deal or no deal? iran's president says he won't sign any agreement unless sanctions are lifted the same day. ♪ i'm jonah hull this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. greece agrees to hand over $500 million to the imf. plus -- >> i'm catherine soi at the choke point. i'll look into why kenya somalis feel alienated by the government. and getting top marks.

the giant strides afghanistan has made in enrolling children in school. ♪ it was only a week ago that they were celebrating after negotiators in switzerland announced they had reached a preliminary deal on iran's nuclear program. but it's evident that it is going to be harder to get to the next level. iran's president warned his country will not sign a final accord due in june unless sanctions against his country are lifted at the same time. our correspondent has more. >> reporter: president hasan rouhani is a salvery political operator. he has managed to remain popular with conservatives and moderates in iran. he knows he must convince skeptics at home that iran isn't bowing to western pressure so many say it's important for him

to talk tough. that's exactly what he did when he addressed this nuclear technology ceremony in tehran. >> translator: we will not sign any agreement unless all economic sanctions are lifted at once on the very first day of the implementation of the agreement. >> reporter: iran wants a deal to go ahead. but the conditions must satisfy this man. ayatollah khomeini. he insists the deal is non-binding and says he neither agrees nor disagrees with it. there are questions now about what this all means for the framework deal made here. after months of talks, iran agreed to limit its enrichment capacity and in return world powers would lift a crippling embargo. >> make no mistake, nobody has the guts to say no to a possible nuclear deal with the west

because today iran's leaders says that i supports the continuation of talks, i just want to make sure i'm not making a mistake. >> reporter: president obama also has to convince his own skeptics mainly in congress that he is not making a mistake. >> i'm convinced that if this framework leads to a final deal it will make your country, our allies and our world safer. >> reporter: the deal also has its worldwide critics, including israel. france and saudi arabia are also cautious. a deal between iran and the west is always going to be about more than just the nuclear issue, it marks a change in relations after decades of hostility. the next few months will bring more hard bargaining and tough rhetoric before the final deadline at the end of june.

iran's author and journalist give us his analysis. >> i think this has two purpose number one to calm the situation, especially about the doubters, and number 2, to position themselves for a tough negotiations that will come at the end of june so i think we should expect these sort of comments to be heard of. the ayatollah said i am supporting the negotiators, but there's no way to congratulate me or anyone at this stage, because we have nothing concrete. therefore i think he is just reflecting the reality as it is. but the president, of course said we are interested in negotiation, we continue to do so, this is part of the first part of our attempt to negotiate

with everybody, especially on yemen. ♪ iran's supreme leader and president have also been speaking out against the saudi-lead air strikes in yemen which are entering their third week. they both called for a halt to the attacks. and the president has urged countries in the region to help bring yemen to the negotiation table. a spokesman said iran has been training yemen's houthi fighters. something the country denies. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry has also accused the iranians of helping the rebels. >> there are a number of flights that have been coming in. and we're well aware of the support iran has been giving

yemen. and iran needs to recognize that united states is not going to standing by while the region is destabilized or while people engage, you know, in overt warfare across lines -- international boundaries in other countries. now the u.n. has estimated than more than a hundred thousand yemenese have been displaced since the conflict began. families have been seen fleeing their homes as a result of the fighting. some people displaced by the violence across yemen have gathered in a port trying to get to neighboring countries by sea. and other yemenese have been escaping across the border to saudi arabia. our correspondent reports now. >> reporter: they escaped the war in yemen only to get

arrested in saudi arabia. they were picked up by saudi security forces after they managed to smuggle themselves across the border. >> translator: if i could have entered legally, i would. >> translator: i am simply trying to escape the war in yemen. >> translator: i came here to find a job to feed my family. the war has destroyed everything in yemen. >> reporter: these boarder goord guards job is crucial. >> translator: we are considered the second line of defense after the border guards. our task is to prevent any smuggling activity. >> reporter: the unit has been around since the establishment of saudi arabia many of its personnel now follow in the footsteps of their forefathers. >> translator: you can track a smuggler by monitoring the

footprints. >> reporter: so far there hasn't been an exodus of yemenese trying to escape into saudi arabia but if a ground offensive is launched they could find themselves dealing with an influx of refugees. and we'll have more on the conflict in yemen a little later in the program when the saudi-lead coalition holds its daily briefing. a senior palestinian if i recall says he has reached an agreement with the syrian government to use military force to expel isil from a palestinian camp in damascus. about 18,000 are still inside the camp on the outskirts of the syrian capitol after fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the levant overran the camp last week. aid agencies have been calling for a halt to the fighting so that aid can reach residents there who are facing severe food and water shortages. and we're expecting the united nations secretary general ban

