find the latest comment analysis and video demand and the latest on the death of king abdullah in saudi arabia. we are expecting his funeral to take place some time in the next hour and we will stay with that and bring you more as leaders around the world go to riyadh to pay tribute to him. ♪ boxes in and fight against terrorism. yemen is teetering on the brink of security, economic, and political collapse. it's inside story. >> hello, i am ray suarez. a collapsing economy, and it's latest golf just resigned.

it appears to be a pretty weak building block, but that's what it is. the united states is poured hundreds of millions of dollars into yemen, the next door have given some $4 billion the aid. yemen is exhibit a about what is hard about making peace in a rough neighborhood. split ethnically regionally and religiously, it's factions getting help from different countries with different interests in the outcome. countries that also happen to hate each other, yemen is poor, unstable, unsafe, a training ground for terrorists and is islamic fighters and it is pulling america into a conflict with no apparent end. the strategy of taking out terrorists that threaten us, is one that we have successfully pursued for years. and it is consistent with the approach i outlined earlier this year. to use force against anyone, who threatened america's

interests but to mobilize partners wherever possible, to address broader challenges to international order. >> that was the president's view on yemen just a few months ago, yemen is once again a challenge for the obama administration. >> al kade do's branch claims responsible for the attack that kills 12 people at charlie hebdo paris offices in early january. you yemen is teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state. hostile to the sunny run government, began an insurgency, it culminated with the takeover of the palace tuesday. among their dend mas greater houthis representation in government, situation highlighted significant regional problems the houthiss have the support and backing of shiite iran. while soonny giant saudi ayoub has funneled billions of dollars to this poor country

many the past three years. that conflict, the sectarian division a weak government and the splinters of the country, have allowed al quaida and the arabian peninsula, also known as aqap to flourish. the group has a history of striking at the united states, the u.s.s. coal bombing was 15 years ago. the u.s. has countered with an on going campaign of drone strikes and killed high value targets. paris attack by the kouachi brothers who reportedly trained at the camps camps in yemen demonstrate the group's range, while the situation in yemen continues the president and cabinet resigning on thursday, the united states is facing an alliance with a country, yes then once held up as a model of democracy, is an impoverish nation in political free fall in a very dangerous part of

the world. yemen was in the news the week before last, when it emerges that one of the gun paraded by pro that killed the staff trained for the operation with al quaida in the arabian peninsula. now the houthiss are taking big pieces of the territory, and the president was hacking on by a thread until this morning when it was announced he resigned, we will take a look inside this troubled one, a battlefield iran on one side, saudi arabia and the u.s. on the other, a scholar of the middle east institute from london, adam barron a visiting fellow on foreign relations and a yemen political analyst, and i will start with you, when in the course of just a fur hours the cap net resigns the prime minister delivers this news to the president, and the president resigns, who is running yemen.

>> no one, the houthies were running since september on the ground, and yemen has witness add huge vacuum, so this is not new. since september when the houthies took over the capitol, the government then resigned and it took two months until a new government was created and then after in knot of 2014, and then in desks december 18th, they got the approval from the parliament and now they have resigned. so they have not used to having official government there, as long as other nonofficial forms of power are in control of the situation what have you heard from earlier today? are the lights on? the power plants watching does water come out? >> surprisingly that is happening. it seems that a bunch of young youth are trying to arrange to a protest to go out tomorrow.

ed in south it appears to be dangerous. they are taking this as an opportunity and secede once and for all. although the chaos seems to be happening around the city, which used to be the capitol of the southern government that used to neighbor the northern yemen. you just heard, are we looking at returning to the old days before the 1990's when there were two yemen. >> i think it is very very hard to say anything to speak in concrete terms. in my opinion, this is facing the most uncertain period in the recent history, you have to look back to the overthrow in the 60's to look for something comparable. i think there's no question that there are plenty of actors across the country that are tries to capitalize, and that include the southern succession fist, they include the former he jet stream. they include the houthies as

well, obviously, but i think it's very uncertain, it is very hard to speak in concrete terms. >> do they run more of the country that the government did. >> i think it is important to remember that the houthies everything the areas outside of the country, where the houthies really run, they are running it in i guess cooperation with local tribal leaders. and then but at the same time it is very hard to speak of areas are the government truly is in control the central government although it doesn't actually control right now the government has held on to ties and a few other areas where progovernment sentiments is still strong. but i think really you have seen over the past three years years and then especially over the last few months, the vast failed estate your city has dissipated.

