Yemen's warring sides fail to reach agreement on prisoner swap

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Yemen's warring sides have failed to reach an agreement over a prisoner swap involving more than 15,000 prisoners after three days of talks in the Jordanian capital Amman, with both sides accusing each other of lying.

The negotiations between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebel representatives failed in Amman as the Yemeni government accused the Houthis of providing a fake list of prisoners.

The prisoner swap deal was among the measures including the Houthis' withdrawal from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which were agreed to by participants in Sweden last month.

Names of nearly 16,000 prisoners of war had been exchanged between the two sides, and representatives from both sides were said to expect the transfers to begin by January 19.

"They provided lists of names that were fake," Majid Fada'el, the Yemeni government's deputy minister for human rights, was quoted by Aljazeera as saying.

Prisoners captured by Houthi forces wait to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sana'a, Yemen, August 19, 2018. /VCG Photo

"We don't even know where they got them from. On the other hand, we have reports and documents on those they have imprisoned. They said some of the names we provided were jailed on criminal charges or even belong to al-Qaeda but it's all lies. Sadly, the Houthis lie with every breath."

In response, the Houthis accused the Yemeni government of withholding information about prisoners being held by the government's allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to Aljazeera, Abdul Qader al-Murtada, a member of the Houthi delegation, said the rebels need more time to identify prisoners as the exact number of the prisoners jailed in Saudi Arabia and the UAE was still uncertain.

So far, the two sides reportedly had agreed to hold another round of talks to solve issues hindering the implementation of the swap deal.

As for the Amman meetings, Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, said there were positive discussions.

(With inputs from agencies)