RPT - Houthi Failure To Share Details Casts Doubt Over First Prisoner Exchange - Deputy Minster

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) Houthis have stalled plans for prisoner exchanges with the Yemeni government by failing to share the necessary information, causing the planned date of the first exchange of prisoners to likely be delayed, Hamza Alkamaly, the Yemeni deputy minister for youth and sports, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it has granted the request of UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths to hold a meeting dedicated to ironing out the details of prisoner exchanges.

"We agreed at Stockholm and straight after that we will give all information freely and immediately but unfortunately the Houthis are making up their schedule and we believe that if they keep going like this then they will not be able to release and we will not release anyone," Alkamaly said.

Alkamaly added that the first prisoner exchanges were set to take place later this week.

"It was supposed to be on [January] 17-19 but with what the Houthis have done, I think it will be late," Alkamaly said, answering a question on when the first prisoners exchange could take place.

An agreement on an executive mechanism for prisoner exchanges between the two sides was one of the outcomes of consultations on the country's peace settlement in Sweden in mid-December. According to Griffiths, the United Nations is working with the government and the Houthis to eventually airlift thousands of prisoners and reunite them with their families.