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Sanaa/Tehran - Representatives of the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels began negotiations on a prisoner exchange in Geneva on Saturday. The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, called on both sides in a statement to "serious talks" to secure the freedom of "as many prisoners as possible". The talks were preceded by the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which play an important role in the Yemen conflict.
Negotiations in Yemen following rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia© Photo: REUTERS / JEHAD SHELBAK
The negotiations between the two parties to the conflict in Geneva are scheduled for eleven days. With a view to the approaching Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, Grundberg called on them "not only to keep the commitments they have made to one another, but also their commitments to the thousands of Yemeni families who have been waiting for too long to reunite their loved ones see".
Prisoner exchange agreement concluded five years ago
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The Houthi rebel Abdelkader al-Murtada, who was in charge of the negotiations, expressed on Twitter the hope that this round of negotiations would be "crucial". Majed Fadail of the Yemeni government delegation said the "details" of the prisoner exchange were to be settled.
According to the UN, this is the seventh meeting between government officials and Houthi rebels to regulate the implementation of a prisoner exchange agreement. This had already been closed five years ago in Stockholm. Both sides had pledged to release immediately and "without any exception or condition" all "prisoners, disappeared persons, persons arbitrarily arrested" in the course of the conflict that broke out in Yemen in 2014.
Some releases already done
In the course of the talks, there have already been releases, as the International Committee of the Red Cross told the AFP news agency. In 2020, "more than 1,050 prisoners were freed or returned to their region or country of origin".
The Yemen conflict and its aftermath are among the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. Since September 2014, troops of Sunni President Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi, who fled into exile, have been fighting the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. In March 2015, a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia began to intervene militarily in favor of the Hadi forces. Thus, in Yemen, the two major rival powers in the region, Iran and Saudi Arabia, face each other indirectly. (APA, 03/11/2023)
