The deal comes as UAE-backed forces gain ground southern Yemen with the aim of establishing an independent state
News Desk - The Cradle
“We signed an agreement today with the other party to implement a large-scale prisoner exchange deal involving 1,700 of our prisoners in exchange for 1,200 of theirs, including seven Saudis and 23 Sudanese,” said Abdul Qader al-Mortada, a member of the Sanaa government’s negotiating team, said on 23 December.
Ansarallah spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam also confirmed the deal and thanked Oman “for its great efforts in making this round a success and for working with all parties to advance this humanitarian issue.”
Majed Fadhail, member of the Saudi-backed government delegation, said the deal would see “thousands” of prisoners released.
Fadhail told AFP that two of the Saudi prisoners are air force pilots.
UN envoy on Yemen Hans Grundberg announced the deal, which he said was reached after two weeks of negotiations in Oman’s capital, Muscat.
Oman has been a key mediator between Riyadh and Sanaa throughout the Saudi-led war against Yemen.
Grundberg welcomed the deal as a “positive and meaningful step,” adding that its “effective implementation will require the continued engagement and cooperation of the parties, coordinated regional support and sustained efforts to build on this progress toward further release.”
Saudi Arabia launched a massive war against Yemen in 2015, imposing a blockade that created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and famine across the country.
The UAE, which has since occupied several Yemeni islands in coordination with Israel, was a major part of the Saudi-led coalition, which was formed to wage war against Yemen.
Despite this, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been embroiled in a rivalry for control and influence in Yemen over the past few years. Critics accuse both countries of seeking to divide Yemen to control its natural resources and strategic ports within their respective spheres of influence.
In 2023, Saudi Arabia and Sanaa were close to reaching a peace deal. The agreement was never finalized or implemented, and the Saudi military continues to shell Saada and other border areas.
Despite this, the peace process halted a major Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) offensive in Maarib province, which would have brought Sanaa’s forces to the borders of Hadhramaut and Shabwa.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) reportedly took a firm stance against Saudi-Yemen peace talks in 2023.
The latest prisoner deal comes as the STC has been advancing across central and southern Yemen, seizing large swathes of territory in recent weeks.
UAE-backed STC forces have captured the provinces of Hadhramaut and Al-Mahra and seized the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden, where both the STC and the PLC have been based for the past several years.
This prompted Saudi military forces to withdraw from Aden. Riyadh has since called for an immediate withdrawal of the STC from the areas it has captured – a demand which the Emirati-backed group rejected during negotiations earlier in December.
The STC now controls virtually all the territory that would make up the secessionist state it aspires to form along the borders of the pre-1990 southern Democratic Republic of Yemen.
The country will “never be unified again,” the STC told western diplomats, according to a report by The Times from 11 December.
The Guardian reported that up to 20,000 Saudi-backed troops are gathering near the border. Forces backed by the kingdom are also reportedly withdrawing from their positions in Aden and redeploying elsewhere.
Riyadh supports a tribal alliance of armed factions known as the Hadhramaut Protection Forces. It also backs the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islah Party and the forces of Yemen’s internationally-backed government – the PLC.
While the PLC and STC are at odds, the two are closely linked. Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the deputy head of the PLC, also serves as the president of the STC.
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