Martin Griffiths landed in the capital at around 10:30 am local time (1330 GMT), an official at Sana’a airport told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A UN source confirmed the news, saying Griffiths was in Yemen to “work on the rapid implementation of the Hudaydah agreement”.

Griffiths hosted hard-won peace talks between the two sides in Sweden last month.

Monday’s visit marks Griffiths’ second trip to Yemen this month.

The two parties agreed to a ceasefire in Hudaydah, home to impoverished Yemen’s most valuable port.

The Hudaydah agreement stipulates the withdrawal and redeployment of rival forces from the city, two clauses that have yet to be fulfilled.

Griffiths was working to convene a “face-to-face” meeting in Hudaydah of the committee tasked with overseeing the deal, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The UN envoy is expected to travel to Riyadh in the coming days.

The UN said a team tasked with monitoring the truce, led by chief monitor Patrick Cammaert, came under fire in Hudaydah on Friday but was unharmed.

The UN did not identify who was behind the shooting.

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However, this round of negotiations after months of deliberations by Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen, began on Thursday between the two sides, aimed at ending nearly four years of brutal war in the country.
The Yemeni peace talks in Stockholm, Sweden, have provided conditions for Yemeni groups, in the form of a state of national salvation, to revive and restore the ignored rights of the Yemeni people.
The strategic port of Al-Hudaydah was the most important issue in the talks holding in Sweden’s capital. Saudi-led coalition has blocked Al-Hudaydah city, and after several months of aggressive attack by ground, air and sea, they failed to dominate the city of Al-Hudaydah, but the coalition has completely besieged the city.

The main demand of the Yemeni groups in the Stockholm negotiations is to determine the fate of Al-Hudaydah province and to remove the complete blockade. However, it seems that the Saudi Arabia’s mercenaries squabbling excesses in the repressive Yemeni government continues. And they do not want a logical solution to the issue of Al-Hudaydah.

The Yemeni government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, demanded that the Houthis fully withdraw from Al-Hudaydah. Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdul-Salam announced that the city of Al-Hudaydah should be neutral zone and there will be no need for a military presence there if the battles stop.

Despite the fact that the Yemeni groups have gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, to end the crises in the country, the other side, representatives of Saud-back Hadi government, has always been trying to defeat the negotiations by seeking unreasonable conditions, and to block bilateral agreements.

Another key issue of the peace talks is the reopening the airport at the capital, Sanaa, which has been bombed several times. The airport is in Houthi’s territory but access to it is restricted by the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the air space. The Sanaa International Airport, controlled by the Yemeni forces, is now technically prepared to resume flights, but the Saudi-led military coalition won’t allow flights.

In the Swedish negotiations, the Yemeni government raised the precondition for issuance of a permit to reopen the Sanaa International Airport. The condition was that all flights from and to Sana’a airport be inspected and audited, however, the condition was opposed by the Sana’a Board.

The Houthi delegation head at the peace talks, Mohammed Abdusalam, rejected the proposal. “The airport should be opened in accordance with international standards, and we do not accept inspections.”

Sana’a’s government has agreed to work on the role of the United Nations at Sana’a Airport in order to advance negotiations and show its goodwill in this regard.

One of strategic suggestion in Stockholm talks was calling for a transitional government representing all political parties.

Despite the proposal made, the delegation has not shown any response on behalf of the Yemeni government. This means that this delegation has not stepped in to help realize peace and end crisis in Yemen, but it has come to Sweden to dictate demands.

As the peace talks continue, the persecution of the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen has once again shown that the Saudis prefer their military and criminal strategy to a political solution to the Yemen crisis. Within several days of the Stockholm talks, several areas in Yemen have been targeted by Saudi attacks, followed by dozens of civilians’ martyrdom.

The spokesman of Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e has sharply condemned the Saudi-led coalition’s attacks against Yemen. He added: “the fact that the coalition forces and their mercenaries have continued their aggression against Yemen on the first day of peace talks in Sweden indicates that the aggressors have no interest in the establishment of peace and preparing the grounds for a second round of talks.”

