case that in yemen when yemen we have had many fighting between the north and the stopped on as will the fighting in central yemen and we had many a crisis like that most of yemeni president i mean in the last forty years been assassinated in the north or in the south but we have to reach this point of entire economy that has collapse that entire country that has been bombed and garbage bombing back to the stone age it just only because of the saudi direct intervention and involvement and to be honest with you if we see the saudi why they attack us because they said about that the hotel caused it to saudi arabia because they are right on the border i mean saga is the heartland of the road just across the border the saudi arabia if they really wanted as they say just to attack the road if they could have come from the saudi border why they hike come all the way out to aden then to can to try to control all the coast of yemen to destroy all the any infrastructure the main goal of this is to control the coast of yemen to control the island to control babylon devastate which is which is

military assistance to yemen. the senate also voted unanimously to condemn the crown prince of saudi arabia for the murder of jamal khashoggi. that one is personal to us here because khashoggi had been invited to come here as one of our scholars. as we know, saudi arabia and been alarly mbs, has driver between the conflict between saudi arabia and the houthis. the action by congress was time-limited, but attention is now being paid to the issue. i amformer member there, pleased to see the article one branch of government pledged to defend the united states and project our interests around the world is paying attention. today's panel could not be more timely. what are the prospects for peace and a political settlement in yemen? how would the international community planning to scale up humanitarian aid? hopefully it is planning to. what is the impact on future relations with the gulf? these questions and others will to a stellar panel by the director of our middle east program, aaron david miller. you won't know hi

were also spotted in other parts of yemen. from the stockholm international peace research institute shows that saudi arabia and the u.a.e. purchased more than two thousand six hundred armored vehicles of this type between twenty eleven and twenty fourteen. a year later the fundamentalist islam is chaika nuns rick was photographed inside an advantage yes if you mine clearance vehicle manufactured in the united kingdom. the vehicle was clearly marked with saudi army insignia. the same type of vehicle was also spotted in other provinces. if we're talking about the twenty two meter brigade it should have vehicles armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers and should spearhead attacks but this big a does not have any vehicles. in the second year of the war in yemen two new forces were formed the security beltin agent and the hydra me elite forces in hot remote these groups are made up of supporters of the separatist southern movement who demands a session of the south to form an independent state. the two forces raised the so

yemen. of course, it began under president obama. surrounding this vote today, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have expressed extreme frustration with the saudi crown prince, mohammad bin salman, especially regarding the death of jamal khashoggi, an american based saudi journalist murdered in turkey. theve a lot of respect for senators weighing in, making the arguments all day today. pautors young, lee, corker, l, rand, murphy, menendez, cardin -- many. do need to understand what is happening, what our intelligence, our government has surrounding this death. ton the cia director came brief members, but this debate has taken something of a much turn.omplex certainly the heinous murders need to be held accountable. there is no doubt about that. but what we have been discussing and what is really being implicated here on the floor, which have not really been talked about too much, is the broader issue of u.s. american presence in the region, not just regarding our current confl

special envoy to yemen has just been briefing the u.n.security council on those peace talks among people he thinks the progress made was the saudi crown prince who has sided defense minister was behind the kingdom's decision to enter yemen in twenty fifteen. a vote for the saudi crown prince of advance on my own personal support for this process vital. and for the agreements remain goetia me answering well to get a situation spaces at the u.n. in new york at his be monitoring that meeting for i said james today in trusting to him i think with his thank mohammed bin some of the his support why was he doing it given that the saudi crown prince was the architect of the coalition entering yemen and has been the one who has been bombarding yemen for two and a half years very interesting indeed i think in part because they're going to need the saudis going forward and that's why everyone was praising the saudi crown prince sometimes here at the united nations i'll let you into a secret you get a little bit more information in informal gathering

