Yemeni parties agree on major prisoner swap: UN‏

Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, the United Nations said on Sunday, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels could be making progress.

It would be the “first official large-scale” exchange of its kind since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab World’s poorest country, according to the U.N.

The prisoner swap deal was seen as a breakthrough during 2018 peace talks in Sweden. The Houthis and the internationally recognized government agreed then to several confidence-building measures, including a cease-fire in the strategic port city of Hodeida.

Implementation of the tentative peace plan stumbled amid ongoing military offensives and a deep-seated distrust between the two sides.

The U.N. mission in Yemen said that both the rebels and Yemeni government had decided to immediately begin with exchanging the lists for the upcoming release of prisoners. Sunday’s statement came after seven days of meetings between the two sides in Jordan’s capital, Amman.

“Today the parties showed us that even with the growing challenges on the ground, the confidence they have been building can still yield positive results,” the U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths said.

The U.N. mission did not disclose specific numbers for the expected prisoner exchange.

The talks were co-chaired by Griffiths’ office and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC. Representatives from the Saudi-led coalition also attended the talks, the U.N. said.

Griffiths urged both parties to move forward with the agreed-upon prisoner exchange “with the utmost sense of urgency.” He did not elaborate when they would start the exchange.