Yemen rebels, Saudi Arabia begin major prisoner swap

Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have begun an exchange of nearly 900 prisoners of war, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday.

The prisoner exchange deal comes after days of talks between Saudi and Houthi officials at the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control since 2014. The talks concluded late on Thursday, with plans for holding a further round soon.

Saudi Arabia is seeking a permanent ceasefire that could ease its withdrawal from the conflict. The country led a coalition into neighboring Yemen in 2015 in support of then President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, against the Houthis, who had seized the capital.

The Houthi rebels are striving for paying up civil servants' delayed salaries, including members of the armed forces, in areas which they control, as well as fully reopening Houthi-held ports and airports.

What do we know about the prisoner exchange deal?

The ICRC said on Friday that it was mediating the prisoner exchange deal, which started on the same day and will run over the course of the next few days.

"Today, we witness the release of the first of some 900 prisoners related to the Yemeni conflict," it said. The committee added that its planes would be used to fly prisoners across six Yemeni and Saudi cities.

The first planes departed on Friday morning, with one aircraft carrying 125 former detainees from the city of Aden to Saana, while another heading to Aden was carrying 35 former prisoners.

The Houthi rebels are expected to release over 180 prisoners, including top Yemeni military officials, four Yemeni journalists, and Saudi and Sudanese troops fighting with the Saudi-led coalition, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The Saudi-led coalition and the Yemeni government will in turn release over 700 Houthi prisoners. The swap is believed to be the largest since an October 2020 one, which saw over 1,000 prisoners released, AP said.

"With this act of goodwill, hundreds of families torn apart by conflict are being reunited during the holy month of Ramadan, a glimmer of hope amidst great suffering," the AP quoted ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni as saying. He hoped that the releases would pave the way for a "broader political solution."

Working towards a permanent ceasefire

Ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber led the Saudi delegation to Sanaa, seeking to "stabilize" a six-month, UN-brokered truce which expired last October. The truce brought calm to the conflict, nearly unprecedented since its start.

The latest talks, facilitated by Oman, focused on a ceasefire, full reopening of Houthi-controlled ports and Sanaa Airport, payment of public employees' wages, rebuilding, and the withdrawal of foreign forces, sources told the Reuters news agency.

The main sticking points were the payment of public sector wages, with the Houthis insisting that they should include armed forces, as well as the use of oil revenue and the timeline for the foreign forces withdrawal, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the negotiations.

The eight-year conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, making two-thirds of the population dependent on humanitarian aid.

The talks come after Saudi Arabia mended last month its diplomatic ties with Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, after a suspension which lasted since 2016.

Longtime regional rivals Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and the Shiite-majority Iran have engaged in various proxy conflicts across the Middle East, including in Yemen.