hit from the air by a saudi-led coalition, and facing tough conditions on the ground. tribesmen in yemen join forces to fight the houthis. also ahead australia takes aim at parents that don't vaccinate their children. they are told they will not get benefits. >> i want the elections fair. we want the ruler to be new and where a 25 rule is

trying to be extended in sudan. and wayne hay reporting from auckland. why the innovative art gallieery is about to be thrust on to the international stage in new york let's start with developments in yemen. saudi arabia says it carried out more than 1,000 air strikes across the country since march 26th destroying houthi air and miss ail capability. on the ground it appears to be far from over. saudi arabia appears to be reporting casualties three were killed in a mortar attack. the defence ministry is blaming rebels. there are no signs the coalition strikes will end soon. fighting on the ground is getting worse. and the humanitarian situation is not improving. aide is arriving but the violence is hampering effort to get it to the people that need

it most. more on that in a moment. first, the latest from jezzan alongside the border. >> the killing of three soldiers schools have closed down a month ahead of schedule. there's talk in mosques in the dom of impressing military service on the youth. this happened once it's reached the 18th day without results. fighting is raging in yemen, in all parts of the country, particularly the middle and aden where the houthis are there, and the campaign to dislodge them is escalating. the red cross has brought some

relief but it's far from what is needed for thousands who have been displaces wounded and need help. >> aid groups say they are struggling to deal with civilian casualties food and water is dwindling, prices sky rocketing. we met one family. >> this is a backdrop. the mountains are a base to those that backed the houthis and have been targeted by saudi-led coalitions. those close by no longer feel safe. we didn't know the war would come. my daughter things will fall all the time.

when the shelling comes we have nowhere to go. we don't know if we'll die. we live in a state of fear and don't leave the house. >> reporter: this woman lives with five daughters, a son, daughter-in-law and grandchild. pointing to a room where the force of the bomb blew out the windows. >> as soon as the bombing happened the glass shattered, we were so scared the girls and i ran to the corridor. we were afraid the ceiling would collapse. >> reporter: she shows us how shrapnel injured one child behind her neck, they had difficulties getting another to hospital. they are worried about how to feed the family. in the kitchen, the stove was old and dusty and containers meant for provisions were empty. >> we ran out of supplies.

we don't have gas. we can't go out and buy anything. there's nothing in the kitchen. there's no food. schools have been closed since the shelling started. what can go out. it's no way to live. >> reporter: one of this woman's daughters is showing signs of trauma. the girl asks when she can return to school and when the bombings will end. the mother has no answers well, the saudi-led coalition says strikes are not targeted at civilians, it says the houthis operate near where people live, contributing to the rising death toll. >> translation: the use of schools and sport stadiums is evidence of abnormal behaviour of the groups and the actions that damage the daily lives of citizens and infrastructure. the misty uphamu.n. says it will

work with the syrian government in relation to the yarmouk camp. more pictures emerged as government forces fight with i.s.i.l. they seized control of the camp. aid agencies say families managed to leave. the government held neighbourhood in aleppo - nine were killed dozens wounded. footage aired showed damaged buildings and injured people treated at hospitals iraqi troops say they are making progress in anbar province. fighters are helping the government offensive. anbar is a large province. an a retired army general said it would be difficult to defeat

them. >> i think the iraqi government has a long way and difficult time to defeat i.s.i.l. they have the two biggest areas. anbar and to whom it may concern, it's big, more than 100,000 scirkph. 10 times the size of lebanon. the capital is ramadi. now we are talking about the problem is ramadi. that is the capital. it's surrounded. surrounded by i.s.i.s. i.s.i.s. succeeded to take over a very important position in control in ramadi. i.s.i.s. has the headquarters, the military headquarters of the region, and many administrative

headquarters. still ramadi under the control of the iraqi army parents in australia that refuse to vaccinate their children may lose out on government benefits and may be denied up to $12,000, andrew thomas has for . this is called no jab, no pay. australia has a high level vaccinated. there are pockets where the rates are lower, and disease, things like whooping cough are making a comeback. the number of objectors rose to 40,000, 40,000 whose parents said they have a religious, medical or conscientious reason

