ADEN (Dispatches) – Yemen’s warring parties are expected to agree on the terms of a prisoner exchange in around 10 days, a representative of the former Yemeni government said on Wednesday.
Talks between the two sides took place in Jordan last week. Both parties need to agree on lists of prisoners to be swapped.
"We expect that in 10 days’ time the final signing will have happened,” the head of the former government delegation to the prisoner-exchange talks, Hadi Haig, told Reuters by telephone.
The United Nations is pushing for the exchange and a peace deal in Yemen’s main port, Hudaydah. That could open the way for more talks between Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed government on ending the country’s war.
The swap was one of the least contentious confidence-building measures at December’s UN-sponsored talks in Sweden, held amid Western pressure to end the conflict. The Saudi-led fight has lasted nearly four years, killed tens of thousands and brought 10 million people to the brink of famine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it hopes to see "progress in the coming days” and urged the warring parties not to let the opportunity slip away.
"This is a crucial moment for the people of Yemen,” Red Cross regional director Fabrizio Carboni said in a statement issued at a press conference in the Houthi-held capital, Sana’a.
The ICRC said it was preparing for the swap by increasing staff numbers and arranging medical support. It was also preparing two planes to carry detainees between Sana’a and Sayoun, a town under the control of the Hadi former regime.
 
 Foreign minister of Yemen's former government, Khaled al-Yamani (L), and Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam shake hands under the eyes of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres during peace consultations at Johannesberg Castle in Rimbo, north of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 13, 2018.