transferred you know, i don't watch tv very much. i shouldn't say this because we are on tv but i do want to see the. i have heard about it and they hope it will be repeated or maybe i can just stream it online. people have told me about it. of course, the book of negroes is new york city. doing the revolution new york was occupied by the british. the british offered freedom to any slave of a patriot not of a loyalist but of a patriot who got to their lines and several thousand slaves got to nuke city in order to gain their freedom and when the war was over, george washington came up to new york to negotiate the british surrender and evacuation of new york. and he said, we would like also slaves but and general clinton the british commander said no unfortunately i can't give you these slaves back because it would be dishonorable. we have promised these people their freedom but it would be dishonorable to them them to turn

them back into slavery. clinton was not an abolition of slavery was thriving in the british empire at the time in the west indies. he wasn't trying to abolish slavery but he said we've promised freedom and taking keeps his promises. so somewhere of a 3000 slaves left with the british concluded a couple of george washington's own slaves. he said of clinton, either way i would like you to keep an eye out for a couple of my slaves. they left with the british. they scattered all over the place. some ended up in candidate, some in britain, some independent sierra leone. some were sold back into slavery by the british and ended up in the west indies so they had the own very interesting stories. but the fact that 3000 or so african-americans gained their liberty through the british not to the americans is another just sign at the contradiction in american history right from the birth of our republic. >> host: absolutely. the book is titled "gateway to

freedom: the hidden history of the underground railroad." professor foner, thank you so much for joining us today. >> guest: thank you very much for having me. >> the foreign affairs minister of morocco will take part in a discussion on combating violent extremism. one of the topics will be u.s.-morocco cooperation efforts on counterterrorism. our live coverage starts and atlantic council 10 a.m. eastern here on c-span2. on c-span3, u.s. customs and border protection commissioner gil kerlikowske will talk about his first year dating agency in some of the challenges he faces. we will have live coverage from the brookings institution at 10 a.m. eastern. >> fighting in yemen has displaced over 200000 people. up next the saudi arabian

ambassador to the u.s. talks about the violence in yemen and and this country's ongoing airstrikes on that country. the national council on u.s.-arab relations hosted this event. >> thank you, dave. good morning everyone. thank you for coming. this shows that the topic itself is timely, relevant and to some of the participants it's indeed urgent. we're talking about a region that is hardly marginal hardly beyond the back of the beyond. we're speaking of the region that has two kinds of oil turmoil and that other kind. with implications to no end of people's interests, their involvement, their concerns their key foreign policy objectives and all of these relate to issues of security and stability. and without security and stability you have no orderly

effective peaceful development. without security you have no stability. without the tube you have no foreign direct investment. without foreign direct investment in the country as poor especially poor and that's pervasively poor as yemen, the future looks more than bleak. indeed, if it only looked bleak, that perhaps would be and the prisoner. now we have a number of resource specialist, some of them have devoted their lifetime to yemen and its implications regionally, globally and nationally locally some regionally -- sub regionally. these two on my right and three americans, to my left including myself, and we will do our best to confine ourselves to 10 minutes each. we will have a discussion. we have cards on your chair. please write a question as opposed to a comment, speech, a

valedictory address so that we can have a cerebral massage your. in terms of yemen i will just very quickly let you know something about the context, indeed how competent and complex this country is the but before doing so we thank the media for being here. if you look around you have a little whiplash. we have 10 of the global international, national and regional media film it is, filming in life. we appreciate especially c-span cnn and all the others that are here to capture this on record for posterity. if the gentleman with the camera on my left will step aside for a minute and i hope my voice carries. we are talking about eight yemen's if you will just to

underscore the complexity. think of yemen as louisiana, as the shape of an american state or a buddha, a shorter boot. you have at least two factors in northern yemen that are at odds with one another and to a degree there's a commonality of interests. you have in the northernmost part of yemen the base of the duties -- they are indeed a recognizable force now. south of the area the capital has been led -- [inaudible] since the end of the civil war september 22 1962 through

march 16, 1970 were saudi arabia back in northern monarchist in egypt and others back the southern sunni tribes. but these divisions are not as pronounced as they are in other places. there's intermarriage between the two. there's a commonality between the two. these are two in the north, and in one area of the north just to the east of the capital where part of the country's mineral wealth is. oil and gas reserves. coming down to the south, what used to be the border between the north and the south, the second largest city in the north north. there's another world and is used to be known as western aid and, protected. it is in this area that they have advanced in the last two

weeks. and posing a challenge of the threat. benders aid in itself. aid was a balanced colony. these were the diamonds in queen victoria's necklace so to speak. adan believe it or not was the world's largest port in terms of ships calling. use have more ships and adan's harbor done yet in qatar and djibouti combined twice over up until into the 1960s. [inaudible] when the suez canal was opened in 1957, it remained close until

1975. it was in this atmosphere that moment that aden lurched further to the left to become a marxist government. there has been no other marxist government in the arab countries in the middle east and in the islamic world like it was in aden based on the power of the port and the prestige in terms of global international trade. then to the east of aden this area here these are tribal small villages with typical yemen the architecture. they're quite different in terms of what drives them. then immediately to the east of them is --

[inaudible] has produced around 10 million yemenis within the last 20 years, the foreign minister, minister of education, minister of injury governors all came from this part of yemen. this is the group of osama bin laden's followers. just east of their is a mahra state. it is from this state here that we're talking about, which the soviets had eyes on at one time and gave some concern to the united states. this is a reason why it was not in the coalition against the houthi because were talking to a neighbor state here.

oman's policy will be driven by its neighbor ms. allows factor is the yemenis outside. the numbers fluctuate upside down. you can say there are a million if you included united arab emirates with saudi arabia and elsewhere. yemenis are all over the world and probably on the moon as some say. they were the first arabs to work and respond to him before, $5 a day for honest days work. [inaudible] this is just to paint the brush stroke of the context you. now we will go to jeremy sharp was with the congressional research service. he is the person who does the

research, writing analytical written worked for the members of the united states congress. their bios are on the materials that you picked up coming in on your seat. i ask that you write a question on the three by five cards and pass them to national council staff who will bring them forward, and i will use them in the q&a. abbas returned to is to get around 11:00 but he called yesterday to say i will be there. so we are looking or an operational logistical feat because he's been in the kingdom in the last 70 hours went, and now he is coming back and this particular event is highest on his agenda. jeremy sharp. [applause] >> thank you john. i wish i could do that to go to a map and give a countries history and a broad brush stroke.

well, first of all thank you to the national council and u.s.-arab relations for hosting this event today, and they welcomed not just immediate and outside guests come a but a special thanks to our congressional clients for coming here today. i like a good analyst i am legally obliged to note that remark to this moment are my own and do not represent those of the congressional research service. i would also like to thank john for moderating this morning. i can tell you firsthand that john can hike the yemeni highlands better than most men half his age. i know that because i panted from behind watching him traverse the yemeni highlands like a little giselle, and don't be fooled, john is quite nimble. so thank you for moderating today. pleasantries aside, this is a particularly unpleasant time for most yemenis. i am always humbled by the fact that i cover yemen from a seat

here on capitol hill, and i am mindful of the fact that perhaps some of our pitiless, perhaps some of you in the audience have friends for extended family members who are enduring quite an ordeal of suffering right now. and suffering that may endure the longer this conflict persists. so i'm constantly mindful of that fact. now because i am situated here in washington, i wanted to give her my remarks toward u.s. policy and what are the implications for operation decisive storm on u.s. policy toward yemen and the region with large. i'm going to make a few policy remarks and then analyze where this is going in the weeks and months ahead. so number one, the obvious point to start with is that there is a serious political imperative in washington did in straight support for saudi arabia at this time, both in the administration and congress. what every me think of saudi

arabia's historic involvement in yemen, for better or for worse, the reality is that u.s. policy in yemen, which is foremost designed to counterterrorism is highly dependent on saudi arabia, not just for counterterrorism but for politically and financially supporting yemenis central government. this is especially true since the post transition that began in late 2011 culminate in early 20 oh. because of the alliance has expanded so far into human character, far beyond what most of us thought just a few weeks and months ago, there has been a lot of signal sent by the administration that we as been a redline has been crossed in saudi arabia's mind and that leads to support the action. this is pertinent amidst a wider regional department of an international and find out that iran nuclear negotiation and the sensitivity the sunni arab perceptions that have emboldened

iran to just a few remarks on iran for a second. for iran who is deaf and supporting the houthi mature and financially, what a great investment units are bring to its it's a high return, low risk investment. iran is with supporting them but the level of support doesn't mayor what's being done in syria, doesn't mayor was being done in iraq doesn't mayor what's being done historically in lebanon. immediate every time it mentions iran and yemen is basically to iran's work for them. inflating the prospect. it's a concern and support to increase in the years ahead, but we have to keep that in mind that we had to sort of measure what is exactly going on there. now, u.s. support for saudi arabia, back to that, one named u.s. official told the "washington post" last week that we've shown what it comes to the security of the persian gulf countries we have the backs, providing the most unique

capability to facilitate their actions. u.s. support for saudi arabia at this time is not just political. there's certainly material element to it. at the back of my ribs my colleague, chris blanchard, his report on saudi arabia has catalogued and documented pentagon and defense department notification to congress that since 2010 there has been planned arms bill for saudi arabia of something like over $90 billion. so would you think about that number for a second, when saudi arabia goes to war in yemen there is a u.s. element that is working behind the scenes. you sell an f-15 to saudi arabia, there is a saudi arabia pilot, but there is a u.s. work being done on the maintenance of the. there's a u.s. refueling and rearmament. u.s. training of the pilot. when saudi pilots went down just a few days ago there was a u.s.

