AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Yemen’s government and the Houthis have agreed to swap hundreds of prisoners, including prominent Islah party politician Mohammed Qahtan, during talks in Jordan.
Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation, told Arab News that the Houthis agreed to exchange Qahtan for a number of prisoners. The talks will reconvene in Amman after Eid Al-Adha, June 28, to discuss the exact number of prisoners to swap and the date of the exchange.
“The round of consultations concluded today in a positive atmosphere, following the Houthi approval to exchange Mohammed Qahtan in any future exchange procedure,” Fadhail said. He declined to disclose the number of Houthi prisoners to be exchanged for Qahtan or the ideas that the Yemeni government delegation would discuss with their superiors.
The Houthis kidnapped Qahtan in early 2015 and providing no proof of his whereabouts or health to his family.
The prisoner exchange talks ended on Sunday after three days. The focused on removing obstacles that delay the implementation of the terms of the previous round of talks, providing information about forcibly disappeared individuals, and negotiating a new prisoner swap deal that could result in the release of hundreds of prisoners.
The Yemeni government had threatened a boycott if the Houthis refused to disclose Mohammed Qahtan’s whereabouts and enable his family to see him.
The office of UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg described the talks as “serious and responsible” and urged both sides to work diligently to reach another prisoner swap agreement to reunite prisoners with their families.
The office said it would work “to ensure continued engagement… in this humanitarian file that still haunts thousands of Yemeni families.”
Abdulkader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthis’ prisoner exchange committee stated that the Houthis had no objection to exchanging Mohammed Qahtan for a number of their men.
“We informed them that the agreement includes Mohammad Qahtan, but only if he is exchanged for a group of our prisoners who are being forcibly disappeared in their prisons,” Al-Murtada told the Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen.
Yemeni government officials and human rights organizations have long criticized the Houthis for attempting to trade kidnapped politicians, journalists and activists for their fighters.
During previous negotiations in Switzerland in March, the Houthis exchanged their combatants for four Yemeni journalists who were abducted from Sanaa in 2015.
