A new round of consultations between the government of Yemen and the Houthis on the file of detainees

Today, Friday, in the Jordanian capital, Amman, a new round of discussions sponsored by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group, regarding the issue of detainees, abductees, and forcibly disappeared persons by both sides in connection with the conflict that has been going on in the country for more than eight years.

According to the office of the UN envoy to Yemen, the meeting brings together the parties to the conflict to resume talks in order to release more detainees for reasons related to the conflict, in implementation of the Stockholm Agreement.

The UN envoy’s office expressed, in a tweet on Twitter, its gratitude for Jordan’s continued and valuable support for this important file.

The head of the government team concerned with the file of detainees, Yahya Kazman, said that the priority in the discussions regarding the government side is the prominent politician Muhammad Qahtan, who has been absent in Houthi prisons since 2015, and the remaining detainees who are forcibly hidden in Houthi detention centers.

For his part, a member of the government team, Majid Fasa’il, expressed his hope that these discussions would lead to the release of all prisoners, kidnapped and disappeared persons on the basis of the “all-for-all” rule.

He added, “We came for this round and we have clear directives from our political leadership to deal with this humanitarian file with full responsibility and commitment, and to move forward for the release of everyone on the basis of all for all, headed by the politician Muhammad Qahtan.”

In turn, the head of the Houthi prisoners’ committee, Abdul Qadir Al-Murtada, said that the tour comes with the aim of finding solutions to the obstacles and problems that prevented the implementation of the rest of the previous agreement.

A previous round of negotiations between the two roads in Switzerland last March led to the release of 887 from both sides, including former Defense Minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi and the two prominent military commanders, Nasser Mansour Hadi and Faisal Rajab, who are included in Security Council Resolution 2216.

The two parties had agreed, during the Swiss negotiations, to hold a new round, in mid-May, after exchanging visits to prisons in Sana’a and Marib to inspect prisoners and detainees, which was not implemented, after the Houthi group placed obstacles.