Major thaw in situation after Saudi meeting, including prisoner swap

Sanaa: A Saudi delegation left war-torn Yemen after four days but without a finalised truce that lapsed last year. Led by ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber, the delegation before leaving took a commitment from Iran-backed Huthi rebels to hold a second round of talks. In another major development, as the first plane of the Saudi delegation departed from Sanaa for Aden, a major exchange of prisoners from Yemen’s brutal civil war was underway, a report by AFP quoted the International Committee of the Red Cross as saying. The three-day operation would see about 900 prisoners being released. “There is an initial agreement on a truce that should be announced later on if finalised,” AFP quoted a Huthi official saying on condition of anonymity. “There is an agreement to hold another round of talks to further discuss points of difference,” the official added. In September 2014, the Huthis seized control of Sanaa, ousting the internationally recognised government and triggering a Saudi-led military intervention in March next year. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and two-thirds of the population of 30 million is dependent on aid, according to United Nations estimates. The agency quoted a source at the Huthis’ foreign ministry saying that the Saudi delegation would communicate the rebels’ “conditions” to the Riyadh leadership. Huthi political leader Mohamed Ali al-Huthi said the talks were conducted in a “positive atmosphere”, with plans for another round. The report further said that ahead of the Saudi visit, a Yemeni government source said the Saudis and Huthis had agreed in principle on a six-month truce to pave the way for three months of talks on establishing a two-year “transition”. Key Huthi goals include paying salaries of civil servants in areas under their control and lifting operational restrictions on ports and airports they hold. Britain’s ambassador to Yemen, Richard Oppenheim, said the talks were a “positive development and may be the start of a golden opportunity for peace”. “Yemen has suffered a lot in the last eight years, which makes grabbing any opportunity for peace a top priority,” he said in Arabic in a video posted on Twitter. The talks began about a month after a landmark, Chinese-brokered announcement by Iran and Saudi Arabia on March 10 that they would resume ties, seven years after an acrimonious split. The resource-rich Gulf powerhouses have been long been fierce rivals, vying for influence across the region with Yemen one of their major battlegrounds. The surprise rapprochement has quickly redrawn the diplomatic map, with Qatar and Bahrain mending ties and Arab countries considering ending Syria’s long diplomatic isolation over its brutal civil war. With inputs from AFP Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram