World

Yemeni sides begin UN-brokered talks on prisoner exchange

CAIRO –

The United Nations said Yemen’s warring parties began talks on Saturday to implement a UN-brokered deal on a prisoner exchange.

Discussions between Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels are taking place in Switzerland. They were co-chaired by the United Nations special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Grundberg urged both sides to “engage in serious and forthcoming discussions to agree to release as many detainees as possible,” according to a United Nations statement.

“I call on the parties to fulfill the commitments they have made, not only to each other but also to the thousands of Yemeni families who have waited so long to be reunited with their loved ones.” he said.

Yemen’s conflict erupted in 2014, when Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of the north of the country. That prompted a Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later to restore power to the internationally recognized government.

Jason Straziuso, a spokesman for the Geneva-based ICRC, described the meeting as an opportunity to “relieve the humanitarian suffering associated with this conflict.”

“If more prisoners are released, it will be good news for families to be able to reunite with loved ones,” he said.

Majed Fadail, Yemen’s deputy human rights minister and member of the government delegation, said the talks would last for 11 days, the government-run SABA news agency reported.

He said they look forward to releasing all prisoners of war to help achieve a “permanent and comprehensive peace” in Yemen.

Abdul-Qader el-Murtaza, the head of the Houthi delegation, said they hoped that the round of talks would be “decisive”.

The talks are a follow-up to a 2018 agreement that requires both sides to release all detainees involved in the conflict “without any exception or condition.”

The prisoner exchange agreement is part of a broader UN-brokered deal that ended months of fighting over the vital Red Sea city of Hodeida four years ago. Since then, the two sides have released many prisoners with a major exchange taking place in October 2020 involving more than 1,000 prisoners from both sides.

The conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and in recent years has become a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Negotiations on Yemen in Switzerland began a day after Iran and Saudi Arabia announced a China-brokered deal to re-establish diplomatic ties after years of tension and hostility.

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Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten contributed from Geneva.



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