Goodwill gesture from Saudi Arabia towards the Houthis
The Saudi-led coalition supporting the legitimacy of Yemen on Monday released without exchange more than 100 Houthi prisoners in a significant humanitarian initiative aimed at building confidence and boosting peace talks between Saudi envoys and the Yemeni Houthi group.
Three planes airlifted 104 prisoners detained by the coalition to Yemen, a day after a major three-day prisoner swap involving nearly 900 prisoners from both sides of the conflict, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the coalition.
International Committee of the Red Cross media advisor Jessica Moussan said two planes each took 48 captives from Abha in southern Saudi Arabia to Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital of Yemen, and a third took eight prisoners from Abha to Aden, the temporary headquarters of the internationally recognized government.
Gen. Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said “The prisoner and detainee swap operation has been completed with the release of 104 Houthi prisoners of war held by the coalition”, bringing the number of those released since Friday to 973.
“Any respite for the exhausted population, including through such releases, must be supported,” said ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni. But only a political solution will end Yemen’s suffering in the end.”
“Yemen’s conflict began in 2014, and the Iran-backed Houthis have taken control of several areas of the country, including Sana’a.” “The following year, Saudi Arabia stepped in at the head of a military coalition, exacerbating a conflict that has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”
“The initiative is an extension of previous humanitarian initiatives launched by the kingdom with respect to prisoners,” al-Maliki said.
Moussan said Monday’s “unilateral” release “is outside the negotiations that took place in Switzerland last month” during which the Houthis and the government reached an agreement to exchange about 900 prisoners.
“The ICRC facilitates the transfer and provides logistical support as well as other procedures” such as interviewing former detainees”, she said.
“We are pleased to see that humanitarian considerations are being taken into account in order to reunite families,” she said, adding that this would “give the families of those detained a great relief”.
The latest exchange coincided with diplomatic efforts resulting from a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement aimed at consolidating a long-term ceasefire and putting the impoverished country’s bloody war on the verge of resolution.
Al-Maliki said today’s release also comes to “support efforts aimed at consolidating the truce and creating an atmosphere of dialog between the Yemeni parties to reach a comprehensive and sustainable political solution that ends the Yemeni crisis”.
A Saudi delegation on Thursday concluded peace talks in Sanaa with the Houthi group, which has spoken to officials about progress and said further discussions are needed to resolve remaining differences.
UN Yemen mediator Hans Grundberg said Monday that the most important opportunity in eight years now is for progress towards ending the conflict, but warned that “things could turn around if the parties do not take bolder steps towards peace.”
He told the UN Security Council that any new agreement in Yemen must be a clear step towards a Yemeni-led political process and that a ceasefire by Yemenis is needed.
“We need to see a Yemeni ceasefire and the parties refrain from using economic measures as a tool for hostilities,” he said.
