The United Nations received “preliminary, positive indications” late Wednesday that a two-month truce between Yemen’s Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition—due to expire today—will get a further extension following weeks of negotiations; local reports suggest the extension has been tentatively agreed.

Aid organizations had pleaded for the extension to “avert the risk of millions of Yemenis being forced into acute hunger,” Ferran Puig, Oxfam’s Yemen director, said.

Still facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, 80 percent of its population of around 30 million rely on humanitarian aid, while 58 percent live in extreme poverty, according to U.N. statistics.

Food security has become even more of a concern following the war in Ukraine, as Yemen relied on Ukrainian wheat for a third of its supplies.

That the truce has held thus far is an encouraging sign considering so many cease-fire attempts before now have almost immediately failed, Kate Kizer, a Yemen expert and senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy told Foreign Policy.

“When a truce holds, it shows that the major warring parties in theory have command and control of their forces, which is critical to actually ending a conflict.”

While it’s a start, Kizer would prefer things go further, with the Saudi-led coalition announcing an indefinite end to its intervention in return for a border security agreement with the Houthis.

Such a move would allow a focus on the internal dynamics that drove the war to begin with. Kizer recommends a Yemen peace conference, hosted by the two major negotiators in the conflict, U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg and U.S. envoy Timothy Lenderking, which would bring in members across Yemen’s society to chart a path forward.

Such a conference would build off 2014’s national dialogue, which called for sweeping reforms which the ensuing civil war ensured never got off the ground

“There’s all this rich context to where Yemen was prior to the war, it’s really a mistake to throw that out and not actually use it to our advantage to alleviate as much suffering as we can, but also ensure that this process actually reflects the needs of the Yemeni people, not only now but in the future,” Kizer said.

The push for peace comes as Saudi Arabia and the United States continue an awkward dance since the arrival of Joe Biden to the White House.

Biden has walked back his campaign claims to make Riyadh a pariah, and will visit the kingdom later this month, where he may meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, and one who Biden has been careful to avoid thus far.

It’s less about any budding friendship and more about concerns both at home and in Europe, with rising oil prices helping drive up living costs and causing political headaches ahead of U.S. midterm elections in October.

Whatever his personal animus toward the crown prince, Biden needs OPEC’s largest oil producer to convince the cartel to pump more oil and help bring down prices.

A warming of U.S.-Saudi ties is also a key issue for Israel, David Ignatius at the Washington Post wrote on Wednesday, citing a senior Israeli official.

“We very much support closer relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, in the context of stabilizing the region, containing Iran, normalizing relations with Israel and stabilizing the energy market,” the official said.

Even as the Biden administration seeks to cozy up to Saudi Arabia, the lawmakers in the U.S. Congress could yet throw a wrench in proceedings.

On Wednesday, a group of 50 members of the House of Representatives introduced legislation to end U.S. logistical and intelligence support for the war in Yemen. Similar legislation passed both houses of Congress in 2019 only to be vetoed by then-President Donald Trump.