lucia's to stop their deeds activity as we have. with nice language because we were keen on the many people and on yemen and by them are probably the misunderstood when we are in assault in in a way that. might have been understood by them oh that's why it's representing to them a kind of weakness from our side they misunderstood. and probably the thought that we are we in off to feel for them to stop the conspiracy that is why they. did what they have done we were trying to advice them but we were at vies them we were advising them because we were key in the about this country but they have been involved in such a critical day indra's situation they were. using

a word. that proved they were keen to go into the wrong path and clear statement that carries a lot of hostility and i would. talk. to the eye grocers with a different language under the title of turning a new page. yes it was normal because things are built on other things they were the nation the aggressors have this and then media activity was all over the place and. the language of the media the media the schools was unified

between these militias and their media people and the aggressors the countries of the coalition the countries of aggression so they were going through the same wave in a very ugly and frank way it was a big surprise to paypal it was a big surprise to the honorable people who think about the benefits of power come tray even in the congress the general people's congress there were shocked and they were not to believe what they go in on the release saying that the really talking to aggressors what are the reasons behind this new transfer to the other side suddenly you talk to the aggressors against your people. then the military side was there

the military partnership through. coverage and tell really shelling and supports of these criminal militia and with the air support for them with of stallman the capital of sanaa they start saying they have control there is. they have control. over the whole city. we rest of the rest of this is media propaganda. that is abdullah money count who three the leader of yemen is who think of rebels addressing his country men after news of ali abdullah saleh is evil death of the president of yemen alstad from power in twenty twelve has been killed the news of his death has been confirmed by

silas political party and his former allies turned falls healthy rebels abdel malik out who feel in his address to congratulating the here many people on the death of dollars salary and saying that many of them were shocked that he switched allegiance just a few days ago you'll recall that i have dulles ali had reached out to the saudi led coalition in yemen fighting against the who these are saying he wanted in a political solution to the war in yemen now this is all happening as you many army times have been rolling into the capital sanaa to fight against the who the rebels the alliances are clearly shifting and changing the face of this nearly three year conflict in yemen and with siler out of the picture not a lot of questions being asked about how regional players will deal with the new situation on the ground you are with al-jazeera. is just gone past six p.m. in sanaa fifteen hundred g.m.t. in our continuing coverage of this breaking news out of yemen the civil war in

yemen has turned another bloody chapter today throwing the middle east poorest country further into chaos in the past few hours as i mentioned it's been confirmed by both the who the rebels and the party of ali abdullah saleh that the man who led the country for more than three decades has been killed his convoy was reportedly attacks by who thiis at a checkpoint outside of the capital sanaa his assistant secretary general young. was also killed now these pictures on social media outlets appear to show silent moments after his death the television network says the rebels have gained control of a majority of the city and its surrounding areas from silas' forces sally was killed just two days after he publicly broke off ties with all the rebels leading to in trenton and to street battles between rival factions that left dozens of people killed now here's our jazeera as. looking back on the life of ali abdullah saleh.

he once said that ruling yemen is like dancing on a snake's head and no one knew that dance better than ali abdullah saleh mastering every step throughout his three decades in power. believed only he could hold the country together but his legacy is one of corruption war and a deeply divided poor nation. born in one thousand nine hundred eighty two as a young man he joined the army and rose to the rank of qana before taking part in a coup that later saw him become president of what was then north yemen at the age of thirty six for the next decade he oversaw fighting with the communist south the decline of the soviet union weakened his enemies and in one nine hundred ninety north and south yemen became one country with the last as its first president that same year iraq's leader saddam hussein a longtime close ally ordered the invasion of kuwait at the un security council

yemen voted against the use of force prompting the us to cut off millions in aid frozen for his strong support a decade later he was welcome back by the west in october two thousand and attack on the american warship u.s.s. cole off the shores of yemen killed seventeen sailors and injured thirty nine others washington understood that salah a secular leader and yemen we important in the so-called global war against terror he'd won friends and cash but did little to fix yemen's internal problems. rebellion in the north and the separatist movement in the south critics say that more than a dancer was a dark horse of yemen's to mulches politics playing off military and tribes to keep himself in power. the toughest challenge came in two thousand and eleven the arab spring was sweeping across the middle east.

