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we have just concluded what is known as a background briefing here at the Pentagon. Senior officials coming out to brief reporters not allowing their names to be used because they said they wanted to offer as much detail as they could, so we can't tell you who they are.

But these two senior officials had a good deal of new information and a lot of it did center on Russian involvement. Here is what we know. They now are saying that they will investigate any credible claims of Russian complicity in the nerve agent attack in Idlib Province. In other words, the event that set all of this off.

They don't know, at this point, if the Russians were involved, how involved they were, what the Russians knew. But they are now telling us there was a Russian aviation unit at the base that the U.S. struck last night and those Russian pilots would have known about every mission flying out of that base and one of those missions was the chemical mission that went to attack in Idlib.

So, that is one piece of evidence. How much that they want to find out? How much did the Russians there know -- what did they know about it? What did they about what the Syrians were up to? One of these officials, U.S. officials, now telling us that the U.S. military will, quote, more aggressively look at whether there is now a full-blown Syrian chemical weapons program.

What they are saying is that they believed that the Russians, back in around 2013 or so, when that whole program was going on to have the Syrian regime get rid of its chemical weapons and that they can't trust the Russians now because of these recent events.

But this gets complicated. They're saying they believe the Russians. The U.S. intelligence community has long said that Assad may have held onto a small portion of his chemical weapons, could always make more. And that he had the expertise, the technical expertise, in the country to do that.

So, they're saying that they are going to aggressively investigate it, but this is something that has been out there for some time. We have seen chemical after chemical attack in Syria for years now.

So, this is nothing new. Maybe more attention is being paid but people knew it was out there. There's no question about that.

One of the big elements that they want to find out revolves around one single aircraft. On the day of the attack, you had the initial detonation of this chemical bomb. Then people rapidly get to a hospital, they try and get medical care.

Some hours after people are at the hospital, another weapon drops from an airplane overhead. The belief is that airplane was trying to destroy evidence at the hospital of a chemical attack. Who was flying that airplane?

What we were told in this briefing is that right now the Pentagon does not know if that airplane that might have been trying to destroy evidence at the hospital and kill even more people, it was Russian made. But was it being flown by Syrians or was it being flown indeed by the Russians? There's only two choices in Syria. It's either the regime or the Russians.

All of this now opening the door in a complex fashion to trying to find out how involved the Russians really were in what was going on and this, sort of, new thing about is there really a Syrian chemical weapons program?

I think it is fair to say we have seen so many of these chemical attacks, whether it's chlorine or nerve agent, before. This was not a secret to the world, but it looks now like the Trump administration wants to take a closer look at it -- Wolf.

[13:05:09] BLITZER: Well, if there is evidence of direct Russian involvement in this chemical -- in this this gas attack against these civilians, that will significantly escalate the tension, not only between the U.S. and the Bashar Al Assad regime, but with Russia itself. It's going to seriously complicate this relationship.

STARR: Well, I think that is exactly why, so far, we are only seeing these so-called background briefings. We are seeing these statements. I think it is fair to say the Trump administration perhaps not ready yet to put its name to it.

We are just hours into this situation of looking at potential Russian involvement. What the officials kept saying to the reporters in the room was if we find credible evidence, then we will investigate it.

But, clearly, they have some reason to believe that this is a matter worth investigating. This is not something that is off the table, that is beyond the logical reason to go take a look at it. The door is very much open now to looking at how much the Russians knew, simply from the standpoint of base level. They were at the base. They were at the base that was attacked. There was a Russian helicopter unit. Those people would have known what was going on there.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr with new information at the Pentagon, the headline to U.S. military is looking into any -- for any evidence that the Russian government was complicit in this chemical weapons' attack. Barbara, we'll get back to you.

The U.S. air strike on Syria certainly marks a very dramatic shift by President Trump and his administration. Just earlier in the week, they had signaled that removing the Syrian leader, Bashar Al Assad, from power was not necessarily a priority.

Let's go to our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's down in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach with the president.

Jeff, are you hearing anything from the president today? We are getting word that Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, may be holding a briefing very soon.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He is indeed, Wolf. Sean Spicer is here near Mar-a-Lago and he maybe be briefing -- in fact, he will be briefing reporters shortly.

But before he begins that, we are talking to administration officials this morning who are saying this. They said that they are not as interested in regime change but changing the actions of Bashar Al Assad. We'll see if that actually happens there.

But, Wolf, I think just taking a step back here to take size of how abrupt and swift this development was this week, it started at 10:30 Tuesday morning when the president saw those images coming in from Syria. He ordered, you know, a few actions and options from his national security team on Wednesday.

