Riyadh: Saudi Arabia Thursday proposed a five-day humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen following weeks of air strikes and clashes, with top US diplomat John Kerry urging Iran-backed rebels to accept the offer.
The bombing by a Saudi-led coalition has failed to halt an advance by the Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen, and concern has been mounting over increasing civilian deaths.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the ceasefire proposal after talks in Riyadh with Kerry, who described it as a "major opportunity" to ease the humanitarian crisis.
Jubeir said he had informed Kerry of "the kingdom`s idea of a five-day ceasefire in Yemen to coordinate with international organisations to deliver aid to Yemen if the Huthis and their allies commit to this and do not carry out acts of aggression in Yemen".
A date for the ceasefire, "will soon be set," he told reporters at a joint press conference with the US secretary of state, who earlier held talks with King Salman and other top government officials.
"This ceasefire is conditioned on Huthis", Kerry said, appealing to the rebels and their backers "to use all their influence not to miss this major opportunity to address the needs of the Yemeni people and find a peaceful way forward".
Kerry said there were no talks about sending ground troops into the country.
In a letter to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Yemen`s mission to the United Nations said the rebels were carrying out "barbaric violations" in the southern city of Aden and pleaded for action.
"We urge the international community to quickly intervene by land forces to save Yemen, especially Aden and Taez," the letter said.
Coalition air strikes and weapons drops have been supporting fighters loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia as the rebels advanced on his southern refuge in the port city of Aden where intense combat continues.
Hadi supporters are battling the Huthis, who have seized large parts of the country including the capital Sanaa. The Huthis are allied with troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.After arriving in Riyadh on Wednesday, Kerry met the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
On Thursday he also held talks with Hadi, now based in the Saudi capital.
"The United States remains deeply concerned about the situation on the ground in Yemen and we fully support efforts to facilitate the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid," Kerry said.
At least 1,200 people have been killed in the country since March 19, roughly half of them civilians, according to the UN.
The new UN envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, was to follow Kerry to Riyadh on Thursday in a bid to relaunch peace talks.
On Wednesday, 38 people were reported to have died while trying to flee Aden by sea.
A health official accused the rebels of killing the civilians and wounding another 95 in the shelling of a fishing harbour and a barge.
As well as the growing civilian death toll from the air campaign and fighting, deliveries of fuel, food and medicine have been severely crippled in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation.
Twenty-two humanitarian organisations warned their emergency aid operations in Yemen could cease because of fuel shortages, and urged an immediate opening of roads as well as an end to the coalition`s air and sea blockades.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused pro-Huthi forces of committing "possible war crimes", including holding hostage 10 aid workers delivering medical supplies in Aden last month. They were later released.
In Saudi Arabia the war hit home for a third day on Thursday.
State television, citing a civil defence official, said shells landed in an uninhabited part of the Najran border district.
Four civilians and a prison security officer were killed by shells fired from Yemen at the city of Najran a day earlier.
On Tuesday the rebels had launched their first mortar and rocket attack on a Saudi city during the war, killing three people.
