Shes aiming economy continue for a third day u. S. Defense secretary james mattis reaffirmed support for the saudi that coalition in yemen asked criticism grows against riyadh. Anderson human on the northern coast of cuba and coming up ill tell you why the largest island of the caribbean is actually shrinking. And im peter stammering with all the days sports news Serena Williams returns to the tennis court after giving birth but it doesnt quite go as she had hoped all of the details later in the program. We begin in iran where the government is calling on people not to take part in what it says are illegal gatherings as protests driven by anger over the economy Gain Momentum on saturday student demonstrators turn that anger towards irans Foreign Policy meanwhile annual progovernment rallies have been taking place across the country pizza shop as the latest i do day in a row theyre out on the streets to government protesters most of them students fighting with Riot Police OutsideTehran University but what began as a protest about rising food prices and welfare benefit cuts turned political exactly think they chanted not dollars and not lebanon on line. You do but. Dont be afraid were standing strong together. Especially and hear about things like up. Its focusing more on regional issues the economic problems at home. The iranian t. V. Showed a display of strength by crowds of progovernment supporters in cities nationwide tens of thousands of people on the streets chanting death to america down with israel in support irans Supreme Leader ali khamenei it or that it is but the people have protested against inflation other problems but that does not show that our people have turned on each other or are against the ruling system and their leadership. The progovernment rallies were preplanned to mark the anniversary of the end of the unrest that shook the country in two thousand and nine unrest in iran prompted another tweet from the u. S. President many reports of peaceful protests by iranian citizens fed up with the regimes corruption and squandering of the nations wealth to Fund Terrorism abroad iranian government should respect their peoples rights including rights to express themselves the world is watching on the one hand the Economic Situation is something that exists across the board but of course i think the iranians while theyre upset with mismanagement but they also recognize that the administration is being prevented from doing a lot of what its trying to do because of the United States and its allies. This was a huge display of support for the iranian leadership but the government would be concerned just how quickly the protest about food prices became political picture show aljazeera. Or many of the protesters are angry at rising food and fuel prices as well as cuts to Welfare Benefits they say theyve been unfairly targeted in the recent budget religious institutions appear to have been untouched and authorised lending practices have also caused the collapse of some Financial Institutions our president has a rouhani has vowed to clean up the Banking Sector and kick start the economy many complain progress is too slow iranian government leaders have long blamed u. S. Sanctions while many were listed after the nuclear deal with world powers two years ago some unilateral american sanctions remain where as a man is an iranian blogger based in london and joins us now live thanks so much for coming in to aljazeera can you just help us with understanding why these protests are happening and especially across various cities what is it thats causing at this point for them really to start sprouting up you know well i actually wrote about this a few days before. It happened because ive been watching whats happening in iran theres been for some time the theres been some disparate groups whove been protesting whether it was sabres whove lost their savings through these corrupt Financial Institutions whether its pension is no longer going their pensions will have to live on which is pensions its people who were the bad environment is women and all these groups and theyve been protesting and protesting and you could see that the slogans are now becoming more radical you could say that the atmosphere is going tense or intense and most of all what you could say is that they no longer seem to have that fear from the Security Forces there in the. Other coordinates it is somebody kind of pulling the strings but this seems that. You know over the past few months now theyve got to know each other or whatever but it seems to have amalgamated it why didnt i mean our projected that something was going to happen that you know this this was going unnoticed by the by the by the media but i couldnt even predict was the momentum with which picked up since since thats just really amazing and the rhetoric seems to be different from every comment compare it to two thousand and nine the rhetoric says were different in that is spite towards how many it is spite towards rouhani in some sense of the stretch oh yeah the difference with two thousand and nine was that in two thousand and nine the leadership was part of the establishment they just wanted service of some sort of reform some sort of slightly different way of governing but within the Islamic Republic whats happening now this is now beyond the entire regime what people are directly directing their anger at is the clerics theyve come to the conclusion that you cant run the country with clerics everywhere interfering in everything running everything and it doesnt really take Rocket Science