U.N. Envoy to Yemen Warns Surge in Fighting Risks Peace Efforts
ANDERSON: Let's get you to up to speed on some other stories on our regional radar. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in court on March 17th. That will be just two weeks after the country's elections. You'll remember he faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The 70-year-old denies any wrongdoing. In Turkey, a controversial court case has come to a surprising end. A group of defendants, including prominent businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, have been acquitted of trying to overthrow the government. They were charged in relation to 2013 protests against the construction of a shopping mall in Istanbul's famous Gezi Park. The charges were seen as a crackdown on dissent. The court ordered the release of Kavala, who has been detained more than two years. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing horror over northwestern Syria. The number of displaced Syrians edges close 1 million. She called on the government and its allies to allow humanitarian corridors. Meanwhile, Bashar al-Assad congratulated his forces Monday for regaining control in Aleppo.</s>BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA (through translator): We are fully aware that this does not mean the end of war, nor the collapse of schemes nor the demise of terrorism. Nor does it mean that the enemies have surrendered. But it certainly means rubbing their noses in the dirt as a prelude for a complete defeat sooner or later.</s>ANDERSON: That's the Syrian president. To Yemen's battlefield now, where we've seen a lot of recent developments over the course of the past couple weeks. Coalition warplanes being shot down by Houthi rebels, two missing Saudi officers. The UAE celebrating the withdrawal of its troops and the first large-scale prisoner exchange between the two conflicting sides. The U.N. special envoy for Yemen addressed the Security Council earlier today. Have a listen to what he had to say.</s>MARTIN GRIFFITHS, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR YEMEN: We are witnessing in Yemen what we have long feared. Since October, I have briefed this council several times on the signs of hope and momentum toward peace. But at the same time we've all been acutely aware that renewed violence could reverse the gains made, render peace more difficult and inflict even more severe humanitarian consequences on the population.</s>ANDERSON: For a detailed analysis, we have our Middle East expert here, Sam Kiley, to break it down. Sam, let's start with Martin Griffiths. I listened to his speech at the Security Council. I have to say, he did not sound particularly positive.</s>SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Indeed. His whole demeanor, body language was about backsliding beyond the previous cease- fire negotiations that had indicated some degree of potential hope. The reason -- I think there are several reasons why it must have collapsed. First, the south turned on itself, leaving the Houthis, who there had been a north versus south conflict between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government. Those forces themselves divided. Then on top of that, the international community is becoming increasingly and more -- increasingly vocally irritated, particularly the World Food Programme, that's feeding 12 million people a month, 9 million of them in the Houthi territories. And again and again demanding the Houthis stop abusing both the World Food Programme staff and the systems of distribution and essentially gouging the aid process. There's actually a proposal from within the World Food Programme at the moment to reduce the amount of aid they're giving to the Houthi areas, knowing ultimately that ordinary civilians may suffer. But in order to expose this level of gouging, in their words, that is going on at that time, that's been resisted by other elements within the United Nations. They'll be looking -- they were looking for Mr. Griffiths to give opportunity for hope so they could shorten the timeline. But there's no sign that there's any kind of cessation of violence. Recently, as you mentioned, there's been a slight uptick, with 31 people killed last Friday in an airstrike in the Houthi territory, allegedly all civilians, and the shooting down of the Saudi aircraft.</s>ANDERSON: That's Yemen. I want to get to Syria. Before we do that, I want to get to Libya. The E.U. agreeing to a mission to, as they suggest, block arms supply to Libya following meetings in Brussels on Monday. Germany's foreign minister said to safeguard the compliance with the arms embargo in Libya, the E.U. must also make a contribution because Libya is also about the security of Europe and therefore the E.U. is challenged. This new blockade, replacing another E.U. mission, has pretty much become obsolete. The question is how does this one stick? There's a wider question about what's going on in Libya and why this U.N. arms embargo has been on the books for so long, has never been enforced.</s>KILEY: It's never been enforced. It has a panel of experts, who repeatedly identify the Egyptians, the United Arab Emirates, the French, British, Italians, a number of groups supplying arms or military aid to one or other of the many sides within the Libyan conflict. That's been going on for some years. The issue now is that the European Union -- and this is particularly awkward for the internal structures in the European Union. You had a scene in which the British were backing the internationally recognized government. The French were backing General Haftar. He's seen as a strong man who might be able to bring the whole tribal structures that have largely collapsed together. And then you have the Russians who recently got involved again on Haftar's side. Haftar's people control access to the oil exports. And NNG (ph), which is not captured or exported, is on Europe's doorstep, as are the refugees coming from West Africa.</s>ANDERSON: You didn't mention the Turks, who are involved. The only interesting thing in Libya at the moment is the sort of lack of will of Americans to get involved on either side. The country as a whole, Washington will say it backs the U.N. internationally-recognized government in Tripoli. President Trump making a supportive telephone call in April. Again, a split. We'll leave it there. We've run out of time. We'll do Syria another time. I'm going to talk about it now but we'll have you back as ever. Today in Geneva the U.N. calling for an end to violence in Idlib. Have a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sheer quantity of attacks on these hospitals, medical facilities, schools, would suggest they can't all be accidental.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And at a minimum, even if they were accidental, it shows lack of precautionality,</s>ANDERSON: Important words once again from the U.N., giving us a sense of the urgency, the ferocity of the situation on the ground, the disaster that is that part of Syria at present. We are on the story. Arwa Damon has been inside Syria and reporting on it. You can find her reporting, as you can find our own at cnn.com. Jeff Bezos promising to help fight climate change with $10 billion. We'll explain his big pledge after this.