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

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) "led" former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- who was killed on 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 also said 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.

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 launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.