inspired by tunisia and egypt yemenis filled the streets protesting against poverty unemployment and demanding for regime change but they sent was something some never tolerated. yemenis stood for even when the protests turned violent a few months later injured in a rocket attack on his compound saleh was flown to saudi arabia for treatment his face burned and hands bandaged he appeared on t.v. defiant as ever but this was a week a president abandoned by his political allies at home and under intense international pressure to hand over power with yemen on the brink of civil war gulf countries brokered a deal that so power transferred to his deputy ive the rebel months who had in return for solace immunity from prosecution after ten months of protests many yemenis were celebrating his ousting even though the country was in tatters but ali

abdullah saleh had merely gone into the shadows we heard sing the next step in his snake dance and nearly three years later saleh was again at the forefront with a strong support of the army he allied himself with the iranian backed whose his rebels they shared a common enemy his successor heading in two thousand and fifteen a saudi led coalition started a military campaign to restore headed to power and imposed a blockade over the country but the snake charmer was losing direction just a few days before his death turned his back against ruthie's signaling a possible return to the arab fold it was meant to be another great survival act but it turned out to be his last for the. well joining us now. is a professor in the faculty of world studies at tehran university he is live from the iranian cap. thank you very much for speaking to us ali abdullah saleh had not only

extended a hand to the saudis these past forty eight hours he also appealed to iran to negotiate a station of austerities in yemen just give us first your reaction to news of his death and how iran and the rain ians who support the whole fees in yemen my dear this. we have seeing more deaths and destruction which is. a civil war in iran from the beginning of the civil war in yemen the recent civil war in yemen has been asking for a political solution they have been asking for end of hostilities iran also has been asking for the saudi princess to a stop bombing yemen for allowing food and medicine to enter yemen unfortunately we had also been born handsome not to the to the whole thing also to

blame for the current situation that yemen finds itself in. you know it is yemen is totally blockaded it is not possible for iran or any other country to provide any type of material support iran has been supporting. yemenis politically there are religious links there are political links iranian government is anti israel and u.s. yemenis also. and the u.s. and saudi princes so they are obviously common grounds and. but that doesn't mean that you don't control yemen yemenis have had civil wars from the one nine hundred sixty s. many years before the nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution in iraq so blaming iran for the difficulties in yemen is saudi propaganda ploy and it's not

really working out because they are losing on the ground losing they have a spent billions of dollars worth of killing thousands of civilians women and children policies in yemen is not working out the same way their policies are. also spending a lot of money propping up the whole thing is how the iranians got also spent a lot of money propping up the whole season what is going to be iran's strategy going forward now that where it seems to be in this new situation as far as yemen is consent. i think iran's new is going to be exactly what iran asked for some years ago which is the stop of us that is finding a political solution. the saudis saudi princes have. not realized the fact that yemen does not have a military solution they need to realize this pounding civilians in yemen and they

need to allow a political solution to be reached unfortunately we are not seeing that yet maybe that of the former president will result in a change of policy in the saudi capital we need to realize that continuation of the civil war will result in more deaths and destructions and you're not going to see any peaceful coexistence between different yemeni factions as long as you have the saudi princes following the current policy. just to to return i ask you once again are we going to continue seeing the rainy and support for the whole thing is if as you say the situation continues to deteriorate that it doesn't look like this war is going to end anytime soon how much longer will iran back the whole thing. iran.

you know. for many many years to come because they are. lots of ideology and political linkages so iran's support for yemen will continue as long as we have iran iran support but the support is going to be political. and when the blockade and i'm sure you know any and people an iranian government will send a lot of humanitarian support when they are allowed to do that ok thank you very much for speaking to us for desire of tehran university joining us there from the iranian capital also with us here in the studio in doha is our senior political analyst marwan bashar and andrea is craig as well from london's king college thank you both for being here i want to get to what the iranian guest there said in just

a moment about iran's future strategy in yemen but just for our viewers who are joining us now i think it's important to pause and talk about how important a moment this is for yemen the death of ali abdullah saleh marwan we heard the who the leader say just a short while ago that this is an exceptional and historic day for the yemeni people just how important and dangerous a moment right. it's a big moment it's it's a turning point. on two levels historic and political. historic because the name of ali abdullah saleh has been associated with yemen for four decades every since he took over i think it was more than seventy eight he was basically the ruler dictator of yemen for three and a half decades until he was basically deposed under popular pressure and regional. so the contemporary history of yemen is associated with and his autocratic all

right and his changing of alliances one day he's with the saddam hussein one day he's against one day he's forty unification of yemen then he turns on his allies in the mid ninety's it's a long history of changing alliances and so on so forth and yemen kept on being part and parcel of this changing of the mood and changing it within the regional alliances on social things all in all yemen was stable but was poor all in all they discovered oil but it was in smaller quantities and it didn't really feed in any useful prosperity within the country. if anything under stalin we saw more and more of a failure of the state and the rise of al-qaeda within yemen and so on so forth now politically speaking of course this is a whole new picture now in yemen since the security situation will change now that saddam is dead because the congress party that he led for a number of decades now will probably not be the same it's already not the same

