A source involved in the Swiss Montreux consultations on Yemeni prisoners and detainees revealed that what was signed on Sunday 27 September 2020 in Geneva had been agreed upon in previous consultations in Jordan following the Stockholm Agreement.
The source, who preferred not to disclose himself, said that what was done in Geneva was a review of lists of 1,420 people submitted by the government and Houthi delegations, and the Yemeni government was seeking to release the four included in the Security Council resolution (former Defense Minister Major General Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, and the leader of the Yemeni Islah part Muhammad Qahtan, Brigadier General Faisal Rajab, and Major General Nasser Mansour Hadi), however, since the first day in Geneva, the Houthis presented a previous negotiation formula consisting of 1080 detainees and prisoners.
The source indicated that the Houthis presented a disclosure in a drawn negotiation formula, refusing to concede it, namely (230 Houthis and the same from the government,15 Saudis and four Sudanese in exchange for 250 Houthis. In addition to 151 from the southern governorates and the West Coast of Yemen Front in exchange for 200 Houthi members), which was what the Houthi delegation insist in previous negotiations held in Jordan.
The Houthi militia refused to negotiate for the four included in the Security Council resolution, as well as the ten journalists (4 of whom were sentenced to death and 6 are still in prisons), which indicates the weakness of the government negotiating delegation, which recently bowed to the pressure of Houthi and Martin Griffiths.
The source emphasized that the negotiations that were supposed to take place at the present time failed miserably due to the interim President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood, who concluded secret deals with the Houthis, which made Martin Griffiths insist on announcing previous agreements with the aim of media uproar, to win the confidence of the UN Security Council, especially as his term is about to end.
While he has become more of a delegate to the Houthis than a UN envoy.
In the same context, the negotiating member of the Yemeni government delegation to the Swiss metro city, Majid Fadhel, said on his Twitter page that they had yielded to the intransigence of the Houthi militia in order to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and detainees, according to the announced formula.
On Sunday, Saudi-led coalition forces and the Houthis reached a deal for the largest prisoner swap since the conflict in Yemen began in 2015. The Houthis will release 400 coalition prisoners while the Yemeni government will free 681 Houthi fighters.
The deal followed a week of talks in Switzerland and premised on a release plan that the two parties agreed in Amman in February.
