An American talk about back channels with the Houthis ... The Yemeni government calls for maximum pressure, and the group is a condition for dialogue.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak called for maximum pressure on the Houthis to stop their attacks, as he put it.

On the other hand, the Houthi Deputy Minister of Information expressed his group's readiness to sit at the dialogue table, provided that the military operations were stopped and the siege lifted.

This comes while the US special envoy to Yemen revealed that Washington is "actively" using back channels to communicate with Al Houthi.

The Yemeni foreign minister said that what the Houthis are doing is clear messages that they are not interested in peace, and he pointed out, during his meeting with the Russian ambassador to Yemen, that the Houthi group met the steps taken to implement the Riyadh agreement with aggression and an unbridled desire to obstruct efforts to end the war.

Bin Mubarak referred in this context to the Houthi attack on the city of Marib, the bombing of residential areas with ballistic missiles, the daily targeting of civilian areas in Saudi Arabia, and the indifference to the calls of the international community to end the war.

For his part, Houthi Deputy Minister of Information Nasreddin Amer told Al-Jazeera that the group launched the latest peace initiative that called for an end to the military operations and the lifting of the siege, and then the group would be ready to sit in a dialogue after that.

Back channels

These developments and the escalation on the ground coincide at a time when the US special envoy to Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, revealed that the United States is "actively" using what he described as back channels for communicating with the Houthi group.

He said in a press statement at the US State Department on Tuesday, "We have ways to deliver messages to the Houthis and we are using these channels very actively, with our direct dialogue with the leaders of the main countries concerned."

In his first press release since his appointment earlier this month, Lenderking said the United States is working with regional officials to create the conditions for a ceasefire and push the parties to reach a negotiated settlement.

Although he indicated that Iran is playing a "very negative role" in the Yemeni conflict, he made clear that Tehran now has an opportunity to support renewed diplomatic efforts for peace there.

The US State Department urged the Houthis earlier to stop the progress towards the government-controlled city of Marib, and to participate in international efforts aimed at finding a political solution to end the war in the country.

For his part, the British ambassador to Yemen, Michael Aaron, called on Iran to play a positive role in Yemen, by putting pressure on the Houthis to achieve the peace process.

In an interview with the Without Borders program on the island, he explained that the Iranian role in this case could contribute to supporting the efforts of the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.

Ambassador Aaron also told Al-Jazeera that his country does not see in stopping arms exports to Saudi Arabia an appropriate solution to end the war in Yemen, adding that Saudi Arabia is an ally of the United Kingdom, and that Britain will sell them weapons if it needs them, with conditions that limit their use in a narrow range.