since it's left. sin it's left being in control of yemen because this was what you call a state party it benefited from being in the state in the patronage system that it controlled today i've decided has gone it's state power is gone a good part of its ammunitions and whatever it was left that took over from the state that's gone so all in all today i think there's a bit of a turning the chapter on that i think the whole sees with their control of sun and being basically in control have also lost an important allies going ask you this because we heard identical huth the congratulating the yemeni people and so on does the death of ali abdullah saleh make the who these stronger or weaker today in today's yemen what if you if you listen to him and i were just listening to him in arabic and he took on religious grounds the moral high ground and the emotional high ground i mean he really could not the entire scene of the any political system

blaming the betrayal of saleh the moral decay of sylia and his followers and and sold so forth saying that he betrayed us with those who he just called only recently enemies of yemen and solve so forth so certainly he was weakened but and this is goes into your interview with our iranian guests if there's a good number of things we don't know exactly what's going to happen but it's probably an open sea now for iran to say you know another guy has gone very real. lies is not out. at one point and for a long time was a bathurst he was an ally of saddam hussein he wasn't exactly a pro at all but the how things are and i think now we would see bridges maybe between to her on and so on are like we haven't seen before but that also depends on what the saudi arabia is going to do is going to be many question exactly what i

mean you know you talk about we asked to guess about what iran strategy was going to be. going ahead in yemen but that all depends on what the saudis do next doesn't it when you know yemen like libya like syria and so on so forth is a yemeni situation but it's also in a huge way a regional issue and yemen could not have been determined in terms of its future without those factors from the outside including saudi arabia united arab emirates and iran in the way they played yemen yemen became whether we like it work or not whether your guest likes it or not a proxy war now whether the whether the iranians did as they are being blamed by their nemesis in the region saudi arabia and the united arab emirates as having armed with these and are they being behind the success of the hoses and taken control of somehow that's maybe a bit exaggerated but certainly there is support for the whole thing from iran so yemen and yemen's future is held hostage to these regional configurations and

that's why they're important for diplomacy they could not be underestimated because there is no military solution for yemen there is no proxy war solution for yemen so your abia is lost today in yemen just because it was an ally because it's also been losing and who's gaining. iran is getting influence and. i want to bring you in before you talk about the regional players because what's happening in yemen really i mean has to do with what's going on in this region as well just on what i've done american who he was saying a short while ago he talked about a new day for the yemeni people but is it really can give many is with alley of dallas ali out of the picture look forward to a better future or is it actually going to get much much worse before it gets better absolutely is there a yemeni people question mark you know can they be united under one flag i think what we've seen him do is very similar to what has and. in southern lebanon you

know trying to rally the people around the flag and saying you know we the yemeni people you know making himself look like he's the social political leader reaching out to everyone being inclusive but he's far from it and he doesn't he has a lot of political support domestically beyond the zaidi community but it doesn't mean he can actually speak on behalf of all the yemenis so for the time being there will be infighting there we infighting even. potentially within the who these different within the g.p.c. which is a. party there will be a completely new reshuffle of powers and power players in the country and that that is going to be violent right and so that is the short of it i think we will see a lot more violence before we can see any betterment and then the question is who because it isn't as my one said this is a proxy war and what will the international players do there with these proxies on the ground as they're trying to secure their interests the problem here is that everyone who is involved in yemen including all the yemeni players are not interested in a coherent inclusive yemeni solution everybody at the moment is fighting for their

own interests so do the saudis so do the iranians the iranians have tried to play on the fact that they are disenfranchised community within the country trying to reinvent shows them to a certain extent but again not doing that in an inclusive manner but in a quite exclusive manner so whatever comes to the who this comes at the expense of other factions within the country i asked against iran how much longer the. the rains would continue to support the whole thesis if the situation does get worse as a lot of people are predicting could we see direct involvement from the rains and the saudis possibly i mean the the iranians don't fight direct was that's not what they do i mean their strategy their military doctrine is all about indirect surrogate warfare and their surrogates that's what they've done in lebanon and syria that's within iraq that's what they're potentially do in other places in the gulf as well so they would never directly get involved they don't need to they have enough people on the ground operatives that you know that doesn't agree with you know what i mean i mean there's just been in iraq and there have been in syria but

what is not in a major conventional kind of the war is no major combat operation where you see iranian troops with their baton and tanks moving into the country but they don't need to because they have their own kids force on the ground you know they have operatives thousands of operatives in syria thousands of prison in iraq and they have a lot of people in yemen as well move been training them but i think there is an important point to be made as my one said already they the who these were empowered by the republican guard they were powered by power by the people who are working for ali abdullah saleh have losing them means they lose some military capability and that goes also to the missing ballistic missile system the ballistic missiles were minister by the republican guard and the republican guard were the ones who knew how to do it who these guerrilla fighters they fight in the mountains the most of them didn't have the technical know how they got it through the rains but they also got it through the republican guard so i think the who these are weakened but so is everyone else in yemen nobody is really gaining from what is going on at the moment and i think the iranians it will have to why would they step out now because

there is an opportunity now the question is how are they going to step it up and yet is there an opportunity for someone else possibly not even yet on the saudis to step into this crisis now and perhaps find a solution to it we've you know heard of the u.n. being mentioned and so on the americans and so on who stands to gain if you will from resolving the current situation you know i've been doing. political and strategic analysis for so long that i'm no longer surprised by the stupidity of leaders. just don't shock me anymore. and i'm afraid that what happened today is going to move a good number of readers including the person we just heard the leader of the whole thing is including his our allies in tehran including the people in abu dhabi in saudi arabia and others i think i think a lot of people are going to miss conclude what just happened today what just happened today is another series another part of the series another part of the mess another level to the mess in yemen that they've created in the end of the day

