Yassin Makkawi

Yassin Makkawi, a Yemeni presidential adviser, revealed to Asahrq Al-Awsat a few secret consultations that took place last week in Switzerland between the legitimate government delegation and the rebels in the Houthi- Saleh alliance that are known as the Geneva 2 consultations.

Makkawi, one of the members of the negotiating delegation for the Yemeni government, said that “the obstinacy which can be seen from the position of the rebels regarding the matter of releasing the detainees goes back to their attempts to conclude a deal at the expense of the detainees and exchange them for a complete ceasefire and the ending of airstrikes by the Saudi –led coalition in particular”.

One of the issues that the Yemeni presidential adviser revealed is that along with differences and discrepancies that have emerged within the rebel delegation at the consultations, the members of the delegation who represented the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, sought, one way or another to reach a deal that guarantees a safe exit for Saleh from the war and its consequences; referring to international sanctions.

Elsewhere, Houthi gunmen forcibly seized weapons belonging to the Republican Guard loyal to Ali Saleh following the development of huge differences between the two sides in Sana’a yesterday after the Guard refused to issue a quantity of middle and heavy arms from the Hamdan camp to the Houthis.