US to open direct talks with Yemen rebels: report

The United States is preparing to open direct talks with Iran-aligned Huthi rebels in a bid to end Yemen's war which has claimed thousands of lives, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The proposed initiative, the first direct negotiations between Washington and the Huthis in over four years, comes as the rebels have stepped up missile and drone attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

"The United States is looking to prod Saudi Arabia into taking part in secret talks in Oman with Huthi leaders in an effort to broker a ceasefire in Yemen," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the plans.

The move could open the first significant channel between President Donald Trump's administration and the Huthis at a time when fears of a broader regional war are growing, the newspaper said.

The toppling of the Yemen government by the Huthis in 2015 triggered the launch of a Saudi-led military intervention to quell the rebel forces, but the Yemen conflict has since become even more complex and multi-layered.

The US negotiating team would be led by Christopher Henzel, a veteran diplomat who became the Trump administration's first ambassador to Yemen in April, the newspaper said.

Under the administration of former president Barack Obama, US officials held brief talks with Huthi leaders in June 2015, just three months after the Saudi intervention began, to convince them to attend UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva to resolve the crisis.

The Geneva conference and further rounds of negotiations failed to resolve the crisis, which has pushed impoverished Yemen to the brink of famine.

The Wall Street Journal said there were also "simmering concerns" in Washington that Saudi Arabia is not serious about ending the conflict, and that US officials were set to meet with Saudi leaders to push them to take a diplomatic approach.

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi deputy defence minister and brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, arrived in Washington this week for talks with a number of US officials.

The Journal said he would meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the Huthi rebels captured the capital Sanaa and most of the country in September 2014.

The conflict has sparked what the United Nations labels the world's worst humanitarian crisis.