Prisoner Swap Talks Could Drag On for Months – Reuters

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN – Discussions regarding a U.N.-sponsored prisoner swap in Yemen’s ongoing conflict may be prolonged if the Saudi-backed government continues to assert that thousands of Houthi fighters are not in captivity, according to the Iranian-aligned Houthis.

During two rounds of negotiations in Amman, the warring factions have been working on the specifics of the prisoner exchange agreed upon last December as a confidence-building measure in the first significant peace talks of the almost four-year-long war.

The United Nations is advocating for the swap and a peace agreement in the key port city of Hodeidah as part of intensified efforts to resolve the nearly four-year conflict that has resulted in 15.9 million people facing acute hunger.

Delegates at the talks are struggling to finalize a list of detainees after exchanging a preliminary list in Sweden that contained around 15,000 names.

Abdul Qader Murtada, the head of the Houthi delegation, stated that the government has only accounted for a fraction—around one-tenth—of the 7,500 Houthi prisoners believed to be held in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

"If the other side persists in its rigid stance of denying our prisoners’ existence, the discussions will be drawn out for months," he lamented to reporters on the sidelines of the current talks, which commenced on Tuesday.

The Houthis have acknowledged only 3,600 names from the government’s original list of 9,500, arguing that over 4,000 of the names either do not exist, are duplicates, or belong to individuals who have already been released.

Murtada further revealed that they are holding "tens" of Saudi military personnel in their custody, including some of high rank, and emphasized that their release would depend on the liberation of all Houthi prisoners.

"The Saudis are linked to the situation of the Yemenis as a whole, and we refuse to negotiate with them unless it involves a comprehensive deal regarding all our prisoners," he stated.

The Yemeni government’s supporters have yet to provide comments on the progress of the prisoner swap discussions.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the leaders of a Western-backed coalition fighting the Houthis to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s administration, are seeking an end to a protracted and expensive war. They have expressed support for the U.N. initiative aimed at achieving a peace settlement.

The negotiations surrounding the swap are proposed to take place through the Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport in northern Yemen and the government-controlled Sayun airport in the south. These discussions also encompass the return of remains of deceased fighters from both sides.