A cease fire after 5 years of war the saudi u. A. E. Coalition and yemen begins a 2 week troops but the rebels say theyll continue the fight how will this affect a conflict that has already created the worlds greatest humanitarian crisis this is inside story. Hello welcome to the program. Yemen is one of the few places left on earth without a coronavirus case but Health Workers worry its only a matter of time before they record the 1st infections and outbreak without more misery to a country suffering from 5 years of war fighting has destroyed hospitals killed more than 100000 people and pushed millions towards famine the saudi u. A. E. Coalition has now begun a ceasefire after an appeal from the United Nations it says that the aim is to prevent a corona Virus Outbreak while giving the iranian backed who thinks a chance to join talks to end the conflict the u. N. Hopes the truce will be extended but who the spokesman told aljazeera the ceasefire is meaningless. We will not abide by the ceasefire as long as saudi arabia continues to strike and impose a siege on yemen because what saudi arabia has announced is a continuation of the war and not a cease fire even if temporarily as long as the siege is not lifted we have the right to use our missiles drones and our marine weapons to target ports ports and ship saudi arabia has to stop playing with words and stop the completely and. If not well continue. Lets introduce the panel in london. Advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Santa Hussein a who 3 and Yemeni Affairs specialist and also in london Elizabeth Kandel a Senior Research fellow Pembroke College at the university of oxford welcome to you all a saying 1st of all Martin Griffiths the u. N. Special envoy he says hes grateful for saudi arabia and the coalition for recognizing this critical moment for yemen and he says the parties must now cease immediately or hostilities other things going to go along with the cease fire i didnt think they will accept this ceasefire because as soon as the Saudi Led Coalition has announced 2 weeks. Here in sanaa them the government or the how this has announced what they called their National Vision for a total ceasefire on as well let. The left of saudi be located in yemen and they have handed that division to mr give it thats why i think that was a clear message to the saudis that they will not accept this. Because we believe it is a law that the saudi. Before asking for a 2 week cease fire i mean they would they may be want just to. Like to help them so. Both because of the koran about it but it in saudi arabia and they want to have the time to fight the corner thats why they ask for this 2 weeks but at the end what mostly yemeni are suffering for only is from the saudi bouquet despite the fact that we still have not got any corner cases but it could or not ive seen yemen it will be a disaster thats why i say. They have and you can go on forever fighting this at least the cease fire gives an opportunity to start somewhere surely this would just take this 1st chums to be honest with you what kind of chance to begin about is to weeks cease fire is near this i would be maybe what they are not going to be a man but what yemeni mostly somebody from is from the blue kate i think thats all good really wanted as he is by this to have on all the 2000 is fire and they must lift the blockade in yemen and that is exactly what mohammed i lowed we have said yesterday that without a thought that cease fire on is one without the total lift of the saudi bouquet anything thats already going over it will not be accepted accepted up all ok elizabeth. Is the coronavirus why the saudis proposed this ceasefire their own leadership is we believe holed up on private islands in the red sea because theyre so fearful of contracts and it is that what pushed the saudis to offer the ceasefire well bennett of course one could look at it like that one could look at this very cynically well one could take it for what it is which is the offer a cease fire which has to be very welcome im disappointed to hear mahomets reaction to it but yes i think the fire has been instrumental in focusing saudi attention on a cease fire now. Yemen could absolutely be devastated if the coronavirus took off there and one of the reasons we havent seen it take off there is presumably because at the moment people are dying of so many other things and of course says no testing when it doesnt arrive with the decimated Health Sector it will rip through the country so one has to take this as a very very positive step on the other hand one could say that its a cynical ploy by saudi arabia to take the opportunity of coronavirus to use it as an excuse to pull back after 6 years of war a war that has been very expensive not only monetary but reputational it with much of the humanitarian crisis being blamed on saudi arabia but also of course and practical terms saudi arabia as you say is fighting the coronavirus inside saudi whats the point in controlling it in your own country if you share a 1800 kilometer border to a country thats just about to get it and quite a porous border so everything points toward saudi arabia meaning this seriously meaning this as a serious cease fire and we have to hope that the who is this can reciprocate. An indication that from elizabeth but explain to me what you believe the the consequences of a coronaVirus Outbreak would be in yemen firstly id just