support from the saudi-led coalition in yemen. the sanders-lee provision is flawed because it pre assumes we're engaged in military action in yemen. we're not engaged in military action in yemen. a lot of discussion about refueling. i don't see any stretch of the definition that would say that this is-- that it falls into that category. the truth is with the exception of the defense strike on october, that was 1916, the u.s. forces are not engaged in direct military action in yemen. the limited military support and intelligence sharing by the u.s. to the saudi-led coalition does not introduce u.s. forces into hostilities, nor is the u.s. involvement in hostilities imminent, given the circumstances at hand. u.s. forces in support of the coalition do not currently demand, command, coordinate, accompany or participate in the movement of saudi coalition forces in the counter houthi operations. as of november 11th of this year, the united states armed forces ceased repealing support so that's no longer an issue. even if it were an issu

case that in yemen when yemen we have had many fighting between the north and the stopped on as well the fighting in central yemen and we had many a crisis like that most of yemeni president i mean in the last forty years has been assassinated in the north or in the south but we have to reach this point of an entire economy that has collapse that entire country that has been bombed and garbage bombing back to the stone age it just only because of the saudi direct intervention and involvement and to be honest with you if we see the saudi why they attack us because they said about that the hotel caused threat to saudi arabia because they are right at the border i mean saga is the heartland of the road just across the border the saudi arabia if they really want it as they say just to attack the how they could have come from the saudi border why they hike come all the way out to aden then to can to try to control all the coast of yemen to destroy all they have an infrastructure their main goal of this is to control the coast of yemen to control the island to control babylon devastate whi

were also spotted in other parts of yemen. from the stockholm international peace research institute shows that saudi arabia and the u.a.e. purchased more than two thousand six hundred armored vehicles of this type between twenty eleven and twenty fourteen. later the fundamentalist islam is chaika nun's rick was photographed inside an aardvark g.a.'s if you mine clearance vehicle manufactured in the united kingdom. the vehicle was clearly marked with saudi near . the same type of vehicle was also spotted in other provinces. that if we're talking about the twenty two meeker brigade it should have vehicles armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers and should spearhead attacks but this brigade does not have any vehicles. in the second year of the war in yemen two new forces were formed the security beltin agent and the hard drive me elite forces in how to remote these groups are made up of supporters of the separatist southern movement who demands a session of the south to form an independent state. the two forces raised th

you can see in this map of yemen, almost perfectly correlate between those parts of yemen that are most affected, experiencing food and security, and those areas of yemen where there is the most active conflict. those areas where there is near famine conditions and the most active levels of intensity of fighting at this very moment. the airstrikes, portion of airstrikes hitting civilian targets have increased over time, 65% of airstrikes hitting civilians, targeted by the international system of civilian targets including water infrastructure. that is another example of how the act of conflict is continuing, there were 230 or strikes in november alone. the pace of the conflict has escalated. that is an important thing to know. the second trend, the ongoing conflict, is the financial and economic aspect. there is food in the marketplace. imagine a supermarket that is bare, that is not what yemen looks like. there is food on the shelves but very little economic purchasing power and financial access. people basically have no money. this is correlating with inflation leading to high food pr

of yemen are at great risk today. the-- there's estimated that there are 400,000 children under the age of five that are at the risk of starvation due to hunger and malnutrition. 85,000 children have died, according to save the children from starvation. and the u.s. military engagement has really not assisted in ending this humanitarian crisis. there are 1 million people with cholera. 8.4 million on the verge of famine. and we have been, for a long time, focused on the port, saying it had to be opened in order to be able to deliver humanitarian assistance and i think many of us thought that because of our military involvement in yemen, at a minimum, we could get the port opened, and we find that we are not able to be able to have safe routes for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. so, we have not, through our military, been able to impact the horrible tragedies that are taking place because of this humanitarian disaster. secondly, i think most experts would tell us there is no military solution to the war that's

