Local Editor
Jordan said on Tuesday it will host talks between Yemen’s popular Houthi movement and the resigned regime over a prisoner exchange deal brokered during UN-led peace talks in Sweden last month.
The meeting will be attended by a committee comprising of both Houthi and regime delegates, who have been tasked with following up on the implementation of the agreement.
“By the request of the office of UN Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, the Kingdom of Jordan has agreed to host the meeting between the two sides,” said a statement by Jordan's foreign ministry. It did not mention when the meeting would take place.
"Jordan stands alongside its brothers in Yemen in efforts to end the crisis” the statement said.
The Jordanian government, however, has not officially notified Griffiths of its decision to host the talks, the UN envoy’s office said on Twitter.
Yemen’s warring parties last month swapped the names of 15,000 prisoners they want released from detention. The operation is expected to be implemented by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The prisoners will be flown out of two airports, Seyoun in central Yemen and Sana’a.
“The ICRC will act as a neutral intermediary between the parties and provide technical and, if needed, logistical support to facilitate the transfer and release [of captives],” the organization’s spokeswoman Jessica Moussan El Zarif told The National.
Warring parties in Sweden also agreed on a ceasefire in the city of Hodeida.
However, implementation of the deal has floundered, despite the deployment of UN observers to the area.
Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, including the UAE, launched the devastating military campaign against Yemen to bring the Riyadh-backed former regime back to power.
The coalition has, however, failed to achieve its objective in the face of the Yemenis’ resistance.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
