Yemeni talks underway in Jordan to discuss prisoner swap: ICRC
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The ICRC and the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen are in charge of the talks that have been taking place in Amman, Jordan, since last Friday.
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Prisoners greeted as they arrive at Sanaa airport, Friday, April 14, 2023 (AP)
A Red Cross spokesperson told AFP on Sunday that negotiations between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Sanaa are ongoing in Jordan in preparation for a potential prisoner exchange.
Since 2014, the US-Saudi-led coalition war on the country killed hundreds of thousands of people and led to one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in history, according to the UN.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen are in charge of the talks that have been taking place in Amman, Jordan, since last Friday, according to Jessica Moussan, the ICRC's Middle Eastern media advisor.
They are meeting "together with... parties to the conflict in Yemen to address issues pertaining to negotiations on a future release operation," she told AFP.
The UN envoy's office stated on Friday that the Amman negotiations were a continuation of an agreement reached by the two parties in Stockholm five years prior.
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According to the agreement, all those held in connection with the nine-year war on Yemen must be released "without any exceptions or conditions," including inmates, detainees, missing persons, people who have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly vanished, and people who are under house arrest.
According to Moussan, the ICRC was working with both parties to negotiate a prisoner swap in accordance with a March agreement reached in Switzerland that resulted in the release of roughly 900 captives.
This comes as in April, a prisoner exchange took place over three days while diplomatic efforts to achieve a long-term truce were stepped up.
In October of last year, a six-month cease-fire mediated by the UN came to an end, but combat has largely been stopped since then.
Read more: In a first since 2016, plane leaves Sanaa for Saudi Arabia
UN special envoy Hans Grundberg recently stated in The Hague that "the road to peace [in Yemen] is going to be long and difficult."
It is noteworthy that in recent months, the Sultanate of Oman put efforts to stop the aggression against Yemen and lift the unlawful siege imposed on the country by mediating a peace deal between Sanaa and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
However, due to Western obstruction, Saudi and Yemeni negotiators failed to agree on a new truce.
