The head of the prisoners’ committee in the Houthi group, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada, said that the group is ready to enter into a comprehensive local or international exchange deal, including leaders from all parties.
Al-Murtada said – in a tweet to him on Twitter – “We confirm our readiness to enter into a broad local exchange deal that includes Mahmoud Al-Subaihi (former defense minister), Nasser Mansour Hadi (brother of the Yemeni president), and other leaders.
Al-Murtada pointed out that what prompted the group to announce the initiative was what he described as the weakness and absence of the United Nations from the prisoners’ file, considering that the international organization does not exert any pressure on the obstructing parties to complete the prisoner exchange file.
Al-Murtadha
The Houthi official said that the group is ready to send local mediators of sheikhs and dignitaries, and to hold bilateral meetings to arrange the deal.
On the other hand, the Undersecretary of the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights, a member of the negotiating delegation, Majed Fadayel, said that the government is ready for any exchanges, but he stipulated seriousness.
Fadayel, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, accused the Houthi group of conducting media reviews, and that it had no seriousness in this file. https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.464.0_en.html#goog_1409002052
The Houthi group has been holding: Nasser Hadi, brother of the Yemeni president, and former Yemeni Defense Minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi since 2015.
Last October, the Yemeni government and the Houthis exchanged over two days 1,056 prisoners from both sides, including 15 Saudis and 4 Sudanese, in the largest prisoner exchange since the war began.
In consultations held in Sweden in 2018, the two parties provided lists of more than 15,000 prisoners, detainees and abductees.
Currently, there is no accurate census of the number of prisoners of both parties, especially since others were captured after this date.