Aden, Asharq Al-Awsat—Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s former president, has appropriated billions of US dollars of assets owned by the General People’s Congress (GPC), the ruling party, to fund Houthi-allied militants fighting the Gulf-backed government, a party official has told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Saleh has seized huge amounts of the party’s money to fund his forces after his assets were frozen under UN Security Council resolutions,” the GPC official, who requested to remain anonymous, said.

Saleh, leader of the GPC, funneled most of the money to his supporters in the military and the Republican Guards—formerly led by his son Ahmed—who have aided the Houthis’ advance in Yemen since September of 2014, according to the official.

This comes after several GPC members said during a consultative meeting in Riyadh on Monday that they would choose an interim party leader to replace Saleh whom they said must be “held accountable for crimes against the people of Yemen.”

The official said contacts were underway between GPC members inside and outside Yemen to take steps aimed at isolating Saleh.

Divisions within the GPC deepened after Saleh, its leader, declared support for the Houthi rebels against the Gulf-backed government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Several senior members, including Ahmed Ben Dagher, the party’s second-in-command, responded by announcing their backing for President Hadi.

While many observers think that Hadi’s supporters within the GPC face a daunting task as they attempt to purge the party of Saleh’s followers, others are more optimistic.

Najib Ghallab, a Yemeni scholar, said in comments to Asharq Al-Awsat: “GPC leaders supporting the legitimacy truly express the legitimate interests of the different blocs which the GPC used to represent and protect and are the only ones capable of protecting the party from collapse and disintegration.”

According to Ghallab, Saleh poses an existential threat to the party, something which many of its members have realized.