hello there. this is the news hour live from london. coming up more fighting and more air strikes. sdrab hits targets in yemen as its military campaign enters a new

phase. semifinals. hello there. very warm welcome to the program. the saudi-led coalition has launched more strikes in yemen as its military campaign enters a new phase. houthi leaders have released a statement calling for an immediate halt to those attacks. fighter jets struck against houthi fighters in tausiz and in aden. fierce fighting is happening on the ground in aden. but there have been some political developments. the houthi have called for u.n.

talks and have released three generals. al jazeera is at the border with yemen and says the saudi air strikes are likely to continue as long as the houthis continue their ground campaign. there will be less intensified air strikes but there will be intervention any time it's necessary for the saudis and their allies. and according to the reports, the houthis began immediately after the announcement to move their tanks to an area from which they were expelled just days ago including the area of the presidential palace in aden.

so there was a strike there in taiz when they began to try to take a military base there and today not far from aden there was another strike during the day. fighting is raging between the houthis and the loyalists of hadi the president of yemen in many areas and the houthis have been shelling positions of hadi's troops. so there's a new phase with a new name but operations basically are continuing across the country. let's look at the impact of the saudi-led strikes. over the past month, the world health organization says nearly a thousand people have been killed and 350,000 have been injured. 150,000 people have been displaced since the strikes began. here's more on the humanitarian impact the violence is having. >>reporter: it's a struggle for

doctors to treat patients at this hospital in yemen's capital. electricity outages have intensifyied in the last few weeks as saudi-led strikes targeted houthi positions. >> the hospital depends on two electricity generators. the first works for six hours and then the second works for six hours. there's a chance the hospital will come to a complete stand still once we run out of fuel. >>reporter: apart from electricity, medics say they're fast running out of essential medical supplies. yemen is a poor country and even manufacture this conflict began, 90% of food was imported. since the houthi takeover and the subsequent unrest ports have been closed and imports have decreased substantially. the shortage of fuel has meant whatever remains is only available at four times the price. most people can't afford it and those who can wait in long lines. basic services have been badly affected and schooling remains

suspended for over 1.5 million children. >> people are finding it very very difficult to just live. sleepless nights with the heavy bombing and shelling whether from the air or houthis on the ground in the south and other areas. electricity for more than nine days no electricity whatsoever. water. there's no food. many shops have been destroyed, the infrastructure as well. it's very very difficult. >>reporter: the humanitarian crisis has been worse in areas like aden where pro government fighters have been trying to regain control from forces loyal to the former government of saleh and their houthi allies. many yemenis are welcoming an end to the air strikes but know a lasting piece may still be a long way off.

sometime later we're expecting to hear from saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.s. and we'll bring that to you live when that happens italy's prime minister has called for the european union to work together to stop migrant trafficking. hundreds of migrants have died this week after their boat sank on the journey from north africa across the mediterranean. the eu is going to invest more money in the patrolling operations on the mediterranean but they also want a more visible roles in africa. >> when a person is ready to put his life at risk because he needs to get out from a situation where he could be beheaded you cannot discourage the departures with a simple statement. you can do it by enforcing unhcr officers in niger and sudan. you do it by taking action in the countries and keeping

ourselves even more human. >> only 28 of the people on board the smuggler's ship on sunday survived. al jazeera has spoken to one of them a 16 year old from somolia who is now recuperating from sicily. paul brennan has this exclusive report. >>reporter: it looks like a normal youth club with its table tennis and television blaring but these teens are a lucky few who have endured hardships few in europe can even imagine. the latest to arrive here are probably the luckiest of all. we're calling him jamal to protect his identity. he was just one of 28 survivors from last weekend's deadly sinking in the mediterranean. he told me in somolia there's no happiness. only al shabaab. but when he experienced in libya at the hands of people traffickers was even worse.

