north and south yemen were once independent states but north became a republic in 1962 south yemen was established 5 years later they united in 1990 but tensions enjoyed 4 years later the south tried but failed to secede now they're trying again after 5 years of war started by a saudi arabia u.a.e. coalition that's try to prop up the internationally recognized yemeni government it had lost control of the capital sana'a to iran backed huth the fighters and al-qaeda and i saw were staging attacks the southern transitional council was set up in 2017 it's backed by the u.a.e. it's supposed to be part of a power sharing deal with yemen's government that now seems dead in the water. let's bring in our guests in new york we have al qaida solomon he's the director of the foreign affairs office of the southern transitional council in london elizabeth kandel senior research fellow of pembroke college at the university of oxford and in singapore abdullah abood he's a visiting professor for the middle east institute at the national university of singapore thank you all for joining us elizabeth if

your yemen relies on. imports to feed itself and so that would be a very concerning situation to that for us and then i just want to go back to talking about the cease fire that my organization isn't a political actor we don't take sides in this conflict and. what i can say to you with in september where there was a deescalation in the country we started to see significant benefits for the civilian population people have suffered for more than 5 years in this conflict many people have died people that were to systems the hospitals. the civilian infrastructure has been destroyed in the country and with the deescalation what we started to see is a reduction in the number of people that were being killed and injured we started to see. fewer attacks on hospitals and the things that people rely on to survive so for us it is essential when the whole world countries like mine i'm based in the u.k. now i can see how this virus is devastating my country even our prime minister is now in intensive care yemen will no

talk about partition we have as well to remember that yemen was q yemen not so long ago in 1900 i'm not so far away and so the reason. they read the political i would say tradition in terms of how the institutions are set up in the south so it's not like 1000 yemen is just creating something out of nothing and they reason long tradition that and again because yemen too is ringback very tribal i think that the. you know the those institutions these traditions that they have to be organized for doing certain tribal lines we help dramatically. the country they treat caves and always has been in yemen shoot you have a consensus within the tribes and to try to have the various provinces in the south and in the north to work together that with 2 against one another catherine let me just talk you there for a 2nd i apologize for interrupting unfortunate time as always is against us but i do i don't want you to go away stay there for the moment because i want to talk about the medical situation in yemen it was already one of the poorest countries in the middle east before the war broke out o

their children so you can sleep at night they have to come and puff piece year after year the war in yemen goes on with no apparent end in sight but who's really trying to stop it my guest this week here in munich is the country's foreign minister mohammad abdullah i'm dreaming of the many thousands of civilian casualties and the enormous human suffering all being from nothing. but all of them have to me welcome covert so thank you for having me you have much to say about the violence that the who feeds and human rights violations plans they've committed but you appear to have almost nothing to say about the shocking casualties and bombings by the saudi led coalition that's killed many thousands of your civilians why is that well that's not accurate actually you know. the war is likely not. even going to sugarcoat that for your for anyone a lot of civilians are dead yes this is this is shocking of and you hear the news and you know it's a big campaign but there's a difference between having human shields like that who these or so mistakes that happen in every conflict in every campaign and

a ceasefire and the yemen war the saudi led coalition announces a 2 week break to help peace efforts and the fight against coronavirus. i'm about to sin and this is all just here live from doha also coming up new york state reaches a grim new tally more cases than the whole of spain but president trump is optimistic. and soon will be over that curve will be over the top and will be headed in the right direction i feel strongly about the. a warning that the world faces its deepest recession ever because of the coronavirus pandemic with global trade likely to shrink by up to with. bowing out of the race us democratic presidential hopeful bernie sanders ends his bid for the white house. now we're going to get on to the latest in coronavirus in a moment but we're going to begin with the announcement of a cease fire right across yemen it came from the side united coalition that's been fighting hooty rebels since the war began in 2015 its juta last 2 weeks and it's going to come into force at noon thursday but in the past few hours have been reported attacks from both sides this is the res

mis management misgovernance in especially in south yemen south yemen has been less for going on 3 years 4 years now. unfortunately things have deteriorated as far as the humanitarian wise the situation as far as basic services are not. minimal or basic services are not being delivered. and little to no services at all this is not something that just happened but the prices have been still recent that sparked it. was the 1st of all call with 19 played a role in as far as a health risk that the government needs to take better precautions there has to be a very strong governance over there that has to be. we have to be able to deliver or to even. withstand something of that. big of a tragedy and the recent flash floods also that happened in aid in that war not met with any type of aid any delivering of services the past few days there's been a complete shutdown of electricity water services and sewage and these this is all a pileup so you're saying that it has risen on the parents of. one tree an accumulation of recent events including the covert 1000 crosses in all of course the ongoing w

