File Photo: Followers of the Shia Houthi group attend a gathering at the group's camp near Sanaa September 10, 2014 (Photo: Reuters)
The United States confirmed on Tuesday for the first time that a US ambassador has held talks with Yemen's Shia Houthi militia in Oman.
Washington's top diplomat for the Near East, Anne Patterson, had a number of meetings in Oman with parties involved in the Yemen conflict "including with representatives of the Houthi," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
Patterson also then travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks on the conflict with Saudi leaders and with exiled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who fled his country earlier this year to seek refuge in Riyadh as the militia captured parts of the country.
The meeting with the Houthis aimed to "reinforce our view that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen and that all parties including the Houthi" should participate in "the UN-led political process," Harf said.
Patterson's meetings "were really focused on getting the different political constituencies to attend the planned talks in Geneva."
The Geneva conference had been due to take place on May 28 but was postponed after the UN failed to persuade the warring parties to attend.
The situation in Yemen was also briefly raised on Saturday in talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Geneva, Harf said.
An American among several believed held by Houthis in Yemen was Tuesday being treated in Oman after being released and handed over to US officials.
Washington has said it is working to gain the release of the other Americans caught up in the conflict, in which a Saudi-led coalition has been conducting air strikes against the Houthi, seeking the restoration of Hadi to power.
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