search and rescue operation to assist. so there's a lot we are doing behind the scenes. the administration is not hiding this fact. the white house issued a statement on the day the operation decisive storm began blaming the houthis for causing the crises in yemen, recognizing president hadi's legitimate leader of yemen and president obama authorized the provisions of support to gcc led military operations. the administration claimed that while u.s. forces are not taking direct military action in yemen in support of this effort where established a joint planning in so doing to coordinate military and intelligence support. so that's one aspect of the policy and certainly one that is being played out in public. now, privately we can sort of speculate that yes, we are definitely in support of what's going on but there's a lot of concern perhaps that the longer that this persists, the greater the chance for terrorists on the ground to become empowered. i'm really glad that i woke up

at 5 a.m. to prepare for this today because had i not i would not have checked the news cycle and seeing that there was actually a major operation last night where aqap terrorists in what seemed like a major operation at a certain facilities and then while one group is attacking the facility to another group attacked a jail and broke it open and several hundred aqap militants escaped including a high level senior regional commander. so we know from history, we know from yemen's history that when he said to secure the forces dissipate, take sides abandoned their posts, but that leaves a vacuum for aqap the islamic state, whomever to take route. so there's a lot of concern that this is happening and it may have been continually if the

conflict drags on. now, there's also sort of the immediate concern of how does the u.s. conduct counterterrorism operations in yemen as this conflict persists? the administration has released several statements trying to we assure the american public we will take action if there is an immediate risk to u.s. homeland security. that we have assets in the region, offshore assets assets in djibouti, in saudi arabia that we will employ if there is a terrorist threat. at the same time logic would be paid that is our embassy operations are suspended, if we pulled out a certain level of military personnel that that's going to certainly impact our on the ground knowledge of what's going on. that's an obvious point but there's also something else that's out there, and that is

since 2006 as part of our ct strategy in yemen with the a train and equip program. and i think one concern that hasn't been expressed in that there is peoples on yemen yet is that if this conflict persists we've made a lot of investment in the yemeni military. and if there's damage done to those investment, oath material and human, that's going to be a lot harder to reconstitute our program in the years ahead. and so there's a lot of concern that that doesn't take place either. and, finally the fourth part about u.s. policy in this conflict is that the u.s. has really tried to get its own personnel out of harm's way. as i mentioned we have suspended embassy operations, moved our diplomats to the -- we moved all of our special forces, trainers and military personnel out of an airbase which was near a nearby

town that was attacked by aqap militants just a day before we evacuated our personnel. where is this all going? talk about some aspects of u.s. policy, but it's going to be a lot is going to be dictated by where this conflict goes in the days and weeks and months ahead. and an oversupply way of looking at things is just take two tracks. one is that this is a military conflict, that the saudi led coalition, either by ground, air, bbc report a few hours ago that there was a navy land forces in aden. i have no idea. some may know better than if you're on the phone tweeting or whatever. there's a military dimension to this where the coalition pushes everyone back, push you back from aden. push the houthis back. perhaps to the capital, perhaps beyond. but also think force is being used in another way in

statecraft and i think that something we need to look at. and that is perhaps force is being used to break apart the marriage of convenience. i think if you look at what's been put out in some of the pan-arab media lately there've been a lot of reports of leaks between the former president and the international community claiming that he wants to negotiate a deal for himself preserve his immunity. ..

because look at its core it's a rational actor concerned with his own preservation and the preservation of this family. his son is placed in the admin. he is a constant negotiator. the u.n. sanctions committee should still put out a report estimating it is unbelievable that paula has held somewhere between 30 to $60 billion from yemen. that puts him towards the top if you haven't spent it all supporting patronage in yemen. i think that is something to look at, to carefully analyze.

what is the deal if there is any and what does it mean for president hadi. he's the official ruler of yemen. if there is one day of negotiation, what is it going to look like? i will leave it to the rest of you. thank you very much. >> thank you jeremy. >> thank you dr. anthony. it's an honor to be on a panel with distinguished members. i feel like i've forgotten member of crosby stills nash and leibowitz. [inaudible] my remarks also reviewed the department of defense community states government.

jeremy has taken a lot of my thunder. it's awkward when you're in violent agreement with members of the podium is like to address a few aspects focusing on implications on yemen and its neighbors. i won't get too wonky but you can ask me questions if you want to know about precision guided munitions. first background. it is clear to us now unclear to decide these that it was a mistake to live saleh and seven. the calculus must remain as head of his party would prevent conflict and having hindsight considerable hindsight it was misguided. it is now clear that saleh retain parts of the forces, the extent to which the armed forces are loyal was brought into question with this summer's rapid advance into the capital. a 10 spread of confrontation which ended with tremolite of

house arrest and interrogation of the system. the lack of the armed forces opposition southward can only partly be explained by inefficiency and the normal fighting problems with a patronage-based army. there is some treachery involved as well. to who these are misunderstood as well. it is not well known here than in some parts of the country that houthis are not a unified fighting force in their support may be transactional and shallow in parts of the country that we have the saudi's consider concord. at the end of the day all politics are tribal and armies generally do not do well in areas occupied by hostile tribes. when you talk about the air campaign. my bias, my career has been spent in the ground forces, but it is important to look at what we are doing here.

the saudi's for their part have concluded both air forces as well as to surface missile brigade are under de facto houthi controller made a point of targeting capabilities in the bombing campaign. they hit the service to missile that those ties to make sure the rubble bounce once it was destroyed. it is interesting to note ditches to greater the runways and attack hangers but not the aircraft itself. they seems to be an idea that saudi skill to get many stable reconstitute its self and have those once they do it. as long as the runways cratered they can't fly. the spectacular series of explosions were proof of the determination of the coalition to prevent retaliation against saudi soil. indeed, there've been reports that famous patriot batteries in its upgraded to the southern border to prevent an attack in a

few saudi's have stated the sky at the selector of military action. the air campaign in yemen is impressive. saudi arabia has shown that it learned from an improved on its general unimpressive conduct of the border war with the houthis in 2009 in a specifically a general criticism you hear from everybody was the saudi air force relied too heavily on newly acquired provision guided munitions or pgm spirit a poorly coordinated bombing campaign did little damage to serious military targets has stirred up condemnation for hitting civilians. reportedly there are as many as 1000 saudi casualties and a moroccan and jordanian forces had to deploy to bolster the saudi forces on the ground. the contract was extremely impressive. they skillfully laid the political groundwork for building an international coalition which sends a decisive message to both the houthis and

her radiance. most importantly is jeremy mentioned i think what brokaw on the iran deal, the saudi security at the cooperation of the united states. u.s. agree to provide intelligence and logistics support, presumably helping identify in picking targets and assessing the target asteroid strike, which is exactly what was lacking in 2009. this could also be rapidly supplied f-15 parts as well as they provision guided munition. the scarce assets were scarce assets will not only be used more effectively, but also replaced our rapidly and is jeremy mentioned come at the american cooperation extended sunday to the saudi pilots down at cnn is extremely important. i fear campaign grandson, it is effectiveness will decrease not arithmetically, but exponentially. high payoff targets such as scud missile depots are already destroyed. other targets will be disbursed among civilians or mountain

valleys where they can be defended by antiaircraft artillery tribes. as we saw with the kosovo campaign or korea or tom or with world war ii in europe, if you try to achieve a military big tree from the air coming eventually redefine not only targets that which expands, but also redefine victory. air forces cannot seize and hold to rain. air forces cannot seize and hold to rain. "-end-quotes as though the targets this coalition planners were frustrated with the lack of political success. the same will happen if the military effort is not accompanied by an effective political initiative that offers the houthis something other than surrender. the houthis may not be who we think they are. they've always been among a broad group unhappy with political development in the post trends in iraq. which appears to not offended.

this opposition will become more of a broadly based group. if the airstrikes continue outside the overall political settlement, give many operation will hard in. not just among the houthis. they may find what they saw as a proxy war with iran will transform into an actual war with yemen. brown operations site non-yemeni forces and the approaches if the transfer forces can be ejected. i think they're actually a saudi army but great that such size. they are ill at bias. the egyptian army lost 25 dozen soldiers in north yemen in 1960s. an assault from the red sea would force a potentially endless series. the many army showed if you want to be capable of ousting from everywhere south of samarra on their own.

