KUWAIT — The U.N. envoy said Wednesday the warring parties in Yemen were closer to agreement at peace talks in Kuwait as he headed to New York to brief the Security Council.

“We are moving towards a general understanding that encompasses the expectations and visions of the parties,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.

“The discussions have become more sensitive and delicate bringing us closer to a comprehensive agreement.”

The peace talks which began on April 21 but have been clouded by repeated walkouts by the government delegation.

Face-to-face meetings resumed on Monday for the first time in nearly a week after the latest government boycott.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed said discussions on Tuesday centered on “various military and security issues including withdrawals and troop movements.”

The apparent progress comes after Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said on Monday that the government stood ready to make concessions for the sake of peace.

The government had insisted that Houthi militants should implement an April 2015 Security Council resolution demanding their withdrawal from the capital and other territory they have seized since 2014.

Despite a 14-month-old Saudi-led military intervention in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government, the Iranian-backed Huthis and their allies still control many of Yemen’s most populous regions, including the capital Sanaa.

ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken advantage of chaos in Yemen since the civil war began to win control over swathes of southern and eastern Yemen.

A suicide car bombing claimed by ISIS killed at least 40 Yemeni army recruits and wounded 60 in the southern city of Aden on Monday, in one of the deadliest attacks yet on government interests.