Yemen's government on Monday (November 19th) said it will take part in proposed peace talks, hours after a high-ranking Houthi official urged his leadership to freeze military operations, AFP reported.
The moves come ahead of a visit to Yemen in the next few days by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who is again trying to get all sides around the negotiating table.
"The government has informed the UN envoy to Yemen... that it will send a government delegation to the talks with the aim of reaching a political solution," Yemen's foreign ministry said.
Earlier Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis' Higher Revolutionary Committee, said he wanted his group to announce "readiness to suspend and halt all military operations" and stop firing missiles on Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh, which is backing the Yemeni government, also lent its support to new talks.
Griffiths is expected to visit Sanaa this week to finalise arrangements for peace talks in Sweden. No date has yet been set for the negotiations.
Griffiths said both the government and the Houthis have shown a "renewed commitment" to reaching a political solution.
The Houthis' foreign minister, Hisham Sharaf Abdallah, met UN officials on Sunday, according to local media, which quoted him as saying the UN and the international community should "adopt the political path to stop the bloodshed".
A UN draft resolution on Yemen presented to the Security Council on Monday by Britain calls for an immediate truce in the port city of al-Hodeidah and sets a two-week deadline for both sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt arrived Monday in Iran for the first time to discuss Tehran's role in Yemen, meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
