Sanaa: We will not allow Saudi Arabia to politicize the prisoners file
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The National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs in Sanaa says that nine of the detainees are foreigners of African nationality with whom there is no connection.
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The total number of detainees is 126, and they are not prisoners of war with the exception of five. (Archive)
The National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs in Sanaa said it contacted the Red Cross to inquire about what the Saudi regime called an initiative to release 163 prisoners.
In a statement, the Committee said that the total number of detainees is 126, and they are not prisoners of war except for five."
"The rest of the names are unknown to us as a national committee, and we must coordinate with them ahead of time, even though we welcome the release of any Yemeni," the statement added.
The statement went on to say that nine of the detainees are foreigners of African nationality with whom there is no connection.
The Prisoners' Affairs Committee stated emphatically that "the prisoners' file should not be used for auctions and extortion, and we cannot allow the Saudi regime to politicize it."
Meanwhile, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada, head of the prisoner affairs committee in the Sanaa-based National Salvation Government, slammed the Saudi mercenaries' delay in exchanging captives, claiming that discussions with the UN on the issue are moving too slowly.
Al-Murtada told Yemen’s Al-Masirah TV, “Following Saudi Arabia’s purported initiative regarding the release of some Yemeni prisoners, officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) informed us that they had visited the detainees and found out they were of different nationalities.”
He stressed that “progress in negotiations with the United Nations regarding prisoner exchange is very slow, despite the fact that we have presented many initiatives aimed at resolution of the humanitarian issue."
Earlier, a Yemeni official revealed that the Saudi-led coalition troops and its allied militant groups have violated the UN-brokered national truce more than 5,000 times.
This comes although the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced that "under this truce, all offensive military operations, by land, air, and sea, will cease."
More than half of Yemen’s people face acute hunger, with half of the children under five being at risk of malnutrition.
Al-Murtada noted that the blame for the implementation of prisoner exchanges supervised by the UN is on the Saudi-paid Takfiri militants who have yet to compile their lists.
Saudi Arabia has brutally waged a war against the Yemeni people for over 7 years.
