Yemen warring sides swap bodies as talks to end conflict make progress

Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels controlling north Yemen have exchanged 64 fighters' bodies in the third such recent deal, Houthi media said, the latest sign of progress in talks to end their eight-year conflict.

The bodies were exchanged on Wednesday at the Saudi-Yemeni border where delegations from both sides met after weeks of negotiations in Saudi Arabia, footage and commentary from Houti-run Al Masirah TV showed.

The Saudi delegation received six of its soldiers and allied fighters, and the Iran-aligned Houthi group received 58 bodies.

Footage showed body bags being exchanged between vans and trucks but it was not clear exactly when the exchanges took place.

A Saudi-led military coalition in 2015 intervened against the Houthi rebels that ousted Yemen's internationally recognised government from Sanaa in 2014.

The conflict has destroyed Yemen's economy, plunged millions into hunger and killed tens of thousands, but talks to end it have picked up since Riyadh and Iran in March restored diplomatic ties.

Allowing travel for Hajj pilgrimage

In another sign of thawing relations, Saudi Arabia last week said it would allow Yemen Airways to carry passengers into Saudi Arabia for Islam's annual Hajj pilgrimage from the Yemeni capital Sanaa for the first time since the war broke out in 2015.

The first plane carrying 273 pilgrims left Sanaa for Jeddah on Saturday.

A number of Houthi rebel officials are in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj including the deputy head of the Houthi Military Committee, Yahya al Razami, Houthi-run Saba News said.

The Saudi-led coalition has controlled Yemen's airspace since 2015 and only one commercial flight a week from Sanaa, to Amman in Jordan, had been running since May 2022.

Before that, only United Nations flights had served Sanaa.