urged the israeli prime minister to halt a pre emptive strike against his brother forces in lebanon, days after hamas militants, launched the october seven assault on southern israel, warning that such an attack could spark a wider regional war. this was the view across the israel lebanon border earlier today, where we ve seen a thick plume of black smoke in the sky as hostilities continue in that border area. let s start this hour by hearing from israel s prime minister. translation: last night, - i talked again with president biden. i do appreciate us steadfast position at the security council a position which backs our war effort. yesterday, i told president biden that we will fight until total victory, as long as it takes. the us understands this. i saw false reports that claimed the united states has prevented us from operational activities in the region. this is not true. israel is a sovereign country. our war decisions are based on our operational considerations
seat, quite frankly. griff: it s going to be interesting to watch. the end of next week is when that deadline comes. let s shift to the top story, and is that is another strike on the iran-backed houthis in yemen. what is your assessment of how the administration is handling it, and this talk about really the only way to stop them is to also go after iran. well, you know what, give? if it s the like a day late and a dollar short with the biden administration, and if you re the manager of starbucks, it just means people s coffees get cold. when you re the president of the united states, unfortunately, people lose their lives. we saw that with, you know, ukraine. the time to really support ukraine was prior to putin s invasion to show and send a signal and a message. so in 2021 when this administration said, you know what? the houthis aren t terrorists, we re going to play nice, we re going to not enforce the sanctions that the prior administration imposed on iran, so iran s reseated
fractured alliance of militia who don t always speak off the same page laying down their weapons at the same time. the saudis don t just want a cessation of fire, they want a cessation of movement of weapons, pretty much a complete stop on the side of the houthis for this cease-fire to be in effect. a key quote from their foreign minister if it doesn t happen everywhere it will happen nowhere. so everything really resting on the houthis. there s a lot of sequencing involved. what may happen if that cease-fire comes into play there could be a conference in ten days in riyadh in which the saudis will invite all parties involved in yemen. early signs the houthis aren t interested in that particular conversation. but if a cease-fire does come into play that could reduce the massive humanitarian toll we re now seeing and allow aid in medicine food to a country that s been rocked by this air campaign and violence on the ground for weeks. wolf? nick paton walsh on the ground for us in beiru
countries until 1990 and what s really happening is it s breaking back down again into two countries. there is a civil war that s already begun. people are saying they re on the brink of it. when you take over two major cities i call that a sill war. on top of that you have a terrorist threat. it gets confusing. the houthi s aren t really a terrorist organization. they re a shiite group trying to take over the country. they have been around for many years, particularly in the north.- what the problem is when the government breaks down and you have a civil war then it becomes open season for al qaeda and isis and the terrorist groups to use yemen as a base. when the president was talking about being a success, he wasn t so much talking about yemen. he was talking about our efforts to take out the leadership of al qaeda, aqap so-called, which were successful but it was with the permission of the yemeni