Russia welcomes the prisoner of war and prisoner exchange operation between the parties to the conflict in Yemen and sees this step as a confirmation of the parties' ability to find compromise solutions to problems, the Russian Foreign Ministry's message released on Monday says.
"Moscow welcomes the successful conduct of such a large-scale humanitarian operation. We consider the exchange as a confirmation of the ability of the Yemeni opposing sides not only to find compromises necessary to end the protracted crisis but also to implement them," the ministry said.
According to the report, the Russian Federation expects that the Yemeni conflict participants will soon take further steps to restore confidence and remedy the critical socio-economic situation. "In this context, we consider it important to implement as soon as possible the other provisions of the Stockholm Agreement of 13 December 2018, which provides, in particular, for the withdrawal of troops from the Krasnomorsk port of Hodeida and mitigation of the situation around the country's third largest city of Taiza," the Russian Foreign Ministry added.
"We believe that such positive developments will contribute to the overall de-escalation of the conflict, will make it possible to move towards a complete cessation of hostilities in Yemen and the establishment of a comprehensive peace settlement process under the auspices of the UN on the basis of taking into account the legitimate interests and concerns of all the leading political forces, confessional and regional groups in the country," the message reads.
Russia in contact with the involved and interested parties will continue to fully assist in achieving these goals, concluded the Ministry.
On October 16, an exchange of prisoners of war and prisoners from among supporters of official Yemeni authorities and Houthi movement "Ansar Allah" took place. The agreement in principle was reached during negotiations held in September in the Swiss city of Montreux. The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross organized 11 flights for this purpose, which simultaneously delivered about 1,080 people to the Yemeni cities of Sanaa, Hodeida and Seiyoun, as well as the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Abha.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS