Undersecretary of Hodeidah, Waleed al-Qoudaimi, said on Friday that the Houthi militias are obstructing and seeking to block the previously signed prisoner swap agreement, which was announced in the Sweden talks that took place early December.

 

A source in the legitimate government’s delegation who are involved in the process of the prisoner swap said that the militias denied the existence of nearly 3,000 detainees in its prisons, whose names were submitted by the government delegation in Sweden as part of the swap deal concluded in Stockholm.

 

The source added that the Houthis are trying to “stall the process, and avoid fulfilling their obligations in this file which is the one of the most important pillars of the agreement.”

 

The source also said that the Houthis forcefully disappeared Yemeni politician Muhammad Qahtan and military commander Faisal Rajab, “leaving their fate unknown as mere names on the list.”

 

Qoudaimi had earlier announced that the head of the UN monitoring team was waiting for a response on his proposal pertaining to the mechanism of the Houthi withdrawal from Hodeidah’s city and port. Its deadline is Tuesday.