>> the problem we faced in libya was mainly around the fact we had our money taken and we were beaten up very badly. some individuals i know died of starvation. the trafficker didn't allow us to speak to our families. we weren't given food and were constantly beaten. one time the ring was uncovered and the boss blamed it on a woman who was beaten severely. >>reporter: eventually jamal was herded onto their boat for the journey that would turn into disaster. he said the boat was so crowded at one point he fell overboard and had to be dragged back in. >> when we were on the ship, we had no food or water and i only had one fish. we traveled for a day with no water or food. then we saw the ship from europe. >>reporter: and just as he thought they would be rescued, disaster struck. >> i was with a friend who was hungry so i shared my fish with him but after yelling for help we overturned and he died.

i managed to swim to the surface. me and four others shouted for help and were rescued. >>reporter: hundreds of others weren't so lucky. the migrants had capsized in the dark out at sea and rescuers were working almost blind. >> the sea is completely dark and after just a few meters you can't see anything. the only thing we could see were the beams of light projected by the search lights. we had to rely on what we could hear listening out for the screams to rescue any survivors. jamal feels nothing but bitterness towards the traffickers who hells deliberately put them in mortal danger. jamal is already looking to the future. >> god willing i intend to bring my parents over here. i'm working hard on that let's talk to paul brennan

now who is live in sicily. we heard that young man there talking about how he wanted to bring his parents over which just goes to show that people keep oncoming despite the risks. >>reporter: the steady stream has continued today, wednesday. we've had 1,106 new arrivals on italian soil. they're people rescued over the past 24 hours or so and brought in by italian coast guard and navy vessels. we have another boat coming in overnight on the south coast of sicily. the desperation is driving them on to make this journey which they know could end in their death but the thought of staying

in north africa simply is unthinkable to them. >> and, paul tomorrow we know the european leaders are going to meet in brussels. what sort of things are they going to be talking about? >>reporter: we know largely the areas that they're going to be talking about because there was a foreign minister meeting on monday with a 10-point plan. we've seen a leaked draft which put some flesh on the ten points and talks about some practical implementation. for example, one of the easiest things i think that they will do is to increase the amount of funding and resources that has been put into the search and rescue operation out there in the mediterranean. it was scaled back this year it's barely a third of the level it was last year. now they're going to double it. the draft says at least double it because people have been criticizing the word doubling given the fact that doubling it

would not bring it to last year's level. the other thing is the idea of quickly removing those migrants who are thought to be not justified and the other idea is the idea that third party countries outside of europe could actually have refugee camps for example to house them before they fall into the hands of the people traffickers in libya. but there's going to be a huge gulf i think between the words we're going to hear and implementation because there are questions of the legality of trying to seek out migrant boats and destroy them. there's an awful lot that the politicians are going to need to try and resolve before we can get practical implementation that makes a difference out there in the sea. >> paul thank you many of those migrants are beginning their dangerous journeys in libya. we have an update from the

northwestern coast of libya. >>reporter: this is a school that's turned into a holding center. there's about 1,000 people here. it's overcrowded. the people here come from ethiopia nigeria, gambia senegal, egypt, some from somolia. and they all dream of reaching europe. i asked several of them if they had heard of what happened over the past weekend, the hundreds of people who died. some said yes. some said no. but all of them said that despite the threat and danger they will still take their chance if they can and try to make it to europe. for many it's their only hope for a better life. one young guy said i cannot go back home. there's nothing for me. at least with the trip i have some hope. otherwise i have no hope

whatsoever. put up in place. libyans do feel now that the finger is pointed at them but they also say that it is really not in their hands to control this flow of migrants who are only trying to get a better life. now the u.n. says that more than 110,000 people have fled fighting between iraqi

government forces and the islamic state of iraq in the city of ramadi. aid agencies are warning many of the displaced have nowhere to go. here's more now from baghdad. >>reporter: the iraqi government says its forces are making gains by pushing out isil fighters from areas surrounding the government compound in anbar province. they're also pushing isil from areas isil controlled in the last 72 hours mainly in the east. that's because a number of reasons including reinforcements sent from baghdad and also air strikes by the international coalition as well as by the iraqi air force. now, on the other hand the humanitarian situation for the people there is getting worse. the number of people who fled ramadi and the surrounding areas has reached more than 130,000 people according to the un. un.