for some of the war in yemen has continued. we have had a whole lot of people killed in yemen as a result of this civil war. we have had a whole up more people in yemen die as a result of causes related to about four -- to that war. there has been starvation, all kinds of atrocities related to that war. war, war leads to atrocities, leads to people dying as a result of a direct connecticut tax, and it almost -- kinetic attack, and it almost always leads to people dying of other violent acts or tragic outcomes. i get it. that is what war does, and that is precisely, mr. president, why it is unconstitutional and morally bankrupt for us to get involved in a war without the eople that the people elected to represent congress voting affirmatively to put our brave young men and women in harm's way to engage in that war. inwhat else changed, addition to the fact that this war has gone on and on, with a lot of deaths and suffering and misery by a whole lot of innocent people? we have also seen that when we pulled back the mask a little

there is a tester fi unfolding in yemen and we have to stop it the people of yemen not least children have already waited far too long for peace far too long for the humanitarian disaster to be i.d.d. eight hundred and four steps to be taken towards a renewed political process twenty two million people require humanitarian assistance the eyes of the world are indeed upon what is happening in this small community sweden over the coming days. there are hundreds that hundreds of journalists through of or did you notice present here and many more following what goes on here from afar and this attention of course means that there are expectations about what you will be able to achieve but it wants to shows the engagement of the international community we nike you care about yemen and the yemenis future. sweden has for a long time expressed its good support for the tireless efforts of the u.n. the secretary general and his special envoy martin griffith. we are there for peace to be able to support the theft first by hosting these through and lead consultations and it's good that the issue i

here is part of the senate debate on the yemen bill. we begin with vermont senator bernie sanders who sponsored the bill with senator mike lee from utah. this is two and a half hours. >> mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about one of the great humanitarian crises facing our planet and that is the horrific war in yemen. 2015, under the leadership of mohammad bin salman who was then the saudi andia and defense minister is now the crown prince, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates intervened in yemen's ongoing civil war. the saudi-uae intervention, yemen is now experiencing the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. nations, to the united yemen is at risk of the most severe famine in more than 100 years. peopleme 14 million facing starvation. in one of the poorest countries on earth, as a result of this theible war, according to save the children organization, children havemeni already starved to death over the last several years and millions more face last week, a new york times reporter described his recent visit t

in yemen the u.n. in libya maybe in myanmar as well and say we've given up on this organization it just doesn't work anymore just doesn't succeed in doing what it was supposed to succeed you get why there's a lot of disillusionment with the u.n. across the globe right now well i think there's lots of different uns and i've worked in different parts of it if you want to talk about the u.n. humanitarian agencies whether and syria or yemen i think that kind of comment is utterly unfair and utterly inaccurate they do extraordinary work in times of great difficulty and they saved many many lives in terms of peacemaking negotiating let's be very clear i don't say this to make to be pleading it is the parties who decide to resolve a conflict it is not the u.n. it is not the mediator it is their decision whether they will resolve a conflict or not the decisions that made this week in sweden without my decisions i was here to help them come to those decisions but it is their achievement their compliance their p

since we're referring to yemen so i would say great for yemen and great for other people around the world who would like to see the saudi house accountable and maybe greater washington as well maybe we regain some kind of moral ground by actually advocating the north for once and you know i know it's but it's a size that still and it's a good thing as far as i'm concerned i'm going to go back to you in riyadh i mean the official statement that came from the house of saud is that this was the senate vote was a violation of the interference into the internal affairs of saudi arabia but i mean that's it's a kind of rich isn't it when essentially the lebanese prime minister was kidnapped in your country forced to resign i mean isn't that meddling in the affairs of lebanon let alone the war that you're waging against the internal affairs of yemen . you know when i would like to state a fact i would like to have the outlet i would like the prime minister of lebanon actually say that he was kidnapped in saudi arabia and he was resigned we didn't hear that we don't know how much is over thi

