UAE led Yemen’s slain leader to ‘shameful end’: Houthis

By Ali Oweid

MAARIB/SANAA

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) “led” former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- who was killed Monday -- to his “shameful end”, according to a spokesman for the Shia Houthi rebel group.

On Monday, Houthi militiamen executed Saleh after waylaying his motorcade outside Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital.

Speaking to the Houthi-run Al-Masira television channel, Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam accused Saleh and certain members of his General People’s Congress (GPC) of “targeting state institutions and conspiring with the enemy” -- referring to a Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been fighting the Houthis in Yemen since 2015.

Abdel-Salam went on to assert that the UAE had “led” Saleh into what the spokesman described as “his treasonable conspiracy” and his “shameful end”.

He did not elaborate further regarding Saleh’s alleged relationship with the UAE.

He also said that the Saudi-led coalition had recently conducted “more than 50 airstrikes [in Yemen] to support Saleh’s militia”.

Abdel-Salam went on, however, to strike a conciliatory tone in regards to Saleh’s GPC party.

“We have no problem with our brothers in the GPC,” he said. “Our problem is with the traitors who aligned with the enemy.”

“The GPC is our partner in the [Sanaa-based] political council and in our ongoing confrontation with the enemy,” he added.

The UAE, for its part, a leading member of the Saudi-led coalition, has yet to comment on Saleh’s assassination or the Houthi spokesman’s remarks.

Meanwhile, Tawfik Saleh, a nephew of the slain former president, declared that the Houthis had “opened the gates of hell” by killing his uncle.

Speaking via social media, Tawfik said that “the revolution [against the Houthis] is not over”, angrily declaring that the Shia militia group would soon be “completely wiped out”.

“The Houthis have opened the gates of the hell,” he stated, going on to vow that the Yemeni people would pursue the group “wherever it goes.”

Yemen has remained dogged by violence since 2014, when the Houthis and GPC loyalists overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies -- accusing the Houthis of serving as Iranian proxies -- launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.