The Yemeni consultations begun at the GCC headquarters in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and are expected to run until April 7.

“A peaceful solution is the only way to end the crisis in Yemen,” the Secretary General of the GCC Nayef al-Hajraf said during a speech at the opening session.

He said he hoped to see the consultations in Riyadh help achieve peace in Yemen.

In his speech, Hajraf said “the Riyadh Agreement constitutes a road map in Yemen and the completion of its provisions is a Yemeni demand.”

Al-Hajraf also noted the international community’s support in ending the Yemeni conflict and said he “valued” the Arab Coalition’s decision to call for ceasefire.

The talks will focus on six areas – military, political, humanitarian, and social stability, in addition to opening humanitarian corridors and general security needs.

The UN envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said that the “unilateral announcements from the warring parties to halt military operations are a step in the right direction,” Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, said that America encourages the recent announcements, especially the Arab Coalition’s decision to a ceasefire in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis.

The United Nations in a statement welcomed moves by Yemen’s warring sides to temporarily halt military operations and urged them to engage “without preconditions” with UN-led peace efforts, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general said on Wednesday.