>> still ahead, why the london financial worker this man is being charged with multibillion dollar fraud in the u.s. broken promises. we meet struggling south africans who blame the government for recent as tacks on foreign workers. oreign workers. activists say at least seven people killed were in residential areas in syria.

dozens were more injured. northeast of the capital in a rebel held area at least ten have been killed in six attacks there. opposition activists have accused assad of the strikes in syria in the past three weeks a man arrested in frances was planning an attack on one or more churches. he was flagged by security officials last year. police had been told the man was also planning to travel to syria. here's more now from paris. >>reporter: authorities have named the suspect as a man from algeria. he's been described as a computer science student. they picked him up sunday morning after he called an ambulance after accidentally shooting himself with one of these weapons.

the police on the scene traced a blood trail to his car and the car according to the french prosecutor speaking on wednesday they found more weapons. and other evidence. they then went to the man's apartment and found, yet, more weapons of war is how the minister of interior described it. kalishnakov rifles and literature of isil. the prosecutor gave more details about this case on wednesday. >> his home was searched and we found three kalishnakov assault rifles. bullet proof vests. body armor. police vests. a cam corder and a still camera. 2,000 euros in cash and documents in arabic. >>reporter: the man was also in contact with somebody in syria

who was directing him to pursue these attacks on a church or more than one church. the police are also linking the suspect to the killing of this french woman, a 32-year-old mother of one child who was found dead in her car also on sunday morning. it appears that the police have some pretty convincing evidence linking that death with this man as well because they have found a dna print inside the car and also they've made a ballistic link with the bullet that killed her to one of the weapons that they found in his possession. the eu has charged russia's biggest energy provider with abusing its position in the market. the antitrust case says that gas bomb specifically hindered competition in central and eastern european gas markets. if the charges stick, they could risk fines as high as 10% of the company's overall sales. in 2013, that figure was 93

billion euros. they say the claims are unfounded and the kremlin says they hope there's a compromise to be found. >>reporter: the european union has unfairly laid these charges and they're applying recent regulations to old gas contracts. the company says it's unfounded and obeys the law and hopes this can all be resolved. it has ten weeks to respond to the charges. they can, of course also appeal in the courts but if it's un unsuccess unsuccessful, huge fines running into the billions and billions of dollars. the european union is taking a big gamble doing this because as it well knows, russia's main export is fossil fuels and if you go off the companies that are responsible for those

exports, in effect you're going after the russian state itself the london trader accused of being involved in a fraud that wiped a trillion dollars off the share market has been granted bail. his passport has also been taken away. he's accused of making millions of dollars for himself in the years before he was arrested. >>reporter: making his first court appearance at westminster magistrate court in london he was told he faced a full extradition hearing in august. he was released on bail of $8 million. the 36-year-old financial trader is charged in the united states with commodities fraud and market manipulation that significantly contributed, they say, to a multibillion dollar wall street crash on a single day in may, 2010. according to u.s. regulators and the department of justice, he

operated a one-man trading company from this anonymous west london house opposite his parent's home. here it's alleged he used computer algorithms to manipulate share prices on a massive scale. analysts say this was not an isolated incident. >> i would suggest that most high frequency traders operate on a scale far larger than one individual in the west of london. we know regulators have been looking at the ways it's alleged they manipulate markets but the problem is they trade in fractions, thousands of thousands of a second, automatic trades and their orders get put in and pulled back in seconds so it's almost inprehenceable. >>reporter: it's alleged he made

fake trades thousands of them in a single day conning the market believing there were many multiple big sellers at the same time driving prices down. those sell orders would then be canceled and it's claimed he would buy up shares at low prices as the market rapidly improved. the practice is of course illegal. it's known as spoofing and it resulted according to the u.s. charges in enormous profits, $40 million between 2010 and 2014. there is little to show for any of that on this unassuming suburban london road. the defendant says he'll contest the request for extradition to the united states. for more on how the market glitch happened in the first place, i'm joined by phillip stafford. what i know about this trading i could fit on my pinkey.