the question is who does the army answer to? loyalties that transit is in yemen. hopefully saudi influence and money could force us back to the yemeni government if they have a happy outcome become more expensive and less likely. a word on aqa ps jeremy foreshadowed. a few ap remains an important security concern for america. both are wrong kids all love -- all the capabilities to mount attacks and indeed on the deputy crown prince. a few ap is a shared concern. yemen has been a campaign against a few ap and we thought that in this morning's jailbreak. saleh was a smart fellow. if they were defeated precisely

the fed is being treated as an american power in the war and terror, should be put in the same box as burma and other international pariahs. it appears they were selected truths. the challenge for policymakers in the united states in the west end and the goal has always been to discern where the line is between treachery tribal politics of local government and the central lack of capacity. the houthis and a few ap have five. -- a few ap have fought. the fighting with the houthis has subtracted from the fight against aqap of global concern. iran did not give birth to the houthis. in support of the houthi is not vital to success. they've exploited the opportunity to state their dog in the eye of the saudi's and it

is possible they may fight there just has to cloud their better judgment. i skimmed over a number of things. i'd be happy to take your questions. on a the close by saying there is no military solution to the current military problem in yemen and i welcome your questions. thank you. [applause] >> thank you david. we now have mr. abbas almosawa, yemeni journalist who has served in diplomatic situations in abu dhabi as well as a route and he has been widely well-received respected journal. translating simultaneously four had will be dr. emad haw. [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: good morning, everybody. greetings to everyone. i will be translated diverse for

a yemeni poet. recently the idea is there is a real tragedy going on in the yemen since the arabs buried and many, many factors coalesce basically a weak state and and yemen and now al qaeda seems to be getting stronger. the [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: there are many groups in yemen and now apparently it buries the remnants of whatever is left of the yemeni state being destroyed by coalition of arab american and european forces. i have not a houthi leather. they have it attacked my family, my people and basically carried on this date.

-- the state. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: the houthis have actually used the libyan example. they have used arms against everybody else, but they have expelled the press event, the legitimate president. they have basically a state. the problem is that the current conflict in the courier war is actually a sustained houthis. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: both saudi arabia and iran have their own agendas and are basically using

yemen, libya iraq, syria to basically eke it out with each other. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: furan supporters its own groups at the same time saudi arabia supports it own groups. the u.s. have committed an egregious strategic mistake in afghanistan and iraq and libya and the problem as you get rid of somebody else, but you don't build something instead. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: yemen basically has a 2000-kilometer border with saudi arabia. there is 1800 orders on the cd. it has become really grounds for a lot of groups that are doing harm. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: the state is weak. president saleh's republican guard has helped the houthis do what they want to do. the republican guard has actually helped the houthis gain whatever ground they have been able to gain. the houthis are not necessarily

state builders. i myself hate war. war is only for destruction. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: is sad that this war is a war of necessity. i really don't think so. there have been many opportunities for a political solution, but it is said that saudi arabia does not have a choice. it does have a choice. all parties have a choice for a peaceful resolution of the problem. basically, the idea is that this war is really helping the houthis do whatever they want to do instead of weakening them. my apologies and missed out on one thing he did mention some thing about there are probably at least 15 million weapons among the people in yemen. >> thank you mr. almosawa. [applause] our last resource specialist is

ms. abbas al-hamdani. the dynamics in arabia know that the al-hamdani had strong words, impeccable roots. sama'a al-hamdani. she is an analyst for al jazeera english and arabic, bbc mbr and a cnn analyst. >> i am very happy to be here in to see so many people in the audience to care about yemen. to the yemeni here and our brothers and sisters, thank you for coming. i am actually going to do something different here that i don't usually do it by other

talks. rather than focusing plainly on the politics and analysis behind everything, i would like to say when i first came your i came to study university i never thought it would stay in this country. my hope was to go back. of course this is becoming less and less of a reality. the situation in and yemen has gotten significantly worse every year. recently a friend of mine sent me a photo of a dry done by a child of six years old of planes dropping bombs on them. and i realized how bad the situation has gotten. i myself was in yemen during the civil war and i participated in the children draw for the life program, but i never thought i would draw a play with things falling on my head. having said that, i would like to represent the voice of yemeni people considering i speak to so many people on the ground in the north and south of yemen. i want to begin with asian that is really suffering today. so many people have died here people are talking about bodies

piling up on the ground. the fighting as a result of houthis fighting with elements of aqap. a shooting star land on and of targeted everyone. and hezbollah alone there are 63,000 internally displaced people. people have fled into villages and at the moment a lot of people can't go anywhere because of the shifting of movements. the airstrikes won't stop. rather than talking about corrections and politicians in having a blame game of the talk about iran and saudi arabia, we forget they're a 26 million people stuck between the things we talk about. everything we see today is important to know as a result of having a weak government having a weak leader. the government had an opportunity from 2011 to 2014 to deliver services of people with anything the left of vacuum for the houthis to step up and take

place. yemen at the moment is surrounded here at our territorial water and air space is considered a no-fly zone. nothing can go in a row. a lot of yemen's population is dependent on age. having said that we import a lot of our oil. 80% of gasoline is imported from the outside in revenues can only last after three weeks. before the war started, we were expecting another shipment that we did not receive. that means there is inflation oil prices going up. the dollar is really, really up. it is impossible to find it in the in there are now laws restricting people. of course then yemen we depend on for more than gas. when you do for electricity. the country is running out of water. at the moment, a lot of countries participated in the coalition are claiming they are there to save yemen. however, 4900 people increasing

every day are stuck in airports worldwide because no crunchers would grant the visas. yemeni don't have the opportunity to get visas to enter anywhere and at the moment, the only country accepting yemeni as refugees in somalia. we have 2400 somali refugees on the ground. iraqi refugees yemen has worked as a home and hoping and however no countries open their doors for a refugees are in the grand and that is very tragic. past that since we are technically an ach, we don't have medical supplies for those who are wounded. we don't have enough doctors. we don't have enough medication. it is getting really, really bad. this could expand for but maybe they matter.

talking about the airstrike i constantly think how can you curb an ideology by launching airstrikes against the people. we have learned before through the drone strikes or other experiences that you cannot fight an ideology by dropping bombs. you need a proper government infrastructure. you need a better education. you need to employ people in order to shift them from fighting with fallacious into participating in to good governance. moreover, a lot of the airstrikes have targeted military sites of military bases meaning if the leader is going to go back to yemen he will not have a military to the period they will have to start everything from zero. they have to build the infrastructure for nothing and everybody on the panel has talked about the role of al qaeda in the arabian pendant to in yemen. yesterday they freed 300 prisoners and are taking advantage of the opportunity to expand on the ground. the problem with the war is the

only group that was capable of defeating and fighting al qaeda and the arabian peninsula was in fact the houthis. what is worse, the houthis went to decide to commit atrocities and blame everything on president hadi from escaping claiming that he tracked the war there. our southern brothers and sisters are suffering from the consequences of these politicians. at the same time, aqap saudi arabia and the arabian peninsula we are not sure how much money they took. what is worse than bad as we help on the ground if we talk about the scenario of having on the ground troops, it is really hard to distinguish who is to in yemen can considering the military will not know the geography and will not be able to distinguish who they shoot out by looking at them. i called on the ethics and rules theory. i request that the saudi government revealed the target

that they have attacked and i actually asked them to be transparent about who they are attacking them to give people a notice of the areas they will target. a few days ago they attacked a weapons depot that was in the heart of sin not end the weapons depot blew up all the weapons and self imploded and missiles came out of the mountain in every direction and that's in a heavily up populated area. the airstrikes taking place are the most heavily populated areas again. so far we don't have any ngo -- international ngo workers. we can get the right statistics however, we have several ngos come up with rough drafts of the number of deaths happening there. considering that there are no joints on the ground and it's hard to tell what is happening i personally depend on the saudi

government to provide us with their targets to know what's going on. besides the effect on human beings on human beings, whether psychological or physical, i want to pay attention to the biodiversity of yemen. a lot of these will cause environmental damage and will affect people's health long term if we don't know what weapons they are using and who they are targeting. the repercussions of this could be very great. we are to have smuggling in yemen. for me personally, i wonder what that means to my sisters back home. are they going to be part of a smuggling operation would they be trafficked as wise i just don't know what is going to happen in the idea it thought terrifies me. looking at what is happening and aden at the moment i'm worried about other minorities as well. this is a time to launch attacks and we have to look at other minorities and protect them.

