JEDDAH: The second round of prisoner swap talks between the Yemeni government and the Houthis scheduled to start this month, has been postponed after both the parties traded allegations over prison visit delays.
During the first round of prisoner swap negotiations in Switzerland in March this year, the Yemeni government and the Houthis had agreed to swap around 900 prisoners during the month of Ramadan, as well as exchange visits to prisoners in each other’s cities, and launch the second round of parleys immediately after the month of Ramadan, which ended on April 21. Both parties this week accused each other of impeding prison visits.
Majed Fadhail, a member of the government’s delegation to prisoner exchange talks, told Arab News that the Yemeni government delegation postponed a visit to Houthi prisons after the militia refused to permit them to visit a Yemeni politician, Mohammed Qahtan held captive for eight years.
Fadhail said,“The agreement stipulates that everyone, including Mohammed Qahtan, is allowed to visit”.
Yahya Kazman, chief of the Yemeni government’s delegation, also told Arab News that the second round of negotiations was scheduled to begin at the end of May but was delayed because the agreement to swap visits to Marib and Sanaa prisons failed to be be eecuted. “I anticipate that it will be delayed until mid-June, as it is dependent on visits that have not yet been implemented,” said Kazman.
In Sanaa, the Houthis accused the Yemeni government of setting preconditions on their Saturday visit to prisoners in Marib. “We view these actions as a blatant obstruction designed to thwart the visits and, in turn, the next round of negotiations,” Abdul Kader Al-Murtadha, head of the Houthi delegation, said on Twitter.
During the second round of talks, the Houthis say they will discuss exchanging 1,400 prisoners, while the Yemeni government says it will push for “emptying” Houthi prisons of abductees and forcibly disappeared persons.
Similarly, Yemen rights groups and activists that work for the release of war prisoners and abducted civilians have expressed dissatisfaction with the postponement of prisoner swap discussions between the warring factions and urged the United Nations Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, and the Arab coalition, to push for the negotiations to resume as early as possible.
