Warring Yemeni Factions In Talks To Salvage Crucial Prisoner-Swap Deal

Members of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government are holding talks in Amman with representatives of the Houthi rebels in a bid to finalize a prisoner-swap deal considered a crucial stepping-stone to a broader accord to end the four-years-long conflict. The United Nations special envoy to Yemen said the warring sides were in the process of finalizing lists of names of an estimated 15,000 captives to be released, although there remains contention over the prospective freeing of particular individuals. The war in Yemen between Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi Rebels—which captured the capital Saana in late 2014 and subsequently ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi—and a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Gulf states has killed more than 10,000 people and forced some 15 million others to the brink of starvation. The prisoner-exchange deal was forged in December as a “confidence-building measure” during UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden amid growing Western pressure to end the bloodshed. However, the timeline for its implementation already has been delayed, thereby threatening a fragile truce in the key rebel-held port city of Hodeida through which a majority of goods and humanitarian aid flows into Yemen. The Houthis still occupy most urban centers in the country while Hadi’s forces control the southern city of Aden and various coastal towns.