you know and he had sentiments and yemen because maybe the chance he does not go back to yemen the fact that he is away and managing things saudi arabia does not get. to a lot of yemenis when i met. some of the members to get a geisha in here in sweden it was remarkable the confidence that you had because they were coming from yemen even having their you know numbers and adding to them my what's not right you know that and then when i speak to them. the other yemeni government member is some of them would give me their number and egypt and to just yeah and jordan so the fact that they're not inside yemen really undermines their acceptance. and psyche and so it's a very very you know the. what do you think simon the saudi led coalition's exit strategy is at what point will it be able to say ok we won't be involved militarily anymore i think that's a really good question because it's pretty clear if we look at this the saudis and them artes haven't met their strategic goals if you trust someone why the saudis were going into yemen that say was to defeat the who thieves and to prevent iran

talking yemen i'm joined by my guest giorgio he is the c.e.o. of gulf state analytics a washington d.c. based geo political risk consultancy and in norman we cross to joshua landis he is the director of the center of middle east studies at the university of oklahoma all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciated joshua let me go to you first and norman can you explain something to me in this is something the president of the united states donald trump said on november twentieth of this year quote the country of iran as an example is responsible for a bloody proxy war against saudi arabia in yemen then he further says on the other hand saudi arabia would gladly withdraw from yemen if the iranians would agree to leave this would immediately provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance additionally saudi arabia has agreed to spend billions of dollars in leading the fight against radical islamic terrorism and we could spend hours to selecting those few sentences here it seems

and during those ten years i visited yemen several times. somali refugees were coming to yemen a country that is of course poor country and with enormous problems the borders of yemen the daughters of the yemeni people the hearts of the many people were always open to somali refugees they were granted prima facie refugee startles and when you look at the world today and the difficulties refugees face in so many parts of the world we need to pay tribute to did a lot of city to the hospitality of the yemeni people the yemeni people as demonstrated a silly their duty with other peoples in need debt these herbs are our three but and that these are to do everything possible as international community to support yemenis in finding a solution yemeni solutions for their own problems to get immense today mean a lot not only for the yemeni people in a lot for humanity if this can be a starting point for peace and for ending humanitarian crises in yemen shook around thank you very much thank you you thank. sort of foreign affairs of. gracious hosts. th

disaster in yemen. the reason, mr. president, that i voted against the resolution today is that i do not believe that either of these goals will be made easier or advanced by less american involvement in the conflict. to the contrary, if the u.s. no longer has the ability to help guide the saudis militarily in yemen, i believe that these two important goals, ending the humanitarian crisis, bringing a peaceful resolution will actually be harder to reach. and that's not just my view. that was the view of secretary mattis, secretary pompeo when they came to brief all 100 senators two weeks ago, and these were someone in particular secretary mattis who knows the region, certainly knows about how hostilities end and begin in the region. the basis of their arguments which i agree was first -- there is no doubt that the saudis have prosecuted the war badly, but both the obama department of defense and the trump administration department of defense have worked hard to minimize casualties. does anyone actually b

military assistance in yemen. next, a look at some of the debate from yesterday on the senate floor. >> mr. president, i i come to e floor today to talk about one of the great humanitarian crises facing our planet, and that is the horrific war in yemen. in march of 2015 under the leadership of mohammad bin salman who was then the saudi arabian defense minister and is now of course the crown prince, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates intervened in humans ongoing civil war. as a result of the saudi uae intervention, yemen is now experiencing the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. according to the united nations, yemen is at risk of the most severe famine in more than 100 years, with some 14 million people facing starvation, in one of the poorest countries on earth as a result of this terrible war, according to the save the children organization, some 85,000 yemeni children have already starved to death over the last several years, and millions more face starvation if the work continues. further, yemen

aid to saudi your efforts in yemen. this six page measure would record the view of the senate that mohammed bin solomon is responsible for the murder of jamal khashoggi and it urges the u.s. and the international community to hold him and anyone else involved in the killing responsible and a joint statement democratic senator ed markey calls the crown prince a fuck up and republican senator lindsey graham calls him a wrecking ball rare harsh words for the leader of an allied nation. the resolution fall short of calling for regime change in saudi arabia but whether president trump likes it or not the rift between the u.s. government and its ally of eighty five years has rarely been wider john hendren al-jazeera washington. at least four police officers have died after a suicide attack in southern iran at least forty two others were injured in the attack which targeted a police headquarters the explosion which was followed by gun fire happened in the port city of chapel ha border with pakistan an armed group called for ca

