Saudi-led coalition announces ceasefire in Yemen ahead of peace talks
The Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government against Houthi rebels in the Yemeni conflict announced, on Tuesday, a ceasefire starting Wednesday morning and peace talks during the Islamic month of Ramadan, which begins next month.
And he said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency: “The coalition announces the cessation of military operations in Yemen starting at six in the morning (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.”
She added that this “coincides with the launch of the Yemeni-Yemeni consultations with the aim of creating the appropriate conditions for their success and creating a positive environment during the holy month of Ramadan for making peace in Yemen.”
Ramadan begins in the first days of April.
The rebels have avoided a meeting hosted by the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh from Wednesday that includes the Yemeni government and US and UN envoys to Yemen. The Houthis say they will not travel to enemy territory for talks.
“I am very grateful for the collective support expressed for the UN efforts on the immediate de-escalation and political settlement of the conflict,” UN envoy Hans Grundberg said earlier Tuesday evening on Twitter.
UN Envoy Hans Grundberg met the ambassadors of the five countries to #Yemen in Riyadh today: “I am very grateful for the collective support expressed for the UN efforts on the immediate de-escalation and political settlement of the conflict.”
-OSE_Yemen (OSE_Yemen) March 29, 2022 The coalition announcement comes after an official told AFP that Saudi Arabia was waiting for “serious steps” from Yemeni rebels on a possible prisoner exchange before responding to their offer of a ceasefire.
Prisoner release talks The Iran-backed Houthis called for a three-day truce and waved the possibility of a permanent end to the fighting on Saturday, seven years after the war began.
The offer was on the condition that the Saudis end their siege and air strikes and remove the coalition forces from Yemen.
On Sunday, the Houthis said an agreement had been reached to release 1,400 of their fighters in exchange for 823 government loyalists, including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese.
Abdel-Qader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthis’ prisoners’ affairs committee, wrote on Twitter, the brother of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is among the prisoners scheduled for release.
Hadi Haigh, his counterpart in the Yemeni government, said the exchange was “under consideration.”
Bashir Omar, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen that deals with the logistics of the swaps, said earlier that the organization was “delighted to hear that some progress has been made in the negotiations between the two parties on the release of another key.”
We hope to see soon the release of the detainees and their families. But we also realize that negotiations of this kind during an active conflict are complex and require time.”
The last prisoner exchange was in October 2020, when 1,056 people were released from each side, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
(AFP)
