>> truck strikes houthis fighters position in yemen reportedly arrives. ♪ ♪ hello and welcome to al jazeera. the french prosecute ever says the crash of the german wings plain was a deliberate act as relatives arrive at the scene. nigerians are voting in elections soon, but how has the fall in all crisis protected ordinary people. we will tell you what they

say. >> and is it time to evented a century's old tradition. where whale meat is still on the menu. yemen's embattled president has left the country the t.v. say -- and travel to egypt to attend an arab league meeting on sunday. follows air strikes by saudi led coalition on houthis targets in yemen. popular protests have continued.

mrs. a decent scene which is under houthis control. houthis supporters there marched to protest against the strikes. saudi arabia says it has launched the air strikes with the aim of reversing the houthis coupe and destroying the legitimacy. >> abide by this process and become legitimate in yemen politics, or they will not -- they certainly will not be allowed to take over the country. >> operation decisive storm started in the early hours of thursday, saudi arabia said it has launched air strikes against the houthis rebels. with the aim of reversing the houthis coupe and resoaring legitimacy in yemen. reports suggest 100 deaths from saudi arabia and the gulf coalition. >> they have only targeted houthis positions in strategic locations around the country. they say they want to restore the governments at least four other gulf nations have joined the campaign. the united arab emirates say

they will send fighter jets for this purpose. egypt has also expressed it's eagerness to join. it has triggered fears but it might be trying to spread it's influence across the region. the government has strongly criticized the air strikes in yemen. and the houthies say civilians were killed. it is negligence for all mill fair action to end as long as possible. towards reaching a solution.

>> until they fled to the southern city last month. earlier this week, the houthies began to march in an attempt to remove president hadi from his last strong hold. it is not clear yet how far the saudis and their allies are going to go in their campaign, and whether the air strikes will be followed by a grand invasion. al jazeera. >> saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.s. say as coalition of more than ten countries is part of the campaign that both countries weren't named. the military action was announce bed ajoint statement joined by saudi arabia, kuwait, and qatar joined in egypt, they say their planes have been involved with the strikes, while saddam say it's forces will take part. and turkey says it might provide logistical support. retired from jordanian general he says air strikes strikes will just be the beginning of a much

wider campaign. >> this campaign, it will -- it may build for many many steps. the air raids and it has to be continued for days or sometimes week until it achieves targets. with the air raids i think there is a real need to make a sea siege of the sea ports to prevent any iranian ships which give a hand to our houthies. their place i think it would be done and used by performed by the official force to control some critical sports because the i have complicated geographic area is a real need for the using this special force. and after that if there is a need to put boots on the ground, i think they have to make a new estimation to decide there will or not in my opinion, i think they will not lead. initially, but no one can be

surely they were sent or not. >> that's inside yemen how does this compel the military response. >> well, as to the tactical consideration on the ground, and refer you to the saudis for more detail, but the reports of houthis military activity, near the border with saudi arabia there have also been rocket fire into odd yeah arare yeah. they are only relevant if they are true, then they might no

be true obviously if they are not true it is unrelevant. >> yes naturally, i don't have the detail to confirm on behalf of the u.s. government each of those reports. the u.s. operation in yemen. the reason we are supporting this mission what is it about this situation in yes then that is driving the united states to support we have a close partnership with the sawed yeas with other countries in the g.c.c., and clearly this is a situation that they view with concern it is also a situation that the united states viewed with concern.

>> have there been cross border attacks. have there been cross border

attacks with by the houthiss and saudi arabia. >> i am not in a position to confirm that. they are planning to launch a ground invasion, is that a step you would support. >> i am not familiar with those reports. so i don't have a direct comment on them, again i think the -- the goal of resoaring the legitimate authorities in yemen is what the saudis and their partners have outlined. we are providing logistical and spelling jens support to the actions they have taken, i am not going to speculate about further. >> is it fair to say that you aren't drawing a line what actions you wouldn't support in order to achieve that goal. >> .