not to have their child vaccinated. in short, they have a form signed by their doctor and they get benefits even though the child is not vac signated. the australian government wants to bring it down. the only way to keep the benefits as an australian parent and not have a child vaccinated is if you have a strong religious, medical reason not to. being a conscientious objector is not fuf. >> president obama's meeting with cuba's leader raft could -- raul castro could be a turning point. lucia newman is in panama city. >> reporter: it was the summit of profound symbolisms, in panama, whose country connects two oceans, half a century two oceans, half a century old divide between communist cuba and the united states began to heal. >> we continue to make progress

to establish diplomatic relations, and i call on congress to work to lift the embargo that's been in place for decades. >> immediately after cuba's president recalled u.s. attempts to overthrow his government, as he addressed all his hemispheric peers, for the first time since the 1959 cuban revolution. >> translation: forgive me, passion flows when i think about a resolution. i apologise to president obama who is not to blame for who is not to blame for events during presidents before him. how many were there - 10. in my opinion president obama is an honest man. >> reporter: another first, a one hour meeting between castro and obama, both agreeing to disagree on conflicting views on human rights and democracy. of course, this summit is more than about cuba. >> this is an unprecedented attempt to reset relations

between 33 latin american and caribbean nations and the united states. relations that for more than a century have been scarred by u.s. political and military interventions. one of the most recent right here in panama. that is why president obama's statement that the days are over when the united states could meddle in the hemisphere with impunity resonated strongly. but did not convince left wing peers. interventions continue, finance free process, democracy and human rights in countries like venezuela, cuba and nicaragua >> reporter: still the significance of what transpired can't be understated. cuba's return to the fold removed a thorn that hindered cooperation representing 40% of g.d.p. representing 40% of g.d.p. in

the world. the differences between the united states and cuba have not disappeared. only perhaps the method used from now on to confront them stay with us here on al jazeera. still to come... >> hillary clinton. >> the clinton campaign begins hillary starts a long-awaited second run for the white house. actually we'll take you now to the saudi capital riyadh where the foreign minister is speaking. we'll listen to what he's saying. >> to his majesty the king and the family of the martyrs. and to the great saudi people. and to give respects to his majesty who passed - and we hope god will put him in his heavens.

i'm pleased today to welcome the foreign minister of france our ally mr laurent fabius and his delegate in the kingdom of saudi arabia, and to welcome you in this conference. our cooperation we have discussed with the minister this morning. with an interview, a servant of the holy site. many issues that are of importance to both countries, and the discussion with the minister with the servant of the holy site was important and

critical. the minister's visit reinforces the relations between the two countries and the continued coordination over a variety of regional and international issues that are common to us country. naturally one of the common reasons for the visit, and receiving a letter from the french president - today we held a discussion an expanded discussion, and i will classify them as fruitful and construct

constructive and it covers the development in the bilateral relationships and via the mechanisms represented in the joint saudi arabia committee, concerned with researching and cooperation on governmental levels and business relationships for actioning the cooperation on the private sector level. and also resulted in the drawing of many agreements and memorandum of understanding in a variety of fields and arenas. and it was valued about 168 projects valued at $333

billion, concerning situations in the region and international, and also with the efforts to combat and to fight i.s.i.l. in syria, and the great support from france and the world for the arab coalition to defend a sovereignty in yemen. and france's support to provide the kingdom, and the kingdom feels that this coercion to combat terrorism, in all its forms and ideologies. and this issue i would like to emphasise that the results, the

defense sovereignty of yemen is going well. it has been achieving the goals put forward on humanitarian levels and by targetting the houthi militias deposed president forces and the rebellious forces who are trying to destroy sovereignty. on the other hand the campaign has succeeded on a humanitarian level to evacuate a large number of people and to cooperate with the international organization. such as the u.n. and the red cross. i would like to express the condemnation the continuing condemnation of the houthi militias for their terror and attacks against civilians, using

heavy tanks inside the city. the members of the summer rolls result are seeking to eliminate. our discussions also touched on the negotiations over iran's nuclear programme. and efforts which we have arrived to. we must get a final agreement on the conditions that iran must abide by and from turning the programme into a militarized programme. and we hope that this agreement would reinforce stability and regions in the world. and to guarantee the stability of the middle east. and that goes along with the