what happened? >> the fast crash was very unusual and unexplained event still that happened in the afternoon in the u.s. stock markets on may 6th, 2010 when suddenly the market began to tumble quite dramatically on no news whatsoever. you would normally see the depths of the financial crisis when banks were failing, insurance companies were failing. it was very definitive reasoning. this time there was a complete absence of that. the market did indeed jump back up again and come back to normal in about 20 minutes but that lack of any thrust behind it really kind of freaked people out really. >> how did they start to discover that this man allegedly was behind the crash? how did they start to piece things together? >> i think it's important to note that they have not accused him of being behind it but only

being a contributor to the cause behind it. u.s. authorities have accepted there are many many factors behind it. why it's taken five years is a good question. in the immediate aftermath, the authorities took a good look at the accident and came to the conclusion that it was a -- trade in the market and people left it at that. there was a lot of skepticism. people never really bought the u.s.'s official version. so then suddenly to come along with this alternative version that there is a single trader operating just outside london who also had an important effect has left a lot of people still scratching their heads because there are just as many unanswered questions from this version as from the last one as well. >> they call it layering and spoofing. and it's frightening for people to think that one individual can have such an impact if that turns out to be true. >> it's not impossible that somebody could have an impact

like that. there are real cases of it in the market. and it's always possible there is somebody who just goes a little bit rogue. it's very unusual to actually have somebody working outside of the institutions. to be able to do it in this format it's very difficult. you don't just connect up to it during an exchange. have you to go through brokers and have an awful lot of layers in order for you to get there so that's one of the questions people are asking. well how was he able to take such big positions and these are markets that move very very quickly and there's a lot of high-speed trading that goes on there. this guy by his own admission didn't do that. he just simply clicked on a mouse which makes it a very very unusual case. he did make software.

but on its own that's not enough to move the market. and as people go through the affidavit from the u.s. authorities today, the rationale for how it all fits together still leaves many unanswered questions. >> hopefully we'll find out as time goes on. thank you for joining me. thank you still ahead, protesters rally for their right to free and fair elections after the hong kong government fails to bring about mindful reforms. plus in brazil a scandal is costing thousands of jobs and people are scrambling for work. and joe will tell you about the day of crashing at a cycling classic. details later in sports.

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>> sunday. >> we're pioneers. >> the head of america's space agency charles bolden. >> we take science fiction and turn it into science fact. >> addressing nasa's critics. >> we are the best nation in the world when it comes to exploration. >> and mankind's next giant leap. >> we can become multi-planet species. >> every sunday night... >> i lived that character. >> go one on one with america's movers and shakers. >> we will be able to see change. >> gripping... inspiring... entertaining. "talk to al jazeera". sunday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. welcome back. fierce battles are taking place on the ground in the yemeni port city of aden between supporters of president hadi and houthi

fighters. the saudi-led coalition has launched more strikes in yemen. tuesday they announced air strikes were stopping but would attack houthi troop movements if they thought they were a threat. >> italy's prime minister has called the european union to work together to stop migrant trafficking. in the past week hundreds have died on their journey across the mediterranean the u.n. says -- there is no shortage of migrants willing to make the journey. this week's events have confirmed the mediterranean is the most dangerous border in the world. so far this year more than 1,700 migrants have died. amany as 800 on the boat that

capsized off libya on sunday. the figures have surged 30 times compared to last year when the death toll over the same period was 92. more than 36,000 migranted have reached italy safely this year but four in every 100 die trying. if the trend continues, the death toll could reach 30,000 by the end of the year. these are some of the routes being used by smuggers into western europe. across the yarn mediterranean and black sea by greece but by far it's past tunisia and libya that are the most dangerous. the vast majority of those braving the journey are men from sub saharan africa.