>> so i won't read out every detail. >> do you -- as we speak with probably 5,000 troops egyptian and other troops. going into yemen would you support that effort. >> again, i am not in a position to confirm those reports. so i appreciate the observation on your part. >> it is also a report that that the houthies are able to take capture documents and so on left behind by the americans can you share anything with us. >> i don't have any comment on intelligent related matters. >> the reports that saudis and other islamic countries

including pakistan to join them in the effort against yemen, do you support their move. >> i will let those countries speak for themselves. we are aware that the coalition that the saudis have put together and our support for the saudis and the coalition has been clear. of course we are supporting the overall effort. >> the bottom line of the statement that was issued by the white house it says that they will undertake that's what the state itself, if it chained before the military action. >> no, it didn't -- >> well, it came after the announcement by saudi authorities. any questions on the same top snuck. >> a couple more. >> did this come up on the

sidelines of the iran talks today. >> so the secretary had as i mentioned at the start secretary kerry and secretary met with the iranian counter parts and then following that meeting the secretary met one on one with iranian foreign ministers. secretary kerry did briefly raise yemen with his iranian counter part. but let me stress this was not and is not the focus of the talks. the focus remained squarely our end of the international communities concern over the nuclear program. >> fair enough. can you give us just a sense of the gist of the secretary's brief inter vince on yemen. >> spokes perp talking about yemen, they have been

questioned on the u.s. support for the saudi led military intervention. and yemen saying that they supported the dialog that understands why saudi arabia has intervened. militarily. >> and just a bit of breaking news coming in from yemen we are getting reported of new air strikes this time, in yemen, that is the third city of yemen which was taken over by houthis rebels just a few days ago. so fresh air strikes which was taken over by houthis as few days ago and they advance into the south. we will bring you more as we get it. >> a report from columbo as they try to renegotiate the deals with china.

good to have you with us. that eds are the top stories on al jazeera. getting reports of fresh air strikes they are targeting the city's third. the yemen has arrived in the saudi capital. state t.v. says -- will travel shaken egyptian from arab summit meeting on saturday.

iraq's foreign ministry says it is deeply concerned about those air strikes on houthis targets. it is calling for a political solution syria has voiced it's concerned and urged all parties to engang in dialog, and member boll la has strongly condemned the air strikes. to immediately stop the attacks. let's go to the professor joining us live on set always good to have you with us, so not surprising that iran, iraq syria hezbollah against this military intervention, but the opposition does seem quite outnumbered here. doesn't it, by the country whose are sup effort proking it. >> yeah, i think the support of the operation so far seem -- i would say more in term of number comparing with -- and more influential. you mentioned hezbollah iraq, and syria. from the other side you have -- with the presence of the united states, turkey,

france, u.k. heavy weight countries. that gives the operation more strength. however, it's it doesn't make sense to undermine the opposition to the operation. because iran is a regional player, is being considered the main supporter to houthis without abdullah and iran houthies would not be able to achieve what they have done so far. and the whole operation, that is year message to iran. it just to say to iran, you have enough so far, there is our turn the first message it was to iran, i think the reaction to iran by having this kind of criticism from iraq, and hezbollah and syria is part of this voicing by saying we are a one front

against those who are behind this operation can iran doing anything about the intervention. >> so far it is limited. look at the what is being said so far. the criticism especially to the saudi arabia, trying to where in the world they would be bloodshed all of this this is taken introduce consideration the relation the history of the relationship between yes then and iran. and it doesn't seem that iran can do a lot. of course, they can continue criticizing what is going on, however, and they will rely on those who are in the center of the subpoena ration. how long they can maintain this operation and whether they have an agenda after the last operation and what can

they do after that. if there isn't much that iran can do, where does that lead the houthies? they are not outside this. they are yemen they lived in yemen, and the houthies will li in yemen. they can engang with the society, and i think the message came from different sources today, that at the end of the day, they are yemen. discuss the future of yemen. i am not personally i don't think so it is the issue of houthies. for the last six months from houthies is actually using violence. using weapons against yemen. that's the main concern and of course, the iranian

dimensions to yemen, and that was -- what drove the whole operation which we see is continuing so far. so i think what will -- influence the future of the houthies and how much of it can contribute and how much they can -- or they are ready to engage were there any political process in yes then. >> the professor of the middle east history, at qatar university, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> there are concerns that the situation in yemen may have an impact on talks being held in switzerland between iran and world powers. the french president has urged iran to work towards a lasting robust and verifiable deal, as tuesday's deadline approaches. on diplomatic editor says this update from hassan. >> with the delegation from the u.s., close allies.

staying in the same hotel for these negotiations that obviously phone calls on the sideline, so about the crisis in yemen. all the effort is focused on trying to get aframe work deal before the deadline on the last day of this month that's next tuesday. they say although it was tough negotiations they are making progress, and the talks last week made more progress in that realm than any other realm during this long period of negotiation. of course it is not just the u.s. that is negotiating with iran, there are a lot of other international players, one of those is france.