like to appear to rate elizabeths point in that we really welcome the cease fire and were urging all parties all of the boring parties to lay down their weapons and really focus on what the real fight is right now which is fighting a Global Pandemic which will absolutely devastate yemen and when i talk about devastation elizabeth already mentioned that the Health Facilities the war has destroyed yemens health but its still a t. V. Its all to systems many of its Health Workers havent been paid for 2 years or more weve got. Millions of displaced people who my organization is working with many of them are living in just like conditions in overcrowded camps they dont have access to water they dont have access to Health Facilities and there is no way for people like that to stop isolate so really what we need to and the conflict makes it even more difficult because recently the fighting in moderate and all job has resulted in 40000 unique displaced people and these people are already coming into an environment where you have 750000 people who are already in need so on the one hand as an aid agency we have trouble getting to people because of the fighting because people are trapped by the conflict or where i. Fear for their own safety but on the other hand we are already dealing with a huge number of people with immense needs and what the fighting is doing is creating even more need for saying on the who things just looking for an excuse not to go along with a ceasefire i dont know who these really want to push the advantages the military advantages they believe theyre achieving in maariv despite what the humanitarian consequences are there if you look to this by saudi arabia i believe it just a tub i mean to announce a cease fire 14 days what what will this 14 days hell be a yemeni civilians as long as the blue cape on yemen i dont think that any anything will come good for this ceasefire this me that of that of the week so it would be good to start the old like you know a start its what an against yemen started it is that i can do that ignore this do it in yemen the blue could that have killed hundreds of thousands of yemenis that have d. N. A. I mean as as united have said one day that one tire guy every 10 minutes because of bit of and with diseases like malaria started by then and we have not heard. Of this type of illness burden and. Am i like that thats why i mean i believe this is just a try by saudi arabia and im sure the saudi wanted to start of the war again and i can say that this announcement by saudi is another declaration of war this mean that the way its attack and as and then they that they could launch a strike zone yemen i just want to mention is eliciting that ive seen that many people are will come in this is fiat mr to give it and they were in good the council on that but it is ambassador but when the whole he has announced a cease fire 3 months ago so he had rejected that the no one has welcomed that and still that announcement that the unilateral ceasefire is still on the table thats why i believe that the saudi will not accept this fire all of r. E. M. And i got to stop that i thought the on the ground on that see that it had been the blockade the whole thing inside our Yemeni Government and i will not accept any announcement by the saudi if they are not going to lift the blockade out of that is going to make a top l. T. Is fire without you know making it for 2 weeks or 2 weeks elizabeth could the saudis been such a weakened position that demands by the 2 and the blockade of yemen as well as the cease fire could be seriously entertained by the way on the back foot here or oil is much cheaper than they needed to be the war is costing them a fortune i think saudi arabia put the blockade in place because it was concerned that the who c. S. Was receiving weapons to restart that war effort and so you can understand why the blockade was in place in the 1st place of course. Perhaps was too stringent and it are blocking food and medicine and vital supplies to but here i think its important to mention that actually yes this country to criticize in the cease fire it is only for 2 weeks. But there is provision in the statement that was put out by the coalition for it to be extended and it was very clear that the ultimate aim is for a lasting cease fire and ultimately to make the space through that cease fire which can be extended. To allow the u. N. To broker meetings to start a political process again so really the ball is in the u. S. This court will accept it will it not it is a comprehensive cease fire it is going to be for 2 weeks it will be extended full beyond that and yes and it doesnt include the blockade the blockade to separate from the ceasefire hussein thats correct there is a ceasefire yes hussein it isnt it is an accidental so you started humans of billions in the blockade yes but you surely you must take the opportunity to take the cease fire and build on it from now you have to give some concession no no no i mean to be honest with you or hold this in and i have given many conversion to saudi arabia they have announced that unilateral ceasefire 3 months ago after they have hit the main oil field in but gig they have looked down at 50 percent of Saudi Arabia Oil exports and after that they have announced as is fire they were in a strong position but still they have give consent and they have given saudi a chance to accept this is viable which of