Jordan to host meeting on Yemen prisoner swap
UN says both parties refuse to talk face-to-face during two earlier meetings
Amman - Jordan agreed on Tuesday to a U.N. request to host a meeting between the Yemeni government and Al Houthi militia to discuss a prisoner swap deal that would allow thousands of families to be reunited, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
The statement did not say when the meeting would take place.
The meeting is due to be of a follow-up committee set up to discuss implementing the deal agreed in UN peace talks last month in Sweden between the Iran-aligned Al Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
The deal to free prisoners simultaneously was part of confidence-building measures that included a plan to withdraw from the contested port city of Hodeida, a lifeline for millions facing famine, and place it under the control of an interim entity.
The two sides exchanged lists of some 15,000 prisoners for a swap agreed at the start of the Sweden talks and delegates said it would be conducted via the Houthi-held Sanaa airport in north Yemen and the government-held Sayun airport in the south.
The process would be overseen by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The operation will require a Saudi-led military coalition to guarantee that air space is secure for flights, the ICRC said.
Meanwhile, the UN said Monday both sides in the conflict in Yemen have refused to talk face-to-face during two meetings to discuss the redeployment of forces from Hodeida, which is to be overseen by a UN monitoring team.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, the head of the monitoring team, had to shuttle between representatives of Yemen’s government and Al Houthis who were in different rooms.
Their refusal to sit in the same room was another indication of the lack of trust between the warring parties, and the difficulty in implementing the full agreement that Al Houthi and government leaders reached in Sweden on December 13.
Dujarric said Cammaert is trying to find “a mutually acceptable way forward” to redeploy forces from Hodeida, whose port handles 70 per cent of the food and humanitarian aid imported into Yemen, as well as the smaller ports of Salif and Ras Eisa and parts of Hodeida city that are critical for humanitarian efforts.
“Recent discussions have been constructive” and Cammaert “continues to encourage the parties to resume the joint meetings in order to finalise a mutually agreed redeployment plan,” Dujarric said.
While UN envoy Martin Griffiths said last week that the government and Al Houthis “have largely adhered” to a cease-fire in the port of Hodeida and the surrounding area, he said progress on a pullout of rival forces, humanitarian access and other issues agreed to in Stockholm has been slow.
He said new talks between the warring sides would not take place until there was “substantive progress.” Griffiths had said there would be a new round of talks in January but diplomats said he is now looking to February.
The Security Council is expected to vote this week on a British-drafted UN resolution that would establish a political mission headed by Cammaert to oversee implementation of the Stockholm agreement. The resolution would approve Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ proposal for up to 75 UN monitors to be deployed for an initial period of six months to oversee the cease-fire in Hodeida, demining operations and the redeployment of forces.
UN officials said one issue Cammaert has faced since his arrival in Al Houthi-controlled Hodeida is his lack of freedom of movement on the ground.
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of Sana’a by the Iranian-backed Al Houthis, who toppled the government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognised government has been fighting Al Houthis since 2015.
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council last week that the humanitarian situation had not improved since the Stockholm agreement and “remains catastrophic,” with 80 percent of Yemen’s population - over 24 million people - now in need of assistance.
“They include nearly 10 million people just one step away from famine,” he said.