Houthis reject Saudi prisoner swap proposal 

The armed Houthi group in Yemen on Sunday claimed that it had rejected the Saudi proposal to exchange its prisoners with Saudi prisoners, Head of the National Committee for Houthi Prisoners Abdul Qader Al-Murtada confirmed.

“Aggression forces [Saudi-led Arab alliance] seek the release of Saudi prisoners along with mercenary leaders in return for a group of our prisoners, and to postpone other issues to a future stage,” Murtada told Saba News Agency.

“They want to circumvent the truce deal,” he added, stressing: “We have rejected this proposal.”

He noted that the Houthis signed a deal with the Arab Alliance and the Yemeni government in March to exchange more than 2,200 prisoners from both sides, however, “mercenaries of the aggression undermined this deal.”

Al-Murtada stated that the issue of the prisoners had been almost frozen since reaching the truce deal with the United Nations (UN) in April 2022.

In May, Saudi Arabia announced the release of 163 Houthi prisoners as part of a humanitarian initiative and in support of ending the Yemeni crisis and peace-making.

A two-month truce in the country started in April under UN patronage. It was renewed several times, with the last renewal at the beginning of April.

The most recent prisoner swap between the two sides occurred in October 2020, when the UN brokered the release of more than 1,000 prisoners.

READ: Houthis say prisoner swap talks progressing very slowly