i guess this is me stepping out of my professional realm and i do request that a humanitarian law is implemented in yemen. unfortunately, yemeni now are stuck between fire coming in and fire within. a lot of people have not had the chance to make lance to evacuate. there were no flights coming and are out of yemen. for instance yemen has many commit many americans. there roughly 40,000 citizens trapped in this fire. so every other country has the defense they are that they cannot evacuate. i think that it is very necessary for the government of saudi arabia that is leading the coalition, of course not deal the country responsible, to reveal what political agenda they have in the future for yemen. i also urge them to have another backup plan because everything that is happening in yemen as a result of having only one plan in yemen which was the national

dialogue conference which i have to say failed miserably. having said all of those things, i think we need to pay attention to the race that will have a lot of turmoil in the future. talking about the military moving forward i really urge the u.s., saudi and the nine other countries participating to pay attention and learned much since i've made out in the dcc in syria at the u.s. and iraq. it is important moving forward and paying attention to have to restructure the military. everything we talk about today, analysts like myself have warned of long time ago. we warned about the failure of the national dialogue and about the expansion of the houthis into the capital. we have warned and warned and unfortunately our voices are not heard and here i am today

warning about the repercussions of the war continuing. yemen is going to be a disaster. isis declared a state and it carried out an operation. so this is an opportunity for me to warned that if this war is continuing without a clear plan, but an opportunity to save people it will recruit more people in the fight into the houthi side, but it is definitely going to move all yemeni against the side of saudi arabia and the u.s. therefore i urge everybody to request the ceasefire for the people to make fans of evacuation to find places that people are trapped in their own houses and resources are about to go down. i also asked for the allowance of shipments of aid and so on to enter the country for the return of some ngos allowing doctors

without borders to come in and treat the patients. otherwise a lot of those wounded would die out of not getting proper health care. at this point i would like to end the conversation, but i would like to point out i am also very well-versed in yemeni politics and the saudi war if you want to ask about that, i am happy to answer. [applause] >> thank you, ms. al-hamdani. i commend all of the speakers for compiling themselves to the 10 minute period. now we have time for discussion and questions and we ask individuals to write their questions on three by five cards and bring them forward so that we have real questions as opposed to statement and valedictorian addresses. several have been asked to me and while i am standing i will answer them as quickly as they

can. one is have been too much been made of the sunni shia divide here. i made it my opening remarks yes indicates that yemen because the divisions between the sunnis and shia there are rather soft. historically they have cooperated those intermarriages. nothing nearly as pronounced as you find to the northern part of the arabian peninsula, although it does exist. it is true what egypt came and had 80,000 troops in support of the so-called sunnis from 62 >> 67 and it is true that saudi arabia plus iran backed those in northern yemen who were the monikers of such. that itself is a window for one. secondly in terms of people saying that saudi arabia is adamantly anti-shia come to the

following. throughout the 60s and 70s saudi arabia cooperated most closely geopolitically, geostrategic play with their brand whose play with the rand who's had of state was shia. in terms of the yemen government over the years who has saudi arabia supported most? a shia head of state. indeed saudi arabia's aid to northern yemen has been greater than that of the world bank imf, united states, great britain, netherlands combined. aspects of it have pertained also to lebanon and its highest record in 1989 the saudi arabia that pushed for reconfiguration of power in lebanon, which enabled the shia element in lebanon to have a greater percentage of power and

authority and influence position than they had before. these are four cases and one can add with regard to syria, saudi arabia's long-standing relationship with syria before the recent travel has been with a government headed by all the shia. these are four examples of reaching out beyond ethnicity, beyond religion, beyond sectarian dynamics and divide to cooperate on interest and strategic commonalities. with regard to ali abdullah saleh what is he into? describes to what some others have said. here you have a situation of an individual who feels that he was ditched or not supported when the arab spring came about. and that's not -- did not want to see yemen devolved into what happened in iraq. when you get rid of a strong

person but did not replace the strong person with another strong person. the same thing and libya. that situation is in shambles and one has to ask with regard to his area but after bush are aside. most of them happen to be beholden to the assad family. what are the implications in terms of getting rid of a strong man in yemen. here we have ali abdullah saleh. no one knows the tribes families marriages, ethnic groups municipalities more than that individual. he's still yearns for security and stability to completely rule and not on grounds of dislike, of corruption, of misrule all

understandable, but what about the implications of doing that given what we have seen where other strong people have been removed fair. this aspect with regard to the united states goes back to the 90s when yemen held the chair of the u.n. security council and did not go along with the consensus to use force to restore kuwait's national sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity. they paid a big price for that and ali abdullah saleh was one that drove those policies. when people talk about dictatorial, authoritarian okay. backwardness, yes and no. backwardness development wise, economic wise, but not

necessarily in terms of a civil society. having been the observer from 93 as the election 97 2,002,006, was just one of 33. the consensus was that these elections were as fair and free and open and transparent as anyone would find among the 100 dirty developing countries. do not overlook that. in 1998 secretary of state madeleine albright chose yemen to host an emerging democracy forum. so these windows must not be overlooked. development in the south was almost an overdeveloped city up until independence in 1967. we are talking about the waste of a lot of talent with regard to the yemeni people who are extraordinarily hard workers and

gives them contributed. this part too seems to be lost in the account. lastly with regard to the south it is not an analogous to south sudan and khartoum. south sudan is but one part of sudan that demanded 50% of the country's oil revenues leaving a dark for and the west, leaving out the west end newbie and the east and one wonders why you have a reaction of violent by these three other regions. in the case of north yemen and south yemen, south yemen played a hard hand and ended up with 50% of the power 50% of the cabinet post and the other 50% deputy ministers. when the percentage of the population was only one seventh, one 15th. so you can see why the south

wanted to retain its powers or regained its powers, but you can also see the animus of the north, and many of whom felt the south took too much got too much, didn't deserve as much. now, jeremy sharp on the questions that the united states relationship with yemen, what are the implications of this? is this likely to result in increased depth and breadth of anti-americanism, hatred towards the united states? the longer that this conflict continues? >> sorry i feel like i should give my opening remarks all over again sitting down. look, one side of me thinks that on any given day when there is

not a major international operation in yemen it is never a good situation as my panelist described. this is a country with incredibly low socioeconomic indicators in terms of human development. on the u.s. side, we have a history now of u.s. kinetic operations in yemen. we talked about publicly in our discourse in washington where mistakes have been made. civilians have been killed. that obviously engenders a great deal of discourse directed against the united states. and certainly, like my panelist said there are more airstrikes that a dairy factories or weapons depots in civilian areas, i mean, that is also going to sell a lot of discourse. in terms of u.s. operations maybe not necessarily saudi, you are getting into broader

questions about how we conduct counterterrorism operations not just in yemen, but pakistan, afghanistan, iraq and syria. these are questions unresolved and open for big debate. how do we protect our own homeland security without creating new generations of terrorists. it is being tested in yemen and they will be tested elsewhere. i don't have the answer to that debate, but it is worth reasoning. >> kernel des roches how long will the legit stake the operational assets on the ground in the yemen like the last including munition -- ammunition and what are the implications for the u.s. yemeni defense cooperation that is now on hold

paralyzed, idling at the intersection? how do you assess the situation? what is your estimate prognosis? >> thank you sir. well, the saudi military spokesman said that the saudi targets are typos, missiles, installations, and then vehicles than lines of communication. unfortunately a rebel line of communication is what you and i would call a road. the target is already very broad. what you will see happen is some forms will run out relatively quickly because there's not a lot of stocks than they are difficult to replace. we don't know for sure what has been used, but based on what they bought i assume payware gravestone, which are british produced are british producer normally used by britain and saudi arabia. if the production line is

relatively small, it is incapable of searching. they will run out of data quickly and what you see as typhoon and tornado will have to move out to the north. the jay dams on the other hand which are the former mcdonnell douglas produced snap ons that our gps guided. they are very cheap. there's a lot of them. they are easy to move around. those will become the target. the paradox is the saudi stocks of pgm's will decline at the same time the targets become harder to find. so you have fewer precision guided emissions at the same time would be required more precision guided munitions and your political frustration increases, which is why i think it is time to put away the stick and show the kerry. you have to have a political solution here because we will not be able to make it happen. the second question about the u.s. military support to yemen. right now i think there is a

lot of consternation within u.s. circles because a lot of the things we have given to this database such as night vision goggles we can't account for. and these are things that we try to track closely, that we inventory on a monthly basis. i actually inventoried beside a parachute brigade, night vision goggles. i got to inspect several years ago. it was immaculate. we don't know where the star. unless you can establish where the czar, we are not going to send more things of that nature. there will be cooperation if there is an entity we can cooperate with against a common enemy like the guys who just busted out but it will be very, very close level of an very low tech until such time as we can be assured that high-tech things that people laugh for like night vision goggles are capable of being accounted for. thank you. >> two more for jeremy sharp and

then the panelist on the right and you're left can you talk about the implications potential for this 10 state arab coalition to be engaged in the challenges pertaining to syria? and possibly, against isis to try to restore security and stability in iraq. jeremy sharp. and then if one could analyze egypt's position, egypt's role, we have read in recent days that the united states has lifted its ban or sanctions or hold on munitions and armament to egypt and that egypt is to beat the location of a 35000 era of

ground force for this united arab joint defense command for which there is an arab which is much smaller, just a few thousand in a naval component perhaps double that. but those two combined mode supplied by seven would be the ground forces. now who is paying for? largely saudi arabia and the other gcc countries. but not all. who else is involved in this? morocco jordan. you may recall in the last four years the geostrategic that the gcc countries to be more aligned, associated with jordan and morocco monarchies. so this is not completely new with regard to reaching out to those two countries.

