A sacked parliament and five of the former catalan politicians have appeared before Spain Supreme Court they face charges of rebellion and sedition for their role in last months independence referendum the courts will decide whether to remand them in custody while the Investigation Continues or release them those are the headlines but stay with us next up its inside story. Starvation and day the u. N. Has issued one of its grimmest warnings yet it says yemen could face a famine never before seen but what can World Leaders do to stop such a catastrophe this is inside story. I dont welcome to the program im jane dot and millions will die that is the stock warning from the United Nations humanitarian chief over the crisis in yemen out of sight and out of mind for most of the world millions of children mothers and fathers are struggling to find food now the u. N. Warns yemen could face the largest famine the world has seen for many decades its urging the Saudi Led Coalition to end its devastating blockade and allow aid into the country will get so i guess in a moment but first this report from a have a job june. At Sanaa International airport an ominous silence terminals are as empty of people as runways are devoid of planes clear signs that the crisis in yemen is only growing more dire not only sunnah International Airport was completely brought to a halt by the warring coalition stateside that included preventing the un end of planes humanitarian aid the red cross and Doctors Without Borders is a bit of luck but airport officials arent just angry with the parties to the conflict a compass to cut and m m m a to head to the United Nations could have taken a brave and clear decision as to condemn the aggression the un could have compelled the belligerent states to allow at least humanitarian aid to iraq if and to allow access to the injured casualties and humanitarian cases for its part the u. N. Has warned that in yemen which is in the grips of a cholera epidemic that has seen more than nine hundred thousand suspected cases since april is also facing the worlds worst famine crisis. One that could kill millions of people unless the saudi Led Military Coalition inns its blockade and allows aid to flow into the country saudi arabia imposed a land and sea blockade in yemen after a Ballistic Missile was fired on saturday towards its capital riyadh since then it has only become more difficult for citizens to get their hands on vital commodities with prices of petrol and cooking oil rising drastically in the port city of her data humanitarian access was already difficult for aid agencies now its only got worse than this about it and so far as closing down the ports and borders these are war crimes in the first degree at the u. N. Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in sanaa officials are extremely concerned of what will happen if they cant continue to bring food into the country you know that yemen is the largest Food Insecurity could isis all over the world. Every month we feed seven Million People these are people who depend completely on relief for their survival and we import these commodities the food to help these people which is why the longer yemens air and sea ports sit empty the longer the suffering will continue mama june of zero. So lets take a closer look at the situation in yemen it is the arab worlds poorest country and while the who thing is and the Yemeni Government have been fighting for years the saudi led military Campaign Began in two thousand and fifteen since then the situation has deteriorated for the almost twenty one million yemenis that the u. N. Estimates are in need of assistance the conflict has killed more than ten thousand people and left another seven million without adequate food health water and sanitation yemen has also been hit with one of the worst cholera outbreaks in recent memory was some nine hundred thousand suspected cases since april. Lets go straight to our guests joining on skype from chicago a deputy United Nations director for Human Rights Watch and sunna has said Yemeni Journalist and former editor of news of yemen website and oxford Helen Lackner author of yemeni crisis the transformation of tribal rolls in recent decades a very warm welcome to all three of you has been over gayety yemen is facing what could possibly be the largest famine in decades its a horrific title to own isnt it. Yeah of course and im not surprised to hear that because of three years of the saudi that Coalition War blockade which they have actually extended to close all. Border cross in in that area as well which many yemenis use to use it as a travel as well to some of the food that used to come into your income of the border across in and its not only the situation we had as well this caller which they were in i think is the unicef have said is one of the largest cholera outbreak since the record began and the latest. Extension of the blockade actually has doubled the price of fuel price of food has increased forty to sixty percent and i think that the saudi and the blockade is not actually effect in. Also known at the hotel and as they called the salah forces because we have seen the latest attack on the capital city shows that this blockade and three years of the saudi strikes has not actually damaged the hoti military capacity every time they have they have improved and they have proven that they can reach into saudi and i think that this latest. Tide in this blockade this means that the crisis the food crisis fuel cries and color under starvation of the many will only increase on the poor people of yemen and it will not effect the hoses because they know they know how how they can improve their military capacity and the three