Saudi-UAE rift over Yemen exposes deeper gulf power struggle
The United Arab Emirates decided late Tuesday to withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen, following a Saudi escalation and responding to official calls from Riyadh and Yemen to withdraw within 24 hours.
The move has laid bare a deeper and longer-running rupture between the two Gulf allies, exposing structural tensions that have been building for years beneath the surface. What unfolded this week; air strikes, diplomatic ultimatums, and public recriminations, reflects a collision of diverging strategies over Yemen, regional influence, and post-oil power in the Gulf.
UAE's decision coincided with intensified diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held contacts with his Saudi and Emirati counterparts to discuss implications for Middle East security.
Arab countries including Egypt, Kuwait, and Bahrain expressed support for dialogue, while Qatar stressed that the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states is “inseparable” of its own.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it had full confidence in “the keenness of both Saudi Arabia and UAE to handle the developments in Yemen with wisdom.”
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Rakha Ahmed Hassan told Al Manassa he expects Arab states to contain the situation and prevent further escalation. An academic source close to Egypt’s decision-making circles said the crisis is highly sensitive for Cairo.
The spark: a “limited” military operation
In the early hours of Tuesday, the “coalition to support legitimacy” in Yemen announced it had carried out a “limited military operation” at Mukalla port, targeting weapons and combat vehicles unloaded from two ships.
Coalition spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki said the ships had arrived from the port of Fujairah on Saturday and Sunday without obtaining official permits from the coalition’s Joint Forces Command. He said their crews disabled the ships’ tracking systems and unloaded large quantities of weapons and combat vehicles intended to support the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen’s eastern governorates of Hadramout and Al-Mahra, “with the aim of fueling the conflict.”
Al-Malki said the operation was conducted at the request of the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC).
PLC head Rashad Al-Alimi declared the cancellation of the joint defense agreement with the UAE and called for all UAE forces and personnel to leave Yemeni territory within 24 hours.
Four other PLC members later issued a joint statement opposing Al-Alimi’s decision. The members, who are close to UAE, said that “no individual or entity within the PLC or outside it, has the authority to expel any coalition country.”
Saudi Foreign Ministry then issued a strongly worded statement expressing disappointment over what it described as UAE pressure on STC forces to carry out military operations along the Kingdom’s southern border in Hadramout and Al-Mahra.
The ministry said these actions posed “a threat to the Kingdom’s national security, and to the security and stability of the Republic of Yemen and the region,” describing UAE conduct as “highly dangerous” and contradicting to the coalition's principles.
Saudi Arabia stressed the importance of the UAE withdrawal within 24 hours and halting all military and financial support to any Yemeni party.
The withdrawal
UAE denied the accusations, saying the Saudi statement contained “fundamental inaccuracies.” It rejected any attempt to implicate it in tensions among Yemeni parties and denied exerting pressure on, or issuing directives to, any Yemeni faction to conduct operations against Saudi Arabia or its borders.
In a Foreign Ministry statement, UAE denied the targeted ships carried weapons, and said the unloaded vehicles were intended for the use of UAE forces. It cited high-level coordination with Saudi Arabia and an agreement that the vehicles would not leave the port, saying UAE was surprised by the targeting of the vehicles at Mukalla.
In a subsequent statement, the UAE announced it was ending what remained of its counterterrorism teams in Yemen “of its own volition” in a manner that ensures the safety of its personnel. The move, it said, followed a comprehensive assessment of its commitments to regional security.
UAE had previously announced the end of its military presence in Yemen in 2019, saying what remained consisted of limited, specialized counterterrorism teams working with international partners.
The deeper rapture
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE extend well beyond Yemen. While the two states pose close partners in regional security, their relationship has been shaped by unresolved political, territorial, and economic disputes.
During the 1950s Buraimi oasis dispute, Saudi territorial claims clashed with Abu Dhabi’s over oil-rich areas. Although the dispute was defused through British intervention and later addressed in the 1974 Jeddah Treaty, the agreement ceded significant Emirati resources—including the Shaybah oil field—to Saudi Arabia, leaving lingering grievances.
Border frictions resurfaced in 2010, when a naval standoff in disputed waters saw Emirati forces detain Saudi personnel, nearly derailing diplomatic relations and underscoring unresolved sensitivities.
When the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to fight the Houthi movement, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi appeared aligned. By 2019, however, their approaches diverged.
While Saudi Arabia continued to back Yemen’s internationally recognized government, UAE expanded its support for the separatist STC, exposing an emerging proxy rivalry within the coalition.
Strategic stakes in southern Yemen
Regional security and international relations expert Maj. Gen. Mohamed Abdel Wahid told Al Manassa that the escalation should be understood primarily through the lens of strategic control.
He said Saudi Arabia’s air strikes were intended to reassert coalition authority over Yemen’s southern ports and energy corridors, sending what he described as a clear message that “nothing will enter Yemen without the coalition’s approval.”
Abdel Wahid said Riyadh views control over Hadramout as a core national security issue. The Masila oil fields produce around 90,000 barrels per day, and Mukalla port provides access to the Arabian Sea. Control of the area by UAE-backed forces, he said, would weaken Saudi influence in the south in favor of a secessionist agenda.
Hours before the Saudi strike, Mukalla saw a mass rally under the slogan “The decision is ours.” A statement issued by the rally referred to military operations by “southern military forces” that enabled them to impose control over Hadramout’s valley and desert, alongside the completion of control over Al-Mahra.
The statement described the presence of Yemeni forces as an “occupation,” declared support for the “liberation” of Hadramout’s valley and desert, and called for accelerating the announcement of a southern state.
Regional implications
Former Assistant Foreign Minister Rakha Ahmed Hassan said recent developments reflect a “clear and explicit shift” in the UAE’s role toward encouraging secession, which he described as a departure from the coalition’s original objective of supporting Yemen’s legitimate government and preserving unity.
He said this shift pushed Saudi Arabia to intervene, warning that the dispute could have serious consequences for Gulf unity potentially leading to a split within the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Rakha added that UAE’s foreign policy increasingly prioritizes its interests “regardless of anything else,” describing this approach as dangerous and placing the country at odds with the Arab mainstream in Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Abdel Wahid agreed, saying the UAE follows a “national pragmatism diplomacy” detached from pan-Arab ideologies. “Everyone does what suits them,” he said.
He added that UAE views its interests with USA and Israel as more significant compared to Arab states, citing normalization and its failure to condemn Israeli recognition of Somaliland. He did not rule out that UAE regional moves rest on an “American green light”.
Egypt’s position
The academic source close to Egypt’s decision-making circles told Al Manassa the situation remains highly sensitive for Cairo, which seeks to maintain good relations with both Saudi Arabia and UAE.
In disputes of this scale, the source said, Egypt may be forced to adopt a position that angers one side. Cairo’s priority remains preventing escalation and preserving territorial unity, particularly in conflicts that risk creating new secessionist precedents.
Rakha said Egypt’s policy is consistently focused on de-escalation, adding that Cairo seeks to preserve the territorial integrity of states and fully supports legitimacy.
Abdel Wahid said Egypt is likely to attempt mediation to preserve what remains of Arab cohesion in an “extremely fragile” region, while acknowledging the difficulty amid deep divisions across regional files, from Syria and Libya to Gaza.