the reaching out to sudan is in part because sudan is a neighbor of egypt and has its own armed forces, but in an effort to broaden the diversity of the coalition. mr. sharp. >> i would say that it is certainly not, as john points out. but we are at the moment, one of the interesting strategic things to point out that the conflict in yemen and what has been going on since the arab spring began 2011 as the concept of regional integration albeit military or economic, something talked about for decades. if you look at just from the economic side, saudi arabia kuwait, the uae are financially supporting countries that tiscali can't do it themselves anymore.

whether it is egypt, jordan, certainly yemeni assistance. the gcc states have a reserve right now, but they are already running deficits. you know the costs of the region are going up exponentially whether it is military integration or economic integration, we may be at a moment here. who knows how operationally this joint forces going to work or where it will be deployed in the future. but this may be the beginning or a point where we just can't sort of laugh this off anymore like to talk about integration, and make these deals than it ever happens. this may be the start of something both financially and militarily that has some legs. just because the region itself is getting to the point to where it is so bad that they need that kind of assistance.

>> these questions shifting gears here to abbas almosawa and sama'a al-hamdani. could you comment on the way this discussion is going with regards to the questions asked and the answers provided. is this another case of american lack of empathy and inability or limitation of americans to project themselves into a few solo situations with the interests and objectives that the peoples? your comments on the american is an aspect, anti-americanism, the american role back in saudi arabia say it will support this 10 state coalition providing operational, logistical, and

munitions support. are you in accord with these answers, these american perceptions? and iraq hundreds of americans are that they knew iraq and could plan and per day cost effectively and efficiently with the united states and most would agree it is a disaster that iraq was smashed to smithereens lost its national sovereignty, lost its political independence, lost its territorial integrity, lost the fourth is better in america's constitution as to why america exists, namely to provide domestic safety, to assure for the external defense to enhance material well-being and to ensure the administration of an effective system of civil justice, all four of those

things were also smashed. the united states cannot blame others for those results. what are your answers to these controversial implicitly challenging kinds of questions? >> thank you. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue]

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[speaking in native tongue] [laughter] >> translator: i tried to get as much of that as possible. there is definitely a great lack of information on the yemen. yemen is a tribal society but it is a very loving society. they love each other. they love their neighbors. with the sectarianism, sunni shia so the houthis are part of the yemeni society.

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>> translator: he's relating a little specific piece of information that before the operation to before the current operation in saudi arabia, he adds the united states to a. we wanted, basically everybody wanted to limit the houthi influence in yemen obvious. there were many, many tribes that have secured large areas on the saudi arabia border. there's a story that the son of the former president had come to saudi arabia basically to tell them to stop the media campaign against him and his father, to basically lift the sanctions on his family, and basically promised that he himself will be, will lead a campaign to be the end of the houthi threat in

yemen. >> thank you. [speaking in native tongue] thank you. >> translator: that was thanks. [applause] >> basically the idea is that he is against the war because he doesn't think it's going to resolve it. >> i will try to be brief. i want to talk about how the americans argued from the yemeni perspective. getting everything that's happening i completely understand the u.s. being cautious in endorsing this attack in more than logistical support to the are already in a tough corner, considering the

drone strikes happening in yemen that are extremely unpopular on the ground. i think the problem or there's an opportunity here for the u.s. to play the role of mediator and peacemaker for once in the region. they can help bring the parties together and reached a negotiation because at the end of all this war, at the end of sending ground troops of their troops, they will have to sit down and come up with a solution. those will exist. i dr. lee about this being a war to eliminate an ideology. there's no such thing as eliminating the houthis or eliminating the wahhabi's or any of his rhetoric. it is not accept the what yemenis can do is learn to coexist together, create a process that allows for pluralism. so my opinion is although americans try very hard to understand yemen, yemen is a very remote location. it's a very different culture and i think that sometimes because we are so different that

result in the creation of eye versus you dialogue or me versus them. i think yemenis who speak english can communicate these ideas. unfortunately, there are some nuances that the west just cannot get unless there's a yemeni person translating that for them. there is a sense that yemeni life is worthless. and this sense since come some yemenis themselves to kill each other and spill blood everywhere. it's been happening since 2011 to this point. yemen is just generally feel that the lies don't matter at a think this is an opportunity for the world to come to say no, your life matters. you will learn you are worth something. the situation we're in in yemen are can be narrowed down to the politics of five individuals. president hadi former president president. [inaudible]

the first for an action have been on the yemeni political scene for years. the reason he succeeded very much is because he was able to take the youth and employ them in the houthi movement. all the other factions failed to include the youth in these movements. the houthis were able to construct, to present that woman participate in this effect. so shows that more politically savvy than the other old parties that were on the ground. so i think everything in yemen is a result of lack of leadership. poor good governance. ever since 2011 into the we've had an opportunity to take yemen out of the situation that it was in and lead it towards democracy. we've all talked about the gct of the granted the president immunity as long as you bank on the ground it meant he could carry out operations. the problem here is that we have a president who is now residing in riyadh.

history in yemen is getting weaker and weaker by the day and it's hard to imagine how you would go back and then we'll again by just issuing orders. it's only thing he can do and that's how the world prior to 2014 by the what is that he would issue orders for things to be carried out but it would not be implemented. i think in order to move forward the analysts into whether american or saudi or from any other part of the world need to sit down and take in yemen safety. i really do recommend to look a demonstration not just in the past four years, not just in the past 20 years. i with you to look really really back. we are tribes by nature and we do take pride in her genealogy and whatever and data we have from 50 years ago could still apply to this day. having said that if there is a process that is endorsed by the west it's been proven in the past of every political party is willing to come and negotiate. a lot of people have suggested oman as in a collocation since it's the only country that is the operatives but in this

airstrike as a place where all functions can talk to each other. that's about it. >> thank you. his excellency will be less than one minute we are told. but a question or two additional. we westerners, i am one of them have a problem thinking about tribes. those americans here over 50 perhaps have seen no fewer than 30 movies, cowboys and indians and the indians were all tribal. they were the bad people. and non-indians with a progressive good people. and the indians were seen as violent, backward,

nonprogressive. and in terms of what has happened to them their lands, the resource, the mountains, valleys, rivers, their streams were all taken over a large group of people, white people christian people largely who came from western europe. so americans have the difficulty on question of tribes. i come from the state of virginia where many of the tribes are still in existence but living on reservations. others of you come from elsewhere where the tribes are larger and so are the reservations. but think of it in this context, because the british do not have this hangup. indeed, the british rule and rule imposition of our and prestige largely was through the tribes in the region. so with regard to tribes in the

british sense that power that for nearly two centuries held the ring of security and stability. they could not have done it without tribes and through tribes. so the american experience is radically different and this means we have proceeded with maybe two hands behind our back because we said we don't do tribes, and largely we don't. but here is a self-inflicted wound because what are tribes? tribes are groupings of people, their social logical and anthropological rails, forces, factors and phenomena on the ground. and place it where the central government is weak where resources are few and scattered and there is no strong central government, it is left to plan b, to the pre-existing tribes which have leaders, and tribes

are not ill liberal or nondemocratic in many instances. they, too, live by consultation and they too live by consensus consensus. this buildings ethos in terms of markers able down to a phrase is the consent of the governed. how to get the consent except by consultation? so the tribes are deep in consultation and largely peaceful injury or rule in terms of where people would go for security and stability. and up until the last 40 years but still in some places, you went to your tribal leader for scholarship to get help to have medicine and health care. even to have a job or to get a position in the armed forces. so if you look at tribes from this perspective, they are the

glue. they are the adhesive. they are the lubricant that is kept this particular society together longer than what and more peacefully and effectively than what otherwise would have been the case. it sounds as though i am a moment for cash to a member of a tribe to i am. it's called the human try. we have his excellency, adel al-jubeir, who was arranged is scheduled to be with us. mr. ambassador, you were not here when many of the questions were asked, but i will try to summarize some of them. if you would be good enough to respond. are you comfortable with that? all right. well, we had questions that were divided in the extra category of what other countries are doing your country, saudi arabia other gcc countries iran on one hand, and then the united states

and the newly formal declared heir of the joint be based in egypt on the other with its 10 countries. these are in the external realm. one that wasn't past was will the oral -- oil surplus or the decline in oil prices, how that will affect yemen which depends on oil and gas for its limited revenue, as does your country and most of your gcc neighbors. so those would be on the external side with one addition and that is, several questions maybe half a dozen were asked about sunni-shia and iran, saudi arabia tension, conflict, et cetera. on the internal side questions about will saudi arabia give a serious and favorable consideration to a ground offensive it comes to that?

