SANAA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Visiting UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths on Tuesday welcomed the release of a captured Saudi Arabian soldier by the Houthi rebels who had handed him over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"The SE (special envoy) welcomes the unconditional release by AA (Ansar Allah or Houthi group) of the sick Saudi prisoner, whom the ICRC will transfer from Sanaa to Riyadh today," Griffiths said in Twitter. "The SE hopes to see more similar humanitarian gestures from the parties," he said.

"The SE looks forward to the implementation of the prisoner exchange agreement by the two parties. Thousands of Yemeni families await this implementation, to be reunited with their loved ones," he added.

Earlier on the day, the Houthis said in a statement that "the sick Saudi soldier Musa Awagi will be transported to his country through an ICRC plane today (Tuesday)." They said the move came as a "humanitarian initiative."

The Iranian-allied Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed exiled government held a series of UN-sponsored meetings last week in Jordan to discuss the lists of prisoners to be swapped.

The ICRC, which oversees the discussions to release and transfer conflict-related detainees between the Yemeni rival parties in Amman, said in a statement last week that an agreement could be reached in the coming days.

The United Nations has been pushing for implementing an all-out prisoner swap deal, a cease-fire and withdrawal of rival forces from Yemen's main port city of Hodeidah in line with a peace agreement reached in Stockholm last month. The trust-building measures would pave the way for a next round of peace talks.

Griffiths arrived in the capital Sanaa on Monday to break the stalemate in Hodeidah's peace deal. The cease-fire deal went into force on Dec. 18, 2018, but the withdrawal of the rival forces has yet to be fulfilled.

The UN said the discussions have been stalled because of different interpretations of the Stockholm Agreement over who would control key points of Hodeidah during the partial cease-fire.

The Hodeidah port is the key lifeline and entrance of the majority of food imports and humanitarian aid to impoverished war-torn Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north.

The coalition-backed government forces have advanced to the eastern and southern outskirts of Hodeidah over the past five months, but held off to allow the chance of implementing the peace deal.

The four-year war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced 3 million others and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Enditem

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