>> all over the world, why is it critical that it's happening in this place at this time? for policy makeners the united states? >> for united states, the principle problem has been a free range area where terror organize, planter errorist attacks and act independently without any sort of authority. prepared the american perspective we would like to see a government, that can assert itself authority throughout the country, and we can work in partnership with that government preventing these radical groups. >> didn't we have something like that? weren't we moving towards that for a couple of years? the news coming out of yemen was of a stabilizing security situation, a government that was acting more like a government and a lot of aid, where did it go. >> there's two things here first of all, we had a good working relationship with the former president, because he was trying to assert his

authority, we had a working relationship with the president who was doing the same thing. we want to work with the president of yemen. what we consider large amount of aid today are minuscule to what we used to give. since 2006, we have given perhaps $400 million in military aid to yemen to assist them. in 1970 fine, when there was a border dust up between north and south yemen, the united states provided in $1,979.480 million. to address that problem. our amount of money we give to these situations is limited and minimizing our influence. >> it sounds like a lot of money. >> $400 million for a country with the number of people of florida, sparsely populated a lot concentrated in a half dozen or so urban centers.

how much would sit taken. >> i don't think the united states can stabilize it. there is it is unwiser the the united states to get involved. they have to bring order to their own country. >> so now listening to that, history lesson, did the united states ever understand what it was getting into or what it was buying orr for that matter, did the saudi whose are giving far more? >> well, since 2011. >> let's say in recent pass where it is an important job for policy makers to try to have order. >> i think the problem sinister errorrism became such a huge focus, is that we see a shift a little bit in the way that americans approach dip lo t maic relationships.

rather than having traditional diplomas a lot is focused on terrorism. and then a rise in the drone program, and so right now because of terrorism, because of the houthis movement, because they lost their main ally, it seems like the americans have become very secluded. so i think they have a right to be skeptical in supporting these program, since 2011, the u.n. and several others have endorsed a national dialog conference that was supposed to carry from coyote into some sort of a federal state. what woe see today is that fated. yesterday, aunderstand nod he was returning to help implement the dialog, and wayewith can see is there's a huge discrepancy between what is happening on the ground and what the international community seems to support. and try to push forward as a solution to a broken yemen. >> before we go to a break when this kind of thing

happens, in an area of interest to the united states and the desk officer of responsibility, calls is there anybody on the end to pick up? is there anybody to talk to and say what's going on there? i think there are a lot of people to talk to, the question is who today do you have to talk to. we are in the position of having to be almost observers. woe have no cot, but we have real interest. >> what is life like in yemen? a place that is not well understood, our guests will taketous the streets villages and oil fields of this frac understander and unstable u.s. ally, stay with us. blood pressure blood pressure

>> you are watching inside story.

during the quick stories covering yemen, you can see plenty. but learn little. rocky mountainous visas air rad land, the beautiful world heritage site in the capitol. quite striking but not very informative. ya has life been like during this time. adam barron, you were the h the country recently, is there -- are there vegetables in the market, is there bread in the shops. do you have to use a currency other than the yemen so buy ba you need. >> i think -- i have lived during my time in yemeni have lived through multiple armed conflicts and overall, they are remarkly resilient people, every time you have fighting in one part of the capitol and then life would go on. as you would hear the sounds of shelling while you are essentially going to the super market. that being said, even if people are able to maintain to some extent their day-to-day lives the fact is the economy

has been in free fall for some time. and that you are seeing sort of this building result of the conflict, where foreign investment has all but dissipated. the tourism industry is something that once existed does not exist today. everybody if life goes on, the economic cost of this conflict, obviously, adds up. >> there's oil many the northern part of the country is it gets pumped and bought and sold? is it getting refines surrounding the palace. >> you are having a serious for some time, you have had almost weekly for not daily attacks on oil pipelines. indeed attacks on power lines which have left a serious state of almost unended blackouts for two to three years now. in addition, since the kidnapping of the presidential

aid, a few days ago, the oil companies most of the main oil and gas companieses the two southern promises have shut down all of their activities. so you have seen the economy increasingly grind to a halt on a even more severe level. >> are there parts of the country that have taken the brunt of this? if you are by the coast, can you get to the outside world and get things in and out or in a way that youn't if you are in the interior. >> in general, it's been hard for anyone to leave yemen in the past few years. visas are rarely issues. it is a long process, very few people are selected to leave the country, so you have a country where a majority of the population is in the youth category, they can't even leave. there are high scoring unemployment, and the only people hire willing the

houthies or al quaida. there are parts in yemen that are very very underdeveloped. there are people that are living in small huts, families of the size of tension people where they don't even have electricity or water, and then you have regions that is right on the coast, with people there have suffered worst poverty, and that's where the somali pie rated operates for a while. a lot of the fisherman were kid mapped and the government didn't bother to ask them. >> in situations like that people often take things into their own hans. to the north, saudi arabia you can there are islands just to the west, where there's fishing and there are other nearby countries that you can reach by boat, have people gotten desperate enough that they have to just get out of there? >> they want to go out there but the problem is these countries the gulf corporation companies you want to help them get out of the crisis but they don't want to aid

them by taking any employees because it feels like a responsibility today, given that all the terrorism stories that we see have to do with yemen. of course that's unfair because you are generalizing people into a stereotype. people like opportunities to work, but they can't find them. >> does that kind of social landscape, make the country even more dangerous when you are trying to wean people off of extremist groups in create stability so that they don't buy goods through them, by oil and heating and those kind of things from those guys? the bad guys in. >> well, clearly one reason why the united states is cared about yemen, is because it is in the state of chaos that has existed for many years now and when you have a situation where the government is replaced it resigns and there's no government, nobody is addressing those. people are just trying to