. i do medical who think and talk about moral high ground and about the betrayal of silence but didn't he betray the people in yemen wasn't that a coup against a legitimate government in yemen i mean who is he to talk about moral high ground and and betrayal when he himself betrayed the any people and countless deaths since then and who are the other people who got involved militarily strategically in a proxy way in the question of yemen that can take the moral high ground they've all destroyed yemen like they destroyed syria and they keep on concluding the wrong lessons from it and that's what troubles me for that. when you look at the situation and you can tell like you can tell from most other civil wars there are no winners of civil wars there are losers of civil war even those who actually can make it militarily and slaughter the other part of the population not winners they

just killed you know whatever number of their own people when you kill tens of thousands of yemenis you're not a yemeni victor you're not a yemeni occupier you're not a yemeni. leader you are a criminal who just killed so many of your own people and we can see that there is a united nations formula for a diplomatic solution based on the conciliation and best people coming together understanding that because excuse my disagreement but i think that there is a yemen so many attempts every concierge in yemen before in these past decades it never worked go back to what i just said earlier i am stupefied shocked by how leaders are so stupid and that's that's what history tells us they don't learn the lessons until all was it's too late look you know we know basically who's responsible for what we know who paid the price we don't know who's going to

come on top at this point in time because i assure you no one is going to win yemen or say i mean no one is going to come out to say i the last word in yemen and everyone else has been defeated another saudi arabia or iran or the whole thing is not optimal. and of course we know what happened. in a question like yemen and i must argue because this is part of the reason. even on the long term in syria despite the russian intervention in the long term or in libya despite the western intervention in the end of the day libyans yemenis syrians and other arab countries they will have to make up their minds are they going to live together as citizens within the one country in some sort of a modern state will be not too prosperous or whatever or they're going to continue in their civil war mode because if they drew the conclusion from what happened today that they need to continue not invest in the war in yemen yemenis are going to suffer more and nothing else is going to stand by marwan and andreas i'm going

to bring in now mohammed john june who is that the g.c.c. summit in co wade regional leaders of the gulf cooperation council are meeting today the foreign ministers are meeting today and tomorrow the heads of states will meet and mohamed. already this g.c.c. summit was a very crucial one because of the dispute between. and sundry then it's on lies but now with these developments in yemen all eyes are going to be on what's going to be said that any reaction so as to what has happened in yemen in the death of value of that aside. all of the short answer to that is no there is not yet been any official reaction and we are awaiting to hear if there will be some statement made in this meeting of most of the foreign ministers of the g.c.c. countries we must remember that the foreign minister about and and the foreign minister of the u.a.e. have not shown up this evening to have more junior ministers there in their place that being said though this was already a much more unpredictable g.c.c.

summit than we're used to because of the issue of the book blockade against many analysts had assumed that this particular g.c.c. summit was at the very least going to be delayed possibly by weeks possibly by months they did not expect the conventional wisdom was not that it was actually going to happen as originally planned on december fifth and december sixth will now hear what here we are we are on the eve of that g t summit although it is still not clear who all will be attending when it comes to the leaders of these countries with regard to yemen though obviously this throws a monkey wrench into what's going on right now because it was expected obviously that really what was going to dominate the conversation here was going to be the call for crisis trying to bring some unification to the g.c.c. trying to put on a brave face trying to at least show the world and the region that this institution was not beyond repair at such a dire time when now you have this happening in yemen obviously that's going to be

concerning to all of the g.c.c. countries because this adds another complication another layer of instability to an already very unstable region ali. i want to jump in kuwait city thank you very much for that and i want to bring in mon bashar once again our senior political analyst . as if the g.c.c. didn't have enough to deal with already marwan. and when i left dulles sally extended his hand to saudi arabia they welcomed they seem to welcome it does that line still exist now with him out of the picture as one of the saudis going to do in yemen what i just heard it's not confirmed so you know we'd like usually to confirm anything before we put an ad but i just heard that the iraqis who have a son and i think before they had his nephew sending them back and he's going to have a press conference sometime i don't know when today or tomorrow as if yemen is yet another monarchy or sort you know we have now already the son it's amazing you know

