Local Editor
Yemen’s Ansarullah revolutionary movement have announced the unconditional release of 350 prisoners including three Saudi Arabians days after the Yemeni group claimed to have captured thousands of Saudi troops following an ambush inside Saudi Arabia, according to Houthi-run Almasirah TV.
A statement by the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs (NCPA) carried by Almasirah TV said the individuals were on the lists of persons drawn up as part of the prisoner exchange deal agreed in Stockholm in December.
The UN-brokered prisoner swap, one of the three pillars of the breakthrough deal, involving some 7,000 detainees on each side had stalled as the two sides - the Houthis and the resigned Hadi regime - struggled to agree on its implementation.
"Our initiative proves our credibility in implementing the Sweden agreement and we call on the other party to take a comparable step," said Abdul Qader al-Murtada, head of the NCPA, in statements carried by the broadcaster.
"We decided to release 350 prisoners because nothing from Sweden agreement have been achieved. The release is going take place today," the NCPA statement read.
The group said the release of the prisoners was a gesture of goodwill to the Saudi-UAE coalition, which has carried out bombing in support of the resigned regime of Abd-Rabbu Mansur Hadi since 2015.
Al-Mortada said at a press conference on Monday that the group includes three Saudis who will be transported home under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"We are always ready to act as a neutral facilitator in the release of detainees when we receive a request from the parties to the conflict and hope that this operation opens the door to further releases to bring comfort to families awaiting reunification with their loved ones," said Franz Rauchenstein, the ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen.
A Saudi-led coalition, which receives arms and intelligence from Western countries, intervened in Yemen in March 2015.
The Houthis, who control most major urban areas, including the capital Sanaa, said on September 20 they would halt missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia if the alliance stopped its operations. The coalition has not yet responded to the proposal.
The group also claimed an attack on pipelines belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco earlier this month, but Riyadh said the drone attacks were sponsored by Iran.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
