WASHINGTON — A senior State Department official held talks last week with the Houthi rebels of Yemen, opening a new round of diplomacy aimed at persuading the warring factions in that country to participate in a peace conference in Geneva, American officials said Tuesday.

The meetings, the first direct encounter between American officials and the Houthis, came just before the release on Monday of Casey L. Coombs, an American freelance journalist who had been held by the rebels.

Anne W. Patterson, the Obama administration’s top diplomat for the Near East, held meetings last week in Oman to discuss the violence in Yemen and the capture of several Americans by the Houthis, said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman.

Ms. Harf said “representatives of the Houthi” had participated in the Oman discussions. She said Ms. Patterson had also traveled to Saudi Arabia as part of a “broad engagement with elements of the Yemeni political spectrum.”