journal is reporting from some of their sources you will be leaving the company. emily: you're watching al jazeera. several people on several islands had to be evacuated after all homes were destroyed from eruption and tsunami. these satellite images have shown the extent of the damages. >> the ashes proving quite problematic. not just for water and sanitation, but in terms of access for the aid from australia and new zealand and other flights.

they need to clear the runway. latest information i have is 60% of the runway has been cleared. this is done manually by i hear up to 200 miles per -- 200 volunteers. emily: the white house is warned russia could attack ukraine at any moment. it is also voiced concern about joint wargames. u.s. telecom giants at&t and verizon have agreed to partially delay activating their 5g networks. it comes after most airlines are concerned they will cause disruptions to flights. edward leung has become one of the first democracy figures to be released since beijing's crackdown in 2020.

he is said to have popularized the rally call liberate hong kong revolution of our times. the u.k. prime minister has denied claims that he lied to parliament about a party during the 2020 lockdown. boris johnson says he had not been wind it might -- contradict coronavirus rules of the time. a former colombian presidential candidate was kidnapped has announced she is running for the top chair again. colombians will go to the polls in may. those of the headlines i am emily. stick around for inside story.

>> what message are the houthi's sending this is inside story. >> hello and welcome to the program. the united arab emirates has are promised it will retaliate against the most significant houthi attack on their soil in years. at least three people were reported to have been killed. satellite photos show smoke at the dapo.

the city police say three feel things exploded. -- fuel tanks exploded. killing at least 12 people. the houthi are warning of more retaliations. >> the armed forces once foreign companies and citizens residing in the uab states that they will not hesitate to expand their targets to include more facilities during the coming. >> is, they took an active role in yemen. they said it was part of an effort to strike a peace deal with the houthi. it is a group of separatists who want independence for southern yemen. in 2018, the uad said they will

expect another attack at another airport. the vessel was transporting medical supplies. let's bring in our guests. in bristol, we have an academic and political analyst. thank you all of us for joining us. let me ask you first, there is a lot we still do not know about these attacks. what happened at an international airport but in the 24 hours that happened after the attacks, there was very little on social media. very little comment about it. what you make of all of this? >> i think that what is

happening is that everyone is assessing the extent and the impact of the attack before they rush to conclusions. this is very smart especially on the part of the uae. i think it is safe to say already that this is a very significant development in the war. although it is not completely unprecedented, it is much more usual to see this kind of coordinated drone and missile attack against saudi arabia. ever been 1000 such attacks on saudi arabia since the war began. no attack like this involving the its loss of life in uae. it is deep in uae territory. it opens up yet another regional.

>> the claims to head scaled down its presence in yemen in terms of its own troops. the houthi as they just mentioned, why attack the emirates now echo? >> as you mentioned, the united arab emirates has de-escalated its involvement. they have dissolved their personnel and trips from yemen. they continue to support the separatists and support groups that are not loyal to the government. they want to divide yemen. divide and conquer. they have sent those back to the giant brigade to stop the fighting in the united arab emirates has fully resumed its airstrike in another area.

army commander here in the united arab emirates that if they are not going to stop, they will attack the uae and that is exactly what happened. i believe that if the uae would continue as they did in the last 24 hours in response to the attack on abu dhabi they killed 12 civilians and several people still missing. they killed 10 people from one family. i think in the coming days we might see a major attack against uae because the latest attack was conducted by uae. >> do you think the houthi are

capable of producing a sustained campaign against the united arab emirates rrb going to see a series of intimates is ataxic we have seen so far? >> could they, i think so. i do not think they are preventing a real threat to security and sovereignty of the united arab emirates. i think they are flexing their muscles. we all know that who see backed by ron -- i ran and yemen. however, it is a very dangerous escalation and i think the wise people in houthi should take into consideration that this nation with sovereignty and it

is a threat to their security of the region. this escalation will not lead to anywhere whatsoever. we all know very well that the lip -- the houthi has so many casualties and defeats on the front line. the official government forces are joined by the giant brigade. it has marched towards ottawa -- and are now marching beyond on this major batter filled. -- battlefield. this is why they are trying to punish the united arab emirates of such movements because they

are really training an army and supplying munitions and arming the giant brigade and other official governments forces in the region. the houthi think that by doing this and attacking civilian targets or oil refineries and abu dhabi, the united arab emirates might put a hold on such effect in the region. >> i want to ask you about a point the separatists brought up. there are links that i believe are set to happen between iran and the houthi's. we are at a stage that if i understand correctly, saudi arabia and iran are in the midst of a sport or he talks in iran.

i also understand iranian officials have moved to jeddah and just the past few hours or so. my question is this. is this the right time for the who the to be carrying out attacks like this when there appears to be some effort on the parts of saudi arabia to reach some sort of an agreement? >> that is the $16 million question. i think it is important to understand at the moment that we are not clear on precisely how closely the who the and iran collaborate on these particular attacks. that is important because it helps to inform message they are trying to send us. i think it is also important to point out that the houthi are supported by iran but are not a direct proxy.

they can still make independent decisions. what kind of message is being sent at this time? i think we can read this in various ways. these pivot really around two parallel strands of iran talks. as a regional independent dialogue happening between them and the houthi message in that case is we are still here and opposite -- persistent threat. we are an independent entity and we are still going to -- the second strand is the international. the nuclear deal talks. there is an urgency to get them over the line. this could be iran sending a message to the international community. look at we can do. we can destabilize the region.