the big question now though is whether europe can handle the crisis. last year italy's ambitious and costly mediterranean mission was replaced by tritan. the reason for the change money. and some countries said the rescue operations encouraged migrants to keep trying. the monthly budget used to be $9.5 million. tritan's budget is only $3 million. there are only two planes a single helicopter and several coast guard vessels. this means fewer square kilometers of sea covered. well earlier this week the european commission released a ten-point plan to try to ease the crisis. european heads of government are now trying to work out what should be done next. am necessity international

covered the u.k. with hundreds of body bags to highlight the plight of migrants. campaigners zipped themselves inside the bags for the protest. am necessity says european governments need to take urgent action to stop more people drowning on their way to europe. joining me now in the studio is gary van gluck. thank you for joining us. we've been talking about this story. we have some movement. we know you guys have put together a blueprint. what do you want to see happen? >> we've seen now a total of up to 1,700 people dying. i think it's important to stress that. it's 100 times more than last year. that's incredible. 100 times more. what this blueprint does this report, is three things. one, it looks at the faces, stories behind those figures, these people on these boats. secondly it looks at why did everything go wrong in the last

few months. what exactly happened. and finally it puts together a set of recommendations. what needs to be in place. what's the minimum. and that's to the level of how many ships, aircraft need to be there to have a serious search and rescue operation. >> so you've done a lot of the ground work for this meeting. >> absolutely. >> let's hope they're listening. talk to me about the testimonies you guys have been collecting. what sorts of stories >> >> it's very diverse because people come from all over the world on these boats. so from conflicts in syria, migrants from other countries. one thing that stands out is the cover of the report is a drawing by a 6-year-old girl who's a syrian girl who lost her mom who was pregnant at the time as well from this boat and she's together with her dad now in a center in italy. those stories that people tend to forget about when you think about these big numbers. i think it's important to bring those to the forefront. >> i think even using the word "migrant" as well. it's not a great use of that

word. it makes them not like us and of course they are. you've been talking also to the italian coast guard. what are they telling you about what it's like on these missions >> >> they have been quite heroic. some of these wrecks happened in horrible conditions. they go on these tiny boats trying to rescue hundreds of people. you can imagine the staff working day and night. what they've told us is basically we can't handle this alone. very simple. this is not going to be possible. it's only going to go up in summer. we cannot handle it. >> let's see what happens at this meeting tomorrow. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. the trial against al jazeera journalists in egypt has been adjourned. they're being retried for allegedly harming national security and aiding the banned muslim brotherhood. they and al jazeera of course deny accusations. proceedings resume april 28th

police in ethiopia have used force to quell violence at an antiisil demonstration. thousands were protesting the killings of their fellow citizens in libya by islamic state fighters. caroline malone has the story. >>reporter: people's grief and anger turned into violence on the streets of adisababa. people began gathering at dawn on wednesday. it's the second day of a national mourning period for isil victims. the video was posted online on sunday that appears to show the armed group shooting and beheading nearly 30 christians from ethiopia in libya. two-thirds of ethiopiaens are christians. >> they do not represent us and we're not with them. stop what you're doing.

stop. stop. >>reporter: relatives say two of the victims were friends who traveled to libya together to get an illegal boat to europe. they wanted to find work. let's go now and listen live to the ambassador to the united states from saudi arabia talking about the latest military action in yemen. >> the end of operation decisive storm and the beginning of operation renewal of hope. operation decisive storm was designed to eliminate the threat that we're facing in saudi arabia in the form of ballistic missiles heavy weapons, aircraft that the houthi militias and their allied forces came in possession of. our fair force and the air forces of our coalition partners were able to pretty much eliminate that threat and so having done that we're able to -- in the process we were also able to protect the

legitimate government of yemen. we hope in the process we have opened up the door for a political settlement to the yemen conflict. there is no military solution to the conflict in yemen. the solution has to be a political one based on united nations security council resolution 2216. the gcc initiative. and the outcomes of the national dialogue in yemen. we had always expressed our hope that the houthis will see the wisdom of participating in the physical process rather than trying to take the country by force and we've made it very clear we'll not allow them to take yemen by force. we still stand by this. as a consequence of the elimination of virtually all of the dangers to the kingdom of saudi arabia from the weapons that the houthis possessed or