Again, we, of course, heard his remarks in the rose garden, you know, saying that he was deeply moved and affected by this. But, Wolf, we're also learning today, as the president was flying down here to Florida, aboard his plane, Air Force One around 1:00 yesterday or so, he had a security meeting aboard Air Force One to begin talking about these options, these strategies. Shortly after that, he came back to the press cabin where I was and a few reporters asked him about Assad, and he said something had to happen. Well, of course, indeed, he had the options on the table, at that point.

And, last night, he delivered the final -- he made the final decision around 4:00 or so before that dinner with the president of China, Wolf.

So, we have here one foreign policy situation playing out as he was preparing to meet with, you know, the other leader of a world super power here. But this is something that the president did not discuss this morning when he was sitting down for a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping. This is what he said when asked about Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President what's the end goal with the strikes on Syria?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, Wolf, you can hear the president there not answering questions a short time ago at Mar-a-Lago about Syria here. He's letting the actions last evening speak for themselves here.

But, quite frankly, Wolf, there are questions from even lawmakers and others who applauded the president for his action last evening, for him to spell out more of a concrete strategy with Syria going forward here. So, as we await --

BLITZER: Jeff, I'm going to interrupt for a moment. Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, is briefing reporters.

SEAN SPICER, U.S. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't -- OK -- do you want -- that -- do you understand that -- what's that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you like to do (INAUDIBLE)?

SPICER: Off. It's off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) camera?

SPICER: Yes, off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lock the camera here.

SPICER: Off. Yes, off. Everything is off.

I just -- OK, let me just -- I've got Michael Anton here with the National Security Committee. I think with respect to President Xi's visit, we intend to have a readout later. Hopefully, we can -- we'll gather with the pool, at the very least. We'll see what the day -- the rest of the day looks like. And I'll try to get back over here as well. But we'll continue to update that.

[13:10:10] I just wanted to provide a little bit of a tick tock on the president's action. I know there's been a lot of interest in this and then we can take a few questions. But with respect to the action the president took in Syria, and the questions regarding the timeline, let me just, kind of, walk you through it. On Tuesday, at about 10:30 in the morning, the president --

BLITZER: Jeff, it's a little awkward. Apparently, he does not want this briefing to be on camera. As a result, they've told the pool cameras there at the briefing to get off of him. We're hearing his audio, but I take it this has now been designed as an off-camera briefing. In other words, it's on the record but we're not allowed to shoot it? Is that right?

ZELENY: Wolf, that is our understanding. And just to give you a bit of a sense of location in place here. We're down the road a bit from Mar-a-Lago at the White House work space, the filing center where all reporters are working here.

And Sean Spicer was doing an interview with Fox News earlier on camera. And several reporters, including CNN, Jim Acosta and myself here, asked Sean Spicer, you know, to answer questions on camera. They said they would do a briefing but preferred to be off camera for some reason here. Wolf, they are wanting the president's words from last night to, you know, be the -- you know, the main message of this administration here.

But a bit unusual, given, you know, the day after, you know, a major military operation, the first in this administration here, to not have more on-camera briefings here. Apologies for being, sort of, weeds with our viewers here.

But Sean Spicer is now talking to reporters, taking some of those questions. And, really, Wolf, what he's doing is walking through a timeline, that I just laid out for you a second ago, of the last few days or so here that led up to this decision last evening here at Mar- a-Lago.

BLITZER: All right, a little awkward moment. But it's inside baseball, as far as T.V. coverage of the Sean Spicer briefing is concerned. We'll get back to you. Jeff Zeleny is down in Palm Beach, Florida.

The United States informed Russia before launching the tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria, about an hour before. Russia has reacted quickly with more than just heated words.

Let's go to Moscow. Paula Newton is on the scene for us. Paula, first of all, what is Russia saying about the U.S. air strike and perhaps even more importantly what are they doing?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll get to what we're doing first. They suspended that air safety communication. That's the communication that make sure that U.S. and Russia don't have a collision in the skies over Syria. But on top of that, they are sending a war ship out back to the sea off the coast of Syria. And they are saying that they are building up their anti-missile defenses.

What does all that mean? At this point, it hadn't meant much, Wolf, until that explosive news, really, from Barbara Starr. And when we get to the news about -- going back to what Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, said, you know, Russia was either complicit or incompetent.

And it seems to me, in speaking with Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, is saying, look, we're going to try to find out from Russia, if they did use chemical weapons, how come you didn't know that they had them or did you know that they had them and you knew they were going to use them?

We, obviously, are just starting to learn this, Wolf, and we'll get reaction to you as quickly as we can.

The main problem here is that there is no arbiter. There is no referee that is going to decide this. Russia continually says that, look, you have no evidence and you can't prove that even Syria was -- the Syrian government was the perpetrator of that attack.

