Omani mediators reach Yemen to try to broker new truce

Omani mediators arrived in Yemen on Saturday to discuss a new truce between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia, an airport source said, amid renewed moves to end the conflict.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have multiplied since Saudi Arabia signed a Chinese-brokered deal to restore relations with Iran last month.

The top Saudi and Iranian diplomats met in Beijing Thursday, resuming diplomatic relations and pledging to work together to bring "security and stability" to their turbulent region.

The Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering the conflict with the government which has been backed for eight years by a military coalition led by regional heavyweight Riyadh.

"A delegation from Oman has arrived in Sanaa to hold talks with Huthi leaders about the truce and the peace process," a source at the capital's airport, who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to journalists, told AFP.

The source said the delegation was accompanied by Mohammed Abdelsalam, the rebels' chief negotiator, who lives in Muscat.

Abdelsalam himself tweeted that he had arrived in Sanaa with the Omani delegation, but without providing further details.

The United Nations special envoy on Yemen, Hans Grundberg, was in the Omani capital this week for talks on "the political process".

A Yemeni government source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the Saudis and Houthis have agreed in principle on a six-month truce to pave the way for three months of talks on establishing a two-year "transition" for the war-torn country.

The country enjoyed a six-month lull in fighting during a ceasefire last year, but that truce was not renewed after it expired on October 2.

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