Yemen Monitor/News Room
The Houthi negotiating delegation in Yemen left Sana’a on Saturday for the Omani capital Muscat to participate in prisoner exchange negotiations with the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
“The Houthi delegation left Sana’a airport on board a UN aircraft to participate in negotiations with the delegation of the internationally recognized Yemeni government to discuss the issue of prisoners and detainees,” said a navigational source at Sana’a airport.
According to the source, the negotiations will start on Sunday and last for several days, and it is expected that thousands of prisoners and detainees will be released from the prisons of both sides.
A government official had previously told Yemen Monitor that “the coalition pressured the government to back down as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are trying to reach an agreement and calm down on the Yemeni file,” which is escalating significantly with the exchange of economic measures.
The official indicated that the negotiations will also include discussions on economic files.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said that a breakthrough in the prisoner and detainee file is the first stage “for the UN envoy to announce the proposed roadmap to end the war in Yemen.”
The Yemeni government had previously refused to participate in these meetings until the Houthis allowed access to the prominent Yemeni politician Mohammed Qahtaan, who has been kidnapped since 2015 and his fate is still unknown.
Mohammed Qahtaan is a prominent leader in the Yemeni Islah Party (the largest Islamic party in Yemen) and one of 4 people included in UN Security Council Resolution 2216 of 2015, which requires the Houthi group to release them.
The Houthis arrested Qahtaan from his home in the capital Sana’a on April 5, 2015, days after the group placed him under house arrest, and his family says they do not know his fate or place of detention, and he has not been contacted since his detention.
