Interestingly I’ve seen some claims that it is possible Saudi Arabia failed to aid Tariq Saleh’s National Resistance Forces not from incompetence but rather due to not wanting to lift a finger for a proxy that had a lot of lingering UAE influence. The NRF was a lot more independent minded than the Saudi backed militias and did awkward things like cozying up to the UAE-backed STC (South Yemen separatists) after the STC basically rolled the recognized government of Yemen’s forces in much of former South Yemen… which would have been great for the NRF if things stayed that way but by like a month later the Saudis had booted out the UAE and dissolved the STC entirely.

Compare these unfortunately blurry maps from before and after the offensive, the NRF is the one in blue in the before picture.

Doesn’t seem like a great time for backstabbing and scheming but having a fragmented opposition has been a tremendous headache to the Saudis throughtout this war so I guess if it’s annoying enough… but Ansar Allah has like three quarters of Yemen’s population so they’re hefty (almost up there with the population of Saudi Arabia)