SANAA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths left the capital Sanaa on Tuesday after a one-day visit, during which he tried to push the Houthi rebel group to implement a stalled peace deal.

Houthi TV al-Masirah reported that Griffiths held a meeting upon his arrival on Monday with Abdulmalik al-Houthi, chief of the rebel group, to discuss solutions to the crisis.

Journalists were not allowed to meet the UN envoy.

A peace deal reached between Yemeni warring parties in December last year has hit a deadlock. The deal, the first step toward finding a comprehensive political solution, focused on the port city of Hodeidah, the lifeline for Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

Though both warring parties have largely obeyed the cease-fire deal, they have failed to withdraw forces from the city.

Griffiths has been shuttling between the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in exile in a bid to end the civil war, which erupted after the rebels seized much of the country's north in late 2014.