UN Envoy urges Yemeni negotiators not to politicize detainees' file

The UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed called on the Yemeni stakeholders to enforce the proposal to release the detainees before the holy month of Ramadan away from any politicization. "This issue is humanitarian in the first place that should not be politicized," he said in a press release Wednesday night. 

    The UN envoy urged the negotiating teams of the government, Ansarullah movement and the General People's Congress to shoulder their national responsibility in goodwill, help the families of detainees to reunite, and advance the peace process, Kuwait news agency (KUNA) reported. "The political parties should not manipulate the issue of detainees to serve political ends any more. We call for the return of the detainees to their families as early as possible," he stressed.     Meanwhile, he welcomed the prisoner swap process that took place in the central city of Taiiz, voicing hope for the release of the remaining prisoners.

    In a related connection, the committee on the prisoner affairs convened a session on Wednesday where the delegations of Ansarullah movement and the General People's Congress reported on the detainees they hold.     The government delegation is to offer preliminary report on the detainees held by the government authorities on Thursday, the UN envoy revealed.

    Ould Cheikh Ahmed met with GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani, now on a visit to Kuwait, to brief him on the latest developments in Yemen and the ongoing UN-sponsored peace talks. He also met Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah in the presence of the GCC chief.

Source: QNA)