Yemen's rebel delegate meets UN envoy in Oman over stalled peace deal

Yemen's Houthi rebels said their delegate met the United Nations Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in neighboring Oman on Sunday over a stalled peace deal reached in December last year.

Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said chief of the group's negotiators Mohammed Abdulsalam met Griffiths in Oman's capital city Muscat and they discussed ways to break stalemate in the peace process.

However, the UN envoy's office in Jordan has not yet released any comment over the meeting.

Griffiths has been shuttling between the Houthi rebels, who control much of the country's north, and the exiled government, which control much of the south, to avert an all-out deadly fighting in Hodeidah, the lifeline of most commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

The warring parties reached the deal in Stockholm in December 2018, which focused on Hodeidah as first step towards a comprehensive political settlement. The deal was seen as a first hope in years to end the war.

Yemeni warring parties have largely held the cease-fire deal in Hodeidah but failed to withdraw their forces. They exchange blames over hindering the implementation of the deal.

Grinding into its fifth year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people mostly civilians, displaced three million and pushed over 20 million into the brink of famine.