Houthis refuse to allow the President of the ICRC to visit the prisoners included in the UNSC resolution

The movements of the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, has failed to pressure the Houthi militia to reach an agreement in the process of exchanging prisoners and detainees, or to sponsor an agreement to reopen the road linking Sanaa and Aden.

Informed sources said that MR. Maurer met with a number of officials in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is controlled by the militia, including the head of Houthi prisoners’ affairs, with the aim of reaching an agreement to conduct the exchange of all prisoners, but he found obstacles by Houthis, in order to thwart the efforts of the (ICRC).

During his six-day stay in Sanaa, MR. Maurer demanded that the Houthis allow him to visit the prisoners included in the UN Security Council resolution, including the leader of the Islah Party, Muhammad Qahtan, Defense Minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, Faisal Rajab, and the brother of the Yemeni president, Nasser Mansour Hadi, as well as allowing the prisoners Muhammad bin Muhammad Saleh and Afash Tariq Saleh to communicate with their families, but he was refused, according to the same sources.

The sources confirmed, that MR. Maurer, also tried to visit the Houthi prisons to check on the prisoners, but the Houthis met with a strict rejection, which made him go to Oman to beg Muhammad Abdul Salam, the head of the Houthi negotiation delegation.

The sources indicated that the Houthi media statements were aimed at misleading public opinion at a time when all the efforts of Maurer, to visit prisons or supervise a prisoner exchange deal between the Yemeni government and the Houthi militia have failed.