'Yemen resolution close' says powerful Saudi prince

The warring parties in Yemen are close to resolving a year-long conflict that has killed over 6,400 people and affected millions more, a Saudi official has said.

"There is significant progress in negotiations, and we have good contacts with the Houthis," Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s defence minister, told Bloomberg, confirming a delegation of the rebels is currently in Riyadh.

"We are pushing to have this opportunity materialise on the ground but if things relapse, we are ready."

The sudden willingness to negotiate has been attributed by some independent experts to the kingdom's reluctance to advance into Houthi territories.

"Saudi Arabia seems unwilling to commit the kind of ground force that would be needed to possibly defeat the Houthis," said James Dorsey, a senior fellow in international studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

That’s one of the reasons the kingdom is "looking for a negotiated solution," he said.

Since Yemen's conflict began on 26 March 2015, the country has been plunged into a humanitarian crisis that exacerbated conditions in the already beleaguered nation.

According to the UN, an estimated 6,400 people have been killed in 12 months of conflict, half of whom are civilians.

Another 30,000 people have been injured and 2.5 million Yemenis have been displaced since the start of the Saudi-led intervention. 

Now, it is estimated that 20 million Yemenis are in need of aid due to crippling shortages.

"The Saudis have also been stung by international criticism of the way they have conducted the war," Dorsey added.

But Yemen's warring parties have agreed to lay down their weapons on April 10 in preparation for peace talks in Kuwait a week later, after the year-long battle that left the impoverished state in an even more dire situation.