you dont need to expose to expand that to imagine if this country was run by clerics interfering and running everything what sort of state would that be and so its the same with iranian people they dont want clerics all the chance that targeting at the clerics directly they send you know were being reduced to beg the clerics are living in. Ellis they pined for the iran before nine hundred seventy nine theyre chanting in favor of the result the founder of the paladin is the man who modernized iran the nemesis of the clerics they doing that in com which is the holy city of qom the bedrock of shark theology where the seminary schools are theyre chanting for results are the man who could sell the powers of the clerics so many years ago so of course they have been deemed illegal gatherings and theyre being told that you they have to permission if they want to go and protest so they are facing the chance of a security clampdown which we know can be quite harsh and the other an underestimate the regimes ability to crack down what remains to be seen and we need to look at over the next few days is whether they still have the loyalty of the Security Forces they still have the stamina because down figure a lot of these people and Security Forces and Law Enforcement forces those are ordinary people as well those are they have billets of lost their savings they may have lost savings themselves you know theyre looking for their pensions they can see the uncles their grandfathers the people whove having pensions theyre struggling themselves so how much sympathy have they got for people who are simply ordinary people these are not political activists these are ordinary people and you know it remains to be seen how much loyalty they can still count on ultimate and also the army is very important because theres a huge difference between the revolutionary guards and the army theres a lot of this consensus within the regular army sympathetic to the protestors could be in the end they want i suspect for their money not thats not being sort of spent on nuclear arms to be spent on things like benefits and things that making food more cheaply at the pro not going to have the priorities of this government all wrong i mean like the budget that was allocated for the Central Schools is more than the entire universities for example the earthquake was a big catalyst for this as well because. You know people so the inadequacy the incompetence of the regime in helping the quake victims at the same time they see the efficiency that they have been rebuilding lebanon in help in syria in helping gaza in helping palestine all that and those scientists are what can they help their own people. Extraordinary to say what happens next thank you very much for joining us as a man thats going to watch. Us defense secretary james mattis is defending washington support of the Saudi Led Coalition fighting who threw rebels in yemen matters says the u. S. Is working with the Saudi Alliance to limit civilian casualties as well as a vising on military tactics his comments follow u. N. Condemnation of the coalitions Bombing Campaign which killed more than one hundred civilians in ten days Elizabeth Kendall is a Senior Research fellow with Pembroke College at the university of oxford she spoke to us about the significance of the u. S. Statement makes great sense for matters to come out now at a time when its National Pressure is growing against the Saudi Led Coalition in saudi arabia to say that the u. S. Is going to do its utmost to limit civilian casualties now is what were actually in the context of a big like defense of the u. S. Role what of course many people would like to see would be the u. S. Come out and say there must be an end to the rule because a military solution to this conflict looks very unlikely now that were in the surge here of this war with still no end in divorce the fact that he made them does acknowledge publicly that there is a problem with saudi targeting of its as strikes in yemen and that in itself puts pressure on the coalition but of course americas interests are broader than that simply the war in yemen theyre about counterterrorism and theyre about chance are in the wrong so its difficult to see how you can come out more more strongly against saudi arabia at this point given the other interests that the u. S. Has. Three u. N. Agencies have issued a joint statement condemning the war in yemen saying people that cant stand another theyre fighting the World Health Organization the World Food Program and unicef say the conflicts created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis is widespread famine and displacement as well as an outbreak of cholera much of the countrys infrastructure and Health System has been destroyed by Saudi Led Coalition airstrikes and rebel shelling. The funerals been held for a palestinian man who was shot by Israeli Soldiers during a protest in gaza the twenty year old was one a sows and says palestinians involved in clashes with the Israeli Military along the gaza food angry at the u. S. Decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel is when the military says demonstrators roll the burning tires and three rocks at soldiers says troops fired selectively against four main instigators how come when has more from the funeral and gals are. No no. The friday when. We talk to the went off to. The saturday morning from his injuries the ministry of health says hes a sixty seven to die in the on the left in the file and the six december the u. S. President trump said america would recognize resulin as