A supporter of Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Picture by Hani Al-Ansi/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved.It is often said that the troubles of the post-Arab Spring nations is their unfortunate metamorphosis into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In the case of Yemen, this takes the form of understanding the roots of the conflict as taking place between Saudi Arabia and the ‘pro-Iran Houthi rebels’. Such analysis, however, often presumes the disappearance of the original Arab Spring forces, and consequently the way regional status-quo powers such as Saudi Arabia reacted to their development. In the case of Yemen, a product of such approaches was the dangerous underestimation of the critical role of one crucial actor: the recently-deceased Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Even by the standards of the region’s dictators, Saleh was known for his desire never to hold onto power, constantly promising not to run for re-election and reneging at every cycle. Despite also being a member of the Houthis’ Zaidi sect, he had little regard for sectarian loyalty; in the pursuit of power he allied with Sunni Salafists against Zaidi Houthis, and later with the Houthis against everyone else. In power, he was accused of simultaneously fighting and keeping alive insurgencies in order to extol military aid from Saudi Arabia and the US.
For years after the coup, Houthi sympathisers and outlets portrayed Saleh as a ‘leader’ and ‘national symbol’
