Reuters quoted a Saudi official as saying on Thursday that the kingdom had responded positively to the proposal of the United Nations Special Envoy, Hans Grundberg, regarding a ceasefire in Yemen.
"We responded positively to his truce, and we support his (the envoy) proposal regarding the truce," the Saudi official said, adding, "We want to create a positive atmosphere to push Yemenis towards peace. Peace will not be achieved without dialogue with the Houthis."
Grundberg said that he is communicating with the warring parties in Yemen - as the Saudi-Emirati coalition has been fighting the Houthis for seven years - to reach a truce in the month of Ramadan.
Grundberg's office said on Twitter Thursday that he met with the chief Houthi negotiator in the Omani capital, Muscat, and with the prime minister of the Yemeni government in Riyadh, to discuss the truce and "humanitarian measures to facilitate the free movement of people and essential goods to, from and within Yemen."
Two sources familiar with the matter said the US-backed UN proposal was for a temporary truce in exchange for allowing fuel ships to dock at the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, and to take a small number of commercial flights from Sanaa airport.
The coalition imposes naval and air restrictions on areas controlled by the Houthis, who ousted the internationally recognized government from power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.
The United Nations is seeking a ceasefire across Yemen in order to resume the stalled political negotiations, to end the conflict that has killed tens of thousands and left 80% of the country's population dependent on aid.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi capital, Riyadh, witnessed, on Wednesday, Yemeni-Yemeni consultations organized by the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in the presence of the UN and US envoys to Yemen, and the Houthi group, which considers it to be taking place in a "non-neutral" country, was absent from it.