SANAA: Yemen’s northern rebels said Tuesday they were open to a prisoner swap with neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom was forced to join the war between the rebels and the Yemeni government on Nov. 4, a day after the rebels killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory. The rebels announced Jan. 25 that they had withdrawn from Saudi land. The Kingdom said they had been driven out.
The rebels would have to return six missing Saudi soldiers if they wanted hostilities to end, Saudi Assistant Minister of Defense Prince Khaled bin Sultan said at the time. Prince Khaled told state media on Tuesday the body of one missing soldier had been found.
“The issue of the Saudi prisoners is not an obstacle if there is a will for peace. Perhaps the matter can be solved through a prisoner swap,” the rebels said on their website.
Yemen, which is also pursuing a crackdown on Al-Qaeda, rejected on Sunday a cease-fire offer from the rebels, saying it did not include a promise to end hostilities against Saudi Arabia, with which it shares a 1,500-km border.
Saudi Arabia had said rebel snipers were still entering Saudi territory. The insurgents denied this.
Yemen will next week start the trial of 35 rebels on terrorism and sabotage charges, a Defense Ministry website said.
Growing instability in Yemen is a serious worry for Western powers and neighboring countries. They fear the Yemen-based regional wing of Al-Qaeda, which claimed a failed Dec. 25 bomb attack on a US-bound plane, could strengthen its operations there and use it as a base for more international attacks.
Ivan Lewis, Britain’s minister of state in the Foreign Office, said Tuesday after meetings with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Foreign Minister Abubakr Al-Qirbi that Britain was helping Yemen to upgrade airport security.
