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UN Optimistic over Sanaa Talks as Prisoner Exchange to Be Held on Thursday

Houthis officials meet with the Saudi and Omani delegations in Sanaa, Yemen April 9, 2023. (Saba News Agency/Handout via Reuters)
Houthis officials meet with the Saudi and Omani delegations in Sanaa, Yemen April 9, 2023. (Saba News Agency/Handout via Reuters)
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UN Optimistic over Sanaa Talks as Prisoner Exchange to Be Held on Thursday

Houthis officials meet with the Saudi and Omani delegations in Sanaa, Yemen April 9, 2023. (Saba News Agency/Handout via Reuters)
Houthis officials meet with the Saudi and Omani delegations in Sanaa, Yemen April 9, 2023. (Saba News Agency/Handout via Reuters)

The United Nations has expressed its optimism over the ongoing talks between Saudi and Omani delegations with the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen’s Sanaa.

The delegations had arrived in Sanaa on Sunday to discuss a roadmap for peace in war-torn Yemen. The peace would start with an expanded nationwide truce that would include the payment of salaries, resumption of oil exports, lifting restrictions on ports and airports and kicking off steps related to peace negotiations.

Head of the Saudi delegation, the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Jaber said the Sanaa visit is aimed at “supporting a prisoner exchange and searching for means to hold dialogue with Yemenis in order to reach a permanent and comprehensive political solution.”

The Yemeni government announced on Tuesday that preparations are complete to hold the swap on Thursday. The process will take place over three days and cover six Saudi and Yemeni airports.

In a tweet, Al-Jaber stressed that the Kingdom had stood by the Yemeni government and people for decades and in the darkest times and throughout political and economic crises.

“Fraternal efforts have been ongoing since 2011 to meet the aspirations of the Yemeni people for security, stability and economic prosperity,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, United Nations envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said on Tuesday that he was encouraged by the “depth and seriousness” of talks between stakeholders in Yemen, including in a visit by Saudi and Omani delegations to Sanaa.

Grundberg said he was working with all relevant actors to ensure that current efforts are in support of the UN mediation.

“My role has consistently remained focused on resuming an inclusive, Yemeni-led political process. Only such a process can deliver a sustainable settlement and bring about a future of durable peace and development,” Grundberg said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric had this week expressed optimism over the discussions in Sanaa.

“We are not involved in every discussion, we don’t need to be”, he said. “What is important is that all of these parties work towards the relevant Security Council resolution, the UN facilitated talks.”

Dujarric said the discussions in Sanaa were “very much welcomed by the Secretary-General” and added that Grundberg continues to be “in close coordination with the regional member states” over resuming the political process, with the hope of avoiding any escalation in the war.

He hoped that the Sanaa talks would help ease tensions in Yemen and the region and pave the way for comprehensive peace.

Yemenis remain apprehensive of the Houthis and their maneuvers that have thwarted peace efforts in the past, and yet, they are hoping that the latest talks would lead to a UN-sponsored intra-Yemeni roadmap that would put an end to the conflict.

Separately, the government confirmed that a prisoner exchange would kick off on Thursday after arrangements were complete.

Member of the government negotiations committee and deputy minister for human rights Majed Fadail said the swap would take place in three phases over three days.

The International Committee of the Red Cross will operate flights from the Sanaa and Aden provinces on the first day, followed by flights from Sanaa to Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Abha, and later al-Mokha in Yemen’s Taiz to Sanaa and then from Sanaa to al-Mokha on the second day.

The third day will witness three flights between Marib and Sanaa.

The swap, which will include 887 government- and Houthi-held prisoners and detainees, was due to be held earlier but was postponed for three days to complete preparations.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.