Yemen’s Houthi rebels and its internationally recognised government agreed Tuesday to a prisoner swap involving nearly 3,000 people, including seven Saudis — making it the largest such exchange in 11 years of war should it succeed.
The breakthrough deal came after nearly a fortnight of discussions between officials from both sides in Muscat, the capital of neighbouring Oman, a key mediator in Yemen’s long-running conflict.
Officials gave few details about the next steps, but observers pressed both sides to follow through to bolster peace efforts.
Abdulqader al-Mortada, a negotiator with the Houthi delegation, said in a statement on X that “we signed an agreement today with the other party to implement a large-scale prisoner exchange deal involving 1,700 of our prisoners in exchange for 1,200 of theirs, including seven Saudis and 23 Sudanese”.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohamed AlJabir, said his country worked with the UN on the agreement, signed under the auspices of the world body and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“The Yemeni parties have agreed on a mechanism to expedite the detainee exchange process,” he told state broadcaster al-Ekhbariya.
– ‘Largest prisoner of war swap’ –
Mohammed al-Basha of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report told AFP that “while today’s developments represent a constructive step toward confidence-building between the Houthis and the anti-Houthi government coalition, significant challenges remain”.
“Nevertheless, this exchange is still likely to be the largest prisoner of war swap to date,” he added.
Challenges include verifying detainee lists and agreeing on a realistic timeline for the exchange, as well as bitter rivalries and divisions within the government itself, he said.
This month, a Yemeni separatist group that had joined the government coalition to counter the Houthis took control of swathes of the country, expelling other government forces and their allies in a move that has threatened to further divide the camp.
Majed Fadail, a member of the government delegation to the prisoner swap talks, told AFP it would be “the largest” such deal, adding that “the exchange of lists and names will take place from now and no later than in one month”.
Two of the seven Saudi nationals are air force pilots, Fadail told AFP, adding that Mohamed Qahtan would also be among the released.
Qahtan, a prominent Sunni Islamist leader aligned with the Saudi government, has been held by the Houthis since 2015.
International organisations expressed cautious optimism following the announcement of the deal.
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg welcomed the agreement as “a positive and meaningful step that will hopefully ease the suffering of detainees and their families”.
But he said its “effective implementation will require the continued engagement and cooperation of the parties, coordinated regional support and sustained efforts to build on this progress toward further releases”.
– ‘Counting on cooperation’ –
The ICRC called for the deal’s swift implementation and said it was ready to assist in the transfers.
“We are counting on the cooperation of the parties to the conflict. It is essential that they uphold their commitments under the agreement and swiftly identify the detainees who are to be released,” said Christine Cipolla, the head of the ICRC’s delegation in Yemen.
UN rights chief Volker Turk also urged the rebels to “immediately and unconditionally” release dozens of UN staffers detained in the country over the past few years.
The Houthi rebels control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and much of the north, including most population centres, while the internationally-recognised government holds much of the south.
Since 2015, the war in Yemen has pitted the Iran-backed rebels against a Saudi-led coalition that supports the government.
The conflict has been effectively frozen since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, which has held despite expiring.
Talks to bring the conflict to a formal end have yet to result in a deal.
The conflict in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly, with large numbers taken as prisoners on both sides.
A reconciliation deal between the warring parties’ main foreign patrons, Riyadh and Tehran, in early 2023 saw nearly 900 prisoners released in April that year.
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