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Yemeni Gov’t Delegation Heads to Geneva for Prisoner Swap Talks

UN envoy Martin Griffiths, to his right, head of the delegation of the Red Cross committee in Sanaa, when they attended talks between the government and Houthis in Amman. Getty Images
UN envoy Martin Griffiths, to his right, head of the delegation of the Red Cross committee in Sanaa, when they attended talks between the government and Houthis in Amman. Getty Images
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Yemeni Gov’t Delegation Heads to Geneva for Prisoner Swap Talks

UN envoy Martin Griffiths, to his right, head of the delegation of the Red Cross committee in Sanaa, when they attended talks between the government and Houthis in Amman. Getty Images
UN envoy Martin Griffiths, to his right, head of the delegation of the Red Cross committee in Sanaa, when they attended talks between the government and Houthis in Amman. Getty Images

A delegation from the internationally-recognized Yemeni government will head to Geneva on Thursday to join prisoner exchange talks with Iran-backed Houthis, a government official familiar with the negotiations said.

The talks are being sponsored by the office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

A UN plane landed in Sanaa on Tuesday with the mission of transporting the Houthi delegation to the last round of talks in Switzerland, with the hopes of a breakthrough leading to the release of the first batch of 1,420 prisoners.

According to the official Saba News Agency, Undersecretary of Human Rights Ministry Majed Fadael confirmed that the Yemeni government's team charged with negotiating the deal with the Houthi militias under the Stockholm Agreement is going to Geneva.

Fadael, who is also a member of the government delegation, told Saba that the meeting aims to explore a mechanism to release all detainees from both sides.

A deal reached in the third round of the negotiations in Jordan stated that 1,420 prisoners shall be released in the first phase, followed by others until all detainees are set free.

“There are no new talks. We are only discussing what we had arrived to in the third round of talks in Amman and this involves the release of 1,420 detainees in the first stage, building up to the point where a total swap is implemented through others,” Fadael told Asharq Al-Awsat last August.

“We have exchanged lists of names, and the swap is still underway, but we are yet to finalize the agreement on all names. There is a sufficient number of names that have been approved though and we insist that the swap includes 1,420 detainees,” Fadael added.

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Iran Guards Rule Out Breach in Haniyeh Assassination

A picture shows the site of the explosion at the “Imam Ali” guest house compound in northern Tehran. (Social media)
A picture shows the site of the explosion at the “Imam Ali” guest house compound in northern Tehran. (Social media)
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Iran Guards Rule Out Breach in Haniyeh Assassination

A picture shows the site of the explosion at the “Imam Ali” guest house compound in northern Tehran. (Social media)
A picture shows the site of the explosion at the “Imam Ali” guest house compound in northern Tehran. (Social media)

The deputy of the intelligence unit in the Quds Force, the external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), rejected the possibility of a breach in the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh, saying the operation had “different dimensions”.

Spokesman for Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Ebrahim Rezaei told deputies that obtaining “complete information about the assassination requires a careful investigation.”

He added that Iran’s intelligence authorities had assured that the assassination was not the result of a “breach.”

The case “is currently under final investigations,” Rezaei was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying.

In earlier remarks, a committee member said Israel has a network of influence inside Iran and Tehran. The MP told the reformist ILNA news agency: “What happened is a terrorist act par excellence and deserves a reaction from Iran.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s assistant head of the judiciary announced the formation of a judicial file in Haniyeh’s assassination, a procedure similar to the one that followed the killing of IRGC Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani in a US strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020.

The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency quoted Sadeq Rahimi as saying: “The Public Prosecutor issued directives on the need to identify and arrest those who were negligent in the Haniyeh assassination, or those who were used as agents.”

Rahimi reiterated accusations that Israel was behind the operation, saying: “There is no doubt that the Zionist entity committed the crime, but investigations are underway to find out whether Israel used infiltrators, agents or committed the crime directly.”

The IRGC Counter-Espionage Department is investigating the alleged infiltration. Iranian security personnel raided the guest house compound where Haniyeh had repeatedly stayed during his visits to Tehran.

The agents placed all members of the hotel staff under custody, arrested some, and confiscated all electronic devices, including personal phones, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, Iranian police denied social networks claims about the arrest of General Hassan Karami, commander of the Iranian police Special Forces, on charges of “espionage in the Haniyeh assassination.”

Both Fars and Tasnim cited the police command as saying that the reports were “false and fabricated.”