Diplomatic sources said that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is set to join on Wednesday Yemeni peace talks taking place in Sweden between the legitimate government and Houthis.
On Tuesday, the two sides exchanged lists of prisoners and detainees ahead of releasing them in a prisoner swap deal to be completed during the coming 45 days, or before January 20.
The warring parties’ lists include more than 16,000 names, all handed over to UN’s Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths.
Yemen’s peace talks held in the Johannesburg Castle in Rimbo north of Stockholm, are the first since 2016. A previous round of peace talks in September collapsed when the Houthis failed to appear.
On Tuesday, members of the government delegation told Asharq Al-Awsat they handed over a list of around 8,500 names of people that have been forcibly detained and hidden in Houthi prisons.
Members of the Houthi delegation told the media they presented the names of 7,500 detained and disappeared persons.
The legitimate government delegation asserted that those lists would remain open to include any new name.
Griffiths’ team is expected to hand over the list prepared by each party to the other side, and would wait for their response ahead of completing the needed mechanism for the swap deal.
On Tuesday, government delegate Brig Gen Asker Zaeel and Houthi rebel delegate Abelqader Mourtada were seen shaking hands over the negotiating table during the peace talks in Rimbo, in a scene described by Griffiths as a “new climate” in Yemen.
Meanwhile, UN proposed that all armed forces from Yemen’s warring parties withdraw from the port city of Hodeidah and that an interim entity be set up to run the city, a lifeline for millions of people in the country’s war, sources told Reuters.
The sources familiar with the talks said the UN proposal envisions a “joint committee or independent entity” to manage the city and port after both sides withdraw and the possibility of deploying UN monitors.
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