ki-moon to speak on the situation in the camp we'll bring you that live when it happens. rush shang's foreign minister says syria's opposition and the west are moving closer to holding talks with syria's president, babb -- bashar al-assad. the main opposition group is boycotting the meeting. rory challands has more now from moscow. >> reporter: for the first two days of these four-day talks, it was just the opposition groups here discussing amongst themselves. the government's representative only turned up on wednesday. when he did, he wasn't handed a document formulated by the opposition groups and this includes things like discussions of humanitarian issues and what they call the fight against terrorism. what we believe it doesn't discuss is the fate of bashar al-assad syria's leader. that is important, because

remember the syrian national coalition, the main opposition group in syria has been boycotting these talks. it sees the removal of bashar al-assad as the main precondition for any kind of negotiations. but the landscape for syria's opposition groups has shifted considerably since the war began nearly five years ago. recently we have seen the rise of islamic state, and this has replaced bashar al-assad as the main boogie man in the region for western governments, so we have detected a noticeable softening in the kind of language that the united states has been using when it talks about bashar al-assad. the other thing that has happened of course is the nuclear deal with iran. when sanctions are lifted against iran this will allow iran to operate more freely as a regional power, supporting its allies one of those allies is bashar al-assad. so what is good for bashar

al-assad is of course bad for syria's opposition. greece says it will make its payment of just over $500 million to the international monetary fund. we are going to go right now to the live military press conference. let's listen in now. ♪ [ speaking foreign ]

>> translator: welcome everybody to this press conference. about the operations of [ inaudible ] of course the operations have continued through the current phase, which is the air campaign. and our goals have been achieved. clearly. the -- the modus operandi is focused on the elements of the houthi forces. and those that support the houthi militias. this kind of work today is to attack targets, identify them and the elements that conduct these operations and to target

these units, because these are the units capable of conducting the operations and so supply supply the houthis with the element of mobility ammunitions, fuel and previously we have spoken about the houthi militias through on-sites and through other operations. these elements now have become isolated in aden. but, you know, this is -- that these elements are either houthi or the forces that follow the deposed president are moving according -- the pressure that we are exercising via air campaigns. so first we start [ inaudible ] and now they moved to shabwa

and now they are appearing in [ inaudible ], and everybody think they are controlling the situation. but they are just small units that are isolated and they are trying to -- to exercise any kind of media presence that follows a certain path and we're going to target them and we will meet them. i want to confirm an important peace of information, that -- that the houthi militias the loyalists element from the yemeni forces who are -- are store vehicles and ammunition inside the residential areas, and with

collusion from those individuals know to the yemeni authorities, whether they are from the tribes and the coalition is confirming that this kind of work will not be ignored, and -- and we -- we emphasize that this should not happen. otherwise these locations will be targeted and destroyed. of course you will notice that in the operations of the -- there is continued targeting of the locations for the houthi that are being used now to support the operations. we have used the -- the 19th division and the 21st and the 33rd division is -- has been

targeted. we also mentioned today that the work is now targeted towards cutting communications between sana'a and the northern areas in yemen, which is sada where the houthi leadership exists. and to make it very difficult for them to communicate. now we have targeted communication stations that are used by their forces. now the commanders are now isolated and there is no contact between them. the coalition also targeted locations of ammunition storage, and one of the videos will show a targeting that we confirm that this -- we are doing this all over the yemeni republic. we also target the congregation

of the forces and now it's following a specified pattern. based on specified targets. and now the -- the air defense operations and the ballistic missile operations have been reduced as we have destroyed them. in aden -- mentioned yesterday that the work now is focused by the [ inaudible ] did not change. these operations are still ongoing, which is resistance between the houthi militias and the loyalist factors. they are smaller numbers. by now they have a loss effect lesser effect and we hope to achieve our goals in the next

few days that we will be able to liberate aden. we have targeted sana'a as it has ammunition stores communication stations in sana'a and some dumps and homes which have been used to store. and also there have been movements of these militia elements and there also have been some insegmt units. we have stopped using equipment and supplies that they have and by attacking -- targeting residential areas, they have

attacked -- attacked residential areas with the [ inaudible ]. this is one of the camps that we targeted yesterday, and as i mentioned yesterday that these stores are basically vehicles are being hidden and stored. our intel -- once we confirm intelligence we target them and take them out. we have taken out communication stations in sana'a and targeted another station in sada. now you can see that is on the second day that this isolated tank -- it shows that they have difficulty in providing supply and support. now this tank will not be operational again, so it has been abandoned.

we targeted directly. this is exhausting for the pilots to identify location of individual units, but we hope to prevent these militias from using any kind of facility that would allow them to continue their operations. this is an ammunition storage that we have targeted. the secondary explosion of the actual ammunitions in the storage warehouse. this is a communications site also destroyed. as far as ground operations the border guards and the

