RIYADH: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf welcomed a deal reached earlier today by the Yemeni government and Houthi group to immediately release a first group of 1,081 conflict-related detainees and prisoners.
Dr Hajraf said in a press statement Sunday that it is necessary to immediately put the deal in place and set free prisoners and detainees without any delay, leading up to freeing all prisoners and reunify them with their families. The GCC chief appreciated the efforts of the Supervisory Committee on the Implementation of the Prisoners' Exchange Agreement, represented by the Special Envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Meanwhile, Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohammad Al-Hadhrami extolled the prisoner release agreement reached by Yemeni parties in Geneva earlier Sunday. He said in a press statement that the issue of prisoners is a purely humanitarian one, stressing the government's utter compliance with the deal.
The UN office of the Special Envoy for Yemen said earlier in the day that delegates representing the Government of Yemen and Houthi group had agreed to immediately release a first group of 1,081 conflict-related detainees and prisoners, in accordance with the lists of agreed-upon names. The parties renewed their commitment, as per their agreement in Stockholm in 2018, to release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest. - KUNA