I want you to listen now to the deputy U.N. envoy for Russia, speaking just a few moments ago at the U.N. Security Council meeting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR SAFRONKOV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. (translator): We describe that attack as a fragrant violation of international law and an act of aggression. We strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the U.S. The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, Mr. Safronkov did more than that. He seemed to be taunting Nikki Haley, the U.S. representative there, by saying, we're not going to holdup any for photos. But what about the air strikes and what they have -- your air strikes and what they've done to children in Mosul?

And here's the interesting part, Wolf. He just said that, look, we're not the ones that are afraid of an independent investigation to this chemical attack. You are afraid. The United States is afraid of an independent investigation into this attack.

Wolf, suffice to say that once Russia learns the news of what the Pentagon is claiming that they may or may not know about this attack, we will, once again, have a fairly strong reaction from Russia.

BLITZER: Yes, this tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia looks like it's going to get a whole lot worse. [13:15:00] Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the United

Nations, is speaking at the U.N. Security Council on this strike. Let's listen.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Bashar al Assad have terrorized its own people. It has murdered hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. It has broken international law and violated numerous U.N. resolutions. It has committed criminal acts that shocked the conscience of all humanity.

The international community has repeatedly expressed its outrage. The joint investigative mechanism has found beyond any doubt that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons against its own people multiple times.

On Tuesday, the Assad regime launched yet another chemical attack on civilians murdering innocent men, women, and children in the most gruesome way. Assad did this because he thought he could get away with it. He thought he could get away with it because he knew Russia would have his back. That changed last night.

As I warned on Wednesday, when the international community consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action. The indiscriminate use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians is one of those times. The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is in our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons.

Our military destroyed the air field from which this week's chemical strike took place. We were fully justified in doing so. The moral stain of the Assad regime could no longer go unanswered. His crimes against humanity could no longer be met with empty words. It was time to say enough. But not only say it, it was time to act. Bashar al Assad must never use chemical weapons again, ever.

Now, while the Syrian regime is responsible for the chemical weapons attack, it is not the only guilty party. The Iranian government bears a heavy responsibility. It has propped up and shielded Syria's brutal dictator for years. Iran continues to play a role in the bloodshed in Syria.

The Russian government also bears considerable responsibility. Every time Assad has crossed the line of human decency, Russia has stood beside him. We had hoped the Security Council would move forward, but Russia made it known, as it has done seven times before, that it would use its veto once again covering up for the Assad regime. Further delay by compromising with Russia for a watered down resolution would have only strengthened Assad. Strengthening Assad will only lead to more murders. We were not going to allow that.

But it's even more than that. Russia's supposed to be a guarantor of the removal of chemical weapons from Syria. Think about that. Russia is supposed to have removed all the chemical weapons from Syria. But obviously that has not happened, as innocent Syrians continue to be murdered in chemical attacks. Let's think about the possible reasons for Russia's failure. It could

be that Russia is knowingly allowing chemical weapons to remain in Syria. It could be that Russia has been incompetent in its efforts to remove the chemical weapons. Or it could be that the Assad regime is playing the Russians for fools, telling them that there are no chemical weapons, all the while stockpiling them on their bases.

The world is waiting for the Russian government to act responsibly in Syria. The world is waiting for Russia to reconsider its misplaced alliance with Bashar Assad. The United States will no longer wait for Assad to use chemical weapons without any consequences. Those days are over.

But now we must move to a new phase, a drive toward a political solution to this horrific conflict. We expect the Syrian regime and its allies to take the U.N. political process seriously, something they have not done up until this point. We expect Russia and Iran to hold their ally accountable and abide by the terms of the cease-fire. We expect this council to speak loudly and forcefully when the regime or its allies undermine the political process and countless of our own resolutions.

[13:20:05] The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more. But we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilized nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution.

Thank you.

I will now resume my function as the president of the council. And I give the floor to the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic.

BLITZER: All right, so there you heard the United States ambassador to the United Nations Security - well, actually, let's listen in. This is the Syrian representative to the United Nations speaking before the Security Council.

BASHAR JAAFAN, SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (through translator): That joined us in calling for the convening of this urgent meeting.

I have a question at the very outset to the undersecretary general who stated that Syrian Arab Republic perpetrated an act of aggression without defining that act by the terms of that charter of the United Nations. The United States at 3:42, at dawn today, April 7, 2017, waged a barbaric, flagrant act of aggression against a base of the Syrian Arab air force in the central area of the country using a number of missiles which led to a number of mortars, many injured, including women and children, and wide ranging material damage.