[ inaudible ] are targeting any movement that occurs on the southern of the kingdom borders. ak -- occasionally there are targets [ inaudible ] and to prevent them from affecting the safety of the borders. maritime continues. we have blocked all of the yemeni ports and islands. we have spes if -- specified targets, and a close by [ inaudible ] has been raided. guns were moved to that area. and now i'm open to questions. thank you. >> good evening, general, i am

[ inaudible ] from arab news. sir, my question is this yesterday iran sent two ships to the order of -- to the waters off of yemen. what is the situation as far as these ships are concerned at the moment? and what do you think -- what could be the possible result of this sending of ships? thank you? >> yesterday one of our colleague asked the same question. we know that those ships -- if it is in the international water, it is normal and they have the right to be there, but we already announced -- the coalition announced that the port and the air space of the

yemeni is under control of the coalition. if those ships want to -- supply the militias or to help the militias the coalition have the right to choose the proper answer to this kind of actions. >> translator: there seems to be that the houthi operations have transferred the battle in -- in to the cities turning into urban warfare. have you taken that into consideration? do you have tactics for urban warfare. firstly, we already mentioned this. that is one of the most important tactics that the militias would use.

the houthi units, and the supporting units. to hide inside residential areas, and try to create maximum damage, to make it appear to the world that this is the result of the coalition attacks. there is targeting -- and you noticed yesterday that the armored vehicles was targeting residential buildings. whoever confronts these houthi militias on the ground are the tribes attacking -- using same tactics, and the coalition air force will prevent these militia militias from advancing and providing supply and support. these are isolated group. they have not much effect except causing harm. we are now supporting the committee -- the popular committees to give them the

quality support that will tip the balance. the -- the collapsed yemeni army and the tribes and the [ inaudible ] is there a name for the leader? or are you keeping that secret. the legitimate forces are represented by the presidency and the ministers and the popular committees who are on the ground but at this stage to expose names is not in the interest of the operations. however, we are concerned more with the outcome, and we continue the work until we achieve positive results for yemen. thank you. you mentioned earlier in your press conference that the yemeni air space --

>> okay. we're going to break away now from that press briefing by the saudi-lead coalition military spokesman, and go straight to our correspondent in doha for a bit of analysis on all of that. hashem i know you were listening in. the spokes there, responding right at the top of the press conference to press reports about houthis seizing a provincial capitol in the southeastern region. that's right in the heart of sunni tribal lands. he seems to be suggesting these are only small isolated units of houthis that will be targeted but they are there. is this another step do you think, towards a firmly sectarian conflict taking root in yemen? >> well, it show there is an issue in yemen. the saudi-lead coalition says it is determined to undermine the capabilities of the houthi

rebels, and that they can see that they are destroying their capabilities across the country. on the other hand the narrative of the houthis so far is despite the air strikes they are still there on the ground with their forces in the city of aden and taking over the province which is a sunni strong hold. that move comes as a huge surprise to people in the south, and to the -- and to the saudis themselves, because this is supposed to be a very safe secure area under the control of forces loyal to president hadi. it shows that the saudis will definitely have some issues in the future tackling the houthi presence in the southern part of the country. >> and the wider picture as well more comments coming out of iran the supreme leader

calling saudis air campaign a crime and genocide and warning that the saudis will lose. i'm so sorry, hashem i have asked you a question we're not going to have time for the answer. we have ban ki-moon in new york. >> i'll be leaving this afternoon for the summit of the americas in panama and thereafter i'll be visiting doha qatar to participate in the united nations congress on crime prevention and criminal justice. i return to new york monday morning. before i depart i wanted to say a few words about the rapidly deteriorating situation in yemen and syria. countless civilians are being

willfully [ inaudible ] to misery. even before the latest crisis yemen's overall humanitarian needs were on a scale similar to all nine countries of the region combined. and yemen had almost doubled the number of people classified as severely insecure. the crisis has only multiplyied in recent days. they are struggling for the basics water, food fuel and medicines. hundreds of civilians have been killed. hospitals and schools are shutting down some of which are direct targets of the fighting. as i have repeatedly said attempts by the houthis and their allies to take territory by force and undermine the

authority of the legitimate government are in clear violation of security council resolutions and their commitments in the u.n. facilitated political process. since the initial advances by the houthis, the situation has greatly escalated through the arab coalition military operation lead by the kingdom of saudi arabia at the request of president hadi. the coalition air raids and the continuing attempts by the houthis and their allied armed groups to expand their power have turned an internal political crisis into a violent conflict that risks deep and long-lasting regional repercussions. the last thing the region and our world need is more of the chaos and crimes we