ADEN-SABA
Yemen's Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hadhrami thanked the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Grifiths and the International Committee of the Red Cross for mediating a prisoner swap deal between the government and Houthi rebels.

"The government has all along sought an exchange of all prisoners on both sides, something President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi stresses on," said al-Hadhrami in a statement to Saba.

"This is a pure humanitarian deal, it has to be honored without foot-dragging as agreed in Jordan,," he said.

In a joint statement, Griffiths' office and the ICRC said today a seven-day meeting in the Jordanian capital has come up with a detailed plan to secure a massive swap of all prisoners held since the beginning of the Yemeni conflict. The prisoner exchange is set to take place in stages.