because yemen syria iraq libya these were not supposed to be one archy's you know the son is not supposed to take from the father but here you have it so dies today and already the son is already being promoted by the country to take his father's place right as head of the congress party now let's remind our viewers around the world that the the real tragedy started here when one the whole things took over by some sort of a coup a military coup control of sanaa the capital in yemen and then things got escalated then got worse when saudi arabia led the coalition because it felt that its security got security was threatened by an iranian influence in yemen the young defense minister in saudi arabia mohammed winston and the youngest minister of defense in the world thirty two ordered the invasion of one of our neighboring

country before he went on his honeymoon and i don't think he thought through the circumstances and he didn't think through the scenarios and certainly. it appears to me he did not think through the exit strategy when you when you order an invasion of a neighbor country thirty two a country like yemen a very very complex country you would think that you would have some sort of an exit strategy or some sort of a political solution to put on the table once you do manage whatever maneuvers you can we are now in the end of the third year of the war that was launched in. march two thousand and fourteen fifty two thousand fifty sort of so we are in the end of the third year of the war and so what is the result there is not is disease death and destruction countless number of people so the g.c.c. has a responsibility for their g.c.c. has a certain responsibility moral political and humane for what is happening in yemen and i think i would hope that tomorrow the leaders of the juices countries will

step up to the plate and will offer hope for yemen in the form of a diplomatic initiative of sorts or anything that resembles it's into hope for yemen because you know one of the phrases that making the rounds on social media today is that saudi arabia span be in yemen has also failed what is going to be planned view andrea is is there going to be a clear. policy going forward now that. big joke i mean yesterday looked like they had a new joker to play and it seemed like an easy exit strategy you know a face saving measure to get out of this this quite mild this war in yemen that the saudis are desperate to get out of because they can't afford it anymore the emmys and the the iraqis on a slightly more comfortable situation here because the baseness cells they have really secured aid and you know they have built up a militia which is relatively robust they're well equipped they're not involved in the in the quick my and the infighting that's going on in the north and at the

moment so for them you know they've secured their objective in yemen the saudis have an object of a secure the objective they haven't secure the southern border they haven't really eliminated the missile. threat as they claimed in twenty fifteen they haven't achieved any of the objectives as my one said there is has never been a saudi strategy for yemen and there's definitely no strategy with n.b.s. as someone who doesn't do things with strategies quite impulsive so he will now have to sit back and return to the drawing board and say what could we possibly do to get out of this quickly at the moment i don't know what kind of opportunities would create themselves i think there is and it might be an attempt by the u.a.e. to promote sila who is his son because he's been in the emirates for a long time but has been under house arrest i'm not sure how much of a willing player he is willing wants to be for the emirates big question mark but you know if you can create another hereditary system this is not how yemen works and definitely not that's not how the g.p.c. works so i really don't think that this is going to work but you start a point of clarification on the united arab emirates you know for six months now

we've been talking about why the g.c.c. countries accused got out of punching above its weight. and qatar did punch above its weight thankfully for questions of arab spring for questions promoting humanitarian democratic whatever processes in various arab countries but look at the united arab emirates it's involved in everything we just heard this involved in yemen including secret prisons including militias including taking over certain parts of yemen where they are being responsible for the escalation but not just yemen they've been involved in libya it turned out that they also been involved in syria and in eritrea and what we heard just the last couple of those have been involved with the russians and the americans are something which i don't know what is the i'm right he's objective well it's like objective for a lot of small countries with with a lot of money there is to project influence and there are young industrious leaders in the united arab emirates who are trying to project power in various parts of the region and up into the world because why would you mediate between the top team and the russians were no one else would want to do that in some faraway

island that you have a number of hotels it's kind of weird but be that as it may the whole punching above one's weight really backfires when it does involve the livelihood and the and the actual lives of people in yemen so the united arab emirates and saudi arabia need at this point in time to recall aberrate recalculate what just went down and now that their last ally of sorts has gone if they're going to revive his son to be his successor and try to go again to another three year cycle of war that would be a complete tragedy not just for yemen but also for the region you mentioned the trumpet ministration marwan and i want to bring in our correspondent in the us now kimberly hall kate who is live from washington d.c. kimberly yemen has of course been an important battleground in the u.s. led war against terror in this region any reaction first to the news of his death.

now the president is on route to salt lake city and we hope that he might make some comments when he spoke before the cameras he did not speak about about yemen and the recent developments there but certainly this is an issue that has been of increasing importance here in washington if not the president most immediately certainly from his advisers and also on capitol hill and this is why i think there were many that perhaps hoped particularly in the anti-war community here in the united states that with donald trump and any potential win that he may change u.s. policy when it comes to yemen but it appears that is not the case it seems to be an extension so far at least of of what has been put in place under barack obama. just to clarify what the policy was under george w. bush and then barack obama of course there has been as you point out a very pointed campaign against a.q. a.p.

