The man tasked by President Biden with finding a political solution to Yemen's bloody civil war has said for the first time that the U.S. recognizes the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels "as a legitimate actor," and accepts that both sides in the conflict bear responsibility for the violence. The remarks by special envoy Tim Lenderking during a Thursday webinar organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations were a clear overture toward the Houthis rebels. 

It wasn't clear, however, whether the nuanced shift in Washington's position could be enough to bring real momentum to a peace process which, after almost seven years of death and destruction, has little to show.

"A legitimate actor"

"The United States recognizes them as a legitimate actor," Lenderking said of the Houthis. "No one can wish them away or out of the conflict, so let's deal with realities that exist on the ground."

"My experience from the Houthis is that they have spoken about a commitment toward peace in Yemen and I think there are certainly elements within the leadership that favor that," he added.

It was a notable shift in the U.S. government's tone. For years American officials have blamed the ongoing war — which the U.N. says has claimed almost 8,000 civilian lives and displaced over 4 million people — almost entirely on the Iran-backed insurgency. Saudi Arabia, with U.S. backing, launched the war against the Houthis in defense of Yemen's U.N.-recognized government in 2015. Since then Houthi forces have cemented control over a huge swathe of northern Yemen, establishing a parallel government in the process.

Both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis have been accused of waging the war with little regard for civilian lives, including Saudi airstrikes that have hit hospitals and homes and Houthi missiles fired indiscriminately at airports and energy infrastructure.  

"The Houthis don't own the set of violence alone," acknowledged Lenderking. "Obviously the Saudi-led coalition has borne its share of responsibilities as well."

A senior U.S. official quickly sought to clarify Lenderking's remarks, telling CBS News that while "the United States and the rest of the international community, [still] recognize the Yemen government as the only legitimate, internationally recognized government in Yemen… the Houthis control territory, they control people and they must be dealt with. So they are real political actors in Yemen. You can't pretend they don't exist."

A tweet posted to the State Department's official Arabic-language account on Friday reiterated that message, and stressed that while the U.S. accepts the Houthis will "need to be an integral part of any peace process in Yemen... we remain concerned about the Houthis' focus on waging war and exacerbating the suffering of Yemeni citizens rather than being part of the conflict solution.