what has been the price of saudi arabia has paid economically human resources geopolitically humanitarian lee, morally if you will people who were being killed in the airstrikes and the other questions having to do with the internal dynamics of yemen and -- had your relationship with them not for years but for decades, and also your government had close an extensive relations with most if not all of yemen's major tribes. and people used to criticize riyadh for doing this, but in my own meetings with him he said what choice do i have? i don't have the resources to do with large segments of my people. if someone from the outside is willing to help meet the basic

health care needs education needs, security and stability needs, who would not have an outstretched hand of appreciation and gratitude to whatever country did that, the united states, even the soviet union where it could be the case in years past. so this is a little bit of the nature of the external questions at the domestic ones. the domestic ones are charged with the understandable needs concerns and emotions of individuals who have relatives in yemen who are suffering and who are uncertain about the near-term present, let alone longer-term future. i tried to summarize. might you respond to these kinds of questions? >> thank you john for the opportunity to speak, and thank you, everybody for being here today. let me start by talking a little bit about where we are in the operations. first of all this is not

something that we wanted to do. this was an issue of last resort for us. nobody wants to use a force in anger, but were left with no choice. we spent years trying to establish a legitimate government in yemen years trying to human move from a chaotic situation he was in and 2011 to a new, brighter more stable future. as time went by problems develop. we had the houthis reneging on commitments they made. 76 to be precise in the past few years that they signed and then backed away from. their aggression kept moving. they went from iran and they moved around effort to capture the president's palace imprisoned the president and the cabinet in their homes in rental torental. thank god most of them were able to escape and make the way to another city. we have no choice but to respond to the call by the legitimate

president of yemen under article 51 of the u.n. charter to come in and support him and protect him and protect human. to our objectives and yemen are very simple. protect the legitimate government of yemen and to protect the people of yemen government takeover by a radical group that is allied with iran and hezbollah. we had a situation where a militia that is in control of ballistic missiles and was now in control of an air force. i don't believe there was a situation in history where an armed militia had an air force. so this is something that cannot be tolerated. we try to reason with them. we tried to reach agreements with them or broker agreements with them but as i mentioned earlier, it all came to not end we ended up having to resort to force in response to the request by the legitimate government of yemen. the operations are ongoing. we have targeted the air force.

we have targeted airbases. we've targeted ballistic missiles. we have targeted heavy weapons depots, and we've tried our best to minimize collateral damage. there has been malicious charges made that the saudi air force bombed i can't pick it turned out not to be the case. the site was not on our target list nor were any operations conducted of it. so it couldn't have been us. there were charges that saudi arabia bombed a milk factory a few days ago but it turns out the factory was bombed by the houthis themselves in order to generate sympathy for themselves and hostility towards the coalition forces. these things are going on. we believe the coalition activities are achieving their objectives. it will take a little bit more time but we are determined to prevail in yemen and determined to strengthen, restore legitimate government and protect the people of yemen from this radical group.

with regards to the info situation in the kingdom, of course everybody is apprehensive about the use of force. nobody wants to do it but our people understand it's necessary and with total support not only from the people in the kingdom of the saudi of arabia but from people to the region for these military operations. the issue of yemen's oil unfortunately for yemen, yemen does not produce enough oil to export so most of the oil if not all of the oil that yemen produces is for domestic consumption. so, therefore, a drop in the price of oil in the world market really has no impact on yemen. if anything it reduces import cost of oil if they have to purchase the outside. did i -- spent yes. there's some more. >> okay. >> if i may ask of them from here.

what -- spent sorry. president saleh. we had our ups and downs with him since he came to power. sometimes he's been in l.a. and sometimes he's been hostile. remember in 1990 when saddam hussein invaded kuwait president saleh cited with iraq against saudi arabia. the, the relationship was not always an amicable one over the past 35 years but again he was the president of yemen and we had to do with yemen and we had to do with them. and so that now he has been playing a very negative role and deferred to structural in yemen outlining itself with the houthis, by using what influence he has within the yemeni military in order to persuade military commanders to side with the houthis. the houthis could not have made their advance from sanaa without explicit and implicit support of president saleh, former

president saleh and the military unity control to the world knows this. and i believe history will judge him harshly when it comes to yemen and what he did to yemen and his role in the current crisis. we again have been targeting unix that are loyal to him for that are under his command, or virtually under his command, in order to reclaim stability and order to make sure that the role that he has in yemen and the role that the houthis played in yemen as militia are limited or nonexistent. we recognize the houthis are yemenis. we recognize the houthis have a right to be part of the political process in yemen and we are not denying this. in fact, it was the gcc initiative that opened the door for the houthis to fight in the political process. but they cannot be a militia. they cannot have heavy weapons outside the scope of the state. that is the situation that is not horrible.

we see the consequences of that in lebanon with hezbollah where militia pretty much dominates the state and threatens state institutions. we will not allow this to happen on our doorstep in yemen. >> i'll just read them out, and you are good on remembering them and answer them as you will. does it matter one way or the other if the united states lists the houthis groups in yemen under the designation of it being a terrorist organization? and as much a saudi arabia has designated of lake berryessa groups as terrorist organizations, is this among the options that saudi arabia has under consideration, mighty rule it out or what could be the implications can be the way? if he did or if he did not. that's one. second one, your view of aden. aden as we said earlier used to

be in the late 1950s the world's largest port in terms of ships. things have moved on since then as dubai oman near the east-west shipping routes. there is your ports and other places that you developing along the red sea. and in eastern oman is a star yet to be known and told. that's one question. i let you think about it. about how this logistical aspect of ports of exports from the peninsula and imports into it when does that come on the radar? >> john, my memory is limited. [laughter] >> okay, those are too.

>> the first and had to do with designating the houthis as a terrorist group and what effect it has but i think it would be acknowledging the fact what this committee in yemen is nothing short of terrorism the get terrorized the population to be taken over government property illegally. they have invaded areas have tried to occupy the country. if that is not terrorism i don't know what terrorism is. i don't know it will have an impact i guess from a psychological perspective in the sense of defined them in the actions as illegal and has criminal. but in terms of facts on the ground i don't know what impact it will have in the short term. the second question with regard to economic support for yemen to saudi arabia has been by far the largest exhibitor of economic assistance to yemen ever since the civil war in yemen ended in the late '60s and early 70s. we have built roads schools,

hospitals. we have it sent medical teams. we have brought yemeni student society rate on scholarships. we tried to help yemen with its development and we are committed to doing so in the future. we have with our partners in the gcc, we believe that yemen has the potential to thrive. it has a large population base. the yemeni people are very industrious, very hard-working very honest. and so we have in saudi arabia almost 4 million yemeni people working in the kingdom. we believe that yemen were it to have the legal infrastructure and the bureaucratic infrastructure that is proper, could be a magnet for investment by gulf businesses where they can set up shops or factories in yemen, fund agriculture projects in yemen take advantage of the abundance of labor in yemen in order to produce items or food

that can then be exported either to the gulf countries or even sold in yemen. so we have no hesitation about continued our best support for yemen in order to the yemeni people. and that's a respective of what happened in the port and what happened to the logistics in terms of shipping. we do with the situation as it is in the situations as it is now is what the country which is going to support us in the world, one of the highest unemployment rates in the world with one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world that has no water to speak of, a country that is rife with the disease and needs the attention and the support of the whole world in order to get back up on its feet. we are determined to help the people of yemen and yemen as a country to overcome the challenges it faces. but first we need a stable and a legitimate government and we need to find a way where we can end the divisions that exist in

yemen and prevent around the group from taking over the country, as part of reform group and agenda that seeks to abide to think of ibm and to destroy yemen and seeks to create instability in the arabian peninsula. >> super. these are three questions than. off the last one about those seeking to divide human outsiders for sure have investment in that kind of a strategic outcome but so do those inside. and there is a movement in the south that would love to see another independent state republic of south yemen. so what a two-state solution ever be possible in yemen, and what would saudi arabia soviet be about the? you dealt with that reality for a long time from 1967-1990. could there be a reversion to

the? second question is the houthis like iran doing during iran's 1979 revolution rejecting any form of western influence? what does this mean for your major part of the united states that is ready and available and and amenable to mediating if it can but it takes two to tango as the houthis what will nothing to do with washington understandable but what are the implications of that? t. want to answer those two and then there's some more. >> with regard to the different movements in yemen i think they are driven by a sense of mismanagement come essence of corruption, a sense of feeling that people's rights are being denied. i think if we can create a situation where we create a stable, legitimate government that's balanced, it represents all yemenis that work for the interests of all yemenis, we wouldn't see these different

