Exclusive: Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi says a Houthi-run north and STC-led south is the new reality

The leader seen as integral to solving Yemen’s nine-year civil war has said the west has to accept a new reality in which Yemen’s north is controlled by the Houthis and the south is run by his separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In a Guardian interview, Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, the president of the STC and vice-president of the UN-recognised government of Yemen, said the planned talks on the country’s future had to be reconfigured to meet that new reality, including by putting the issue of a separate southern state at the foreground of discussions. The talks are largely under the control of Saudi Arabia, which wants to find a way to extricate itself from a war that is estimated to have caused more than 250,000 deaths.

Second day of exchange involving nearly 900 detainees comes amid peace talks to end eight-year war

A flight carrying rebel prisoners of war has arrived in Yemen from Saudi Arabia, and Saudi prisoners are due to be released later in the day, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

The flights are part of a large-scale, multi-day exchange involving nearly 900 detainees and come amid peace talks which have raised hopes of an end to Yemen’s eight-year war between Iran-backed rebels and a Saudi-led coalition.

Key players in Yemeni coalition government ready to go along with minimum eight-month ceasefire

Saudi Arabia has persuaded the key players in the Yemeni coalition government to go along with a minimum eight-month ceasefire with Houthi rebels in parallel with talks on the future of the country that may take as long as two years, as it rushes to capitalise on its new relationship with Iran.

Saudi and Houthi leaders met on Sunday for the first time in public in the Houthi-held capital, Sana’a, with the Saudis keen to cut their losses after a disastrous eight-year-long intervention that started with airstrikes in 2015. Mediators from Oman were also present.