This treacherous act of aggression is a great violation of the charter of the United Nations, as well as all international norms and laws. The United States attempted to justify it with empty pretexts, fabricated arguments claiming that the Syrian Arab army had used chemical weapons in (INAUDIBLE) without genuine knowledge of what happened, without identifying who was responsible. The very same pretext shouted out by terrorist organizations, as well as their handlers in Washington, (INAUDIBLE), Tel Aviv, London and Paris, as well as their media. The Syrian Arab Republic has stressed that the Syrian Arab army does not have chemical weapons in the first place. And that it would never use such weapons in any of its operations against armed terrorist groups. That it condemns the use of such weapons as being unjustified under any conditions.

Let me stress that it is well known that those weapons have been used and stockpiled in many parts of Syria by terrorist armed organizations in cooperation or rather with a wink and a nudge by some ruling regimes in the region and outside, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some European states. they completely ignore all the facts and documented information on the use of chemical weapons by terrorists in many parts of the Syrian Arab Republic.

This aggression would surely send erroneous messages to those terrorist groups, involving them to use chemical weapons in the future, and to continue perpetrating terrorist acts against the Syrian civilians. Jabhat al-Nusra, and ISIL, both terrorist organizations, and associated terrorist organizations, following this aggression, did wage many attacks on many parts of Syria, the Syrian Arab army and its allies in the war against terrorism, confronting them despite desperate attempts to support them.

The American aggression is under this umbrella. This condemnable aggression is a grave extrapolation of the same erroneous American strategy that began six years ago, one of providing all forms of assistance to what the United States called moderate arm opposition groups. This strategy harms counterterrorism by the Syrian Arab army and its partners and makes the United States of America a partner of ISIL and Jebhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups that since day one of the unjust war against Syria have attacked army positions and military bases, as well as the infrastructure.

[13:25:22] Let me recall in this council that the United States of America leads a purported alliance against ISIL. However, the real achievements of that coalition is to kill civilians and to strike at infrastructure in Syria. Its real objective is to weaken the Syrian Arab army and its allies when confronting terrorist groups. In this regard, we see the air strike by the aircraft of this coalition illegally, against the Syrian Arab army in the (INAUDIBLE), in the city of (INAUDIBLE) on 17 - September 2017 (ph) in an attempt to protect ISIL elements falling between Syrian and Iraqi territory and opening a corridor for them.

Today's aggression aimed at saving the Jabhat al-Nusra following the grave damage that was done to them by the Syrian Arab army and its allies in the center of the country following their attack on cities and peaceful villages in the region.

Let me also stress that media reports tell us that the U.S. Congress, some time ago, approved a law allowing the U.S. administration to send manpads (ph) to arm (ph) terrorist groups in Syria. We have learned only two days ago in this very council that these colonialists, permanent member states in the Security Council, that three colonialists have a renewed appetite to renew their lies and their stories that have been spread by the United States and the United Kingdom 14 years ago in this very hall to justify the destruction and occupation of Iraq. Using a major lie being WMDs, perhaps history has come full circle now in a regrettable scenario.

When we saw Secretary of State Colin Powell at the time trying to delude the international community and the United Nations to justify the aggression of his country against Iraq by talking about highly credible information. Today, the United States of America, in its policy, in an attempt to justify its aggression against Syria, is using fabricated information provided by the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists. This aggression incontravertably (ph) proves that Syria has been correct. That successive American administrations will not change their (INAUDIBLE) policies, which is the target states, to make people kneel to their will and spread (INAUDIBLE) around the world.

International public opinion, the people of the free world have no doubt that the successive United States, U.K. and French administrations for decades have not cared for democracy or freedom or human rights. Indeed, let alone the well-being of peoples or their security and stability. These are just pretext to wage war, to occupant other states, to divide them, to control their wealth and energy resources. What is truly disgusting today is that these governments that supported the Wahhabi thinking, the terrorist extremist ideology of the (INAUDIBLE) entity since its creation is today orchestrating terrorism and investing in it without any care for the lives of people, even their own people, when terrorism reached their own -

BLITZER: You've been listening to the deputy Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, (INAUDIBLE). He's speaking right now. A very, very different assessment, clearly, than what the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, just reported and earlier the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Security Council.

Lots to unpack right now. I want to bring in our panel of experts.

Joining us, our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, CNN political analyst David Gregory, CNN military and diplomatic analyst, former State Department and Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby. Also the former U.S. congresswoman, Jane Harmon, now director and president and CEO of the Wilson Center here in Washington.

And, Jim Sciutto, let me get to Nikki Haley first because she was very precise. She went after the Iranian support for the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad. She went after the Russian support and she said the world is waiting for the Russian government to act responsibly. This comes after Barbara Starr's reporting a little while ago that the Pentagon is now investigating possible Russian involvement in that initial chemical attack that killed so many civilians, including kids.

[13:30:12] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And Ambassador Haley also held out the prospect of further