there the co-pilot of a german wings plane. prosecutor bryce robins and the other pilot was locked out of the cockpit just before the crash on tuesday. the co-pilots hone is now being serged. charley ask lee reports. >> a search teams and forensic experts prepare for another day of combing the vast crash site, analysis of the black box recovered from the site has already started to reveal the plane as final moments. listening to voice recorders from the plane prosecutors say the pilot was locked out of the cockpit, during the flight's final moments. >> the co-pilot 28-year-old andrew lubitz apparently conscious was at the controls and appeared to have deliberately crashed the plane. the passengers are heard screaming, just before the plane's final impact. >> the most likely interpretation with can make

at this point is that the coe pilot deliberately refused to open the cabin door to the captain. he then activated the button that trigger add severe loss of altitude. we to not know why he activated this button but can be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to crash the plane. >> airbus the makers of the a. 320 say there are safeguards in place when crew need to enter the cockpit. seen here in an airbus training video an emergency access pin can open the cockpit door but not if access is denied by the pilot inside. >> of course, this is a big big shock for us here. i can only repeat that we are shocked and very sad i think in our worst nightmares we will never have imagined such a tragedy to happen in our group. crash teams have started retrieving body parts and dna test is underway, the families

with asked to give dna samples to help speed up the grim process of identification. >> . >> sri lanka's president. he is trying to reme negotiation more than $5 billion worth of chinese deals, that has been assigned -- more from the sri lanka capitol columbo. >> the visit by the schley lan can president comes as a time when china has expressed concerns regarding the future of the investment here in sri lanka. which is seen the coming in of a new government this has led

to a lot of concerns. now, a sri lanka team of journalists have been sponsored by the chinese government. has spent over one week in beijing, and some of the key messages coming out has been sort of overall concerns that china hopes that even with the shift of government that there won't be a shift in investment and economic policy, that the hopes of stability and investment will be held, and the confidence of investors won't be broken i spoke to one of the journalists on this visit, and he said that was very much the overriding message which they heard during all their meetings with representatives of chinese government, as well as chinese companies. sri lanka and china's relationship go back many centuries even the convention behind me, by the chinese is a gift tousling lan caduring the 60's. so it is not something that is a new relationship.

this tie to a strategy partnership with the president. last year, and this visit is very much expected to try and relieve concerned as well as make sure the future of this relationship stayed firm. >> nigeria's presidential candidates have urged voters got to engang in violence during the election on saturday. good luck jonathon and mohamed called on citizens not to jeopardize their vision for a free election. security has been a big concern, to an commission depo in a boo yeah. this election, the country relies heavily on oil revenues to fund development work, but with the massive fall in oil prices the funding has nearly dried up. reports from the delta. >> they know what they are

going is illegal but they don't care, young unemploymented men steal oil then refine it in the creek of the delta. they say this lucrative resource belongs to the community. not the nigerian government, or oil companies. >> they are eating our money. >> the men claim to produce around 60,000 litter as day, from the improvised refinery. look at what this business is doing to the environment. this place used to be lush and green. locals say more than 200 refineries in the area but they say they need the money so they can look after their families. >> talc oil prices means less currency is earned. the brocks kept piling up. prices of basic commodities are rising. >> when you go to the market,

a well armed joint task force, made up of forces from the all security sectors patrol the creeks. oil accounts for about 15% of nigeria's gross domestic product, but it makes up 75 to 80% of government revenues. government finances have been hammered by the slide in world oil prices. >> it's been very tough. almost 40% of the revenues we get wipe off and -- with the amount of developmental work, this administration has gone into, we have had to look at so many cost cutting strategies. to help us continue to keep afloat. and -- >> for those struggling to get by, this cheap often low quality fuel is affordable. pairing up generators, despite being one of the large proas

deucers of oil in the world nigeria is still battling to meet it's energy needs. al jazeera. there the delta. >> just a reminder now you can always keep up to date with offer the news including all the latest developments on our website. hi, i am lisa flesher and you are in the stream. nonprofit hospitals are supposed to take care of people regardless of their ability to pay. why then are some suing patients for millions. and the is i.r.s. doing enough to stop it? could this be the beginning of the end for the cable television industry, a new internet t.v. services are capturing consumers.