Yemen Warring Sides Agree at Start of Talks to Free Thousands of Prisoners

A member of a Yemeni rebel delegation prepares to fly accompanied by a UN peace envoy, heading for high-stakes talks in Sweden with the government aimed at ending the country's devastating war, on Dec. 4, 2018 in Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

STOCKHOLM—Yemen’s warring sides agreed to free thousands of prisoners on Dec. 6, in what a U.N. mediator called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in years to end a war that has pushed millions of people on the verge of starvation.

U.N. mediator Martin Griffiths told a news conference in a renovated castle outside Stockholm that just getting the warring sides to the table was an important milestone.