is has taken many forms but certainly has been funded heavily by the millions in terms of not just weapons sales but also counter intelligence efforts and advisement but there has been a growing unease in capitol hill most recently in september when a bipartisan group of lawmakers said wait a second what is our policy here now under the trumpet ministration it's unclear the american people or at least those who are aware because it doesn't capture the headlines here in the united states as it does outside the united states fairly frequently but there is this sort of feeling that the policy is murky and need some clarification so there was this bill introduced to try and do just that now we should point out that well that these sort of drone attacks accent or a under barack obama were significantly stepped up closer to the end of his administration we saw kind of a putting on of the brakes of future military sales but once on a truck came into office those brakes were released. and the u.s.

senate as recently as june sort of putting that effort back into place and was highly touted of course when the president visited riyadh so there's there are many in the united states at least at the academic level at the political level who are maybe wondering a what is the u.s. policy viz of you not just yemen but the middle east that needs clarification but also to it with respect to yemen there is this recognition that there is a certain sense of hypocrisy when it comes to that policy given the fact that we see when it comes to syria for example to trumpet ministration using words like that bashar assad is a butcher that there is certainly very serious aggressions going on in syria but yet kind of turning a blind eye to some of the saudi backed efforts that are taking place in yemen really using phrases out of the state department like displeased or frustrated so certainly least at the academic level the political and policy level folly there is

a recognition that there needs to be clarification but that certainly hasn't come and it hasn't come from the president as recently as the last couple of hours when he had the opportunity to speak before reporters when he was speaking on camera on route to salt lake city you responded see in this region has certainly been a very confused one thank you very much for that can be a whole can live for us in washington d.c. if you're just joining us on al-jazeera continuing coverage of the death of yemen's former president ali abdullah saleh let's take a look again at the main factors that brought down. in yemen and his role in the current conflict he was accused of corruption and amassing billions of dollars during his time as the leader which ended after pro-democracy protests began as part of the arab spring in two thousand and twelve hundreds of you many's were killed after his government's crackdown on protesters a few years after he was ousted. yet again as an important player and yet many politics with healthy fighters in twenty fifteen but in a surprise turn of events he turned his back on his rebel on eyes in. televised

speech on saturday formally breaking ties with the whole thiis with me now on set is my job where he was a professor of modern contemporary history of the middle east at qatar university and also with us know how it was a visiting fellow a deal has brookings center good to have you both with us. a huge moment with you in yemen history no doubt. what do you think went wrong so ali abdullah saleh why did these lives turn on him well i mean i think that you know he was playing with fire obviously here to exhausted all of us options you know and this was evident in his constant shifting of being you know an ally with the saudis an ally with the whole fees and you know as we know they were solid and they're both these were sworn enemies for many many years and so there's this tactical alliance that sala had with the whole thing is was obviously a very weak one and so for him to quickly turn around and turn to the saudis and

extend a hand of dialogue obviously infuriated the whole fees and they knew that you know that he wasn't as serious about his alliance with them and so i think that you know they what has happened today has demonstrated that there are not going to go down without a fight and and their their their ability the power that they have to to counter sort of has quite a village they are reports circulating right now unconfirmed as of yet that the any iraqis are actually trying to send i have done a solace son back to yemen. to perhaps take over from his father how dangerous a situation could that be give given that as you say the who these aren't willing to give up without a fight right well i mean i think that you know it's somewhat unsurprising that this has happened you know from the very start and here i'm talking about the massive uprising against in two thousand and eleven from the very start the gulf neighbors worked very hard to ensure that whoever took his place was someone of the

family and what i mean by that you know the other the rebel motörhead for example vice president for sixteen years. ali mohsen ahmar who was the leading military commander in solace government was appointed as vice president to head the last year and so you know this this move if it in if it is indeed true that son is now being sort of pushed to to to replace him this is somewhat unsurprising in the sort of broader strategy of trying to you know control who takes the place of solace my desire. i think it was very clear that the shadow of abdullah saleh and the many politics it's hard to avoid it was very clear i mean in the appointments done in the last four years people surrounding i mean as michael he was saying so that is when one important. factor to be mentioned when it comes to the killing of . how much this killing actually would affect the whole political sort of yemen at

the moment the time where basically there is sort of fragility of the state more and more right who are the power players right now internally not externally but internally we've mentioned his son who's possibly returning. the former vice president who is now the internationally recognized president of yemen it's quite complicated all of this internal political situation right now is there anyone that stands out that could actually help resolve the situation in yemen. i think as. as other cases in. countries where there with this arab spring there is a serious a problem of. you know political legacy you know a potential of leadership who can lead the country after you know the president or the you know vice president leaving that's the case we witnessed in yemen and yemen in egypt and in libya the same the same in syria as well i think what we what we

