A breakthrough on the eve of Ramadan The coalition and the Houthis agree to a two-month truce in Yemen

The United Nations announced that the Arab coalition and the Houthi group agreed for the first time in years on a Yemen-wide armistice, which will also allow fuel imports to enter Houthi-controlled areas and some flights departing from Sanaa airport.

The warring parties in Yemen's seven-year conflict have agreed for the first time in years to a nationwide truce that will also allow fuel imports to enter Houthi-controlled areas and some flights from Sanaa airport, the United Nations envoy said on Friday.

The UN-brokered agreement between the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi movement is the most important step yet toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions into starvation. The last coordinated nationwide cessation of hostilities was during the peace talks in 2016.

UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg said the two-month truce would go into effect on Saturday and could be renewed with the consent of both parties.

And he added in a statement: "The two parties agreed to stop all offensive air, land and sea military operations inside Yemen and across its borders, and they also agreed on the entry of fuel ships to the ports of Hodeidah and the operation of commercial flights coming to Sanaa airport and departure to predetermined destinations in the region."

United Nations and US envoys have been trying since last year to reach a permanent ceasefire, a necessary step to revive political negotiations aimed at ending the conflict that have been stalled since late 2018.

The Yemeni government, which the Houthis expelled from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, said earlier that it would facilitate arrangements for releasing prisoners, opening Sanaa airport, and allowing fuel ships to enter the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah.

"We immediately announce the launch of the first two fuel ships through the port of Hodeidah," Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak wrote on Twitter.

The chief Houthi negotiator, Muhammad Abd al-Salam, welcomed the truce, and another senior Houthi official, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, wrote on Twitter: "The implementation of the truce announced by the envoy will be credible with implementation, and our Yemeni people must be careful."

The warring parties are also discussing a prisoner exchange, in which hundreds of people will be released on both sides, including 16 Saudis, three Sudanese, and a brother of Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.