no i think that yemen would not be ready you have to remember that there has been a war in yemen for the last 5 years the population is already extremely vulnerable you know some parts of the population are almost on the brink of starvation cholera epidemics fever and a coded outbreak here would come on top of all of those factors so it would be exceptionally hard for yemen to deal with such a situation. comes for displaced persons for example where care is active are of particular concern what i fit's have been made to stop the spread inside these camps. so i think that care along with other humanitarian actors throughout yemen we are working closely with the authorities with the u.n. to path common covert prevention measures so one of the things about yemen is interesting is that cholera has been a problem in yemen for the last 3 years but many of the prevention measures that are now global in worldwide washing your hands so full distancing good hygiene and sanitation practice are also applicable for covered so we are simply adapting our messages and alerting people what type of be

away and you left out how horrible let me put it on record this is horrible killing of civilians in yemen it's horrible we want to end this war killing even one life let alone a child which happened even by coalition let me finish so i go on with indiscriminate disproportionally is it ok this is a big campaign right and there's some mistakes and we approve of we know there's some business more than some when zuck i think the u.n. need to investigate more and we know it's you know this thousands and thousands of circling and dead if there's an airstrike a mistake everybody's reporting a part and they should report upon it we should hear about it but there's a lot of mistakes that the host is and i'm not here to talk about the who he's under coalitions having mistakes i want in this war i'm from san am from those territories my family says that we're sick of it and we need to end it and just blaming now the coalition for and for all these will not end the war we need to end it yes we did we want to stop the killing even understand our world but why do so many civilians have to die for the s

embassy in yemen. in 2003 during the iraq war he served his department spokesperson at the central command and in baghdad. he earned his bachelor degree in political science from the american university of beirut in his masters in ph d a political science from the new york and albany. nabeel is published articles and leadership involvement the arab world in journalism of middle eastern studies and international journal of middle east studies, try to get this straight if you can. when he was posted to yemen in 2004, i recall a conversation that i had at the time with a mutual friend of ours, ambassador to the united states. i told him that the u.s. was lucky to be able to send him out because of the fluent arabic and understanding of culture would smooth the way for his work in country. but he corrected me. he said oh no. the opposite is true. arab american diplomats in the region have a much harder time because everyone in the country expects the diplomat to do favors or make exceptions and they do not

special envoy to yemen has welcomed the announcement calling it a critical moment for yemen why has this update from sana'a. since the midnight people expected that the ceasefire will take place but according to news agencies that the ceasefire will hold its place by thursday's noon but so far more than 10 rays that have been carried out by saudi fighter jets in different regions of yemen especially in iran also in iran and inside saudi territories and also those inside the problems which is in the border with saudi arabia many people hope this cease fire will hold spirits place and also will. continue to support the peace talks that have been. that have been brokered by the united nations in order to bring both warring sides to the table to discuss how to resolve the differences peacefully and also to help the collapsing of care sector to confront confront also and tackle the. coronavirus in case it emerges in yemen especially that the minister of health during a session for the parliament he appealed to the wall that yemen yemen's health care sector has only $1500.00 beds available for

i will never forgive him for what he did to yemen, which is he handed the yemen files to saudi arabia and he facilitated the siege, the complete siege, and land and sea on yemen, which is starving yemeni children. and spreading disease. and going along with that, instead of realizing that this is not what the young people of yemen want. this is not the direction that yemen should be taking. so now we can blame trump all we want for all what he is doing, but the problem in yemen started with obama. i sometimes think of him as a trapeze artist, you know, who swings from one swing to catch another. you have to let go of one to catch the other, right? and you have to have the trust, the faith that you can leave and reach and grabbed onto the other bar. it's shifting, it's like that for u.s. policy. you have to drop the bar you been holding onto, which is all the bad guys who claim they're helping your against terrorism meanwhile, they are out creating terrorism, and jump onto a a nw way of dealing with the region, which is trusting the young people working with civil society. when the rea

he appealed to the wall that yemen yemen's health care sector has only $1500.00 beds available for 4 patients but he also put shocking figures that the in case the coronavirus millions in yemen at least 2x8ww yemenis could contracted the disease within just the span of 2 some weeks. well yemen was already one of the poorest countries in the middle east before the war broke out and now it has one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time more than 91000 yemenis have been killed since the fighting started more than 3000000 have been forcibly displaced since 2015 last year the united nations said that 10000000 yemenis are just one step away from famine more than 24000000 people are in need of international aid that's 80 percent of the population yemen has experienced the largest cholera epidemic in the world that have been more than a 1000000 cases since 2018 a quarter of them have been children ibrahim hatari is a yemen specialist he says it's unlikely the ceasefire will hold for long. this is more of a p.r. move for the public relations the consumption but we know the yemenis don