those already have not done and just want to add one thing that the. When they just have said about the blue cape on yemen is disturbed though i didnt come into the whole of these i mean lets say that what the saudis say about iran supplying weapons to the how this is a right i mean how this 5 years of looking at in yemen who killed hundreds of thousands of yemeni civilians has its not only follow the flow of weapons from iran to who the what they say well what was it i know the whole the every day every time it he added there are like the blue and more libel that. Extending that back i guess i would this mean there are not given any wobbles from iran because saudi bouquet has brought forward that medicine and everything from yemen and all ships coming to yemen is served by United Nation i by saudi arabia thats why this is i thought the elevated. Any cease fire will not accept to lift the blockade this cease fire will not be accepted. In terms of the blockade of the ports in yemen how serious is that in affecting aid coming in to yemen i think for a while what we saw was a very stringent blockade which meant that food fuel and medicines coming into the country at some point with completely blocked now weve moved away from that but having said that were still seeing the problems at the ports were seeing. Ships coming carrying food and other essentials going through all these sick inspection processes and taking a look there are a lot of delays all the the conflict also creates a descent disincentive for shipping companies to take the risk to cut to come to yemen so so and at various times weve seen a huge problem so last year in august what we saw was a dispute over a fuel which meant that because the parties were fighting over the fuel supplies coming into the country as a humanitarian organization what we started to see it was entire countries that were sorry entire sorry i meant entire cities that were cut off from what supplies hospitals that couldnt deal their generators and things like that so its an ongoing issue and even though there is more food and goods coming into that country the delays and getting the food transported to different parts of the country because of challenges but that pushes the prices up so one of the big issues at the moment the yemenis. How is affording food even if there is food in the markets how they can afford it so one of the concerns that we have at the moment is with this threat of covert 19 and these measures that are going to be put in terms of preventing the outbreak of the virus is that food. Medicines and fuel continue to come in to come into the country at the moment both sides in the conflict are saying that they will enable that but we are concerned that if there is a further lock down that it could affect. Your yemen relies on. Imports to feed itself and so that would be a very concerning situation to that for us and then i just want to go back to talking about the cease fire that my organization isnt a political actor we dont take sides in this conflict and. What i can say to you with in september where there was a deescalation in the country we started to see significant benefits for the civilian population people have suffered for more than 5 years in this conflict many people have died people that were to systems the hospitals. The civilian infrastructure has been destroyed in the country and with the deescalation what we started to see is a reduction in the number of people that were being killed and injured we started to see. Fewer attacks on hospitals and the things that people rely on to survive so for us it is essential when the whole world countries like mine im based in the u. K. Now i can see how this virus is devastating my country even our Prime Minister is now in intensive care yemen will not be able to deal with an outbreak the Health System is not set up and the population is extremely extremely vulnerable millions of hungry people not a sick people so we really urging. Warring parties to say enough is enough we really need them to end this war now. Explain how the benefits of a deescalation in violence most yemenis now live in territory controlled by the who face this coronavirus is not a joke surely there are benefits to the People Living under your control to a ceasefire of course this bit of good on of it is not a joke as you mentioned but we have to look what will this ceasefire help to many will yemenis get any benefit from this ceasefire no i mean not the 14 days while the bouquet is still only a month thats why this 14 day ceasefire is like a quota to these for a corner i mean thats how they want to quote on south that yemeni will not attack it will not hurt that thats why the ceasefire thats all we announced it is only held been so get abs is not helping yemenis elements already divide kona and i thought of within days so you could extend its welcome by the brook a distal in yemen thats what i mean i believe them i didnt think of that i thought about how they will accept it and if they do in that time in hours or days i think it will be one of the biggest mistake they have done elizabeth clearly it looks like is going to be difficult to persuade the 2 things to go along with the cease fire would any pressure likely to be brought on them from the foreign sponsors from the iranians irans struggling enormously to deal with coronavirus with iran have any bearing on this i think who see themselves need