The UAE announce withdrawal from Yemen after the Saudi threat

The UAE’s announcement of the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Yemen may help ease the standoff with Saudi Arabia, but the latest incident has exposed a hidden rift between the two allies, who have a long-term strategic partnership.

The Saudi-led coalition’s airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla on Tuesday morning was followed by explicit Saudi calls for all Emirati forces to leave Yemen, with Riyadh saying that its national security represents a redline, while the UAE expressed its surprise at the strike, before announcing the withdrawal of its remaining forces from Yemen to ensure their safety.

The crisis, sparked by the sudden advance of UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen in early December, shows years of disagreements between the two Gulf powers over multiple issues including influence in Yemen through the opposing stance toward the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), oil production quotas under the OPEC+ alliance, as well as regional geopolitical influence, especially on files such as the war in Sudan.

After advancing in December, the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces now control vast swathes of southern Yemen, including the strategic Hadramawt governorate that stretches to the Saudi border.

This progress has placed the two countries at opposite ends of the complex Yemeni landscape.

In its statement on the Mukalla strike, the UAE denied that it was behind any operations that would undermine Saudi security, and reiterated its commitment to supporting stability in Yemen.

Despite the intensity of the current dispute, the strategic relations between the two countries and their intertwined interests make it unlikely that it will develop into a crisis similar to the 2017 boycott of Qatar.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an unprecedented attack on the UAE, demanding that it withdraw its military forces from Yemen immediately.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the UAE must immediately respond to the request of the head of the Yemeni Leadership Council, Rashad al Alimi, according to all its forces from Yemen within 24 hours, and stop any military or financial support to any party inside Yemen.

“In this context, the Kingdom hopes that wisdom will prevail and the principles of brotherhood, good neighborliness, and the close relations that unite the GCC countries and the interest of brotherly Yemen will prevail, and that the brotherly United Arab Emirates will take the hoped-for steps to preserve the bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, which the Kingdom is keen to strengthen, and to work together towards everything that would enhance the prosperity, prosperity and stability of the countries of the region”.

Saudi Arabia had accused the UAE of violating the agreements on the basis of which the Coalition was formed to support legitimacy by sending ships loaded with weapons and heavy vehicles from the port of Fujairah to the port of Mukalla without obtaining official permits from the Coalition’s Joint Forces Command.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses its regret over the pressure exerted by the brotherly United Arab Emirates on the forces of the Southern Transitional Council to push its forces to carry out military operations on the borders of the southern Kingdom in the governorates of Hadramawt and al Mahra, which is a threat to the national security of the Kingdom, and the security and stability of the Republic of Yemen and the region, and points out that the steps taken by the brotherly United Arab Emirates are extremely dangerous and are not in line with the foundations on which the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen was founded, serve his efforts to achieve Yemen’s security and stability”.

In an explicit threat of a military response, the Saudi Foreign Ministry statement said, “The Kingdom affirms in this context that any violation or threat to its national security is a redline that the Kingdom won’t hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralize it”.

“The southern issue is a just issue that has its historical and social dimensions, and the only way to address it’s through the dialogue table within the comprehensive political solution in Yemen, in which all Yemeni factions, including the Southern Transitional Council, will participate,” the statement said.