SANAA: An exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen's civil war will start on Friday, one day later than previously announced, a government official said on Wednesday.
No reason was given for the delay to the three-day exchange, in which prisoners will be flown between cities in Yemen and its oil-rich neighbour Saudi Arabia.
The biggest prisoner swap since 2020 is taking place after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which launched a military intervention in 2015, held talks with Ansar Allah this week in an attempt to end hostilities.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by direct and indirect causes in a war that left many on the brink of famine in a country which was already the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula.
"It has been confirmed that the exchange process will start on Friday morning," tweeted Majid Fadael, spokesman for the government delegation negotiating the exchange.
The prisoner transfers "will last for three days, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday", said Fadael, revising the timetable he announced on Tuesday.
The Ansar Allah are releasing 181 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 detainees held by government forces, according to an agreement reached last month in Switzerland.
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, flew to Sanaa for talks with the Ansar Allah this week, saying he wanted to work towards a "political solution" to the conflict.
But the Ansar Allah government sources, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to brief media, downplayed hopes of reaching agreement by next week.
"The talks between the Saudi delegation and the Ansar Allah did not reach a final result yet to complete an agreement that was expected to be signed at the end of Ramadan," a source said.
"The Saudis presented their vision of a solution and wanted to be mediators in resolving the crisis alongside the Omanis, but the Ansar Allah leaders insisted that Riyadh be a party to the agreement and not an intermediary," the source added.
The uptick in diplomacy and optimism follows last month's landmark announcement that heavyweight rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran will resume ties, seven years after an acrimonious split. — AFP
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