to come to this decision yes they have international sponsors yes one of them is to some extent iran and iran is suffering terribly but ultimately the who sees needs to be the ones to decide what is this want and i fail to understand how mohamed can say. Its makes no difference whether a saudi bomb struck on yemen or not clearly it does make a difference to those who are who are living under those bombs it can only be helpful so just leaving to one side whether saudis motivation is self promotional or self protective or whether its genuinely out of concern for the yemeni people that is neither here nor there this is an opportunity for a ceasefire for 2 weeks which can then be extended why would you not take it the same as a bit has a point theres an opportunity here to save lives essentially at the very minimum why not take that opportunity despite your suspicions of the motives behind the offer of a cease fire to see what happened at least gives rest bite to yemeni suffering from the fighting. Really cares about yemeni base who just lift the blockade and i love within me this in to come into yemen and we remember that the saudi have announced many ceasefire one of the ceasefire they have announced is when they have invaded. The other one before they have invaded more and who data as well before they control of all that has been done by a ceasefire but now to be honest with you is not about what the how they want the whole thing are in control of 70 percent of yemeni blazon thats why if they are not accepting this is fired this means the outlook and in what yemeni be able need because if they accept this is fire this means that the saudi will be cleared and all the International Media will be talking about how good the saudi they are of what this is fire and how high would help yemeni but in fact is not hell been yemeni at all thats all you could actually if the end of that i was in this would cease fire the well why didnt i now that they will at least lift. The blockade like in some way like but additionally. Lift. In this but ok thats all we do you know that that it is that i come bane on yemen is not actually the whole the whole of these and with this cease fire that id expect in that yemeni army ballots blend into. The attacks against saudi arabia why they just want to say himself for 2 weeks. Elizabeth you get the feeling that a golden opportunity is is slipping away here how do you manage that i mean the maybe being intransigent in charge in the south is saudis have also been in the past how on earth are you ever going to bring these parties together well its easy to become despondent yes of course and you have to admire the u. N. And particularly the envoy Martin Griffiths for plugging on and on and on despite all the setbacks but you know mamet really has made the argument for himself which is that. The saudis have now off at the ceasefire right hes saying that if the who sees take the opportunity then the saudis will have one somehow but no his role if the who sees dont take this opportunity then the saudis will have totally won the moral high ground there who sees must play along with this there needs to be this 2 week extendable gap in order for people to come around a table now look i know its not going to be easy and there are plenty of other problems lurking down the road not least of which is the north south divide talks before even when they did happen failed we had q 8 and 2016 we had geneva and 2018 which was stillborn who things didnt even show up we had stockholm and 28 hasnt been implemented yet we had riyadh hidden 2019 which was with the south and we had all the talks informally in moscow none of them of what elizabeth thank you. So this is the this is the tired mind that this is the time this is the time to just take a step back and see if you can get somewhere and very quickly then from new sorts on a reminder of the consequences of the fighting in yemen made any preparations to in case of a krone Virus Outbreak im reading 75 ventilators 500 testing kits doesnt seem an awful lot again just to reiterate being in the u. K. Right now were seeing some of the richest most nations but theyre most at farms tell systems in the world unable to cope with this pandemic so for yemen with the Health System that is being so shattered by the conflict and whats really really important to know is that many people in the u. K. Are you know the people that its affecting the most in the u. K. In the country where i am in right now are those with preexisting Health Conditions in yemen you have millions of people who are hungry you have Young Children who are malnourished you have. People with. Life threatening Health Conditions who could who arent even able to get out of the country previously to get health care in this kind of environment there is a pandemic will be deadly and i think that we can all agree on that so my appeal to the already parties to all sides in this conflict is that with the leave please put down your weapons and really think about the civilian population in yemen they really thought that there already suffering from a massive humanitarian crisis and covert 19 could make their lives even worse all right thank you very much we are unfortunately out of time but thank you toward our guests Sultana Baker Hussein album and Elizabeth Kendal and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. 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