took control of from the regular forces of yemen, we now have shifted and ended operation decisive storm and shifted towards operation renewal of hope. the objective is to focus on the political process, on the humanitarian process, while at the same time seeking to protect the population of yemen from houthi aggression and to counter any aggressive moves that the houthis are conducting or may plan to conduct in yemen. so in a sense, while -- so we have done this today. in fact. in the taiz area. the houthis had bombarded the positions of the 35th division of the regular yemeni army from mountain tops and we intervened militarily to put an end to that. we're seeing movement by the houthis that is very disturbing in the city of aden where we see

skirmishes and moving of houthi troops into aden from three different directions. we expect they'll be entering aden within hours if not sooner and we're determined to respond to the request from the legitimate government of yemen to provide assistance to them in order to prevent this from happening. the houthis should be under no illusion that we will continue to use force in order to stop them from taking yemen over by aggressive actions. so that will not change. we hope that they will participate in the political process. there have been statements by houthi leaders about their acceptance of a political process and willingness to participate in the process. but then hours later there's movement of their troops and we see them using their weaponry against forces of the legitimate yemeni government so this is not

the position or behavior of a group that seeks to resolve its differences with other yemenis through other dialogue and peace. we were determined to degrade and destroy the capabilities that were a threat to the kingdom of saudi arabia during operation decisive storm, we are determined to protect the yemeni people and counter any aggressive moves the houthis may undertake during operation renewal of hope. i want to stop here and see if i can take some questions. but i want to add one thing. the objectives of operation renewal of hope as you know were to protect the civilians of yemen from take overs of houthis by force, count aggressive moves by the houthi in yemen and to intensify the flow of humanitarian assistance to

yemen. saudi arabia contributed $275 million to the united nations to meet the appeal for the price of humanitarian aid. we hope other countries will do the same. we would like to move also towards economic reconstruction of yemen so that yemen can move out and move towards a better place. we have no ambitions in yemen territorial or otherwise. our ambition is the welfare of the yemeni people and peace and stability of the people of yemen. we'll continue under operation -- in the second phase

of the operation renewal of hope we'll continue to enforce the prevention of the flow of weapons to yemen by air and sea and we look forward to working with our international partners in forming an international cooperation to prevent the flow of weapons to the houthis and to their allies through united nations security council resolution 2216.

with that i'll stop for questions. yes, this is what we've said. we've said that the objective was to eliminate the threat that the kingdom of saudi arabia faced in the form of ballistic missiles heavy weapons, and air force that were controlled by a radical militia.

so we destroyed the air force, we destroyed their ballistic missiles as far as we know. we destroyed their command and control. we destroyed much if not most of their heavy equipment. and we made it very difficult for them to move from a strategic perspective. so we've degraded their capabilities substantially and thereby eliminated the threat they posed to the kingdom of saudi arabia. that was the objective of operation decisive storm in addition of course to the protection of the legitimate government of yemen. those objectives have been achieved so now we enter a new phase with the objective to continue to protect the civilians from yemen from takeover by the houthis, counter any aggressive moves by the houthis in yemen, and work on enhancing the flow of humanitarian assistance to yemen and ease the work of international humanitarian organizations in yemen.

and so when the houthis or their allies make aggressive moves, there will be a response. the decision to calm matters now rests entirely with them. the discussions with regards to yemen have been ongoing. the talks have been ongoing for

a long time. it was the houthis who took back any promise they made and it was the houthis who proceeded to use force to try to occupy increasingly more territory in yemen until they were able to capture the capital and then move south capture taiz and aden. it was the houthis who threatened the leaders of yemen so it is the houthis who know what needs to be done in order to arrive at a political settlement. we have the gcc initiative the outcomes of the national dialogue in yemen. we have the various united nations security council resolutions, the most recent being 2216. and it is our hope that the -- that all yemeni parties will be able to work together in order to implement the -- what everybody knows is the settlement to yemen's problem. and we hope they'll be able to put in place a constitution that

works for everyone. we hope they'll be able to have an election law that is fair that leads to free and transparent elections and that yemen then can move on in terms of its -- the political process towards a much better future. so it is our hope that the political talks would resume as quickly as possible and conclude as quickly as possible. with regards to iran we don't believe iran has any role to play in yemen. iran is not a neighboring country of yemen. we see iran as part of the problem in yemen, not the solution. the support that they have provided to the houthis in terms of financial support, logistical support, personnel, and military equipment has been very very dangerous and destabilizing to yemen and we do not believe that the houthis would have been able to do what they did had it not been for the support that they received from iran.