years of war has not actually affected them on the top of that weve seen that the saudi actually has released a list of forty command that they said that they want to kill and they have put a Bounty Hunter on them they have spent two hundred billion dollars actually as they say to stop these people are now are out again so after that you get that largest one because of the military situation right now. If i may actually cuma these dire warnings about a dire situation in a country that has suffered for so much for so long tell us what you are hearing what you are seeing on the ground well Human Rights Watch actually cant get to the ground because of the restrictions there have been restrictions that prevent independent journalists or groups like ours from getting there because we tell the truth that we look at the facts and we will point them with neutrality and impartiality but what i can say is that weve seen very slow action at the u. N. Security council in particular to challenge the saudis for these restrictions for this now almost total blockade and for blocking in obstructing humanitarian aid we dont just need to complain or throw our hands up in despair and say millions will suffer a famine could happen the un has the power to impose consequences on those individuals who are actually making the decisions and who are responsible for obstructing the aid that is preventing needy people from getting the assistance they require the longer from Human Rights Watch point of view what sort of atrocities are you seeing what sort of impact is it having on innocent people then are we seeing a war crime being committed here. Exactly so the laws of war dont forbid the saudis from taking the step that theyve taken which is a blockade but they do restrict the ways that the blockade of conducted and that what were seeing are really disturbing signs youre not supposed to impose of lucky if it imposes a disproportionate impact on civilians against the military advantage that you would get and here are the impact on civilians is massive you have millions who are relying on the u. N. For aid and assistance and now the u. N. Is completely shut out other humanitarian partners are also shut out and so for us to do just isnt any proportionality you cant risk the benefit you get is justified by the harm being inflicted on these innocents and needy people in yemen and thats where it crosses the line from just being a horrible to also being something that should be condemned as against the law and once you do that there should be consequences including of the Security Council which has the power to sanction people and then like that you know the country very well youve written about it does it surprise you that we are seeing these sort of atrocities now the level of atrocities the levels of suffering to answer your question no i cant say that one can be so surprised and i think you know the u. N. System is very much caught up in a very difficult situation partly were primarily because of the United Nations resolution two two one six which is there has been the justification for the saudi led intervention and the this has meant that you know the its very difficult for the un to take a political at the political level to take an a very open position against the activities of the Saudi Led Coalition because the Saudi Led Coalition is actively supposedly implementing or attempting to. Meant what has been requested by the by the resolution which is to put back in power president had the who was elected for an interim position for two years in twenty twelve i mean you would wish they were the limitations in how you do such a thing. No i totally agree that the situation is very disastrous for the population and i think to me you know all sides in this war of war crimes and all sides in this war are behaving in a totally inhumane manner because although there is a very small leadership on all sides who are benefiting from the Current Situation the result is precisely what you mentioned earlier which is the likelihood of seven Million People possibly dying and another twenty million suffering on a daily basis increasingly atrocious conditions with no water you know inadequate food no means of earning an income you know all the basic necessities of ordinary life basically denied to the population the medical services arent there which is why the caller has managed to expand that such speed and in this unprecedented manner so im not in it you know basically my view is that on all sides in this war the leadership are guilty of anything you care to accuse them of i said what is your response to that all leaders are guilty of what we are seeing on the ground whether it be the hues the leaders the saudi led curry lation. Possibly some of the tribes and everybody possibly in a grim way is benefiting from this if we see the most blame must be towards the saudi i mean the saudi was the point of heart a blockade and was the point of delaying you in ship and in geos shipment coming into yemen either to her data or to sanaa airport i mean i dont think that a squid missile will be supplies to the hotel by your flight now i mean there is doubt on the air what about. What about the role in this i mean their hands are not clean the way they use human shields for example the way they infiltrate. Busy areas i mean you know there are also accountable for many of the tri cities that we are seeing on the ground we have to acknowledge that before we can move on. No i mean i mean that the blame that maybe would put on the soda is what they called the coop that they have done in three m. And this is power of course yeah we know that but i mean this havent in many countries but this does not give you a reason