Yemen's warring rivals discuss prisoner swap in Geneva

Representatives of Yemen's government and Iran-backed Huthi rebels kicked off talks in Geneva Saturday for an exchange of prisoners, with the UN urging both sides to engage in "serious" discussions.

The new round of closed-door negotiations amid years of civil war are being overseen by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"I hope the parties are ready to engage in serious and forthcoming discussions to agree on releasing as many detainees as possible," UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement.

The talks, reportedly set to last 11 days, mark the seventh meeting aimed at implementing an agreement on prisoner exchanges reached in Stockholm five years ago, the UN said.

Under that deal, the sides agreed "to release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest," held in connection with Yemen's nearly decade-long conflict, "without any exceptions or conditions."

The ICRC noted in a statement to AFP that past meetings mediated by Grundberg's office had "resulted in the release of prisoners on both sides."

"In 2020, more than 1,050 detainees were released and provided with transportation to their region of origin or home country following an agreement reached by the sides," it said.

Hoping for 'decisive' talks 

The latest meeting comes almost a year after the Huthis said they had agreed to a prisoner swap that would see 1,400 rebels freed in exchange for 823 pro-government fighters — including 16 Saudi and three Sudanese nationals.

A series of talks the warring parties have since held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, made no progress. 

"The ICRC is committed to supporting the implementation of future detainee releases and exchanges, and to repatriating or transferring released detainees across front lines back to their respective homes," the organization said.

Emphasizing that it was "a neutral intermediary in this process", the ICRC said it was "not involved in the negotiations on who exactly is going to be released and the identities of the detainees proposed and accepted for exchange by all concerned parties."

Speaking to the official Saba news agency Thursday, Yemeni government delegation member Majed Fadail said the aim of the talks was "to reach an understanding regarding the details" of a prisoner exchange.

In a Twitter post the same day, the leading Huthi delegate to the Geneva talks said he hoped the negotiations would yield concrete results.

"We hope that this round will be decisive," Abdul Qader al-Murtada said.

Saudi-Iran detente

Grundberg said it was urgent to reach an agreement.

"With Ramadan approaching, I urge the parties to fulfill the commitments they made, not just to each other, but also to the thousands of Yemeni families who have been waiting to be reunited with their loved ones for far too long," he said.

Saturday's talks began a day after Saudi Arabia and Iran said they had agreed to restore diplomatic relations, following years of supporting opposite sides in Yemen's eight-plus years of war.

A detente between the two regional heavyweights could facilitate a solution to the conflict, which has pitted Iran-backed Huthis against the internationally-recognized Yemeni government, propped up by Saudi Arabia, analysts say.

Huthi rebels took control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene on behalf of the Yemeni government the following year.

Since then, a grinding war has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed the impoverished nation to the brink of famine.

Fighting has largely been on hold since a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in April last year, even after the agreement expired in October.