with regards to former president saleh, he was designated by the united nations. he was sanctioned by the international community and has played a very destructive role in the process. he led yemen to devastation over 32 years and he's been playing a very negative role over the past -- since the transition in yemen took place. so his role has been very negative. but that does not mean that his party does not have a genuine constituency in yemen and it

also does not mean that his party should or could not pay a role in yemen. this is up to the yemenis. but i doubt that somebody who has been as destructive as former president saleh will have a role in the future of yemen. the evidence of iranian support for the houthis is very clear. i'm surprised when people keep asking this question. iranian revolutionary guards are in yemen. they were captured and prisoned there along with hezbollah. they were freed. i don't believe they were tourists. we have arms shipments that were

intercepted sent from the iranians to the houthis in yemen including shoulder launched surface to air missiles captured in a boat seized several months ago. there are weapons factories or assembly machines that they have provided to the houthis in the past. so the evidence is there. i don't know why people would question it. with regards to the -- we have -- we are -- there is a united nations security council resolution 2216 that places an arms embargo on the houthis and on former president saleh, units loyal to him. there is a request by the legitimate government of yemen to help enforce that resolution and we are ready in order to make sure that this happens. so you inspect ships in yemeni

territorial waters inspect ships that enter yemen's ports and exits their ports to make sure that they do not carry weapons and that they do not smuggle people out. we have inspections of airliners flying into yemen before they land and we make sure that we inspect them when they leave yemen for the same purpose. this is what we intend to do and we hope that the iranians will be wise and will not add to the problems in yemen by staying out of it.

i have to get back to you on the casualties you mentioned with regards to yesterday. but when it comes to the 1,000 casualties committed by air strikes, i don't know how correct that is. i think people may be confusing the casualties that are a consequence of the skirmishes against civilian positions with the attacks of the military infrastructure by the coalition air forces to the so i would be very careful about the accuracy of those numbers. your second question was with regards to ground forces. we have said that we don't take any options off the table. we are -- so we will assess

everything when the time comes. if you're just joining us we've been listening live there to the ambassador from saudi arabia to the united states. he's explaining the recent military action in yemen saying decisive storm was stage one designed to eliminate threats facing saudi arabia to protect the people of yemen and they moved on to stage two because they felt that those things had been dealt with. they're now focusing on what they've called operation renewal and hope focusing on the political and humanitarian process but there was some

strong language there. he said they know there's no military solution it has to be political, but of course the air strikes will continue until dialogue becomes a possibility. i think we can talk now to james at the u.n. for us. james, if you've been listening to us what do you make of what he was saying? he was saying that there's no military solution but that air strikes will continue for the time being. >>reporter: i think what he's saying is that the main bombing campaign has stopped now but they reserve the right to take action when they feel they should militarily. certainly here at the united nations they see what has happened in the past few hours even though there have been fresh air strikes and fresh violence. they see it as the possibility for the diplomatic door to be reopened. the secretary-general has been

speaking about this. i'm told they're hopeful there might be a window to get further negotiations underway. what i understand has been going on is in oman there's been a diplomatic back channel. we heard the ambassador say the iranians are not involved but i'm told there have been some indirect contacts there in oman. diplomats also telling me when the advisor is appointed, they will then try to start talks again probably outside the region possibly in europe. that's it for me for a moment. my colleague lauren taylor will be here in a couple of minutes with more on that story from yemen. and plenty of the rest of the day's news. see you very soon. bye bye. bye bye.

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yemen's houthis call for an immediate end to saudi-led air strikes as the coalition campaign enters a new phase. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up italy's prime minister calls for europe to be more human when attacking the migrant crisis we go inside a holding center in libya where migrants say they'll still risk their lives to get to europe 113,000 iraqis have nowhere