WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump will soon decide what the U.S. response will be to the
latest alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad regime.
The U.S. suspects a nerve agent was used.
Mr. Trump consulted his national security team and with allies today, all this following
a weekend strike on a Damascus suburb.
Special correspondent Jane Ferguson in Beirut begins our coverage.
And a warning: Images in this report will disturb many viewers.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It was an atrocious attack.
It was horrible.
JANE FERGUSON: In the Cabinet Room this morning, President Trump said there would be a price
to pay for Saturday's apparent chemical attack.
DONALD TRUMP: We will be making major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours.
JANE FERGUSON: Footage from the Damascus suburb of Duma shows humanity under siege.
Not even children were spared from the latest atrocity.
Asked if he would answer the attack with airstrikes, President Trump had this to say:
DONALD TRUMP: Nothing's off the table.
JANE FERGUSON: The U.S. denied responsibility for airstrikes that hit a Syrian base near
Homs early this morning.
Russia and Syria said Israel launched the strike.
An Israeli spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny it.
As news of the suspected gas attack spread yesterday, President Trump reacted on Twitter,
calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin by name for backing -- quote -- "animal Assad."
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the Russian military had found no
signs of chemicals in Duma.
SERGEI LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister (through translator): The Syrian government also spoke
about that, a serious provocation aimed at accusing Damascus once again for using chemical
poisonous substances against civilian population.
JANE FERGUSON: The images of the carnage in Duma were searing, but familiar.
Last April, a sarin gas attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria's north killed more
than 80 people.
President Trump ordered airstrikes on the base where the attack was launched.
In 2012, President Obama said any use of chemical weapons by Assad would be a red line for the
U.S.
But after a nerve gas attack in 2013, instead of launching airstrikes, Mr. Obama instead
struck a deal with Russia to move Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons, or so they
thought.
Since then, Assad's regime has doused rebel enclaves in chemicals dozens of times, often
using chlorine gas, which wasn't included in the 2013 deal.
As subsequent attacks have made clear, Syria didn't disclose its entire arsenal.
The latest assault comes at a pivotal moment.
Just last week, President Trump said he wanted to get out of Syria entirely.
DONALD TRUMP: I want to bring our troops back home.
It's very costly for our country and it helps other countries a hell of a lot more than
it helps us.
So, we're going to be making a decision.
JANE FERGUSON: Republican Senator John McCain warned against pulling out the roughly 2,000
U.S. troops, based largely in Syria's Northeast.
He tweeted that: "The president's pledge to withdraw from Syria has only emboldened Assad,
backed by Russia and Iran, to commit more war crimes in Duma."
At a U.N. Security Council meeting this afternoon, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley sharply condemned
the attack and the regime.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Who does this?
Only a monster does this.
We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction.
JANE FERGUSON: And the U.N. human rights chief had tough words, blasting world powers for
their -- quote -- "collective shrug" in the face of the Syrian regime's brutality.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jane Ferguson in Beirut¯
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I spoke with Jane Ferguson a short time ago.
Jane, President Trump today strongly suggesting that he is going to militarily strike Syria
for this latest chemical weapons attack.
How are those threats being heard where you are?
JANE FERGUSON: In the region, William, nobody's really responding definitively yet to those
words from President Trump.
And that's largely because no one knows yet what they are going to be responding to.
Of course, as you say, it sounds like a clear threat for military action, but it's not really
a specific one.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There was a counterstrike that happened earlier today, and many believe
that Israel perpetrated that counterstrike.
If it was Israel, this may not be in fact a retaliation to the chemical weapons attack.
It may be more about Israel's concern over Iran in Syria.
Is that right?
JANE FERGUSON: That's much more likely, William.
For the Israelis, their main concern for the last few years, basically since Iran has been
involved in this war, since 2013, when we started to see Hezbollah, the militant group
from here in Lebanon, move into Syria, the Israelis have been concerned about making
sure that they don't build their capacity just across the Israeli border into Syria.
Israel is worried about Iran building a permanent and complex military presence across the border,
and also that Iran could essentially get a land boundary going across the Middle East
from Iran through Iraq, through Syria and to Lebanon, to their satellite group Hezbollah.
They don't want them moving weapons¯
And we have seen these sorts of strikes from the Israelis.
Now, of course, they almost never publicly acknowledge that it's them, but these strikes
happening that are preventing weapons or weapons convoys getting to Hezbollah or trying to
limit and basically manage Iran's military capabilities across the border from Israel.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump back here in the U.S. seems to be giving two different
messages.
He's threatening strikes today against Syria, but yet, just last week, he was talking about
the need, that it's time for the U.S. to go home and leave Syria.
I'm just curious, in your reporting, what is your sense?
Do these retaliatory strikes against Assad actually do anything to deter his behavior?
JANE FERGUSON: It doesn't seem to have so far.
Of course, that strike a year ago now that President Trump authorized after the use of
sarin gas against the civilians by President Assad has clearly not deterred him from using
chemical weapons.
And we have seen chlorine gas used again and again.
But it's also important, William, to point out that Assad has also lived through President
Obama's red line years ago.
Of course, we hear these strong words coming out of the White House, but it doesn't appear
to be deterring President Assad, who is, of course, gaining the upper hand and has been
for years now.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, special correspondent Jane Ferguson, thank you very much.
JANE FERGUSON: Thank you.