see now that the it was ability. to bring. in if you if that's a potential leader he's missing now so that's the reason why the focus now on his son and his coming from that i mean it's because there is a reality there is a political vacuum when it comes to the readership of yemen no no no your thoughts on who could step in to fill this political. you know i mean obviously we have. the leader of the whole thing as a key player. and. you know sure he's the internationally recognized president but at the end of the day that doesn't really mean. you know he never really had strong support he was never really viewed as a legitimate president as a powerful president by many yemenis i think it remains to be seen who will become sort of the viable replacement for. as i mentioned before you know there are several members of tribe of his family who worked within his government from

before the arab spring uprising in two thousand and eleven and so we may be seeing whether it's the in the writers or the saudis or others pushing some of those figures to fill that void what about the many on me today there isn't a yemeni army isn't it what is their position today who are they with well i think i mean that's an interesting question given the sort of the complex military factors inside of yemen ali mohsen armor who i am mentioned before why. as the leading military commander under under stalin he was very much kind of taken aback . that back in the last couple of years however there have there has been some movement there he as i said he's become the vice president of head of the and he made a statement last month that were in support of the saudi involvement in the war and so you know i think it it remains to be seen exactly what will

happen militarily in him and of course removing a powerful figure in the history of yemen doesn't change ambition of the outside players because this is what it's about at the end outside players who've always been involved in yemen's internal affairs whether societies ukrainian c.m.e. ratties how do you see the policy of these countries now changing after ali abdullah saleh is dead is anything substantial going to change in their policy well i think that their priorities will remain the same i think for the u.s. you know the car the threat will remain a priority for the saudis of course but as we heard our correspondent say just a short while ago we don't know what the u.s. strategy is right now it's very unclear what the americans want out of this region their policy is not clear so can we really talk about you know the you know the war on terror and so on when we don't know what the american strategy is for yemen and

the wider region well the spite the fact that you know there have been conflicting . messages out of the you know out of the white house i think that you know the the threat of terrorism the so-called war on terror regardless remains a priority for the u.s. you know it's not like the u.s. understands the intricacies of the hoa fees fighting the loyalists or you know and the southern secessionist movement in yemen it's not like the americans fully understand the even care about it and i think that you know some some of those major. these will remain the same here in the same world whether it's the us which is i agree with you i think the priority to the americas there weren't or i mean this this isn't what trampas started his are actually talking you know. a village where basically approved to be civilians were killed. in the last year before actually before he started his business and i think the priority of the united states will turn around and that is the reason why we did not see any american role

in yemen in the last year at all i mean there has been no american role despite the fact that they support the saudis a poor look and even the support even the support of the military operation in yemen was not really the support expected from the so so it is they expected more from the united states so this administration agree with how to monitor and to intervene where it is appropriate i think. administration they have done maybe some intelligence support to the saudis rather than you know serious intervention and just you know i mean the u.s. has been quite directly supporting the saudi led coalition's military intervention in yemen and the sense that they i mean they've been refusing saudi jets in midair so that they can continue bombing yemen into oblivion so and there have been very strong arguments made within the u.s. senate and also in that within the u.k. government sort of you know arguing that you know if it's there they are so the

involvement of the u.s. and u.k. is so direct short of of course ground troops but it is it is there i mean refueling jackson matter to continue bombing the country that's quite direct i would say all right let's just pause a moment and take a look at the shifting alliances in yemen which has been further complicating what was already a very complex situation on the ground ali abdullah saleh who was ousted by a popular uprising in two thousand and twelve formed an alliance with the iran bad toothy rebels three years ago that alliance which was always described as shaky. collapse in forces loyal to both sides of spent the past few days fighting just hours before sun is death yemen's president the internationally recognized president added rubble months or hard he sent his forces in to fight alongside signers men against the whole fees so the whole feast on themselves isolated badly in forces loyal to siler and the saudi led military coalition that's supporting

hardy's government module a complex situation as we've said shifting alliances every day. do you think the whole fees are stronger today. out of the picture no i think i think. they wanted to have the beginning as a political tool to get in to control the country because he was the right so they can use to control yemen because he's the person who has the military communities who has the political maybe leadership working with. was it was strategy clearly great move from whole foods and they won a lot actually in the in the past few years but. i don't think so there was serious trust between both sides i don't think they were actually trusting either but they were in need of him he supported them by actually providing them with

a sort of political legitimacy in the time where they did not have any political legitimacy this was given to them by arabella sala and that was helpful to hold views for that reason how they control the sun on how they control different gemini so it is it is a support of our dollar sort of and i think today my assessment that the whole political process in yemen the whole watermelon i call it it's in the hand of these it is very heavy i don't think so they will be handling it they will be able to handle it this is a very complicated scene. in this region and i think with the with the immaturity in politics as they see it in the last few years and how they run the country and how they control politics i don't think so they will be stronger after the. you know how are moving away from the politics just a moment and i want to talk about the people the civilians who have been the victims of this three year conflict nearly three year conflict in yemen nearly ten

