Saudi-led coalition says to free 200 Yemen Houthi rebels amid peace push

The coalition has taken the initiative to facilitate in cooperation with WHO flights carrying people for medical care

RIYADH: The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels said on Tuesday it will release 200 insurgents, as efforts pick up pace to end the conflict in the impoverished country.

Patients needing medical care will also be allowed to be flown out of Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2016, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The coalition had decided "to release 200 prisoners of the Houthi militia" and to facilitate "in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) flights carrying people in need of medical care from Sanaa".

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a senior figure in the rebels' political leadership, tweeted: "We welcome the coalition decision... (and) call for them to end torture and abuse until all detainees and prisoners are freed."

نرحب بالخطوة التي اعلنها التحالف الأمريكي السعودي الإماراتي وحلفائه اليوم
وندعوهم إلى إيقاف التعذيب والتعسفات حتى إخراج جميع الاسرى والمحتجزين لدى التحالف.
كما ندعوا لترتيب إستقبال جماهيري لهؤلاء الابطال عند وصولهم إلى أرض الوطن الغالي إن شاء الله

— محمد علي الحوثي (@Moh_Alhouthi) November 26, 2019

The coalition initiative coincides with a lull in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and comes after a senior official in Riyadh earlier this month said the kingdom had established an "open channel" with the rebels.

"We have had an open channel with the Houthis since 2016.We are continuing these communications to support peace in Yemen," the official told reporters in the Saudi capital.

Riyadh has 'open channel' with Yemen's Houthi rebels: Saudi official

"We don't close our doors with the Houthis," he said.

The official declined to be identified and did not elaborate, but the comments came amid a lull in recent weeks after a spike in rebel missile and drone attacks over the summer launched from Yemeni territory on Saudi cities.

Last Friday, United Nations (UN) envoy Martin Griffiths said the rate of coalition air strikes had sharply fallen over the past two weeks, in an apparent sign that "something is changing in Yemen".

On Monday, however, air raids by the Saudi-led coalition killed eight Houthi rebels near the key western port of Hodeidah, local officials said.

Yemen's warring parties agreed under a deal brokered in Sweden last December to exchange 15,000 prisoners, but the accord has not been fully implemented.

The coalition freed seven Houthi prisoners in January, and the rebels released 290 coalition fighters in September.

The Houthi rebels hold the capital Sanaa while the Saudi led-military coalition controls Yemen's maritime borders and airspace.

Sanaa airport has been closed for the past three years, with only UN and humanitarian flights allowed in and out.

Last year, wounded rebels were flown out of Sanaa for treatment, in what was seen as a key step ahead of the December peace talks.

Maliki said the coalition's latest initiative was an attempt to resolve the crisis in Yemen, where it intervened in 2015 in support of the country's internationally recognised government.

Since the intervention, tens of thousands of people have died in Yemen, contributing to what the UN has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.