movements in yemen. i can't comment about a two-state solution on one state solution in yemen because this is up to the people of yemen. we have always maintained that it is important to maintain the unity and territorial integrity of yemen, the objective of our operations right now are to protect the legitimate government of yemen and to protect the people of yemen and to prevent the rise of the radical militant armed group on our southern border. so that's on the first question. with regards to the second question the houthis ideology is very clear. they've been very clear about what they stand for the education system and the textbooks have been very clear about who they perceive as their enemies. and i don't believe that the houthis would what they are advocating would be in the interest of yemen because it's not. they want to close human off from work and do what yemen to be a radical state that is

allied with iran and hezbollah and that will not serve the yemeni people know the people of the region. >> that last comment subsumes one here about the alliance, rhetorical or political, ideological with hezbollah in lebanon so we will go to that one as such. at which point, if any of the houthi power increase would saudi arabia withdraw its estimated $1 billion in that yemen central bank? assuming it has not been looted. and second question and lots of these are great questions that come from the media nbc cnn c-span, "wall street journal," bloomberg and the like. they are well-versed. they want to know how much hard evidence is there of iranian arms shipment and other support

to the houthis? none, and little, a lot -- >> a lot. [laughter] >> all right. spent with regard to what we were to withdraw our deposit and the yemeni central bank we are not going to with draw. it cannot be looted because these deposits tend to be on computers so it's not some physical cache that we gave the yemeni central bank. the houthis we are now much, much less would do the houthis taking over human than we were before the outbreak started. we are degrading to keep it loose and we will destroy the capability of we will protect the yemeni government to protect the yemeni people, period. no question about it. and the operations are as i mentioned earlier ongoing. the objectives are being achieved and we're working through these objectives in order to reach the conclusion that we all want. that's with regards to the issue of the central bank and houthis

to with regards to iran's support for tonight but it's clear, the first thing the houthis did when they captured sanaa was to release the operatives of the iranian revolutionary guard and hezbollah from the intelligence jails and sanaa. the iranians have been shipping weapons to the houthis long before this conflict began. those weapons include even shoulder launched surface-to-air missiles. there was a shipment that was interdicted of iranian weapons going to the houthis. they are helping them with him to build certain facilities, and so the evidence we have and they're providing them with financial support. so the evidence is very clear to us and we have no doubt about it. we also see it reflected in the public position that iran and hezbollah have taken with regards to the conflict in yemen and with regard to the houthis. >> okay.

this next tenacity with various aspects of iran and perhaps three aspects. several questions about if you were to address the question of to what extent, if at all, is it really sunni versus shia issues, ideological, medical, geopolitical, versus revolutionary viewpoints versus the legitimacy of the incumbent governments in the region? haven't seen that question but that's an intriguing one. >> i think the way we never want to the sectarian conflict. we have come in saudi arabia, saudi citizens who are of the shia branch of islam and they are viewed as equal citizens to every other saudi. all the rights that a saudi citizen has and other saudi citizen has irrespective of what

their ethnicity is or what their sect is. so this is not something that we want, the path we wanted to go down the road to. the iranians and hezbollah have tried to stoke the sect area and fires in order to generate conflict in the middle east. dc-10 speeches. you see any actions they take. we on the event and our allies in the gulf try to avoid this. 's we don't look at it from a perspective of sunni versus shia. we look at it from the perspective of good versus evil. there of those who want to bring countries together. there are those who want to create a better future for their people and there are those who want to do the opposite. and so for us any person from any leader i think i'm the ones to improve a lot of its people and take its country forward is a government that we're happy to work with. irrespective of what their sect or what their ethnicity. thinking about saudi arabia last

year provided $500 million to the united nations organizations working in iran in order to provide military assistance to the iraqi people and we insisted that it be irrespective of religion, sect or ethnicity and the hg go to all the iraqi people. that's exactly what happened. so we don't, we don't favor one sect over another. we look at every country as being a country and all of its citizens being citizens of that country. we don't go beyond that. >> another related to iran, to really. at the various gcc heads of state summit several years after the u.s.-led invasion of iraq in 2003, sort of a sick joke that used to pass was that the united states attacked or invaded iraq and iran one. without firing a single shot or shedding a single drop of blood. and something similar as a gift

to afghanistan, earlier when the united states took down the taliban, people would say that this is rare in the history of gm strategic dynamics, passionate geostrategic -- a country it was a lot of people want to iranians for the hostagetaking, and then on the iran side, hating some americans or the american government for taking down iran's first democratically peaceful civil elected government in 1953. so there are those who asked, how has discomfited everything that the united states is conducting his controversial sensitive negotiations with iran in switzerland at a time when iran has leaders that say we now control for our capitals, yemen syria, iraq and lebanon.

some think it was intentional. can you address this aspect? because it's known that you and the other gcc countries would like to at least have been auditors or at least participants in the sensitive strategic negotiations between the p5 and iran, but you are excluded, and excluded largely because i believe the united states asked iran what do you think what's is this all right? and iran opposed come and so we accommodated iran's position. how has this roiled the waters are made things more complex convoluted than might otherwise be the case? what are the applications? >> well, i think there are a lot of reasons, but i don't subscribe to them. the issue is there's no doubt that iran benefits from the invasion of iraq and the toppling of the taliban

government in afghanistan. no doubt. talibans were iran's ideological enemies and saddam hussein was viewed as a bulwark against iran said into the region. i don't think this was the objective of the united states at the time, but this is this is the situation we're dealing with now. the question becomes how to stop iran's their involvement in lebanon currency and iraq. they are trying to cause problems in bahrain. there in yemen all these are heirs of great concern to the people of the region. this is irrespective of the nuclear negotiations. the issue of the nuclear negotiations can i do know that i would characterize it as the iranians excluding the gulf countries from the talks but i think it was set up to be the permanent five members of the security council plus germany has the largest economy in europe negotiating with the

iranians. we see the talks. we hope that the talks will succeed because everybody wants a serious degree but that stops iran's weapons making ability. and so we have been assured and we are continuously breached by the united states about the status of the talks and what where they are at any given moment. and we have been assured by the secretary of state that the negotiations with the objective of them is to deny iran the ability to make an atomic bomb, to cut off all path that could lead iran to an atomic bomb, to limit the research iran's ability to conduct research, and to have interested and severe and continuous inspections on iran's nuclear program. that's what the objectives are and i would think everybody which are those objectives. the thing that we cannot comment

on is a detailed because adobe the details have yet been worked out in terms of how the inspections would work, how the limitation on research would work. and so until we see those details we really can't comment about whether this is a good deal or this is not a good deal. but like i said at the beginning, everybody wants a good deal that prevents iran from developing an atomic bomb. >> we have two more minutes and come in terms of permission to be in here. your views about the newly formed arab league military coalition response force and with regard to how can one really back president hadi we needed to engage in deliverables in terms of what the yemeni people expected, demanded, needed? and would that not rule out some

role for possibly saleh given his role in keeping ago a relative sense of security and stability in yemen are not just years but decades? is he completely out of the picture? i mean come in geneva with regard to syria it seems as though people locked himself into a corner by saying that bashar all aside moscow, and i see references to well maybe he can be part of the solution there. -- must go. and to last sure once i just yes or no. either saudi arabian troops in aden as reported? and you correctly noted 4 million yemenis in saudi arabia. before you came it was mentioned about how many yemenis are trying to get out and be evacuated and they can't get visas, except to somalia and the are stranded at airports, not just in yemen but throughout the world. these are the last two questions

questions. >> there were a series of two questions? aspect spent the one about saudi arabia troops in aden the visa one and then -- that's right. how can you support him when he is not that proven leader? >> we don't have the troops formal saudi troops in aden. the issue of using ground troops is always something that is on the table but that decisions will be made depending on the circumstances and the need to with regard to president hadi the reason he was able to deliver deliverables which i disagree with the premise because i think he had, the reason that he was viewed as not having delivered deliverables it because he was being undercut by the united states and by former president saleh. so we had a number of friends that yemen, conferences. we had a project that we are working with yemen on with him as president, and i believe that

given the opportunity to president hadi would continue to do the right thing for human but it's impossible to be effective when you're being undercut come when people are taking away your ability to control your own territory, when people are becoming you in the parliament, when people attack you and take over your capital, when people in prison you in your own home in sanaa. that's not, so the problems were on the other side, not on president hadi's site. he is the legitimate president of yemen. yemen, the gcc initiative and the outcomes of the national dialogue in yemen called for a transition period during which the constitution would be drafted. this was done, a number of vivek murthy redrafted, which we don't accept as legal. then you set up an electoral process and then you go through elections and then you have a new president and a new parliament and life goes on. hopefully with a better future.

