UN Envoy Says He Has Received Assurances from the Government and the Houthis to Implement the Prisoner Exchange Agreement
Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced on Saturday that he has received renewed assurances from both the Yemeni government and the Houthi group regarding their commitment to fully implement the prisoner and detainee exchange agreement signed in May.
In a statement posted on X by the envoy’s office, Grundberg said that over the past 48 hours he had received commitments from both sides to move forward with the agreement, which provides for the release of more than 1,600 detainees.
The statement noted that the UN envoy urged the parties to intensify their efforts to complete the remaining technical and operational arrangements as soon as possible in order to expedite the actual release of the detainees. Both sides, it said, reaffirmed their commitment to finalizing these procedures.
Yesterday, Hadi Haij, head of the government’s negotiating team, held the Houthis responsible for the failure to complete the exchange on schedule, stating that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the envoy’s office had informed him that the Houthis had requested a postponement. Hours later, the Houthis’ prisoner affairs official, Abdulqader Al-Murtada, said that the delay was due to non-compliance with the agreed exchange lists.
