WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Diplomatic efforts are underway to try to find a “climb down” for Yemen’s Houthis that would lead to an end to their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, the special U.S. envoy to Yemen said in a video recording played on Tuesday.
U.S. Special Envoy Tim Lenderking recorded his comments on Friday for a think-tank conference before flying to Oman for talks on a diplomatic resolution to the attacks that have triggered retaliatory U.S. and British strikes against Houthi weapons sites.
Oman has been a mediator with the Houthis, who overran large parts of Yemen in a civil war. The militants say the drone and missile attacks that have disrupted international maritime commerce will not end until Israel halts its offensive in Gaza.
Diplomatic efforts are “being made to try and find a climb down for the Houthis that would enable (the) situation to improve and to move away from the kinetic aspect” of the Red Sea crisis, Lenderking said.
He also said, “We need to see serious de-escalation in Gaza” and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a diplomatic swing through the region, “is working very hard on that.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; editing by Gabriel Araujo and Deepa Babington)
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