Local Editor
Yemen’s warring parties are expected to agree on the terms of a prisoner exchange in around 10 days, a representative of the resigned Yemeni regime said on Wednesday.
Talks between the two sides took place in Jordan last week. Both parties need to agree on lists of prisoners to be swapped.
“We expect that in 10 days time the final signing will have happened,” the head of the resigned regime delegation to the prisoner-exchange talks, Hadi Haig, told Reuters by telephone.
The United Nations is pushing for the exchange and a peace deal in Yemen’s main port, Hodeida. That could open the way for more talks between the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and the Saudi-backed resigned regime on ending the war.
The swap was one of the least contentious confidence-building measures at December’s U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden, held amid Western pressure to end the conflict. The fighting has lasted nearly four years, killed tens of thousands and brought 10 million people to the brink of famine.
The conflict pits the Houthis against Hadi forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition, which are trying to forcefully restore the resigned regime of former Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
