Riyadh delegation thanks Yemen for good treatment of Saudi prisoners

The head of a Saudi team visiting Yemen’s capital as part of a prisoners swap agreement has thanked the Sana’a government’s authorities for their good treatment of Saudi inmates captured during the Riyadh-led war against Yemen.

“I thank you – on my own behalf and on behalf of my colleagues for the good treatment of our prisoners, and for the kind reception and hospitality. This is not surprising from you, as you are the people of generosity,” Salem al-Harbi said after reviewing the conditions of the Saudi prisoners in Sana’a on Thursday.

“And your colleagues who arrived in the kingdom are our brothers and their place is above the head,” he added, referring to a team from Yemen’s National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs that had earlier headed to Riyadh to check the conditions of the Yemeni war prisoners in Saudi jails.

For his part, Abdul Qader al-Murtada, head of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs in the Sana’a government, said the purpose of the Saudi delegation’s visit was to see the conditions of their prisoners in the Yemini capital and also to match and verify their names in order to prepare for an exchange process in the near future under a UN-brokered agreement that was signed last March.

“Our technical team was tasked with validating the names and condition of our prisoners ahead of a possible exchange deal,” Murtada said, expressing hope that mutual visits by the Saudi and Yemini delegations would be a gateway to reach a comprehensive solution to the humanitarian issue.

Yemen’s National Salvation Government announced on March 27 that a prisoner exchange deal was agreed upon between the warring parties under which 1,400 prisoners from the Yemeni army and popular committees would be released in return for 823 from the other side, including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese.

Yemen reaches UN-mediated prisoner exchange deal with ex-officials

Yemen announces reaching a UN-mediated deal with the country’s former officials for exchanging thousands of prisoners.

Yemini and Saudi media reported on Thursday that the delegations had been dispatched to each other’s capitals to discuss the prisoner exchange portfolio.

A delegation representing Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement also visited Riyadh and toured the prisons that are holding Yemeni fighters.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — the closest allies of the US in the region after the Israeli regime — have been spearheading the war on Yemen since March 2015.

The invasion has been seeking to change Yemen’s ruling structure in favor of the impoverished country’s former Riyadh- and Washington-friendly rulers and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement. The Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives.

The war, which has been enjoying unstinting arms, logistical, and political support on the part of the United States, has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Yemeni defense forces, who feature the country’s army and its allied Popular Committees, have, however, vowed not to lay down their arms until the country’s complete liberation from the scourge of the aggression.

Sana'a Govt.: Yemen ready for war if Saudi Arabia continues to violate sovereignty

Yemen

Yemen urges war coalition to respond to its demands

Separately on Thursday, Mahdi al-Mashat, who heads Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, called on the Saudi-led coalition to urgently respond to the country’s fair demands “which will have a positive impact on the path towards peace and an end to the war.”

Speaking on the 59^th anniversary of the October 14 revolution against British colonialism, Mashat said, “The day of October 14 represents one of the most important and immortal national days in the history of Yemeni people, and everyone who knows what freedom and independence means.”

The senior Yemeni official advised all those who dream of dividing and fragmenting the country to abandon these hateful dreams, saying, “Yemen will not be stable except as one and united, and the interests of the region require maintaining it unified.”

“Whoever deludes the owners of small projects to cutting Yemen into pieces is in fact practicing a form of fraud and deception against them, and he is a criminal against his country,” Mashat added.

Mashat also called on all Yemenis to continue adhering to the “independent Yemen project,” which is led by Sana’a and in which all its national forces are unique, without any competitor or rival.

A temporary United Nations-mediated ceasefire took effect between the warring sides in April and has been renewed twice ever since.

The truce, however, expired on October 2 amid the invading coalition’s constant violations of the agreement and its refusal to properly lift a siege that it has been enforcing against Yemen simultaneously with the war.

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