if for some reason they break from the houthis, you will see houthis undermind to the point where they will have only one option which is to retreat to their power base in saada. >> it seems to be at least over the past few days, the news and focus is on these saudi-led airstrikes targeting the houthis. we musn't forget yemen is a mix of other factors and factions. you mentioned factions. you have the houthis arched sunni tribesman, you have al-qaeda, as well and the presence of isil. >> to think that airstrikes would solve the prop of yemen i think is an overstatement for the simple reason as you said we are talking about a country which has different political factions. adou rabbo mansour hadi represents the sunni but is not popular among the sunnis. he he has backing in places, but people in aden and the south who are sunnis don't like him. they say this is someone who further undermind the south. sunni bribesmen are more loyal to the muslim brotherhood party than hadi. the biggest problem the international community faces is once the dust settles in yemen an airstrikes come to an e

>> well, the saudis say that they have managed to severely undermind the military capabilities of the houthis and forces loyal to former president ali abdullah saleh in sanna and other places. we've seen in the last few hours, houthi fighters moving to control to the south paving the way to move towards aden. it shows you the complex nature of the political and military landscape in a place like yemen. this is a country we're not going to get definitely a winner and a loser. you have different political factions there and you have also al-qaeda which is trying to see the developments on the ground to be able to reposition itself in the areas it controlled in the past. >> given that the difficult territory that you're talking about there, one imagine that the saudi's would be very nervous about a ground offensive. >> very, because those that have tried this in the past suffered massive casualties. the egyptians in the 1960's, thousands of egyptian soldiers were killed by yemenese, and this is why the saudis say for the time being that the only option they have is to continue the airstrikes. th