that's what we were working on with president hadi when these problems magnified and multiplied and put a stop to it. so i think i don't think i know his legitimate government, is the legitimate president. he wants do what's good for human and once you go through a transition to a new stores a better face, then it's up to the yemeni people to decide who they would like for their leader. we don't believe president saleh has any role to play in yemen's future. he spent 35 years or so driving the country into the ground. and he was, played a very dark role in the events in yemen. and so now he was removed and he continues to cause mischief behind the scenes and we're doing our best to trying to put an end to it. >> i want the audience if you

will please remain seated for two minutes while his excellent affiliates, but not before saying this is one of the best sessions we've had. this is standing room only here in this room and on short notice at that. it shows a concern a care about human and the yemeni people and the yemen u.s. relations and yemen's plight, humanitarian political, geopolitical geostrategic, jill economic and otherwise. all the speakers kept within their 10 minutes and we had more than 40 questions. and i think we covered some of the waterfront but especially we are grateful to our speakers and to his excellency ambassador adel al-jubeir. thank you all. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> the foreign affairs minister of morocco will take part in a discussion on combating violent extremism. one of the topics will be u.s.-morocco cooperation efforts on counterterrorism. our live coverage starts and atlantic council 10 a.m. eastern here on c-span2. our -- on c-span3 u.s. customs and border protection commissioner gil kerlikowske will talk about his first year leading the agency in some of the challenges he faces. we will have live coverage from the brookings institution at 10 a.m. eastern. spend each night this week at 9 p.m. eastern conversations with a few new members of congress. >> and as a result i try to take

discipline and and my message in a couple since i i try to stay between the hashmarks. i understand i've represent everyone in montana. montana's one congressman. and i represent not only the republican side. i represent the democrat side, the tea party side, independent site, union site. i represent everyone in montana. and i think if we take that value set forward, congress represents america, particularly the values and the needs, desires of your district but the purpose is to make america better. >> five newest members of congress talk about their careers and personal lives and your insight about how things work on capitol hill. join us for all their conversations each night at nine eastern on c-span. >> president obama was at howard

university medical school yesterday talking about the effects of climate change which he said is a public health issue. spent all right, everybody all set up? good. well, i just had the opportunity of a terrific conversation with our outstanding new surgeon general, vivek murthy our epa administer gina mccarthy but also some incredible activists from different walks of life in the public health arena. and the discussion was centered around the fact that climate change is having an impact on our public health. you know we've got nurses, we've got deans of the medical schools, we have residence and public health officials, primary care physicians and moms, most importantly, and what we know is

that the temperature of the planet is rising. and we know that in addition to the adverse impact that may have when it comes to more frequent hurricanes or more powerful storms, or increased flooding we also know that it has an impact on public health. we know that if there are more wildfires, a consequence of rising temperatures, that there are going to be more particulates in the air. we know that potentially it extends the allergy season and can induce greater incidence of asthma or more severe incidence of asthma. we know that potentially as temperatures rise and we're going to start seeing insect borne diseases that are not traditional to north america

start moving up from the south. and so there are a whole host of public health impacts that are going to hit home. and the great thing about this conversation is to see all the work that's already been done by public health officials the medical community, nurses and families to start raising awareness around these issues. the pentagon has already said that climate change is a primary national security threat that we're going to face and we are working with the department of defense to start preparing for that and mitigating for the. and a lot of our international policy and national security policy is centered around the very real concerns that that's going to raise. but we also know that it's going to have an impact on our public health. and through the efforts of these individuals and organizations

around the country, i think we're going to be able to start having an impact. we will just use the example of charlotte wallace a pediatric nurse in maryland for 18 years, treated kids with asthma. and as a nurse and a mom she understands that climate change is going to be making a difference. doctor ryan stevens, who is a primary care physician, has seen firsthand how rising asthma rates, particularly in the lower income communities, can have a terrible impact. so we've got to do better in protecting mobile americans, ultimately to all of our families are going to be vulnerable. you can record yourself off from air. or from climate. and that's why today we are making more than 150 data sets on climate change public health from agencies like the cdc open to the public. companies across the country like google and microsoft plan

to use the data to generate apps and tools that can help immunity's educate and protect themselves. we have medical schools, including howard, and public health schools pledging to train their students in the health impacts of climate change. and later this week some of those educators will come to the white house to talk about how they are in corporate and climate change into their teachings, into the curriculum. and this spring will have a climate change and health summit at the white house. so the bottom line is we all need to do our part. obviously, this administration has been aggressive in using the administrative authorities that we currently have to increase fuel efficiency standards to make sure that we are taking more carbon out of the emissions from our power plants. but we've got a lot more work to do if we're going to deal with this problem in an effective way and make sure that our families and our kids are safe.

and one of the key leaders in this is going to be our surgeon general, dr. murthy. so why don't you say a few words spent sure. well, thank you mr. president think he, administrator mccarthy. and my thanks to all of you who joined us to today. we had a really enriching conversation today talk about the impact of climate change on public health from a number of different perspectives. it was very helpful to us. i'd like to expand a little on what the president said in speak a little bit more about the relevance of climate change to clinicians and patients. we know that climate change means higher teachers overall and it also means longer and hotter heat waves. we also know that higher temperatures can mean worst air in cities and more smog and more of his own. we know that more intense wildfires will mean increased smoke in the air. and we know that earlier springs and longer summers mean longer allergy seasons. if you put all of this together this means that we have more

people exposed to triggers that can cause asthma attacks, and more asthma attacks me more days of school missed. they mean more days of work missed. they mean more costly trips to the doctor. and the most importantly mean more scary moments for parents and for children. this is a personal issue for me because when i was young one of my favorite locals actually he was very dear to me as a child, he died from a severe asthma attack. it's also personal to me because i care for many patients over the years with suffered from asthma and i've seen firsthand how frightening it can be to suddenly be wheezing and fighting for every breath. as they can be very difficult for patients, but also for their families. the impacts of climate change could make the situation worse. additionally, the longer summers and hotter heat waves will also expose more americans to heat stroke and to heat stress especially those who work in outdoor settings in industries like farming and construction.

and it means that elderly americans will be even more vulnerable to respiratory distress and possible death from extreme heat a problem we already experienced in our cities particularly among the poor and minority populations who don't always have easy access to air-conditioning. and underlying principle of public health that want to emphasize is that of prevention. indeed retention of disease should be the driving force in our efforts to improve health in america. and whether it's promoting heart health through nutrition and physical aikido prevent disease outbreaks through vaccinations prevention really is our goal and that is true here with climate change as well. as surgeon general one of my larger messages to our country is that we all have a stake in health. and as a result we all have a responsibility to protect it. health isn't just the responsibility of doctors and nurses and individual patients. it's a community responsibility. that means that businesses and faith groups, civic organizations, schools and

universities like this all of american society has a hand in keeping our people healthy and prevent disease not just reading it, and in making sure that every american, no matter who they are or where they're from has a shot at a healthy life. so again we are very grateful to have had this opportunity to speak with our committee leaders here today. and we are excited to continue this conversation as we think about how to address some of the challenges that we now see with climate change and public health. thank you all very much. >> last point i'll make because he touched on this when we have, as dr. bryant-stephens mentioned, a child who visit the emergency room six times because of asthma there's a cost associated to that. we as a society pay for that. and even if the child child has insurance, it is to resources that are being devoted to treating a child that could have

avoided an emergency room visit if we took better care of the environment in which they were growing up. and the reasons i think this is important is because sometimes you hear the debate when it comes to climate change that this is going to be too costly to address. well, the fact of the matter is we know that the cost of clean energy have rapidly come down under increasingly competitive that historic leap we have dealt with problems like smog and acid rain or the ozone it turned out that things are cheaper to fix than we anticipated and -- who's calling there, ms. miller? >> my husband. >> tell your husband i'm in the middle of a press conference. i'm teasing. [laughter]

so what does do not typically is, is that the cost have been lower than anticipated. that benefits have been extraordinary. hard to put a price on in some cases, and in some cases we can be very clear about how much it costs. and when it comes to public health issues we were doing effective work on prevention, and we are preventing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of asthma incidence or we are preventing thousands of deaths as a consequence of asthma, that is something that we know is not only preventable when it comes to the individual, but it's something where we could be saving money as a society as a whole. and so i want everybody to start recognizing the costs of inaction and recognize that the cost of inaction are even higher than the cost of action. in the same way that there are costs associated when you have severe drought or significant

wildfires or the kinds of storm surges that we saw in hurricane sandy, well, the public health cost as well. and we're ultimately going to be better off being pro-active duty out in front of this thing as opposed to reactive or we pay a whole lot more in pain and suffering as well as in terms of trying to do with the backend of the problem. thank you, everybody. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> and that was present obama yesterday. today we are live at the atlantic council to hear from morocco sport affairs minister. is coming to discuss combating violent extremism. is comes will be followed by a panel discussion but we expect this to get under way in just a couple of moments live here on