Britain at the polls; A Peek Inside Kaesong Industrial Park. Saudi- Arabia Calls for Ceasefire in Yemen
ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER: There will be a ceasefire everywhere or a ceasefire nowhere.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Saudi Arabia proposes a five day pause in military action in Yemen, but not without conditions. Tonight, will the violence stop to allow for desperately needed humanitarian aid to get into the country? Also ahead...</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Made in Korea, sneakers rolling off assembly lines in a South Korean factory with North Korean workers.</s>ANDERSON: An exclusive look inside North Korea's industrial park, a rare symbol of cooperation between two neighbors who are still technically at war. And from the alleyways of Aleppo to the boulevards of Sao Paulo, we bring you the story of Syrian refugees who now call Brazil home.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.</s>ANDERSON: A very good evening. It is just after 7:00 here. Desperately needed aid could soon be on the way for civilians trapped by the fighting in Yemen. Now Saudi Arabia is proposing a five day humanitarian ceasefire, but says it'll halt airstrikes only if Houthi rebels lay down their arms. Well, weeks of fighting killed hundreds of civilians in Yemen and left millions more struggling with shortages of food, water and medical supplies. Just Wednesday, Yemen's UN ambassador asked the security council to save the country by supporting a ground invasion against Houthi rebels. But today in Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry downplayed talk of a ground war. He met with Yemen's exiled president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, then joined the Saudi foreign minister to talk about what is this proposed ceasefire.</s>JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So we strongly urge the Houthis and those who back them whom we suggest use all of their influence not to miss this major opportunity to address the needs of the Yemeni people and find a peaceful way forward in Yemen.</s>ANDERSON: Well, CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh spent a considerable amount of time reporting from Yemen last year. And this tonight joining us from Beirut. Another round of talk, as it were, not talks but talk. What do you make of these latest developments?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of choreography and tension in the next ten days, but also a lot of nothing that could happen as well. Both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. clear that this offered five day ceasefire, which could, they say, happen in several days once the aid community, they say, has had enough time to get shipments ready and after a meeting tomorrow in Paris. That ceasefire of five days could be renewable. That's contingent on the Houthis also stopping the movement of weapons, use of weapons and fighting as well. Now, it's a very complex task ahead, because the Houthis themselves aren't entirely homogeneous group and there are other militias involved in the fighting as well, a lot of street by street, a lot of it turf wars that have been around for awhile. And then on top of that, too, you have the complex task of getting the aid in. Five days could be enough for that, but the runway of the main airport in Sanaa has been taken out. And the ports themselves are the scene of pretty intense fighting as well. So, I think obviously this is a bid for the moral high ground by the U.S. and Saudi after an intense airstrikes over the past weeks. And obviously we have to hear now from the Houthis. Do they accept this. They're given initial indications that the later part of this kind of choreographal (ph) dates we're seeing ahead, which would end 10 days from now in a meeting in Riyadh in which all sides in teh Yemeni conflict who were invited by Saudi Arabia, the Houthis have given an initial indications they're not interested in going for that. But will they also not accept this ceasefire being offered to pressure clearly directed towards them. But this does come after weeks of intense aerial bombardment, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Let's just have a listen to what the new foreign minister in Saudi had to say today, Nick.</s>AL-JUBEIR: So the decision was made that the pause would affect all of Yemen for a period of five days. It will be announced in -- the actual date will be announced shortly, god willing, and as well as the requirements. Now this is all based on the Houthis complying with the ceasefire. There will be a ceasefire everywhere or a ceasefire nowhere.</s>ANDERSON: Let's provide some context for this for our viewers who may not be watching this on a sort of minute by minute basis. GCC countries led by Saudi will be in Paris at the end of this week and then going on to the states where they meet President Obama at Camp David. With John Kerry in Riyadh today and this announcement, how much maneuvering behind the scenes is the U.S. doing at this point? How much pressure are they putting on Saudi to keep this conflict legitimate as it were?</s>WALSH: The U.S. obviously playing both sides here. They're assisting with everything from search and rescue to targeting for the Saudi campaign. I think clearly given what the Houthis did to their embassy there, there is no love lost pushing the U.S. diplomats to leave. There's no love lost between Washington and Houthi leaders. But at the same time, too, there is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe happening inside Yemen now. And the U.S. just this morning was asking for that humanitarian pause. The Saudis suggested it was possible, but it all comes down to whether the violence can actually stop long enough. But there's a much bigger picture here, Becky. We're talking about a potential historic detente between Tehran and Washington. The nuclear talks that have been ongoing and are reaching now the final kind of number crunching technical complex stage in the weeks ahead. They of course have made the Saudis deeply nervous and concerned that their arch nemesis in the region Iran may in fact end up in some broader comfortable arrangements with Washington who have been the Saudi's long- term regional, global ally security wise for decades. So, this perhaps is John Kerry doing two things: trying to reassure the Gulf allies that the U.S. have -- they're being invited to Camp David, who have lots of security concerns and demands on the U.S. of their own, but at the same time, too, remember if you're watching this from Tehran you're seeing that potentially if this nuclear deal falls apart, that Washington are very close and very ready to respond regionally with the Sunni part of the equation here, the Saudis and the GCC who face in so many of the proxy conflicts around that region now Shia-backed Iranian militia. So, a very interesting and complex maneuver that John Kerry is pulling off today, but one broadly that perhaps may lead to cessation of violence in the weekend ahead in Yemen, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Yeah, complex calculations as you rightly point out. Nick, thank you. Nick Paton Walsh out of Beirut for you this evening. So, how will Houthi rebels respond to this ceasefire offer? Well, coming up we'll get reaction from a Houthi activist, also a look at where the conflict goes from here. We'll speak with the co-founder of the Sanaa center for strategic studies, that is a youth-led think tank aiming to bring new perspectives to Yemen and to regional affairs. That is all coming up in about 10 minutes from now, so do stay with us for that. Meantime, Palestinians are criticizing Israel's new coalition government saying it'll work against instability in the region. Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a last minute deal with a far right party just before a midnight deadline. That gave him 61 out of the 120 seats in parliament, the narrowest majority possible to retain power. Well, let's get more from Oren Liebermann who is our man in Jerusalem. When Netanyahu emerged from the election, Oren, with that decisive victory, he cannot have imagined the price of a governing coalition will be this high: conceding what are powerful seats in the cabinet to some of his political rivals, and rivals on the right. What are the implications here?</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Netanyahu knows exactly how weak a 61 seat government is. He knows for this government to last he's going to have to expand it somehow. And he acknowledged that in a statement right after the announcement that he had his coalition. He said 61 is a good number, 61 plus is a better number. So he knows he wants to expand his coalition. He'll have to announce who is in the coalition next week, but then he can immediately start working on expanding that coalition. You're absolutely right that he had a decisive victory on election night, winning 30 seats. It looked like he could whatever he wanted politically with his coalition. And it looked like he had a strong 67 seat right-wing government. In the last few days here, one of the right wing parties backed out leaving him with that fragile 61 seat right-wing government. And he knows exactly how fragile that government is. It's already facing a tremendous amount of criticism. Isaac Herzog, his main rival in the elections, called this a government of national failure, a weak government. And he's already facing criticism from the Palestinian Authority calling this a right-wing government that won't lead to peace.</s>NABIL ABU RUDEINEH, SPOKESMAN FOR PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT: This is a rightist government, which believes in settlement activity, rejects the two state solution, and still pushes through long-term political paralysis. This will reflect on the region and will be dangerous not only for the Palestinian issue, but for the general political atmosphere in the region.</s>LIEBERMANN: A right-wing government is a government designed to focus on domestic issues, and perhaps that's what Netanyahu had in mind. But to do that, to push through reforms, to push through national changes, he was certainly hoping for something stronger than a 61 seat government, a 61 seat coalition. At the same time, as you just heard mention there, this is a government, a right-wing government, that will face tremendous international pressure with the Palestinians on a two state solution on settlements. He'll have to find a way to handle that pressure if this government is to hold together. Becky, certainly worth noting that one of the most important ministries, the foreign ministry does not have a name attached to it yet. You can use that to try to lure in another political party perhaps, perhaps even Isaac Herzog.</s>ANDERSON: Fascinating. All right, thank you, Oren. Well, while Israelis are getting a sense of what their new government will look like, ballots still being passed in the United Kingdom's general election. The clock you see on your screen is counting down the time until the polls close. Millions voting at more than 40,000 polling stations across the country. And CNN covering all for you with less than six hours to go until the doors are closed. Let's got to Nic Robertson. He joins us outside a polling station in London. And for transparency's sake, the rules governing a British election don't allow us to talk about the people or the politics. What we can do it talk about the turnout. So, in what could be one of the closest elections in decades, have the polling booths been busy across the UK?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the perception is that they have been -- you know they're having quite a lot of sunshine here in London and generally across the country the weather looks pretty good and that's always good for a higher turnout. I think there is a perception across the country as well that these elections really count. And this polling station that we're outside of for mainland Britain this is the one that had the closest margin between parties at the last elections, 42 votes in it. So, we've seen that here a fairly steady stream of people coming in to this polling station, its polls opening at 7:00 a.m. this morning. There was a group of people standing outside waiting for the doors to open. We've seen a lot of people coming in on their way to work or the schools just closed a few minutes ago. There were a lot of people dropping by with their children after picking them up from school. So, it's been fairly steady throughout the day. We've seen the leaders of the principles parties going out to vote early in the day. David Cameron voting in his Oxfordshire constituency. We're seeing Ed Milliband up there in Doncaster in Yorkshire voting and Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party, he voted in Thanet in the very southeast corner of the country. Nick Clegg voting just outside Sheffield, again in Yorkshire close to Doncaster. Natalie Bennett voting for the Green Party in London. And in Scotland, Glasgow, Nichola Sturgeon from the Scottish National Party. she voted as well. So all the leaders, they got out early in the day. Very clear where they're votes are going. Six more hours, a little bit less, for people to go to the polling stations expecting a sort of surge of voters as people vote on their way home from work. But steady and probably higher turnout expected than the last election, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Yeah, fantastic. All right, and perfectly pleasant day there in London. I hope all of you who are voting are having a perfectly pleasant day wherever you are in the UK. CNN is the place for extensive coverage of the British election. We'll have special program that begins just as polls close shortly before 10:00 p.m. local time following developments throughout the night as we get a sense of what the new parliament will look like. That is right here on CNN. Still to come this hour tonight Syrian refugees head for a new life in a place that just might surprise you. We'll get you the details on that. First up, though, Yemen asks for ground troops as Saudi Arabia and the U.S. push a five day ceasefire. We'll look at what competing interests want in Yemen's war.