Warring sides in Yemen plan prisoner swap

CAIRO — Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, the United Nations said on Sunday, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country’s internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress.

It would be the “first official largescale” exchange of its kind since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country, according to the U.N.

The prisoner swap deal was seen as a breakthrough during 2018 peace talks in Sweden. The Houthis and the internationally recognized government agreed then to several confidence-building measures.

Implementation of the tentative peace plan stumbled amid ongoing military offensives and a deep-seated distrust between the two sides.

The conflict also has been a theater for the regional rivalry between Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, and Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The U.N. mission in Yemen said that both the rebels and Yemeni government had decided to “immediately begin with exchanging the lists for the upcoming release” of prisoners. Sunday’s statement came after seven days of meetings between the two sides in Jordan’s capital, Amman.

Abdul-qader al-murtaza, a rebel official in charge of prisoners’ affairs, said in a tweet that the first phase of the deal includes the release of more than 1,400 prisoners from the two sides. He said talks would continue for another two days to “prepare and revise the final lists.”

The talks were co-chaired by Griffiths’ office and the International Committee of the Red Cross . Representatives from the Saudi-led coalition also attended, the U.N. said.