Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said that the efforts to extend the truce in Yemen still stand, Al Arabiya TV reported on Wednesday, after an initial U.N.-brokered pact between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi movement expired early this month.
The kingdom, the coalition and the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government are "keen on extending the truce," the Saudi-owned TV quoted Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud as saying.
The United Nations is pressing for an extended and expanded truce that would build on the two-month one that expired on Oct. 2 after being rolled over twice, and which has brought the longest stretch of relative calm in the seven-year conflict.
U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking headed back to region on Tuesday to support the U.N.-led negotiations with Yemeni parties, according to the State Department.
