Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
Related Articles
Delegation accompanied by UN envoy
A rebel delegation flew out of the Yemeni capital on Tuesday heading for high-stakes talks in Sweden with the government aimed at ending the country’s devastating war. The departure of the Houthi insurgents on a Kuwaiti plane followed a prisoner swap deal and the evacuation of 50 wounded rebels for treatment in Oman in a major boost to peace efforts. The delegation was accompanied by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, an airport source said.
Restoring peace
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam confirmed their departure on Twitter, saying that the Houthis “will spare no effort to make a success of the talks to restore peace and end the aggression”. At the same time he called on rebel fighters to remain “vigilant against any attempt at a military escalation on the ground”. Although no date has been announced for the start of the talks, Yemeni government sources say they could get under way on Thursday. The agreement to exchange hundreds of detainees was welcomed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which will oversee the swap after the first round of planned peace talks in Sweden. Yemeni government official Hadi Haig said that between 1,500 and 2,000 members of pro-government forces and between 1,000 and 1,500 rebels would be released. On the government side, they include former Defence Minister Mahmoud al-Subaihi, who has been held by the rebels ever since they overran the capital in late 2014, and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s brother Nasser, a general and former senior intelligence official. Rebel official Abdel Kader al-Murtadha confirmed the deal, adding that he hoped it would be “implemented without problem”. Thousands of prisoners have been captured by both sides in the war of attrition.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/houthis-head-to-sweden-for-key-talks/article25667113.ece
