Yemen: Red Cross 'hopeful' new prisoner swap deal is close

Thousands will be exchanged if warring sides reach deal in coming days

Houthi prisoners board a plane at Sayoun Airport, Yemen, after being released in a prisoner swap. Reuters

A new prisoner exchange between Yemen’s warring sides is looking increasingly possible, the International Committee of the Red Cross told The National on Tuesday.

The internationally recognised government has spent years negotiating with the Houthi rebels over the release thousands of prisoners and detainees as part of a confidence-­building measure for peace talks.

The aim is a resumption of UN-led negotiations that have been stalled since the sides first met in Sweden in 2018.

Yemen’s warring parties agreed in Stockholm to an exchange involving 15,000 detainees. But only about 1,000 were exchanged by late 2020.

“We were pleased to hear that some progress was made in the negotiations by the parties about another large release operation,” said Basheer Omar, the ICRC spokesman in Yemen.

"We are obviously hopeful that we will soon see a release operation, hopeful for the detainees and their families. But we are also aware that negotiations of this kind during an active conflict are complex and require time."

He said he was not in a position to give any details on when the operation might be announced.

The ICRC’s position is to “facilitate the implementation of any agreement once reached by the parties, in respect of the humanitarian principles to ensure a safe and voluntary return of the detainees to be released.”

Mr Omar called on Yemen’s two sides to reach a political solution to the conflict.

“It is in the hands of the parties to the conflict to bring long-lasting positive change,” he said.

A member of the government’s prisoner swap committee, Majed Fadhil, told The National that 2,223 prisoners from both sides and people abducted during the war would be released once a deal was reached.

“There is nothing new except that once a deal is made, the Houthis will release 800 abductees and prisoners of the government in exchange for 800 of its prisoners that we have,” he said.

The release will also involve 16 Saudi prisoners, three Sudanese and several generals being exchanged for 600 Houthi prisoners.

“We hope this proposal will be implemented and the Houthis will not turn against it as they have done previously,” said Mr Fadhil, who is also Yemen's deputy human rights minister.

“The exchange will be considered as the second operation which includes journalists, the elderly and the wounded, and those that the government has been pushing for."

That list includes senior officials such as the brother of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

The chief of the Houthis' prisoner committee, Abdulqader Al Murtadha, said the deal would involve 1,400 Houthi prisoners swapped for 804 from government forces and their allies.

Talks on the prisoner swap coincide with Yemeni discussions in Saudi Arabia that start on Wednesday.