survive and they do desperate things and desperate people are what we are worried about. >> so you can pay a daily rate, and get fellas to get on the back of a truck with a machine gun now. you can find ready hands to do that because there's no regular paying work. >> i this i that's overstated. there's also a commitment to what they are trying to achieve. they are not all hired guns. the problem they represent the community, they have certain challenges that the houthiss are trying to respond to. the al quaida has an appeal to the population, although that does help in hiring getting people being able to pay them. >> high youth unemployment. >> absolutely, many reasons. >> today at the state department, a spokes woman insisted the united states supports the yemen government even as word was dribbling out of the country that the president the prime minister

and all the cabinet has resigned. the u.s. has put a lot of effort into the yemen basket but what happened now? stay with us.

>> we are back with inside

story on al jazeera america. ray suarez. the united states has been trying to build yemen up as a barrier to stop it from being a breeding ground and training ground for terrorist fighters. the president has resign wad is next for the united states and for yemen? still with us, a very at the middle east institute. a visiting fellow at the european council on foreign relations and a yemen political analyst, do you start from square juan? start from scratch, when somebody emerged as the new governing force. >> you have to. it is unfortunate, what is going on if you are a policy maker this is a nightmare, you have been, wondering to establish relationships. and now you have no idea what is going to happen use there is so many forces involved you

are starting a little below scratch. >> the houthies leaders have said hey, let's make a national governing council and yet, you have to put us on it too, does this rep an opening in something coming out of the unstable situation in the country right now? i think it remains unclear you have reports that one houthis leader has afoundsed there would be a governing council, but then he has since denied that, so it is unclear what the plans are. there is going to be an emergency meeting on sunday, which may very well end up rejecting the president's resignation which would throw everything into a further questions. with yemen it is key to remember what happens behind the scenes tends tock more important than what is in front of us now. sootless likely a fleury of negotiations that will hopefully end to some sort of order, but it remains very unclear what that new order her be and how it will shape

up. a lot of the press accounts talk about this tug of war between tehran, when you are a yemen on the ground, in a major town in sen nigh, do you have a sense of this tug of war? do you realize there are iranians who want the country to one way, and the saudis that want it to go another way, and u.s. interests that are making themselves, or are you just trying to get along. >> iran is a new player on the scene, there is rhetoric that was spreading for the first time ever, where a yemen would ask the other are you sunni or shia, the term was not something we would use normally. and then you have transformed transformed into a new form of what i call neozadiasm, which is what the houthiss are

representing, for once ever since 2011 with the absence of a strong government, you have a rhetoric going on about who are you, who are you with, we are looking for outside powers to give us a stronger sense of identity, rather than looking at the government. and so you start hearing people ask so are you sunni, or are you shiite, how do you pray, and this kind of dialog is really a dialog that divides yemen against each other. which is why when the national dialog conference was talking about creating a federal yemen, they divided it theoretically into five regions and then six, and then two, and they couldn't decide on the end how p regions it would be, but this kind of rhetoric what it does is when you create a federal state, it won't last as one country. you will find the difference so from the south they will point at the north, which is what is happening right now. where they are pointing at each other and trying to take each other down for geographic

differences rather than ideological ones. >> the split is said to be about 2 to 1, does the same kind of hostility we see exist between the two communities. >> i think among the normal general population you don't see that, but there's a rise that is taking place. i have never seen that before, and the arabian peninsula, that and then you see targeted by al quaida for a long time, not stepping back and really attacking al quaida and not allowing them to take over what they consider a yemen religion. >> adam, when somebody takes over, whoever that, a general, a politician, somebodien steps into those shoes are there working institutions institutions that will at least give someone a shot at operating the country? i think in some sense there

are, you still have a foreign pin industry that works. you still have government bureaucrats that being said, the military has in large part, large parts of the military have effectively disintegrated. in question about it, and no question that whoever ends up leading if there is one person leading one group, in the next few days will have their work cut out for them, it isn't just a matter of the economy it isn't just resoaring order, it isn't just a matter of building up the government, it is a fact restoring the idea that there is a yemen, and there's that the state exists the fact is what is needed right now is not a list of policies or tasks, whoever ends up being leading yemen in the next week or two weeks truly has the difficult task of resoaring the belief in the fact that there is a yemen state and that will be no

easy task. >> does the united states dwell, tread water, wait to see? or do things like drone strikes continue a pace even while there is no government. >> i would think the drone strikes will continue, whether it's a good idea or not, they will continue. we cannot influence the events that are going to take place. the united states is truly a outside player, and therefore, we have a wait and see for the general policy. but we still maintain our concern. >> thank you all for joining me today. that brings us to the end of this edition, watch us on facebook, join us on twitter i'm@ray suarez muse, and in washington, ray suarez.

saudi arabia's king abdullah has died. and a new king is solomon and promising continuity and calling for unity and solidarity in the muslim world. ♪ live from doha also coming up thailand's parliament votes to impeach foreign minister for her role in a controversial rice subsidy program. and turning a new page in u.s. cuba relations historic talks