Riyadh-Abu Dhabi Conflict: Saudi Arabia Asks UAE Forces To Leave Yemen, Calls ‘National Security’ A Red Line

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said that its national security was a red line and backed a call for UAE forces to leave Yemen within 24 hours, moments after a Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla.

Reports say that the warning represented Riyadh’s strongest language against Abu Dhabi yet, as the coalition struck what it described as foreign military support to UAE-backed southern separatists. The head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed presidential council set the deadline for Emirati forces to leave.

Yemen’s presidential council head, Rashad al-Alimi, also cancelled a defence pact with the UAE, the Yemeni state news agency reported, and accused the UAE in a televised speech of fuelling internal strife in Yemen with its support for the Southern Transitional Council (STC). “Unfortunately, it has been definitively confirmed that the United Arab Emirates pressured and directed the STC to undermine and rebel against the authority of the state through military escalation,” he added.

Saudi Arabia urged the Emiratis to comply with the demand. The UAE’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Major stock indexes in the Gulf were trading down on Tuesday after the flare-up in tensions.

The offensive has brought the allies closer to confrontation

The UAE was a member of the Saudi-led coalition battling the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen from 2015. In 2019, it started a drawdown of its troops in the country but remained committed to the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government.

The STC later decided to seek self-rule in the south and this month advanced in a sudden offensive against Saudi-supported Yemeni government troops, bringing the Gulf allies UAE and Saudi Arabia closer than ever to confrontation in Yemen, which has been mired in civil war since 2014. The advance broke years of stalemate, with the STC claiming broad control of the south. Saudi Arabia had warned the STC against military moves in the eastern border province of Hadramout and sought the withdrawal of its forces.

According to reports, the limited airstrike followed the weekend arrival of two ships from the UAE port of Fujairah on Saturday and Sunday without its authorisation, the coalition said. After arriving in Mukalla, the vessels disabled their tracking systems and unloaded large quantities of weapons and combat vehicles to support the STC, it added.

The coalition said the Mukalla port strike caused no casualties or collateral damage, according to Saudi state media. Reuters reported that the strike targeted the dock where the cargo of the two ships was unloaded.

UAE-backed forces control large swathes of land in the south, including the strategically key province of Hadramout. Yemeni presidential council head Alimi imposed a no-fly zone and a sea and ground blockade on all ports and crossings for 72 hours, except for exemptions authorised by the coalition.

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