SNA (Birmingham) — A long-lasting peace deal could finally be in the works for Yemen after delegations from Saudi Arabia visited the rebel capital of Sanaa for talks with Houthi rebels. These discussions quickly led to prisoner swaps, helping to increase the level of trust.

The Houthis and the Saudis have agreed to maintain a ceasefire through the end of this year in order to give negotiations toward a permanent political settlement time to reach a conclusion.

If all goes well this year, the vision calls for an additional two-year transitional phase in which the agreements would be implemented.

Houthi representative Mohammed al-Bukaiti tweeted about the negotiations, saying that they could help find “ways to achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.”

In this week’s prisoner exchanges, close to nine hundred prisoners were released back to their families, producing joyful scenes of personal reunions.

Al-Bukaiti noted that it’s a step forward to “a peaceful atmosphere” which could “turn the page of the past.”

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government based in Aden has also acceded to the two key immediate demands of the Houthi rebels, which were that public employees receive their back pay through state oil and gas revenues and that a blockade on ports be lifted.

In the longer run, it is generally recognized that a permanent peace settlement must include the withdrawal from Yemen of foreign military forces, in particular the Saudi army.

But as we have noted previously, there are more than two parties to the Yemen Civil War.

In a UN report released earlier this month, special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg made a point of discussing the need for a broader range of parties to be included in the discussions. For the first time, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), an independent warring party fighting for independence of a separate South Yemen, was also added to the talks.

Grundberg explained: “I have been engaging politically with the parties and other Yemeni actors, as well as regional and international stakeholders, before, during, and after the truce to build consensus around launching an inclusive political process.”

STC President Aidarous Qassem Abdulaziz al-Zubaidi, who was initially skeptical about the Iran-Saudi detente brokered by Beijing, declared this week that he “appreciated the Chinese role in sponsoring the peace agreement.”

Al-Zubaidi added that the most recent multilateral talks have proposed “possible scenarios… to reach an agreement that ends the war and establishes a comprehensive political process that works to solve all the central issues and establishes a just and sustainable peace.”

Some commentators, however, suggest that civil society representatives must also be part of the peace process.

“The real beneficiaries of this truce should be Yemeni civilians, rather than leaders of the parties to the conflict, who have no interest in being held accountable for their grave violations of international law,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Yemeni civil society and activists have been effectively frozen out of negotiations, leaving people in Yemen with no one to represent their interests.”

For our full news coverage, become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive our daily “Japan and the World” newsletter.