AA/Yemen
The United Nations envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on Friday evening welcomed the Arab Coalition’s decision to release Houthi prisoners.
“I welcome the initiative of the Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, which agreed to release a number of prisoners,” he wrote.
And the UN official added: “The two parties have agreed on an exchange of prisoners through our office.”
He said it was a “necessary step for the parties to fulfill their obligations under the Stockholm Agreement (2018) on the release of all conflict-related detainees”.
On Friday, the Arab Coalition announced the transfer of 163 Houthi prisoners from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, while the Houthi group said it had received only nine. According to the Houthi group, the detainees are “not prisoners of war”.
It should be noted that several prisoner exchange agreements between the Yemeni government and the Houthis have been concluded, thanks to local mediation and far from the intervention of the United Nations.
Yemen has been experiencing an ongoing war for nearly 7 years between pro-government forces backed by an Arab military alliance led by neighboring Saudi Arabia, and the Iran-backed Houthis, who since September 2014 have controlled several governorates, including the capital, Sanaa.
*Translated from Arabic by Hajer Cherni
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