The Yemeni Foreign Ministry described the arrests as a “flagrant violation” that jeopardizes the safety of humanitarian workers and hampers relief efforts in a country grappling with a prolonged conflict. The statement followed a UN decision to suspend all official movements in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen in response to the arrests.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to once again categorize the Houthi militant group in Yemen as a terrorist organization marks “the beginning of their end,”, according to the vice president of Yemen’s United Nations-recognized government.

The Yemeni Houthi group said Saturday that it unilaterally released 153 prisoners from the Yemeni government. "The initiative was unilateral and taken for humanitarian reasons,” Abdul Qader al-Murtada, who heads of the group’s prisoner affairs committee, told a press conference in Sanaa.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who are poised to return to the US terrorism blacklist, released more than 150 prisoners of war in tearful scenes on Saturday.

Prisoner releases have been seen as a bid to jump-start talks to end Yemen's war, which began when Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.