DUBAI: A new round of talks between warring parties in Yemen for an exchange of prisoners has ended with a “significant breakthrough” but without an agreement, the United Nations said on Sunday.
The progress came during talks in neutral Oman between the internationally-recognised Yemeni government and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the Red Sea coast.
“The negotiations led to a significant breakthrough, where the parties reached an understanding on releasing Mohamed Qahtan, a matter that has been contentious for years,” said the office of United Nations special envoy Hans Grundberg which chaired the meeting along with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Qahtan, a prominent Sunni Islamist leader aligned with the government, has been held by the Huthis since 2015. The rebels have refused to release information on him.
The rivals agreed to another meeting to “finalise the names of detainees to be released and arrangements pertaining to the release of Qahtan,” the UN statement added.
Huthi negotiator Abdelkader al-Murtada on Wednesday confirmed the rebels had agreed to release Qahtan in exchange for 50 prisoners held by the government. He said another meeting would be held in two months to organise a new round of talks. Grundberg said “thousands of Yemenis are waiting to be reunited with their loved ones.”
An immigrant student attends first-grade teacher Dana Smith's class at the public elementary school in Charleroi,...
France’s Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau listens to French gendarmes during a French gendarmerie...
President Volodymyr Zelensky. — AFP/File MOSCOW: Russian forces said on Saturday they had captured another village...
Congolese people carry their belongings as they flee from their villages around Sake in Masisi territory, following...
The leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party , Herbert Kickl, holds a press conference on the coalition talks that...
A man wades through the waters in the affected area of monsoon flooding in Roshi village of Nepal's Kavre district on...