16 January 2019•Update: 16 January 2019
By Laith Joneidi
AMMAN
A new round of peace talks between Yemen’s warring rivals kicked off in Jordan on Tuesday to tackle technical issues regarding prisoners exchange between the government and Houthi rebels, a UN spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"The meeting is technical and comes in the framework of following up the implementation of the outcome of peace talks in Sweden,” Hanan al-Badawi, a spokeswoman for UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, told Anadolu Agency.
Participants include officials from the UN and the Red Cross as well as representatives of Yemen’s warring rivals.
On December 13, Yemeni peace talks held in Sweden concluded with a ceasefire deal in the coastal Al-Hudaydah province.
However, the warring parties have failed to withdraw from the province amid accusations of breaching the deal.
Impoverished Yemen has remained dogged by violence since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.
