What is next for Yemen's Houthis? NEWS / YEMEN What is next for Yemen Houthis: Saleh was 'conspiring' with Saudi- led coalition Houthis Yemen Middle East Politics SIGN UP The death of Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital at the hands of the rebel Shia-backed Houthi group, his former allies-turned- adversaries, has plunged the war-torn country into further disarray, analysts said. The Houthis, who protested against Saleh during the country's 2011 uprisings, formed a shaky alliance with the long-time leader and his General People's Congress party (GPC) against the government of the internationally recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2014. This unusual cooperation, termed as a "partnership of convenience" broke last week as Houthi fighters and Saleh loyalists clashed. Two days before he was killed, Saleh publicly stated his willingness to engage in talks with Saudi Arabia, who has been leading a military coalition against the Houthis since March 2015. Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow for the MENA programme at Chatham House, said that Saleh had underestimated how powerful the Houthis had become. "He didn't have that much support at the end – not only because he was killed but because the Houthis were also able to overrun the houses of several of his relatives in the capital," she said. Sole game players With Saleh out of the picture, the Houthis are "feeling favoured as the sole game player" in Sanaa, said Osamah al-Rawhani from the think tank Sanaa Center. "The question is who they will make a partnership with,

The Houthis don't have any other political powers they can start an alliance with except for the tribes, he continued, who have always had shifting positions depending on where their interests lie. "During the past three years the Houthis have built their own alliances," he said. "Some tribesmen have rebelled against their own people and allied with the Houthis. Others, such as Sheikh al- Mashriqi, who is from [Saleh's] Hashid tribe, surrendered to them." Kinninmont said that a new alliance between the Houthis and Saleh loyalists is "absolutely possible" but at the same time, one of the biggest uncertainties. "Things are changing very fast," she said. The way that Saleh's body was filmed and paraded around by the Houthis has left a lot of his former supporters "in a bit of a quandary" she added, "because there will be fear and humiliation that this is what will happen to them if they think about betraying the Houthis". The 'challenge' of governance While there is not an exact figure regarding the number of Houthi fighters, their strength has been increasing over the past three years to grow into the only force to reckon with in Sanaa. However, their popularity in the capital is not uniform, as many people do not want them in power. "Houthis are now going to rule Sanaa using fear," Rawhani said. "They are going to use that fear with the tribes." Despite their territorial advantage, the Houthis lack the ability to govern, which is why they maintained their fragile alliance with Saleh and his party, experts noted.