A Step towards The End of War: Swapping Prisoners between Yemen, Saudi Arabia

By Staff, Agencies

The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] announced that “A Yemen prisoner swap deal has begun as a first plane departs Sana’a for Aden,” amid concerted diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the Saudi aggression.

A three-day exchange of more than 800 prisoners has started on Friday in a United Nations and Red Cross-brokered deal.

Local media reports said that the popular Ansarullah resistance movement have agreed to release 181 detainees, including Saudis and Sudanese soldiers who were part of the Saudi-led war on Yemen which received logistical and intelligence support from the US and other Western countries. In exchange, 706 prisoners held by the Saudi-backed former Yemeni regime will be released in the UN and ICRC-brokered prisoner swap deal reached last March in Switzerland.

The Red Cross said that on Friday, there would be two rounds of simultaneous flights between Aden and Sanaa to transfer the prisoners. The three-day operation is the most significant prisoner exchange in Yemen since both sides freed more than 1,000 detainees in October 2020.

According to sources, Saudi Arabia plans to announce the end of the devastating war in Yemen.

On Thursday, a Saudi delegation left war-torn Yemen with an “initial agreement” on a truce and a commitment to hold a second round of talks with the Yemen's Ansarullah movement, one week after Riyadh had informed Sana’a its decision to put an end to the war.

“There is an initial agreement on a truce that should be announced later on, if finalized,” an Ansarullah said, adding that “There is an agreement to hold another round of talks.”

The negotiating team was headed by ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber who left four days after he arrived seeking to “stabilize” a truce that lapsed in 2022.

“There is an agreement to hold another round of talks to further discuss points of difference,” the official said. 

Earlier last week, the spokesman of Ansarullah said Yemen will continue efforts to end the 8-year-long aggression and establish peace.