now when we talk about partition we have as well to remember that yemen was to yemen not so long ago in the 1990 s. i'm not so far away and so the reason. they resist political i would say tradition in terms of how the institutions are set up in the south so it's not like south in yemen is just creating something out of nothing they reason long tradition that and again because yemen too is very tribal i think that these you know the institution these traditions that they have to do to be organized following certain tribal lines we helped dramatically stabilize the country the trick is an always has been in yemen shoot you have a consensus within the tribes and to try to have the various provinces in the south and in the north to work together that with 2 against one another. china is claiming another milestone in its battle with corona virus it says all patients have now been discharged from hospitals in war on the original epicenter of the pandemic health officials also say they've now gone on the 11th straight day with no new deaths in china who haven't reported more than half of t

in yemen to prepare for this and eventually but we all know that after 5 years of war yemen's health system is decimated. health work of haven't been paid for years so yemen is ill equipped to deal with this pandemic and then on top of that you've got millions of yemenis who have already been weakened by hunger and disease diseases such as cholera and manu tristian as well as millions of displaced people who are living in these overcrowded terrible conditions without soaps sanitiser or ability to solve isolated so this is a very very worrying situation in yemen and if we don't act now it could be a catastrophe where appealing to the warring parties took all sides in this conflict to immediately implement a cease fire on the ground we need the fighting to stop it's hard enough. you know trying to prepare and cause combat the spread of this virus without fighting so that's our 1st appeal lay down your weapons and guns and come to gether and focus on combating this virus well jordan has started a force here's how a nationwide lockdown it's a government's latest effort to counter the spr

yemen records its 1st case leading to fears for how the country concurred. japan declares a state of emergency but will people stick to social distancing rules. in the wilds of oil producers agree on the biggest cut in production ever but not everyone is ready to turn the tap off. and on peter cymru this. minister wants his country's doping been removed while 6 members of barcelona's board removed themselves resign in protest the president calls the bottom that's coming up later this news hour. all the while it is now nearing 100000 deaths from coronavirus the united states has the highest number of infections and in new york now mass burials are taking place as morgues run out of space christensen reports. part island is new york city's potter's field where those with no family or means to arrange a funeral are laid to rest they used to bury 25 people a week here in the age of the coronavirus it's about that number every day counting the dead is now part of the daily routine for the gov 911 was supposed to be the darkest day in new york for a generation we

helping to star millions of people in yemen. well 1st of all let's be clear on something the united states will never admit to doing anything wrong that they will then push the blame to someone else i find it despicable you know they talk to us here in this country about our 2nd amendment and about us giving up our weapons at home and our guns and all this and yet the united states is the biggest seller of weapons throughout the world now i ask you this both are heinous if someone goes into a school and guns down children that is a heinous act it's horrifying but what's the difference between that if a missile goes off target and lands and kills 150 innocent civilians remember this in war the biggest still the biggest casualties are the innocent civilians not the people fighting the war not the soldiers on one side or the soldiers on another side it's innocent civilians and the united states is there feeding the saudis all these weapons to a country that killed adnan push ohi the reporter and we did nothing about it of food for

and in yemen not in book 3 but the. regions or earlier and i think this is like a premature station that doesn't. support in other areas of the i'm going to speculate and other places so basically we are playing with fire at the moment i'm not going to. come back to. the 7 transitional council says it continues to support the nationwide cease fire which is just been extended by a month a declaration of autonomy and a state of emergency adds to the uncertainty for yemenis people really suffered years of hunger and war and exam ryan al jazeera. catherine shocked him as head of the yemen department a next century foundation it's a peace building a think tank in london she says the declaration of self rule is a reflection of the political reality in yemen. this south yemen has ate for independence for decades now. and i think that it's actually becoming about just now only because. of the situation and the war in yemen since 2015 so they were able to realize their political ambition and so critical determination i think the

it's more of a reflection of the political reality in yemen. this south yemen has ached for independence for decades now. and i think that it's actually becoming about now only because of the of the situation and the war in yemen since 2015 so they were able to realize their political ambition and so critical determination and i think the main issue. may have at this moment has to do with the fact that in fact. the government heidi is in reality hasa lost whatever legitimacy you may have had at some point and we need to remember that the only legit in the city that he ever had was in 5 that were given by the international community because there was an understanding that if he wasn't actually supported by the international community then to fact. to suffer and she would fall onto the hersey movement and so had he was propped up and kept in power even though he was only that to tradition yemen into intern other political era following the last demise and so it's interesting to see that the f.t.c. has been the only institution so far there has be

