File image.
On June 21, the Houthis (Ansar Allah) announced that they have exchanged the bodies of fighters and soldiers who were killed during the war in Yemen with Saudi Arabia.
According to the Yemeni pro-Houthis Al-Masirah TV, the bodies were exchanged at the Saudi-Yemeni border where delegations from both sides met after weeks of negotiations in the kingdom.
The Saudi delegation received six of its soldiers and allied fighters, and the Houthis received 58 bodies. Footage aired by Al-Masirah showed body bags being exchanged between vans and trucks. It is still unclear exactly when the exchange took place.
The Houthis took over much of Yemen after a successful uprising in 2014. The next year, Saudi Arabia, backed by several Arab countries and the United States, launched an invasion to overthrow the group. Over the next eight years, more than 377,000 people were killed in the war.
Reports from April said that Saudi Arabia has finally made the decision to end the war and help broker an intra-Yemeni peace agreement. Riyadh’s decision was directly motivated by the recent rapprochement with Tehran, the main ally of the Houthis.
Soon after the reports, Saudi officials held direct talks with the Houthis in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is held by the group.
The situation in Yemen has been very calm since then. Last week, Saudi Arabia announced that it would allow Yemen Airways to carry passengers into Mecca for Islam’s Hajj pilgrimage from Sanaa for the first time since war broke out in Yemen. The decision was another sign of progress in the Yemen peace process.
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