Government delegation: Negotiations regarding prisoners and abductees “are still in their first stage”

The spokesman for the Yemeni government negotiating team, Majid Fadael, said on Tuesday that their negotiations with the Houthi group regarding the exchange of prisoners and detainees "are still in their first stage."

Two days after the start of the negotiations in the Sultanate of Oman under the supervision of the United Nations, Fadeel added to Anadolu via phone that "the transition to the other stages has not yet taken place."

Fadayel, who is also a member of the negotiating team and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights in the legitimate government, continued, "Meetings with the Houthis continue intensively."

The exact number of prisoners and detainees on both sides is not currently known, but during consultations in Stockholm in 2018, the government and Houthi delegations presented lists of more than 15,000 prisoners and detainees.

Fadael explained, "All consultations are focused on an important point, which is the total release of prisoners and abductees without discrimination on the basis of all for all, including the politically hidden Muhammad Qahtan."

Qahtan is a prominent leader in the Yemeni Islah Party, the largest Islamic party in the country, and one of four people whom UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216 of 2015 called on the Houthis to release.

The Houthis arrested Qahtan from his home in the capital, Sanaa, on April 5, 2015, days after the group imposed house arrest on him. His family says they do not know his fate or where he was detained, and they have not been in contact with him since his detention.

Since April 2022, Yemen has witnessed a lull in the war that began about 10 years ago between forces loyal to the legitimate government and the forces of the Houthi group, which has controlled governorates and cities, including Sanaa, since 2014.

In April 2023, the government and the Houthis implemented the latest exchange deal, according to which about 900 prisoners and detainees were released from both sides, mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, after negotiations in Switzerland.

Source: Anatolia