Yemen: Saudi-led coalition announces Ramadan ceasefire
The Saudi-led coalition announced a ceasefire in Yemen from Wednesday morning and talks in Riyadh during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early April.
The coalition, which backs the Yemeni government against the Iran-aligned Houthis, said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday that the ceasefire "coincides with the launch of Yemeni-Yemeni consultations with the aim of creating the appropriate conditions for their success and creating a positive environment during the holy month of Ramadan for peacemaking in Yemen," according to AFP.
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However the Houthis have shunned the week-long talks in Riyadh, which started on Wednesday.
The ceasefire comes days after the Houthis launched drone strikes against Saudi Arabia on Friday, causing major fires at an oil facility in the port city of Jeddah.
The discussions are being hosted by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and will include United Nations Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg and US envoy Tim Lenderking.
The Houthis said they would not travel to enemy territory for talks.
"Yemen needs a truce. I am engaging with the parties with a sense of urgency to reach this truce by the beginning of Ramadan," Grundberg told the gathering on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
"The truce will ease the fuel crisis and facilitate the freedom of movement."
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the UN proposal was for a temporary truce in exchange for allowing fuel ships to dock at Houthi-held Hodeidah port and a small number of commercial flights to operate from Sanaa airport.
A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the parties to engage "without preconditions" with Grundberg.
The coalition's announcement comes after an official told AFP that Saudi Arabia was waiting for "serious steps" from Yemen's rebels on a potential prisoner swap before responding to their offer of a ceasefire.
Prisoner release talks
The Houthis had called a three-day truce and dangled the possibility of a permanent end to hostilities on Saturday, seven years after the start of the war.
The offer was on the condition that the Saudis end their economic blockade and air strikes and remove coalition forces from Yemen.
On Sunday, the Houthis said an agreement had been reached to free 1,400 of their fighters in exchange for 823 pro-government personnel, including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese.
The brother of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi is among the prisoners set for release, Abdul Qader al-Murtada, head of the Houthis' prisoners affairs committee, wrote on Twitter.
'We hope to soon see a release process for the detainees and their families. But we are also aware that negotiations of this kind during an active conflict are complex'
- Basheer Omar, Red Cross
Hadi Haig, his counterpart in Yemen's government, said the exchange was "under consideration".
Basheer Omar, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen, which handles the logistics of swaps, said earlier that the organisation was pleased "to hear that some progress has been made in negotiations between the parties on another major release".
"We hope to soon see a release process for the detainees and their families. But we are also aware that negotiations of this kind during an active conflict are complex and require time," he told AFP.
The last prisoner swap was in October 2020, when 1,056 people were released on each side, according to the ICRC.
The recent flurry of statements brings a glimmer of hope in a brutal war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions on the brink of famine.
The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa the previous year. The rebels say they are fighting aggression by the Saudi-led forces.
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