As prospects for peace grow, the Yemen prisoner swap will begin on Thursday.

 

A Yemeni government official announced that a prisoner swap involving hundreds of prisoners from Yemen's terrible civil war will begin on Thursday amid growing optimism for peace.

The official stated on Tuesday that over 900 inmates, the most of whom were fighting alongside Houthi rebels, will be flown between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which is in charge of the military coalition fighting on behalf of the overthrown government.

Since the Saudi-led operation started in March 2015, several months after the Iran-backed Houthis took control of the nation's capital Sanaa, the poorest nation in the Arabian Peninsula has been at war.

According to the UN, Yemen is experiencing one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes in the world, with hundreds of thousands of deaths from both direct and indirect causes.

According to Majid Fadael, the designated spokesman for the government delegation negotiating the swap, the prisoner exchange, which will be the largest since October 2020, would take place over the course of three days and encompass several towns in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

According to a deal agreed last month in Switzerland, the Houthis will free 181 captives, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 prisoners detained by the government.

Fadael tweeted that "all arrangements have been finished... to implement the agreed-upon exchange process."

The Red Cross will conduct reciprocal flights between Aden and Sanaa and Aden and Sanaa on the first day of the exchange process, he continued.

"Our personnel are on the ground trying to enable the safe transfer and repatriation of detainees," International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) public affairs and media relations adviser Jessica Moussan told AFP.

"We're hoping that the upcoming detainee release operation in Yemen will happen soon. We are unable to provide any particular dates, however, as the situation is still fluid and given the intricacy of such an operation.

The swap agreement was reached days after the historic news that regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran, who have long been at odds in the tumultuous Gulf region, will work to repair their seven-year diplomatic rupture.

The six-month cease-fire in Yemen, which was negotiated by the UN and formally expired in October, is still mostly in place and giving its 30 million inhabitants—the majority of whom are dependent on aid—some relief.

Politics as a solution

According to the Saudi envoy, a Saudi delegation met with the Houthi leadership this week in Sanaa in an effort to "stabilise" the cease-fire and promote inter-Yemeni communication in the direction of a "comprehensive political settlement."

Oil-rich countries, according to analysts In order to concentrate on domestic initiatives aimed at diversifying its crude-dependent economy, Saudi Arabia seeks to resolve the conflict in neighbouring Yemen.

Prisoners will be flown in and out of Riyadh and Abha in Saudi Arabia as well as Yemen's Sanaa, Mocha, and Marib on Friday and Saturday following Thursday's flights between Sanaa, which is held by the rebels, and Aden, Fadael added.

Until all detainees and abductees are released on the principle of "all for all," and all detention facilities and jails are empty, he wrote, "This exchange process will be followed by more exchanges in the near future."

13 captives reportedly arrived at Sanaa International Airport on Saturday in exchange for a Saudi prisoner who had already been released, according to the Houthis.

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that "more than 1,050" inmates were freed during the most recent significant exchange in October 2020.

The discussions with the Saudi team "now concentrate around lifting the [transport] embargo fully, evacuating all foreign forces in Yemen, and releasing all prisoners," Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis' political council, told AFP.

In an interview, he stated, "The problem of creating complete peace is what we care about right now.

Yet in a tweet, he also expressed concern about "the return of war... in a more ferocious form" if talks break down.

According to Bukhaiti's tweet, Saudi aircraft will start bombing Yemen, while Yemeni air and missile forces will resume attacking Saudi Arabia.

Peace negotiations inspire the UN representative.

The UN representative for Yemen, meantime, expressed his encouragement for the "depth and sincerity" of negotiations taking place between Yemen's various parties, particularly those that resulted from delegations from Saudi Arabia and Oman visiting Sanaa.

The negotiations in Sanaa are not directly supported by the UN.

Hans Grundberg told Reuters, "I'm working with all necessary parties to make sure that these efforts are in support of the UN mediation."