i visited yemen several t times.oming tougee's were yemen, a country that is a poor country with an arm's problems. , they were of yemen always open to refugees. you look at the world today, -- we need to pay tribute to the hospitality of the yemeni people. , they havepeople demonstrated a solidarity with other people in need t that tribute.our the agreements today mean a lot for the yemeni people and humanity. if it can be a stopping point , thank you very much. >> thank you. this is a special day for the united nations and for us here in sweden. this is a day we celebrate light. i w want to say, thank youu allr away,ing to this far snowing place and four-year efforts these days. thank you, secretary general for joining us. thank you martin. first and foremost, thank you to .he delegation thank you so much for everything you have done. the support from the international commumunity, the y states has also been crucial. thank you for making these possible. remember, when i welcomed you a week ago, i emphasized the nee

it's really not about yemen and i think yemen has just been used as you know an example to say you know this this could happen when the president acts with all authority and this is why you need to put things back in the hands of congress because we could better scrutinize you know such such engagement but that's not sufficient to solve what's going on in yemen unfortunately a lot of congressman senators have been somewhat using the humanitarian crisis to point to the suffering of people as something that only the saudi led coalition is responsible to completely ignoring what the violations on the ground we you know i think. for for young men this this doesn't really send a comforting method but you know other all it will not have a huge impact i would say how came of us mari it's not going to have a huge impact says our guest in washington d.c. what are your thoughts guy agree on and also it's a bit too late four years later the u.s. government suddenly clicks in and say this word is. vinatieri us law even if this does. take months in best case scenario and i'm very doubtful that it wi

his role in the in the war in yemen like you mentioned the u.s. is heavily involved militarily and this has been going on without congressional approval first and of the administration of obama and then following through a trumpet administration and the role of congress is to in fact declare war the president is not technically allowed to declare war so the country has been violating its own federal laws in order to conduct this war in yemen and today we found the scene for the very first time since the war powers act of one nine hundred seventy three was legislated this is the very first time decide it has in fact approved or gone through with this war powers resolution and condemned internationally international war which is not authorized by senate sharing this photo is ultimately a symbolic gesture i mean it would have to go to the house of representatives and then would end up presumably on president trump's desk after that so ultimately right now it is a symbolic gesture ahead of it having to potentially go back to capitol hill next year for

aid to saudi war efforts and yemen. this six page measure would record the view of the senate that mohammed bin solomon is responsible for the murder of jamal khashoggi and it urges the u.s. and the international community to hold him and anyone else involved in the killing responsible and a joint statement democratic senator ed markey calls the crown prince a fuck up and republican senator lindsey graham calls him a wrecking ball rare harsh words for the leader of an allied nation. the resolution falls short of calling for regime change in saudi arabia but whether president trump likes it or not the rift between the u.s. government and its ally of eighty five years has rarely been wider john hendren al-jazeera washington. white house correspondent kimberly hocket in washington d.c. kimberly just how significant is this resolution in the senate and what will the chief. it's significant given the fact that it's bipartisan first of all that something that's pretty rare in the united states congress these days is typically

it's really not about yemen i think yemen has just been used as you know an example to say you know this this could happen when the president acts with all authority and this is why you need to put things back in the hands of congress because we could better scrutinize you know such such engagement but that's not sufficient to solve what's going on in yemen unfortunately a lot of congressman senators have been somewhat using the humanitarian crisis to point to the suffering of people as something that only the saudi led coalition is responsible to completely ignoring what the violations on the ground we you know i think. for for yemen this this doesn't really send a comforting method that you know they're all it will not have a huge impact i would say how came of us mari it's not going to have a huge impact says our guest in washington d.c. what are your thoughts guy agree on and also it's a bit too late four years later the u.s. government suddenly clicks in and say this were. finally the u.s. law even if this does. take months in best case scenario and i'm very doubtful that it wi

