Can Sweden talks be first step toward solving Yemen’s complicated crisis?

The Yemen peace talks sponsored by the United Nations continued for the fourth consecutive day in Sweden in an attempt to make a breakthrough in Yemen’s complicated issue.

It focused on the humanitarian issues, including exchanging prisoners of war between the warring factions.

However, no discussions will be conducted between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government delegation and the Houthi representatives regarding ending the country’s conflict through signing a political agreement now, according to analysts.

The UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, recorded the first positive step and succeeded in bringing the two delegations together around one table during the opening ceremony of the consultations in Sweden.

During the opening ceremony, the UN envoy declared that the two-warring sides reached an agreement on exchanging prisoners of war and detainees, but provided no further details.

Yemeni President’s Advisor Mohammed al-Amri said in a previous interview that “the Houthi delegation had provided a list of some 3,000 prisoners including those rebels captured by the government forces.”

The government negotiating team submitted a list that included about 1,800 prisoners held in the Houthicontrolled jails in Sanaa, the president’s advisor said.

Sources in the government delegation in Sweden confirmed to Xinhua that most of the discussions concentrated on implementing the prisoner exchange agreement.

Representatives from the two-warring sides submitted lists that include their prisoners’ names, the political detainees and the jailed journalists to the UN envoy, the sources said.

The execution of the prisoner swap deal between the two warring rivals in Yemen will be assigned to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Marwan Damag, a member of the government negotiating team in Sweden, said that “it looks like it is possible to make progress in the prisoner swap deal that may lead to further achievements.”

Damag demanded that “the Houthi rebels should release all the political detainees and prisoners without exclusion and declare the fate of those missing persons including the journalists.”

Some Yemeni analysts believe that the UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden will progress and make a small breakthrough but on the humanitarian issue.

Ali Alfakih, a political analyst and writer, said that “the peace talks taking place in Sweden will succeed in opening new passages for delivering humanitarian supplies and preventing the destruction of Hodeidah.”

But there are no obvious signs to achieve a real agreement in order to end the years-long military conflict due to several reasons including the recent tense military situation, he said.

Other Yemeni experts think that solving the country’s complicated issue is mainly linked to the interests of regional countries.

Musa Alyaa, an expert in the international development, said that “the country’s complicated crisis will not be solved easily through conducted talks between weak local factions in Sweden.”

The local Yemeni factions only execute the orders coming from other regional countries and won’t be able to take decisions to stop the war without consulting their regional allies that have the upper hand, he said.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled Yamani, who is leading the government negotiating team in Sweden, demanded the Houthi rebels to completely withdraw from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and hand over their weapons.

Observers argued that the Houthis will not accept to give up their arms and preconditions indicate that all parties still don’t have goodwill to reach a peace deal.

The UN-sponsored peace talks to build confidence between the Yemeni warring parties kicked off Thursday in Sweden in the first step to resume the political process which ceased in 2016.

The author is a writer with the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared on Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn