The warring parties in Yemen are set to meet in Jordan on Tuesday to for a new round of talks on an anticipated prisoner swap, the UN announced Monday.
The swap, which could involve up to 15,000 detainees from each side, was agreed in principle as a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks in Sweden in December.
In mid-January, representatives of Yemen's legitimate government and the Iran-backed Houthi militias held two days of talks in Amman during which they submitted lists of prisoners they wanted to see released to UN mediators.
Those talks were also attended by representatives of the United Nations, which brokered the swap agreement, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will supervise its implementation.
On Wednesday government and rebel representatives would meet again in Amman for "technical" talks to "discuss the steps taken... (by both sides) to finalize the list of prisoners," a UN statement said on Tuesday.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths and ICRC president Peter Maurer would also be present, it said.
At the end of January, the Houthis released the first prisoner under the deal struck with the government.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council urged Monday the warring parties to withdraw from Yemen’s main port of Hodeidah and two other ports "without further delays."
Representatives from both parties met for a second day on a ship on the Red Sea on Monday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, in a UN-led push to implement the stalled troop withdrawal which was agreed at the Sweden talks.
"Both parties have reiterated their commitment to implementing the Hodeidah aspects of the Stockholm agreement," Dujarric said.
The Houthis were meant to withdraw their forces by January 7 but they have failed to respect their commitments.