The biggest challenge facing the current talks between the Sana’a delegation and the Yemeni government delegation is that the government has no discretionary power to make strategic decisions, and it is fully passive in order to reduce the public pressure.

Perhaps if representatives from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were present at the negotiating table with the Sana’a delegation, the talks further saw progress as the “reliant government” delegation virtually lack authority.

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Abdul Qader al-Murtaza, chairman of the Houthi-run Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, confirmed the news to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency on Monday.

“The UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, communicated to us that coalition forces and the Yemeni [self-proclaimed] government have also signed the prisoner exchange agreement that was signed in November by the Houthis,” he said.

Murtaza also noted that the agreement marks the first step towards resolving the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Peace talks between Yemen’s opposite parties are expected to begin in Sweden as early as Wednesday.

Griffiths arrived in Sana’a, the Houthi-run Yemeni capital, on Monday to escort the Houthi delegation to the planned discussions.

Meanwhile, a UN source told Reuters that the former Saudi-backed regime had also confirmed that it would follow the Houthis to the Sweden peace talks.

On Monday, a UN-chartered plane carrying 50 wounded Houthi fighters and three Yemeni doctors left Sana’a for Oman’s capital, Muscat, for treatment. The plane took off just a few hours after the UN envoy arrived in Sana’a.

Griffiths thanked all parties for facilitating the evacuation of the wounded fighters.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told Reuters that the movement’s delegation would travel to Sweden Tuesday morning on a plane provided by Kuwait and accompanied by Griffiths.

However, Yemeni Minister of Information Daifallah al-Shami said that the Houthis had not received any official invitation for the UN-mediated peace talks in Sweden.

“So far (December 2), we have not received any invitation directly from the UN on peace talks in Sweden. From the efforts of UN and its special envoy, we can’t see any clear vision for peace talks,” he said.

The previous round of the peace talks collapsed in the Swiss city of Geneva in September.

‘Khashoggi crisis pressured Saudis into deal’

Lawrence Davidson, professor at the West Chester University, has told Press TV, that the prisoner exchange deal was made possible because of mounting international pressure on the Riyadh regime over the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi.

“A lot of it has to do with the diplomatic pressure because of the murder of a US-based Saudi journalist and the anger that is generated in Congress and also other countries that are refusing … to sell them (the Saudis) weapons,” he said.

“So, this is a tactical move on their part to try to relieve some of that pressure. How far it will go, we will have to see,” he added.

Khashoggi’s murder is widely blamed on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been leading the war on Yemen in his capacity as the kingdom’s defense minister.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the deadly military aggression against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the country’s former Riyadh-allied regime and crush the Houthis, who have been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government.

The war is estimated to have left 56,000 Yemenis dead.

Back in June, the Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive on the port city of Hudaydah despite international warnings that it would compound the war-torn nation’s humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi-led offensive, coupled with a naval blockade, has destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and led to famine in the import-dependent state.

About 8.4 million Yemenis are now facing starvation. The number is likely to increase to 14 million.

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An AFP photographer at the airport said Griffiths did not take questions on arrival.

Fifty wounded Houthis will also be evacuated from Sana’a for medical treatment Monday, the report said.

The evacuation on a UN-chartered plane marks a key step in kickstarting stalled negotiations, as the international community presses for an end to the Saudi war on Yemen that has pushed the impoverished Arab country to the brink of famine.

The plane will transport 50 fighters, 50 “escorts,” three Yemeni doctors and one UN doctor to the Omani capital Muscat.

International pressure has mounted in recent weeks to reach a breakthrough in the Saudi-led war.

War coupled with economic collapse has put nearly 14 million Yemenis – half the country’s population – at risk of famine, according to UN agencies.

The World Health Organization estimates over 10,000 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies waged the aggression in 2015.

Rights groups fear the toll could be much higher.

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