or the right to to launch our war on a country and to have a blockade and at the end to say always good missile is still our supplies into dowdy so was was the point of all this blockade it means this fourteen millions of people who who are starving is the fault of the saudi blockade i mean when there was a court in egypt what have they done into it no this is an internal matter and if there was no blockade and war yemen will be exactly the same as it was between two thousand and fourteen and september two thousand and fourteen and as well march two thousand and fifteen six months the hose you would empower there was no starvation there was i mean not your shortages and everything was fine either you agree with the whole the other i mean that is not true it is on in there is no nation really of this there are also. Drugs that are suffering from starvation and at least humanitarian atrocities will a very long time actually i just want to bring you any i know weve got all of these players and everybody has a small or a big role in what were seeing unfolding on the ground and im just wondering how this is going to be put to an end i mean we see these horrific pictures of starving children crawling on the ground with absolutely nothing to eat and you saying that from a United NationsSecurity Point of view we can find some sort of resolution to put a stop to the search where will it end look there are two parts one is its not just the style you like coolish and thats responsible for abuses although they are responsible for airstrikes and for this obstruction of aid its also the and to solve it we need to adjust the crimes of both sides here who have also tried to age they have shelled indiscriminately they have you. Sites where civilians are as human shields as you mentioned and so both sides atrocities both sides crimes need to be confronted one way to do that is to use sanctions on an equal basis until now thanks and have been imposed on one side of this conflict but not on the other so thats something for the Security Council to consider the other bit and i think this is really important because yemenis have never had it is some kind of opportunity for justice some challenge to the climate of impunity where anyone whether its the Saudi Led Coalition or the movies can really get away with murder without much of a consequence and the good news is that the un has created a body which can find that theres supposed to be some eminent people appointed by the u. N. High commissioner princes aid shortly who would be able to investigate and determine what happened and identify whos responsible so that maybe one day victims will have a chance to have their stories heard in court and some kind of justice because without acknowledging all of those responsible for committing crimes that yemen will never be able to move forward in a sustainable and durable fashion and thats what were looking forward to in the future. Wherever that might be because that would mean that theyd have to be some sort of rule of law in the country and i mean i know youve studied tribes in particular there and the different places how do you see it coming out from a from a ground point of view where will the retribution happen from there the reconciliation. Well first id like to agree with absolutely everything the Human Rights Watch person has to say said i mean all those points are extremely important and they need to be carried out in the long run i think we have a situation where not only do we have the Saudi Led Coalition a large very important external intervention which is worsening the crisis very dramatically but we also have very serious internal differences within yemen it was you know it was reaching into a civil war situation regardless of the presence of the. Intervention of the coalition so i think thats one very important element to look at the next element to look at is of course that the situation at the moment is officially you when you talk you are talking about the Saudi Led Coalition with the internationally recognized government fighting the ruthies siler alliance now these are not the only parties involved in yemen inside the country there are many many other parties ranging from tribes to the southern separatists to a whole load of different groups including jihad these and if any peace is going to be reached in the long run what is absolutely essential is to start doing this from the base upwards to start creating confidence to start creating institutions at the Community Level at the village level at the district level situations which are going to be able to eventually create a new yemeni polity in which you have a much more. You can build the kind of democracy and you can certainly build the regime which would focus on the needs of the people i think whats been very apparent for the last decade or so is that those people who have ruled the country and those people who have made decisions in the country have all had concerns. Which were not the welfare of the majority of the population they were primarily concerned with their own private interests as is the case in so many other regimes its very little. Is due in generations are being wiped out or youve got malnourished children which obviously impacts generations you know impacts people for decades to come and he said im just wondering what sort of resolutions are in play if we pick up on what helen said to try and put an end to this from the who see point of view considering that weve just seen a strike on saudi arabia which you mentioned earlier on in the program how is that going to help resolve the situation doesnt it just exacerbated in and prolong what we are seeing approx the proxy war that we seeing in yemen. Maybe this launch of the missile it would not solve the problem but at least it could actually. Show the so do you all make this over the taste some of what they have been doing into yemen three years many people of course they condemn in that and they say what what it will bring but this is war i mean you are fighting the hosey so expect the they will fight you back i mean they are not going to just stand and watch and weve seen that all this humanitarian crisis thats happening in yemen most of the of the pressure sometimes especially from the un envoy into yemen it comes on the hoti they have to use the cholera outbreak and asking the host it was drawn from the data and to hand over of the data so they try and use this crisis or a bit of color of color as a military goal or gain for the saudi the two to two we can actually if you see the outbreak of the color on the starvation its hard for example in mostly in the data and in hijack and there is no war there so it means its not because of the war inside is not because the it is not because of the salary for this. Its because the blockade and the strike the targeted market are the target and hospitals roads water stay said so and its symbolic really really simple to fight all this many people need your they need food or to get clean water and you cant fight cholera and thought to stop the start of a is an administration. Is one hundred percent the blame on this is one hundred percent on the Saudi Led Coalition on that brocade and as well on that you are an envoy to yemen who has not actually mentioned this already in one of his single reports or the statement he always idlers it does what it has read it i am just wonder is that a valid reason or developments in the saudi arabia fighting the impact of that is having on conversations at the u n i mean considering how muted the response has been to the latest attacks in yemen and donald trump support for what weve been seeing in saudi arabia how is that going to help or hinder developments at the moment look to jubal politics of this are quite difficult and the hoodoos didnt help matters by at tacking a three billion airport in reality of course you can find a war but you cannot fight a war by attacking civilians and this is what yemenis are complaining about this is what the accuse the Saudi Led Coalition of doing so its its quite ironic that they would break those rules when they try to fight against god and civilians inside riyadh so this adds just to the broader situation where you have a perception of the saudis consolidating their their support you mentioned donald trump who has bragged that he plans on selling more weapons to the saudis which he argues would generate american jobs without recognizing of course that by selling those weapons hes connecting the u. S. Economy and those jobs to the carnage. Which is ongoing. There is a very last conversation in the u. K. About why it would be illegal to continue just somewhat the country that is leading a coalition that continues to violate the laws of war and commit war crimes and yes im sorry we just bring helen in very quickly its not looking good is it i mean do you have a time line for this country for to see some some sort of light some sort of rebirth if possible well first id like to pick up the point you made earlier about you know starvation and and the jeopardizing of the future by of children and families starving i think you know that is a very important point and something that we all need to look at and examine i think the timeline at the moment is extremely difficult to envisage i havent met anyone who is in visiting an immediate end to the war i think there are too many factors that are preventing it from from ending i mean first you have the issue it was just raised of the iranian saudi proxy war which has. Really nothing to do with yemen abs in reality but in practice it is being fought out partly in yemen you have the issue of course of the of trump support for the saudis a completely indiscriminate support regardless of any facts or any other factors you have have the fact that both factions or both groups still think they can win this war even though the evidence from the past two years strongly suggest that this is not the case and as mentioned earlier you have the issue of the profiteering and i think you know it is really shocking and shameful that you have so many you know so few people who are managing to allow the starvation and dying and suffering of more than twenty seven Million People in such a completely ruthless manner and totally regardless of any humanitarian feelings i i mean. And i dont find the right words to really express the. Anger and the frustration that so many people i know experience in yemen and outside you know it is a really shocking situation and that should be same and were going to have to leave it there helen wagner thank you very much as say. Very good to get your comments on thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our web site al jazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com ford slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a. J. Inside story for me jane dutton the rest of the team. Everything i do is being analyzed its being weighed and its being measured im going to call this month. And its not just i phones that i lost my things i mean most not fans of the state at the moment we are in a state of the universe like that where i would start and did something that was for a week act i would rather take the risks of democracy to the risks of dictatorship digital dissidents at this time on aljazeera. I really felt liberated as a journalist from of. Getting to the truth as i would thats what this job. This is aljazeera