Political sources on Monday reported progress in efforts to convene a dialogue among Yemen's warring factions as warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition carried out air strikes on Monday against Yemen's Houthi group across the country. Neighboring Oman seeks to end more than two months of fighting that had killed nearly 2,000 people by mediating talks between U.S. officials and representatives of the Houthi group. Political sources in Oman confirmed on Monday that diplomats in Yemen's neutral neighbor were brokering the talks between Houthi and U.S. officials at a luxury hotel in the capital Muscat aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Independent politicians in Sanaa said the talks have succeeded in narrowing gaps between the Houthis and the exiled government to pave the way for eventual United Nations-backed negotiations in Geneva. "There's progress in the talks toward an agreement on a long truce and reviving political dialogue," one politician told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Oman is the only member of the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council not taking part in the military campaign in Yemen, and has played a role as a peacemaker in the strife-torn region. An Arab alliance has been bombing the fighters since late March in a bid to restore Yemen's exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, currently in exile in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni Muslim states see the Houthis as a proxy for the influence of archrival Iran in impoverished Yemen. The United States, top ally to the world's number 1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia, has provided the kingdom with weapons and intelligence during its war against the Houthis. Previous plans for talks in Switzerland were indefinitely postponed amid objections by the Riyadh-based exile government, which wants the Houthis to quit Yemen's main cities and recognize Hadi's authority before speaking to them. The Houthis want a ceasefire as precondition for talks, and the Yemeni politicians say the U.N. envoy has made progress toward an agreement on a five-week ceasefire and the release by the Houthis of several detained pro-Hadi figures - including the defense minister and the president's brother.