parliament he appealed to the wall that yemen yemen's health care sector has only $1500.00 beds available for 4 patients but he also put shocking figures that the in case the coronavirus millions in yemen at least 2x8ww yemenis could contracted the disease within just the span of 2 some weeks. still ahead on al-jazeera the un conclude investigation into chemical attacks carried out against civilians in syria we'll tell you about their findings. how the weather remains dry across a good part of the arabian peninsula quite gusty there was this weather system makes its way through has introduced a fair amount of cloud and right into iran actually it's going to stay disturbed here as we go through the next day or 2 system what's a weather always a possibility snow live the showers and they stretch they way back up across the good parts of southern turkey want to see showers to just creeping into the levant as we go on into friday still quite a cane when the night is quite a keen wind there just pulling out of saudi arabia lifted dust and sand certainly a possibility a little the temperature h

this is not the direction yemen should be taking. though now we can blame trump all we want or all of what he's doing but the problem yemen started with obama and sometimes i think of him as a trapeze artist who swings from one swing to others. you have to let go of one to catch the other.and you have to have the trust, the faith that you can reach and reach and grab onto the other bar. and shifting is like that for us policy. you have to drop the bar you've been holding onto which is all the bad guys claim they are helping you against terrorism, meanwhile they are out creating terrorism. and jump on to a new way of dealing region. which is trusting the young people, working with civil society. one of the real positive stories, and you saw that when you came to me in morocco in the book, the civil society that i saw in morocco and this was in the mid-90s, really inspired me and when i went to yemen i have reflections of that civil society. that's what we should be encouraging and working with and look at the budgets and you'll see. >

force actions within yemen and in yemen not in look at me but or out there and. you know and i think this is like a premature station that doesn't. support in other areas of the ambulance specially in. other places so basically we are playing with fire that will. come back on. the 7 transitional council says it continues to support the nationwide cease fire which has just been extended by a month a declaration of autonomy and a state of emergency adds to the uncertainty for yemenis people ready saturday years of hunger and war and except ryan al jazeera. while trying is claiming another milestone in its battle with krone virus it says all patients are now being discharged from hospitals in hand the original at the center of the pandemic health officials also say they've now got 11 straight days with no new deaths in china were hung reported more than half of the country's total cases a nearly 85 percent of the national death toll so the residents are still being tested regularly despite a relaxation of lockdown rules going on goals are atlantans china is now look

parliament he appealed to the wall that yemen yemen's health care sector has only $1500.00 beds available for 4 patients but he also put shocking figures that the in case the coronavirus millions in yemen at least 2x8ww yemenis could contracted the disease within just the span of 2 some weeks. all right still ahead on al-jazeera the u.n. concludes it investigation into chemical attacks carried out against civilians in syria we'll tell you about their findings plus real bill it's a very dangerous thing for this country because they're cheaters. the idea of voting by mail in the u.s. is causing quite the debate. hello welcome saw the look at the international forecast for seeing some rather violent storms across the midwest recently this weather system has made its way through introduced some very strong winds and some rather wet weather thousands without power into parts of ohio we are going to see clear skies gradually coming back in behind it there's a long line of wetter weather pushing over towards the northeast and colder ahead of the west whether well time which is still going up to

most important movements in yemen has declared that they would accept this ceasefire or that the appeal of ceasefire and we have other arms movements in other parts of the world saying that they would be ready to abide by it all our special report of these and then voice everyone in the world are pushing to make sure that these it believes those lazy in the people at the action bringing together the parties to the conflict for the ceasefire to become a reality we have he should have seen syria and yemen in libya in very in many other parts of the world and i hope that these appeal will be heard then that people will understand that there is only one was that is necessary today it's a war against the vital you mention libya that there was already supposed to be a humanitarian poor in libya but one side has not been respecting it general half the in recent weeks seems to have intensified his campaign what's your message to him this is the moment to stop all military action this is the moment to concentrate on fighting cause 1000 we're already seeing coded 1000 cases in gulzar you've been