the capital of israel. Its a very bad decision for the Palestinian People the americans are supporting israel in our own land we are people in our homeland and have given a martyr for palestine and for jerusalem oh its no more for the political factions and the armed groups in gaza whose leaders are for the young men to go to the border protest to fund the shin rules those are being killed this was funded by the arms supported by the armed wing of fatah leaders every friday for the last month of course protestors to go to the border the separation wall and fence that surrounds gaza only about five or six different places it clashed with the Israeli Soldiers before i take us some life bullets. And theres no sign that theyre going to give up anytime soon. Palestine has recalled its ambassador to pakistan after he attended an event with the alleged. The mastermind of the mumbai attacks palestinian envoy abu ali was pictured sharing a stage with hafiz saeed he was accused of planning the two thousand and eight attack the pair were at a rally criticizing u. S. President donald trump his decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital is much more to come here on the aljazeera news hour celebrating a milestone birthday with a surge in the polls we look at the changing fortunes of french president emmanuel mccrone zimbabweans look ahead to elections in twenty eighteen after a turbulent year that saw longtime leader Robert Mugabe forced from power and Roger Federer begins the season with a quick clean sweep out the hopman cup details coming up with peter and sports. Footage has emerged from syria showing children being rescued from the damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta following airstrikes rescuers are saying carrying two babies from a ruined building aid agencies this week evacuated twenty nine critically ill people including children from eastern guta as part of a deal with the Syrian Government they say the siege imposed by Government Forces has resulted in a humanitarian emergency and Syrian Rebels and their families have started to arrive in the dera region south of damascus after making a deal with the governments a convoy of buses carrying around four hundred fighters and their families was allowed to leave the rebel enclave in bachchan and travel to daraa and the rebels last gen to the Syrian Government and its allies after heavy fighting earlier this month zain a honda has more from beirut. Beit din is the last rebel pocket in the southwestern countryside of damascus it is a military game for the Syrian Government and its allies they launched a Massive Military Campaign two months ago the rebels were trapped in a small area they had no other choice really but to surrender weve seen this happen before intense bombardment and then proGovernment Forces impose a siege so the rebels have no choice but to surrender or die really but this is this is the portents of this is not just a military gain for the government it is again for iran iran expanding its influence in a corner of syria very strategic corner of syria it lies between the syrian israeli and lebanese borders which means irans allies on the ground are moving closer to israel and israel really has been voicing a lot of concern about this as of late talking both to the russians as well as the americans telling them that they will not accept it round of moving closer to their borders in fact a few weeks ago they stepped up airstrikes in syria they werent just targeting what they believed were arms convoys destined to the iranian ally Hezbollah Movement but what we understand one of those strikes targeted close to an Iranian Military base a base that was being set up by iran and so it was a warning message from israel so not just another military game for the government again for iran and possibly it could be a source of tension in the near future i found this in western syria starting to arrive home after enduring years of displacement camps across the country a temporary cease fire has provided some relief from the fighting but there seems to be no diplomatic solution despite several rounds of talks some of binge of aid has more. The common cause to win in northwest syria is deceptive. The scenic villages bigness fierce fighting and now its destroyed homes are unable to provide relief during the harsh winter. Were some says he couldnt handle the conditions in the camps for the displaced and has decided to return despite the risks hes now content with the limited supplies he can get in his own village but got to say in general they are weve come back after four years in displacement camps Home Sweet Home nothing on earth compares to our lovely village we came back restored our house which was in ruins we also started to grow some wheat barley and more almost every syrian seems to have lost something over some also shares that loss as many of his friends and neighbors are gone. But his family is thankful for what they have and what they salvaged the northwestern part of Hama Province is close to the costly stronghold of the Assad Government rebel fighters were pushed out after months of fighting but a calm has prevailed since the attacks declined as part of a deescalation deal the bitter cold keeps most people indoors local see around six hundred families have returned took a stone and it isnt easy to resume their lives. That theres no electricity the village lacks basic Services Like sewage and even schools most of the residents found their homes in ruin but they were turned to bring life back to normal. Elsewhere in Hama Prov