GCC calls for immediate implementation of Yemen’s prisoner exchange deal

Agreement is for largest prisoner swap since war started five years ago

Head of the Houthi prisoner exchange committee Abdulkader al-Murtada (C - L) shakes hands with Head of the Yemeni government delegation Hadi Haig (C - L) between ICRC Director for the Near and Middle East Fabrizio Carboni (L) and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths at the end of a week-long meeting on a Yemen prisoner exchange agreement on September 27, 2020 in Glion, western Switzerland. Both sides in Yemen's war have agreed to exchange more than 1,000 prisoners, the UN mediator during a week of talks in Switzerland said on September 27, 2020. / AFP / Fabrice COFFRINI
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Yemen’s warring parties must immediately implement a prisoner exchange deal reached in Switzerland last week, the GCC said on Monday.

The agreement in Geneva through UN-sponsored talks was for the largest prisoner swap yet between the internationally recognised government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels. It involves 1,080 people.

“It is necessary to immediately put the deal in place and set free prisoners and detainees without any delay, leading up to freeing all prisoners and reuniting them with their families,” said Nayef Al Hajraf, the GCC Secretary General.

Mr Al Hajraf thanked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross for their efforts in closing the deal.

It followed a week of negotiations on the prisoner swap, which was first agreed to in December 2018 in Sweden.

The Saudi-led coalition, which is supporting the Yemeni government, welcomed the agreement and said it was humanitarian and in line with the Stockholm Agreement.

Coalition spokesman Col Turki Al Malki urged the Houthis not to undermine UN efforts, especially "as there is a real momentum to implement the Stockholm Agreement".

The prisoner swap was aimed at reviving efforts to end a war that has created what the UN called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Since the 2018 agreement, the two sides have made sporadic prisoner swaps.

In the latest, the rebels agreed to release of 400 prisoners, including 15 Saudis, four Sudanese, 230 prisoners from Marib and Jawf provinces in northern Yemen, and 151 prisoners affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, Yasser Al Hadi, a member of the government delegation, told The National.

The Yemeni government will free 680 Houthi fighters, Mr Al Hadi said.

"Of those released will be 249 Houthi fighters held in Saudi Arabia, 201 fighters will be released from the south and 230 will be released from Marib," Mr Al Hadi said.

One of the prisoners held by the rebels is the brother of Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

But the release of Gen Nasser Hadi by the rebels was postponed, Mr Al Hadi said.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, brokered the peace deal in Sweden nearly two years ago. It included the prisoner swap and a halt to fighting around the Red Sea city of Hodeidah.

It has been slowly and only partially introduced.