Ali Abdullah Saleh’s relationship with the Houthi movement was complex, but he was generally opposed to the group. The Houthi movement formed in part out of resentment for policies carried out by Saleh when he was president of North Yemen, and the goals of the Houthi movement and Saleh were largely at odds with one another.
As president of unified Yemen, Saleh once gave Al-Ḥaqq (the political party that later evolved into the Houthi movement) the ministerial post for religious endowments (awqāf; singular waqf). His government also initially lent financial support to programs associated with Al-Ḥaqq that offered religious education and social services, but he cut off the funding in 2000 in response to criticism of his presidency. The movement became more vocal in its criticism when Saleh supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism, ultimately leading to a violent crackdown in 2004. The crackdown led the movement to take up arms and launch a rebellion.
After Saleh was toppled in 2012 from the Arab Spring protests and a civil war broke out in 2014, Saleh backed the Houthi rebels in attempting to unseat the government. As the war saw no signs of waning in 2017, Saleh broke ranks and reached out to the government for a settlement. Houthi leaders saw it as a betrayal and killed him.