on to yemen yemen's who the rebels have told al jazeera they won't stop fighting while the country is under siege the spokesman says they have been continued land attacks and strikes and that's despite an announcement from the saudi u.a.e. military coalition of a 2 week unilateral ceasefire and they say it is to prevent a current of our break as laura but mainly now reports. by home in military operations in yemen. but in the days and even hours since will cease fire came into effect all too familiar scenes of violence across the country injured people taken to hospital after hutu happens shelled the port city of had 8 or more injuries to intense of the heavy shelling the who thing say the saudi u.a.e. coalition also bomb targets in el jefe had to and side. although the coalition called for a ceasefire spokesman told our just. so long as the siege is not lifted we have all right to use our missile systems our maritime air defenses including the drones who continue to target their military installations and industrial sites is nothing but a continuation of your coalition is just manipu

parliament he appealed to the wall that yemen yemen's health care sector has only $1500.00 beds available for 4 patients but he also put shocking figures that the in case the virus emerges in yemen at least 2x8ww yemenis could contracted the disease within just the span of 2 some weeks so it's a really dangerous and difficult situation in yemen in case such a global pandemic starts to spread out. live for us in sanaa thank you very much indeed. despite calls from the world health organization to stop politicizing the coronavirus pandemic the us president has once again criticized the actions of the w.h.o. donald trump says the w.h.o. has been unfair to the world by taking decisions that favored china on tuesday trying to threaten to cut funding to the agency while the number of deaths in the country's hardest hit states has continued to rise new york recorded its highest single day death toll the nearly 800 fatalities more than 6200 people have died fighting over 19 in new york mike hanna is live for us in washington d.c. the numbers still very bad coming out of new york and yet we still

week ceasefire comes into effect in yemen say they won't stop fighting while the country is still under siege. hello there i missed on the attack and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up iraq's political crisis deepens a 2nd prime minister designate withdraws his candidacy and the intelligence chief has now been asked to form a government. the coronavirus death toll in the u.s. to passes the house of spain even as the president continues his war of words with the world health organization. and hungry and hopeless the pandemic is impacting food supply for hundreds of millions of people who depend on aim. well we begin in yemen where a unilateral cease fire started 2 hours ago at midday local time the saudi u.a.e. coalition fighting with the rebels say is the truth the truce will last for 2 weeks now it's a fast time there's been a nationwide cease fire during 5 years of war the saudi state news agency reported the coalition wants to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus in yemen but the spokesman told us there they won't stop fighting unless the coalition lifts its siege on the

his wound it would be catastrophic if it catches hold here only half of yemen's medical facilities a functional the population is acutely moen nourished in about 80 percent to 20. a 1000000 people need aid to survive mostly national companies including teacher pac and union even donating tens of thousands of virus testing kits to yemen the shipment will arrive next week. a devastated health system and neglected infrastructure a symptoms of yemen's 5 years civil whether it will continue isn't a negotiation we've all noted continued violence where mr griffiths is doing is trying to get parties to agree to a nationwide. he's far as datable the schwarz's far those discussions are ongoing obviously challenge the circumstances. but that's that's what he's trying to do challenging circumstances prove that yemenis a resolution can't come soon enough shallop alice. to south africa now where more than 70000 soldiers nearly the entire standing army being deployed to enforce a locked arms they'll join the nearly 2300 personnel already on the streets for me to miller has more now from lichtenberg

is yemen is a yemen researcher at human rights watch she joins us on skype from gothenburg in sweden good to have you with us so how much of a threat 1st of all is coronavirus to yemen a country already racked by war we don't hear a lot about crime a virus there is it because it's it's not such a big threat or it's just under reported and under detected. i think everyone should start thinking with some sense that there are coronavirus cases in the end already even though both governments i'm not mentioning so but i think the likelihood that and our frequent happen in yemen is very very high given this you know catastrophic situation where a 1000000 subsidiary ends i think the news about the cease fire to present a very vital appear to nitty who are not is certainly for their parties to the critic but for millions of civilians who deserve and need protection. given that the kind of tsunami that will come and and you know this touring the country. right now i've been speaking to the officials who tell me they seen no point to a cease fire without a lifting of the blockade it would be m

i haul in military operations in yemen. but in the days and even now essentially ceasefire came into effect. all too familiar scene supply lines across the country injured people taken to hospital after hutu rebels shelled the port city of her data more injuries to entails of the heavy shelling the hostess say the saudi u.a.e. coalition also bomb targets in all just had to and cider although the coalition called for a cease fire spokesman told our just era they have not agreed to it so long as the siege is not lifted we have all right through our missile systems our maritime air defenses including the drones you can to your target their military installations and industrial site is nothing but a continuation of your the coalition is just manipulating words either a total cease and hold or still sees an end to the siege or the war will continue. the saudi vice defense minister howard dean solomon said on twitter that the kingdom is taking responsibility to bring stability to the region but some analysts believe we are in the