thousand people have died. inside like coalition airstrikes or you know fighting with the hopeful rebels this is billions are the first victims of this conflict and it. doesn't look like it's going to get any better for that many times no absolutely and i mean this whole ten thousand figure has been. referred to for a very long time now here and this is one survey besame is a very conservative estimate and it's only refers to those killed by the bombing it doesn't take into account those yemenis who have been dying from starvation from lack of access to food and medicine and clean water and those who have been dying from disease i think that you know as we step back from this political mess one thing that is controllable one thing that is actionable that can be done right now in yemen is the lifting of the blockade to help literally millions of yemenis from starving from dying children and women why is that not happen despite the pressure despite the the growing calls from our humanitarian organizations to lift this

blockade what needs to happen you think for that blockade to be lifted how can the saudis be convinced be pushed to end this croqueted i think there needs to be more serious pressure from people such as theresa may and donald trump on the saudis and the iraqis to lift the blockade i think that you know it's. there were some statements made during trees amazed visit decided maybe about you know the poor yemenis that have been suffering the lift. the arm sales is yet another action of war are going to have that advanced you know it's not going to as well i mean as i said there have been there has been internal pressure in the u.s. government and the u.k. government that pressure must be stepped up and must continue to you know make continue to make the legal claims about the illegality of these arms sales to to saudi arabia it just must continue my jobs wary of what role do you see the united

nations playing in a resolution of this conflict in yemen if any if you if you look at the history of this conflict the first. the first political initiative well it's been suggested by the g.c.c. at the dock literacy the solution it was actually meant to maintain the status quo which is keeping our dollars out of him but what i hear is a lot you know supporters now with the fed or i would say would you know of this that initiative united nations intervened but the united nations of the day it needs a political support from superpowers right edition itself cannot you know impose its own solutions it needs political economist support and that political support fortunately i do see it neither from the united states nor from that of telling them even from the europeans even with the whole of. humanitarian crisis in yemen and everyone knows about it is still there is sort of silent in the international arena and the international media is going to listen is actually actually what's happening actually if you feel it is that it is that international community under

the right edition when it comes to yemen they are dead there is no serious action the focus on the political process rather than on the millions of people who are you know dying and look five million yemenis they don't have schools every ten minutes every ten minutes yemeni dies and all of those figures you know are not enough to make international community wake up and say do something to respond to all of that not just one question on the alliances that we were talking about a moment ago do you think that the year many army which is loyal to the internationally recognized president hadi and silas forces together even know the picture together if they came together could they defeat the whole thing. well i mean this is this is a good question i think that perhaps i mean it depends it depends on the type of

warfare i mean and you know we've heard earlier that the hoa fees have the you know experience fighting in the mountains and so on and so potentially i think it's it's it's it's difficult to say because we don't know if such an alliance would actually take place but potentially just you know bigger picture here for a minute just to wrap up this hour of coverage. nearly three years of civil war in yemen where do you see things heading in the near future and in the long term. well i think that you know we we will be seeing you know figures such as perhaps son or you know his former allies you know individuals within has within has government from before two thousand and eleven been put forth by neighboring countries namely the saudis and i am writing is i think that there will be a lot of bloodshed unfortunately and then and the coming days but as i said one actionable thing that can be to actionable things that must be done can and must be

done is the lifting of the blockade and the halting of arms my job briefly your. head i think i shared with you know the fact that you know there is no international willingness to tackle the humanitarian side that is that is absolutely is not fortunately with the political legacy. i don't think so there is a possibility to see more peace in your mind you know the future thank you very much to your goals my job's wary and no i think you do stay with us on al-jazeera folk and to new in coverage of the situation in yemen after the death of the former president ali abdullah saleh earlier today we're back after a very short break here on al-jazeera. on counting the cost the goldilocks oil price is there such a thing as the perfect price of crude for consumers and producers for. initial bubbles and big point loss the future of job creation in africa the only continent where the young outnumber the old counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera.

travel often. by trying to use local forests near broadway rule. books of orange. by icons landmarks valleys and scotland's. new live for adventure. discover new jobs because far away places closer than you think going this is together with cats i always. you are making very pointed remarks where on line the main u.s. response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been criminalized or if you join us on sex no evil person just wakes up a bit in the morning and says i want to cover the world in darkness and this is a dialogue and that could be what leading to some of the confusion the line about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the colobus

conversation at this time on al-jazeera al-jazeera this is up to the to understand when a very different way where they're before something happens and we don't leave our . building a new life on an entirely beach living off the sea and the last. a dream shared why so many but so few make it a reality. a family business led by a mark of a woman with a flair for cooking and a zest when if. my chin is yeah i didn't catch it at this time on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera.