Saudi Arabia Moves To Rein In UAE As Yemen Exposes Rivalry

Saudi Arabia is moving to end the role of the United Arab Emirates in Yemen and diminish its neighbor’s influence in other arenas, including the Red Sea, as tensions rise in the longstanding rivalry between the two Gulf powerhouses.

After ordering the UAE to withdraw troops from Yemen and bombing a shipment of weapons it said Abu Dhabi was delivering to secessionists, Riyadh is now looking to bring all UAE-backed factions in the deeply divided country under its control, according to two people briefed on the situation. The two OPEC+ members have jockeyed for influence in the war-torn, strategically located nation for years.

The fallout between the Arab world’s two biggest economies — and key American allies — will have repercussions far beyond Yemen. It could impact efforts to contain Iran and ensure the Gaza ceasefire endures, as well as hit companies using Dubai as a hub to conduct business in Saudi Arabia.

Several UAE-linked leaders in Yemen have been summoned to Riyadh to pledge allegiance, the people said. That includes those from the influential Southern Transitional Council, they said, which has been seeking to establish sovereignty in the south of a nation that sits at the crossroads of vital shipping lanes.

On Thursday, a Saudi military spokesman identified a high-ranking UAE officer as leading an operation to extract STC leader Aidarous Al-Zubaidi from the Yemeni port city of Aden to Abu Dhabi. Both the UAE government and an Abu Dhabi-based spokesperson for the STC didn’t comment on the Saudi assertions.

The STC accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of trying to kill Al-Zubaidi because he refused an order to travel to Riyadh. The Saudi military spokesperson said Al-Zubaidi had been given a 48-hour ultimatum to present himself in the kingdom and that its air force struck a weapons depot belonging to the Yemeni leader.

Abu Dhabi has been deliberately circumspect in its reactions as it attempts to diffuse the crisis. This was highlighted in a post on X on Friday by Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

“Crises and challenges come and go, what remains is the steadfastness of the stance and wisdom of the state,” he said, without refering to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi moves tear up an agreement with the UAE to fight against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that’s stood for more than a decade. It’s also brought the fractious relationship between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Sheikh Mohammed into public view.

“This rivalry we all know is longstanding,” said Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East program at the Center for International Strategic Studies in Washington. “What’s new is how this has burst out into the open, how aggressive it has become and that is because we are in the midst of a new order being defined.”

Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as leader of the Arab and Muslim world, has so far spurned mediation attempts by other Gulf states and wants to use the crisis to rein in the UAE’s ambitions elsewhere, according to several individuals with knowledge of the situation. That includes the Horn of Africa and Sudan, where the two back rival sides in a civil war that’s sparked the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, they said.

The Saudis and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and Qatar, believe Abu Dhabi has pursued its own economic priorities at the expense of the group, the people said. That includes unilateral action with a series of free-trade agreements, like the one being negotiated with the European Union, they said. Saudi Arabia, in particular, wants more coordination and intelligence sharing, one of the people said.

The US is watching closely. President Donald Trump has courted the UAE and Saudi Arabia, visiting Riyadh and Abu Dhabi within six months of returning to office and securing billions of dollars in investment pledges from both. The pair are central to Trump’s vision for a peaceful Middle East propelled by economic development and more integration with Israel.

On Thursday, Trump’s special envoy for Arab affairs, Massad Boulos, visited Sheikh Mohammed in Abu Dhabi to discuss “regional stability,” according to UAE state media.

The Saudis believe the UAE — and specifically Sheikh Mohammed — approved recent advances by the STC in Yemen as revenge for MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is known, discussing the UAE’s role in Sudan with Trump during a White House visit in November, according to people briefed by Riyadh.  

“This is categorically false,” a UAE government spokesperson said. “Claims linking developments in Yemen to Sudan are inaccurate and completely misleading.”

The US, European Union and United Nations experts have said the UAE supports the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. The RSF is a militant group accused of genocide that’s been fighting the Saudi-backed Sudanese army, which is also blamed for widespread abuses. Abu Dhabi has consistently denied it backs any side in the war.

Oil markets are also likely to take an interest. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sparred in the past over Abu Dhabi’s ambitions to increase production. Souring relations will get a further test as OPEC+ conducts a review of members’ output capacity over the next year, all at a time when depressed oil prices are straining the cartel’s finances.

Still, Abu Dhabi has gone out of its way to deescalate the situation — swiftly pulling forces out of Yemen at the behest of the Saudi-backed and internationally recognized Yemeni government. 

The UAE has addressed recent events in Yemen “with restraint, coordination, and a deliberate commitment to de-escalation, guided by a foreign policy that consistently prioritizes regional stability over impulsive action,” the UAE spokesperson said.

The UAE only got involved in Yemen “at the request of the legitimate Yemeni government and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the spokesperson added. 

The Saudi government didn’t respond to a series of questions on its actions in Yemen and any efforts to rein in Abu Dhabi’s role and influence across the region.

MBS has tasked his brother, Defense Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman, with managing the situation in Yemen. Prince Khalid  met the UAE-backed Yemeni leaders who arrived in Riyadh this week and issued a Dec. 27 ultimatum to secessionists to leave the provinces of Hadramout and Al-Mahra.

Hadramout, which borders Saudi Arabia and stretches to the Gulf of Aden, is seen by the kingdom as critical to national security. Riyadh initially tried to get the UAE to quietly order the secessionists to leave the two provinces before the situation escalated, according to two people briefed by the Saudis on the situation. 

MBS also dispatched Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan to Cairo to enlist the support of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi over Yemen and to end the conflict in Sudan. Sisi, whose country the UAE bailed out to the tune of $35 billion last year, pledged to coordinate with the kingdom.

Prince Faisal also traveled to Washington to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss “recent regional developments and efforts to achieve security and stability,” according to Saudi state media.

The UAE “looks humiliated, defeated, weakened and everything you don’t want to look,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House. Still, Abu Dhabi is unlikely to walk away from Yemen given all the efforts and investments it has made in establishing its foothold in the country’s south.

While Yemen lacks natural resources and has been devastated by its civil war, its southern ports guard the entrance to the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane.

Muslimi said Abu Dhabi “gambled on Saudi inefficiency” when it backed the STC’s advances, forgetting that for the kingdom “eastern Yemen is domestic policy.”

But while the UAE may be willing to step back in Yemen for the sake of deescalation, it “won’t cave in” to Saudi Arabia’s dictates given its right as “a rising power” to pursue its own regional policies, said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a Dubai-based academic and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. 

“Saudi Arabia is saying to the UAE you’re in the minor league, I am the one that decides,” he said. “The UAE is saying absolutely not.”