UN says combatants in Yemen have agreed to extend the ceasefire

Yemen’s warring parties agreed to extend a U.N.-brokered truce for two months under the same terms as the original deal that was due to expire on Thursday, the U.N. envoy to Yemen said.

Delegations from the Saudi-backed government and the movement are expected to return to the Jordanian capital Amman to continued talks, Yemeni official said. The truce had seen a halt to major military operations in Yemen and cross-border attacks in the seven-year war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group, and helped to ease a humanitarian crisis that has left millions hungry.

“For the past two months, Yemenis have experienced the tangible benefits of the truce,” United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis after they ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital Sanaa.