league resolutions. it is important to achieve the goals of

area. ... ..pray that this respects another and we wish to translate this direction to establish an independent palestinian state pursuant to national sovereignties and the resolutions, and the arab peace initiative. and that is why preventing along the international need to repel

the israeli policies, and what is includes all kinds of human tragedies. and i would like to say the ideas - the ideas to mobilize the peace initiative. and this goes along to establish peace in palestine. we thank prans for this attitude, position. and welcome again the foreign minister. >> thank you my dear colleague and friend. relations between saudi arabia and france are longstanding

relations, friendly and dense. i was able to check once again today on being received by the highest authorities in the kingdom both in a very warm and very efficient manner. i today have the opportunity of meeting a lot of important people but the main talks are those that the king wanted to grant me this morning, or as the prince recalled the international and regional situation, and the bilateral situation. i want go back on some of these points. of course within the

international and regional relations we cannot abstract the talks that have taken place with regards to iranian nuclear talks. we have looked at our analysis and the conditions under which france who wishes to have an agreement, but - to have - verifiable agreement, expressed itself - we have at least, until the end of june to try and move forward, which was already discussed and concluded and which is positive and almost no one disputes it. but remains a number of points over which we were not able to decide on - two very important

points. first of all, the verification - there will be no nuclear aspect with regard to the use of nuclear energy and on the other hand the conditions for the removal of the sanction and also the reintroduction if they went back on the signing of the agreement. they are important matters, we hope they can be settled, but they have not been settled and there remains a lot of work to be done. we talked about yemen, where france wishes in a general context to return to stability in the region. it is a vital word that a solution be found to respect the legitimacy on the ground and to

put an end to the conflict the bloody conflict that has been going on so close to saudi arabia and france expressed its availability to try to find a solution which we wish. we also talked about syria, and we believed that i often had the opportunity of saying though that it is not mr bashar al-assad who could be the future of his country. it could be d.a.e.s.h. or i.s. so the solution which we must work toward which is a government of unity, withmm of the regime without mr bashar al-assad and, on the other hand the opposition - each agreeing on the integrity of

syria, and the respect - the rites of each of the parties. i know that saudi arabia is working in this area and efforts have been coordinated in the hope that we'll be able to obtain a result for this country for syria, which is suffering heavily. we have talked about iraq where we wish that the government of mr abadi develops as he has committed, so that each iraqi citizen is involved because, of course there's a fight going on within the coalition against d.a.e.s.h. and france is

involved. if you want to get rid of d.a.e.s.h., it has to be the population itself which mobilizes itself and it will only mobilize itself if there is a feeling that the government - the institutions - are included and it's in this direction that we are working on. we also talked about the question of palestine and israel and as my saudi arabia minister of foreign affairs colleague. france understands - take a number of initiatives for all the stakeholders to be involved so parameters are cleared and allow us to find a solution. the only viable solution is that

of two states. we know that the current status quo is not acceptable because there's no sustainable peace without justice. it's the interest of the israelis and the palestinians to find a solution. france, which has relations, good relations with both parties wishes to help enable progress in finding a solution to the conflict which is a conflict - a solution is vital the fighting in syria, the conflict in yemen, and the iranian nuclear file - some of the issues that foreign ministers and france and saudi arabia raised this their discussions. we heard from the saudi foreign minister a statement that the campaign is achieving the tart and heard reports from which foreign ministers say they wished to see respect for

legitimacy on the ground in yemen. let's bring in mohammed. a lot of issues to discuss, and clear support for the saudi air campaign. >> it's clear that france is supporting the campaign but more crucial to saudi arabia is diplomatic support, if they get it at the u.n. we have seen the iranian foreign minister visiting pakistan a few days ago and the pakistani parliament voting against military intervention and we have turkey and iran talking. saudi arabia needs diplomatic help at the u.n. now that the gulf countries have a proposal and if that find it was voted on and agreed on that would be

helpful, if they can find a diplomatic exit for the war in yemen. >> thank you if you want to stay up to date with the date aljazeera.com. era.com.