Al Houthis head to Sweden talks

UAE says round of talks is ‘critical opportunity’

An Al Houthi delegation left for Sweden yesterday for UN-sponsored Yemen peace talks, the first since 2016. A Kuwaiti passenger jet carrying an Al Houthi team accompanied by UN special envoy Martin Griffiths left Al Houthiheld Sana’a for Sweden.

Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government is expected to follow the group, whose attendance was secured after the evacuation of 50 wounded Al Houthis for treatment in Oman on Monday. Previous talks in September collapsed when Al Houthis failed to show up.

Agreements between the government and Al Houthi militia on a prisoner swap and medical treatment have added momentum to the talks, which are expected to convene as early as today to discuss confidence-building measures and a transitional governing body.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash said yesterday the Sweden talks are a “critical opportunity”. “A sustainable Yemeni-led political solution offers the best chance to ending the current crisis. A stable state, important for the region, cannot coexist with unlawful militias,” he tweeted.

Evacuating wounded Al Houthi fighters from Sana’a once again demonstrates the Yemeni government & the Arab coalition’s support for peace”

Proposed UN-led talks in Sweden mark a “critical opportunity” to bring peace to wartorn Yemen after four years of conflict, a UAE minister said yesterday.

The comments from the UAE, which is part of the progovernment coalition fighting Al Houthi militants in Yemen, came as UN envoy Martin Griffiths is in the militant-held capital Sana’a seeking to push forward the planned talks set to take place in Sweden today.

“We believe Sweden offers a critical opportunity to successfully engage in a political solution for Yemen,” Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, the UAE’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, said in his tweet.

He added that “a sustainable Yemeni-led political solution offers the best chance to ending the current crisis.”

“Evacuating wounded Al Houthi fighters from Sana’a once again demonstrates the Yemeni government & the Arab coalition’s support for peace,” Gargash said in a tweet.

An Al Houthi delegation left for Sweden yesterday for UNsponsored peace talks, the first since 2016. A Kuwaiti passenger jet carrying Al Houthi team accompanied by Griffiths left Al Houthi-held Sana’a for Sweden.

On Monday, 50 wounded militants left on a UN-chartered plane for neutral Oman to be treated, in what was termed “a confidence-building” measure ahead of any talks.

Saudi Arabia and its allies, who back Hadi, had agreed the 50 wounded combatants, 50 escorts and a team of Yemeni and UN doctors could be flown out to Muscat — a condition set by the Al Houthis for negotiations.

The Al Houthis have also called for guarantees for their safety after they leave the country — a key condition which led to the collapse of earlier talks planned for September in Geneva.

Prisoner exchange

Both sides have also agreed to exchange hundreds of prisoners ahead of talks in Sweden, sources said yesterday.

The deal, struck during a visit by Griffiths, covers between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the pro-government forces and between 1,000 and 1,500 militiamen, government official Hadi Haig said.

The Red Cross said it “welcomes the agreement between Yemeni parties for the release, transfer and repatriation of conflict-related detainees”.

“This is one step in the right direction towards the building of mutual trust among Yemeni communities,” spokeswoman Mirella Hodeib said, adding that the ICRC would oversee and facilitate the exchange.

According to Haig, the prisoner swap will be implemented after the round of negotiations in Sweden.

Nearly 10,000 people are said to have been killed since an Al Houthi coup in 2014 toppled the internationally-recognised government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, according to the World Health Organisation. On the request of Hadi government, Saudi Arabia created a military coalition of Arab states to help restore the legitimate government.

The UN warned yesterday of a “severe increase” in Yemen’s hunger rate and cautioned the situation would deteriorate further in 2019, when four million more people are expected to need food aid. The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, said a food security survey due to be published later this week would show “a severe increase in hunger rate” in the country.

Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash | UAE’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs