60 Minutes, the most essential news. We begin with exclusive footage from our military correspondent, Evgeny Poddubny. The Russian flag over Abu Kamal, the last Syrian city freed from ISIS. The military operation is almost over. "Almost" because there hasn't been an official announcement yet. But it can happen any minute.
Once again, this exclusive footage was sent to us by our military correspondent, Evgeny Poddubny, practically a couple minutes ago. We saw the Syrian flag and the Russian flag. We hope we'll manage to reach Evgeny Poddubny who will tell us whether the two remaining percent are actually recaptured and if Syria is indeed finally freed from ISIS. Right now, the negotiations in Sochi have come to an end. Hosted by Putin, they welcomed the Presidents of Iran and Turkey, Rouhani and Erdogan. Right now, in Bocharov Ruchey, the political future of Syria is being formed. We'll talk about what it will look like in a couple of minutes. According to our information, the final joint conference of the leaders has just ended. We'll definitely show you the joint statement, which is obviously very important.
That's right. Now, the country that allegedly has no part in Syrian future as well as geopolitics in general. The US was gravely offended when they received no invitation to Sochi. However, according to notorious British scientists had they invited the American journalists, Syria wouldn't have been the central topic.
David Chalian, CNN political analyst: "Any Putin-Trump interactions are overshadowed by the Russian interference in the 2016 election and all the following investigations. Every time these two leaders have a conversation, we want to know one thing: were they discussing the elections, or is Donald Trump avoiding the topic, and simply not willing to discuss it with Putin".
Indeed, what can be more exciting? They seem to be focused on only one topic. Another example: on the anniversary of Trump's election, CNN gathered his most hardcore fans, that consider him not even a god but a much, excuse me, cooler entity.
Mark Lee: "I'm just your typical guy who's trying to make a living. And for years I've been pushed to the side. And then comes the President. I tell you what: if Jesus Christ descends from his cross and tells me Trump has ganged up with Russia I would tell him: "Wait a second, I'll have to ask my President if it's true".
Such blind faith, eh? In the meantime, Hillary Clinton, the defeated party, has engaged in some sort of religious activity as well. Her book about losing the elections entitled "What Happened" is literally saving human lives. Well, at least Hillary seems to think so.
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, 2009-2013: "And this one young woman came up to me and she said: I came here to say thank you. I really had a very hard time in the last year or two in my life. I didn't even think I wanted to keep living. But then I would see you and all of the stuff you were taking, and I thought to myself, you know, if she can do it, I can do it. And I just grabbed her hands. And by then I had tears in my eyes. Or, you know, a young man came to me and says: You gave me the courage to have a conversation with my parents about that I'm gay. And I'm like: How did it go? And he said: It went OK!"
We want to remind you, that the book touches on the Russian interference so we are directly relevant to these miracles. Finally, from all these petty squabbles we return back to geopolitics. The future of Syria and even the whole Middle East is being decided without the US. The US has never felt such a painful diplomatic blow in its recent history. Look closely at this photo. Assad is hugging Vladimir Putin. Using a trendy word, we can say that everyone was pretty hyped about the photo. It's our understanding that Donald Trump wishes he were Assad. And we have every reason to think so. A confirmation from a Fox News strategic analyst.
Ralph Peters, retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, Fox News strategic analyst: "Imagine their meeting: Russia, Turkey, and Iran. They didn't invite us. And it's despite the fact that we greatly contributed to the elimination of ISIS in Syria. Putin wants us out. Out of Syria. Out of Iraq. Out of the Middle East. Putin invited this murderous dictator, Bashar Assad. He invited him to Moscow so that Assad could kiss the ring of his godfather. President Trump must understand, as we all must understand: Putin is our enemy. He's already wronged us, and he'll do it again".
And that’s just how the cookie crumbles, eh. The Americans got offended that we decided everything without them. It just happened so. Accidentally almost, it seems.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, State Duma Committee Chairman: "You know what is happening? They are jealous. Can anyone remind me, when was the last time the US won a war?"
- Remember Bush saying "mission accomplished?
Nikonov: "You mean the first Gulf War? They didn’t even cross the Iraqi border back then. They required another war against Saddam Hussein. But if we take a look at the bigger picture, then, well, except for the intervention in Grenada, it's just WWII".
- What about Panama?
Nikonov: Yes, probably Panama as well. But if we mean on a larger scale, the US has never won a war. They've been waging a war in Afghanistan for 16 years now. It's been terrible and there's no end to it. There's no victory there. They obviously lost in Iraq. The US had to withdraw its troops. And then the majority of the country was occupied by ISIS. We saw no US victories in Syria as well. Their intervention in Libya led to a bloodbath and resulted in a costly defeat for the US.
So when Russia in such a short period of time, with its limited means managed to defeat ISIS and achieve its goals in this military campaign and remember there were two. The first: freeing Syria from ISIS terrorists. At the beginning of our engagement, 80% of Syrian territory belonged to the so-called Islamic State. And the second: eliminate the terrorists that came from Russia and from neighboring states. So that they don't return back to Russia.
This mission was pretty much accomplished as well. In two years, a very short time, with very limited resources, Russia managed to accomplish quite a bit. I'd like to remind you, the US spent $250 million in order to train opposition forces. They managed to train 60 rebel fighters, that fled at the first sight of battle. Against this background, Russia acted — again, possessing very limited resources, without spending much, using its Armed Forces very specifically, supporting the legal, internationally-recognized Syrian government that's represented in the UN, even though the US and its allies don't like it — managed to accomplish a strategic mission. Thanks to the Russian efforts, but also the Syrian Armed Forces, Iran, as well as a number of other forces that took part in the war, the Turkish forces joined during the later stages, and the other forces that were acting in the region, an actual international coalition was created not the one that the US made up of 65 states that no-one ever saw on the battlefield. The coalition managed to achieve an actual, powerful, military victory. One that the US hasn't achieved in a very long time.
We have a Newsweek analyst, Owen Matthews, here in our studio.
- Оwen, somehow your words came to my mind. You were saying we'd be cooperating with the US in Syria. You see how the things are turning out? A temper tantrum! America wasn't invited! But that was Fox, the Republicans. Let's see what the Democrats at CNN have to say. Regarding some photos that Trump wouldn't make:
"Putin is smiling, he didn't get bogged down in Syria as his adversaries thought in 2015. The war is over, even though only recently the civilians of Damascus were shelled with phosphorous bombs. We can't see Assad's face, but considering the fact that in the last 7 years it's only the second time he left Syria one can assume he's at least happy to travel. This Wednesday the leaders of Turkey, Iran, and Russia are meeting. And only one usual guest is going to be missing from the meetings and photos. That's the US. Because of Syria, Moscow and Washington have been at dagger's point for 6 years. And now Putin calls Trump ex post facto to inform him of the negotiations with Assad. The US position on Syria has always been active, but incompetent when it wasn't about ISIS. But now they have nowhere to state their position".
Owen Matthews, Newsweek analyst: "Well, let's clarify some points. First of all, according to the Pentagon estimates, Robert Gates mentioned it in February, 80% of Russian airstrikes didn't target ISIS forces, but instead hit the other opposition groups that were fighting against Assad. And the second important point is that many more strikes against ISIS were delivered by the US-led coalition. We are on the same team against ISIS. You like to brag and say: We defeated ISIS. It wasn’t you. It was us, Russia and the US, that defeated ISIS. And the ones fighting at the front-line were..."
Host: Why do you say "many more", do you have numbers?
Matthews: It was the Kurds. Just take a look at the Pentagon report."
Host: Well, Russia did deliver more strikes than the US.
Matthews: The US was only bombing ISIS. The most important thing you mentioned...
Host: Wait, you have a strange position. On the one hand you claim we were killing civilians, not ISIS. And on the other, that we together managed to defeat ISIS. You have to decide.
Matthews: We are not discussing the civilians yet. The ones that fought against ISIS were Russia and America. Together, let's not forget that. And then your footage. I get it, you really like the word "victory", and the image of big, powerful Russia. But actually... Yes, that's the image I'm talking about. The Russian flag, the Iranian one, and the one with a green Kalashnikov is Hezbollah. You are discussing who won in Syria, which country achieved “victory.” It's not Russia with its single squadron of 30 jets, but Iran. And actually, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Forces came in July 2015 to Moscow to reach an agreement on the terms of Russian interference in Syria.
Host: And actually...
Matthews: Qasem Soleimani came to Moscow. Thanks to Russia, Syria became a part of the Iranian sphere of influence. I don't know if it was your goal. But it wasn't a Russian victory. It was, first of all an Iranian victory. And when you speak about the victor-countries you get the result — the Russian flag next to the flags of Iran and Hezbollah".
Host: But is the meeting being held in Tehran or is it in Sochi? Could you please remind me? You are claiming Iran won the war, somebody else won it. Why is Hezbollah not hosting the meeting?
Nikonov: Well now, Owen, if we want to talk about the intensity of the airstrikes the US was primarily bombing the territory of Iraq, we are discussing Syria today. First of all. Secondly, the intensity of US airstrikes against ISIS even at the beginning of their engagement was 40 times lower than the intensity of airstrikes against Belgrade, during the US operation in Yugoslavia. Much lower than the intensity of any US operation conducted in the last decades.
Despite having fewer jets, Russia delivered ten times more airstrikes in Syria than the US did. It's hard to distinguish between moderate and radical ISIS fighters from above. We received information on where these hajis were hiding and then eliminated them. We didn't measure the level of their moderation. Because all of them are terrorists. And primarily...
And by the way, the regions under Free Syrian Army control that were allegedly bombed by Russia are now de-escalation zones. No airstrikes are delivered there. And these de-escalation zones were put into place by the Russian Federation. That's why Russia played the crucial role in achieving the victory in Syria, along with the Syrian Armed Forces, and Iran, that since the very beginning was acting consistently in contrast to the US and its allies, as an earnest fighter against international terrorism in this region. And the most consistent fighter against ISIS.
That's why, in this case we were on the side of all those forces that were consistent in their fight against ISIS and international terrorism. This policy will be continued. These forces will meet in Sochi in order to discuss the details of the Syrian truce.