we need to give us more. >> you are shaking your head at the first part of the answer there. what you think of her response? >> i am really confused by what she is saying. she is saying is maybe a message from iran that we have to give us some more concessions. i think we need to make up our minds and make sure that after seven years, how can we suspect knowledge and wisdom that houthi is independent from iran? iran is not playing a poker game with the region and the world.

they are holding for cards in lebanon and in syria and you men. there are some rule that i am not sure about. those attacks are not completed or done by the who sees. -- three c. they all came from iraq. iraq has 16 -- they are receiving orders from jihad. >> forgive me for interrupting you, but i take your point but elizabeth was saying it is not clear what the link is. it is simply that the definition

of that link is not clear. you are working alongside or working in a situation where the who the are operational. from your experience, is there any indication that there is a specific link between iran and the houthi in iran. i do not want to get too deeply into this because we are talking of course about the emirates, but i think this is important to make clear. what is your analysis briefly of what the situation is? >> iran has supported them politically and through the media. i said months ago yemen is getting help from iran.

getting military information about their weapons and the making of the weapons. the claim that there are ballistic missiles coming that are 12 meters long and a few tons in weight. yemen is under blockade so they are targeting this small boat and small ships. small fishing boats. it is really funny or silly that we still here, especially in the united arab emirates, they blame iran and the war and involvement in yemen is from liberating. united arab emirates has a great relationship with iran. they have struck deals with iran. some security deals. they have embassy between them. on the other hand, the united arab emirates claim they are

occupying the island. coming to liberate yemen from what they say with yemen involvement. what they are doing is trying to make any attack that was not affected. at the beginning of the war, it was the saudi and united arab emirates who launched an attack on yemen. now after seven years, it is united emirates who are trying to cry out loud. their dogma the security of the region. as well to the united arab emirates to itself. the latest attack against civilians yes those are civilians.

they say and i for night. the united arab emirates has destroyed saudi airports. they are blowing up schools and mosques. imagine 400,000 civilians have died. one last point. a handful of civilians have been killed according to the united arab emirates. >> i want to kind of expand on that point and bring us back to the incident we have seen just recently. elizabeth, given the fact that the emirates has removed a lot of its troops from the ground in yemen, do you think that that is going to encourage it to mount even greater attacks in yemen from now.

>> it's possible. as my colleagues appointed out one of the triggers of this attack now may be that the uae forces have played a crucial role in pushing back goofy advances. -- who see advances. full all of your forces away. for the worst is to come. this might well backfire. i think it is likely to backfire. what it is likely to do is to steal the result of united arab emirates against the who these and to help mend some of the risks that it started to appear inside the saudi led coalition. you really try to counter the threat for to come back and bite them inside their own countries.

let me ask you about the global perception of this. the p.r. element of it. when it was widely regarded as a pr disaster, do you think that the iraqis would be willing to risk that pr disaster again by increasing the number of attacks in yemen? >> there are in fact retaliating to what sort of aggressive attack to their facilities and civilians. i want to remind you there's a resolution in 2016 which clearly states that this is the goofy --

houthi to and they have to withdraw from yemen. remove everything. don't forget that. this is international recognition. the other thing is that after this attack international condemnation from all over the world. united nation, the usa britain the european union, france in particular. most of the arabs. and most of asia, india malaysia, pakistan. this means how aggressive and evil this attack today to the united arab emirates. on the contrary, i think the forces.

this is a vital front line battlefield. they will march forward. this is why the houthi's are crying. at the end of the day, this is not the united arab emirates or saudi arabia or the arabs alliance against houthi. it is against the arabs and iran. our battlefield is in four countries. iraq, yemen, lebanon, and syria. it is really funny to listen to people saying they have missiles

and drones and they think that iran is the only political support and media support. no they are supporting them with all kinds of weapons. there is no manufacturing facilities in yemen or -- >> let me ask you to pick up on the point that is being made there, if there is international condemnation and criticism of this action by the who sees, -- by the houthi's will that be enough for them to respond with a mature response? they have made their point and hit the united arab emirates, but now they do no more. if there is that international pressure. in order to acknowledge that response from international committee. would they do that? >> i think this contamination

from -- condemnation from other nations -- i want to make one thing clear who is actually crying out loud now? it is the united arab emirates. people have said here that any international counsel will put them under their feet. they do care about that because they know the security council is in the hands of the united states. they will do whatever it takes to help this to countries.

the security general said they are blackmailing with pressure. that is why we have removed the name from the list. they assigned the coalition for avoiding killing children. >> i'm going to enter up to their because we are running out of time. i want to get the last question to elizabeth. we only have a few seconds left. in a couple of sentences, given it level of international pressure that we have here, we have seen talks between the houthi and saudi arabians, we have seen the military action now. please forgive me because we do not have a lot of time, how do you see this playing out over the next few weeks? >> i think there are three main

implications of this. first of all it changes the calculus of united arab emirates and saudi arabia towards the war. it shows them what can happen in their own countries. second it makes an agreement with iran even more urgent because even if the who these are acting independently they need their weapons are punished from somewhere. someone is supplying them. it is very likely that is iran. it may have fallen off with other problems like afghanistan or ethiopia, but now with the region potentially ablaze, with the over spill everyone was concerned about from the yemen war up there as a possibility, i think everyone's eyes will turn back to yemen. >> thank you very much indeed. i want to say thank you to all my guess. -- guests. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website. for further discussion go to our facebook page.

you can also join the conversation on twitter. bye for now.

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