Yemen's government and rival rebels announced Tuesday plans for a mass prisoner swap, exchanging at least 15,000 names, as UN-brokered talks on ending the country's war entered their seventh day.
Nearly four years into a war that has pushed 14 million Yemenis to the brink of mass starvation, the Saudi-backed government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels, linked to Riyadh's arch-rival Iran, have been in talks since Thursday in the rural town of Rimbo in Sweden.
Askar Zaeel, a government negotiator on the prisoner swap, said the rebels had named 7,687 detainees whom they were willing to release. The government had named 8,576 detainees, Zaeel said.
Yemeni demonstrators march towards the UN office to demand the reopening of Sanaa airport, in the capital Sanaa, December 10, 2018. /VCG Photo
Zaeel told AFP the government demanded the rebels hand over the body of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's former president who was killed at the hands of the Houthis after he broke a fragile alliance with the rebels to re-align with Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi rebels announced that the names of a total of 15,000 detainees and prisoners had been exchanged.
Both parties confirmed they had two weeks to revise the list of names.
The rebels and government have agreed to a 45-day deadline for the exchange, sources in both delegations said. Prisoners will be flown out through two airports: government-held Seyoun, in central Yemen, and the rebel-held capital Sanaa, home to an international airport that has been largely shut down for three years.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed it will oversee the exchange.
Houthi supporters shout slogans during a rally to celebrate the killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, December 5, 2017. /VCG Photo
However, a government representative said Tuesday that a truce between the warring parties is unlikely following this round of the talks.
"This is on the table as part of the general framework, and this what we came to make progress on, a full, complete ceasefire. But I think we will be unable to achieve this progress in this round," Yemeni government delegate Askar Zaeel told AFP.
(Cover: Representatives of the Houthi delegation (L) and the Yemeni government delegation shake hands during their peace talks in Rimbo, near Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 2018. /VCG Photo)