one third of the population, two thirds are sunni muslims and exist only in yemen. one of the things that's happened in this conflict as they spread and subscribe to a kind of revivalist or aggressive version of islam their enemies are often hard line sunnis who sold thesaw them as the shiite d the fact they are alive politically of course makes that worse so i think you have kind of a new sectarian division that didn't exist in the past that made things much worse. after that, the last party had a lot of these and as you see in egypt and other countries islamists, the party there was violence variant of the tribes play a big role so they've had tribal conflict for a long time but they have been organized and marshaled and while this is happening weapons are being spread out i think we have the first claim on that so eventually a lot of different structures and regional the south sees itself as deeply victimized by the north which is why they want to form a separate country. i hope that helps. >> we have time for two more questions. >> my question relates to the mot

christopher henzel to be ambassador to yemen.he is also a member of the foreign service and has completed numerous true across the middle east. he serves as the deputy chief of mission in our embassy in riyadh saudi arabia and as the poster yemen is currently based in saudi arabia, he is already familiar with the environment where the mission he is headed is located. having viewed the conflict in yemen from the inside of the kingdom for the last two years, he brings with him a unique perspective and a wealth of knowledge of the conflicts, and of saudi arabia's influence in the country. excepting his disposition is a great responsibility. mr. hensel will have to navigate the political and social complexities of this region in an effort to bring peace to this war-ravaged nation. next we have john barsa to be assistant administrator for u.s. aid for latin america and the caribbean. he currently serves as the acting assistant secretary of homeland security and the office of public liaison and he previously served in the us army reser

are also spotted in other parts of yemen. from the stockholm international peace research institute shows that saudi arabia and the u.a.e. purchased more than two thousand six hundred armored vehicles of this type between twenty eleven and twenty fourteen. a year later the fundamentalist islam is chaika nun's rick was photographed inside an aardvark g.a.'s if you mine clearance vehicle manufactured in the united kingdom. the vehicle was clearly marked with saudi. the same type of vehicle was also spotted in other provinces. if we're talking about the twenty two brigade it should have vehicles armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers and should spearhead attacks but this does not have any vehicles . in the second year of the war in yemen two new forces were formed the security belt in agent and the hard drive me elite forces in how to remote these groups are made up of supporters of the separatists movement who demands a succession of the south to form an independent state. the two forces raise the south yemen flag on a

christopher hensel to be ambassador to yemen. john barsa to be assistant administrator for usaid for latin america and the caribbean. sarah ann lynch to be ambassador to guyana, and lynn tracy to be ambassador to armenia. first, however, we have a very distinguished guest. one of my best friends in the senate, if not the. served our state with distinction in many ways. he's here to introduce a great friend of both of ours, and out of respect for him, so he can go on about other business today, we'll call on him first before we make opening comments. with that, we welcome the great lamar alexander from tennessee. >> thank you, senator corker. it's good to be in your committee. senator menendez, senator cardin, senator barrasso. it's my privilege today to introduce to the committee arthur b. kuld ahouse jr., and i'm doing to do that by saying a few words about him and a few words about the country that president trump has nominated him to be the ambassador to. first, about a.b. kuldahouse jr. he's the most accomplished lawyer i kno

cries of pain like this are commonplace in yemen. two million children under five here a severely malnourished. and. what have these children done that they have to suffer so much and we're all suffering life is tough here disease is spreading children are starving including those who are school. even my dad's four hundred thousand children in yemen will die if they don't get urgent medical care hospitals that are relatively well equipped like this one in santa a few and far between outside the capital the situation is dire parents have to transport their desperately sick children often hundreds of kilometers to get help and i was alone in my daughter started throwing up and had diarrhea so we come all the way from ties to sana to get a treat it was just i need them. in rebel held areas of the country this is a sense of skepticism but also hope about the peace talks in stockholm civilians are desperate for the conflict that has been depleting the population figures to finally come to an end and. i expect the negotiations to be conduc