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Saudi Arabia has launched airstrikes against a separatist group in Yemen backed by the United Arab Emirates, underscoring a deep rift between the two Gulf powers.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council said on Friday that the Saudi bombing was a matter of “grave concern” and that it targeted some of its elite forces in central Yemen’s Hadramaut province, which borders Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh did not comment on the attacks. But its military intervention comes three weeks after the STC launched an offensive to capture Hadramaut following clashes with factions linked to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, as well as al-Mahra province in the southeast, which borders Oman.
Analysts said it was unlikely that the STC would have launched the offensive without the UAE’s consent.
Hadramaut is the largest and wealthiest region of Yemen and has close ties to Saudi Arabia. The STC’s advances were seen as a direct threat to the kingdom’s national security interests as well as Riyadh’s role in Yemen, where it supports the internationally recognized government.
The crisis has exposed poor relations between traditional allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who are at constant odds over the conflicts in Yemen and Sudan.
The STC launched its offensive three weeks after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised his concerns about the civil war in Sudan with US President Donald Trump during his visit to the White House.
Some analysts suspected that the two incidents were linked, with the UAE angry that Prince Mohammed had raised the role of the paramilitary Rapid Support Force in the Sudanese conflict and intended to send a message to the kingdom.
The UAE’s role in Sudan has come under increasing scrutiny as it is accused of supplying weapons to the RSF, which has been accused of genocide. Abu Dhabi denies that it supplies arms to the RSF.
Saudi Arabia is considered a supporter of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the RSF’s main rival.
“Developments in eastern Yemen point to a quiet but consequential Riyadh-Abu Dhabi rivalry, the influence of which threatens to intensify proxy violence in Yemen, Sudan and beyond,” said Mohammed Albasha, founder of US-based risk advisory group Basha Report.
Saudi Arabia views Sudan as vital to its national security as it shares a long border with the Red Sea.
The UAE, one of the most vocal countries in the region, also considers it strategic to its interests and fears that the Sudanese armed forces have been infiltrated by Islamists.
In Yemen, Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition that intervened in that country’s civil war in 2015 to fight the Iranian-backed Houthis after rebels captured the capital Sanaa and ousted the government.
The UAE was its main partner in the coalition, but it and Saudi Arabia supported separate anti-Houthi factions, which have at times fought each other.
Abu Dhabi changed its policy and started withdrawing its forces from Yemen in 2019. That year, he was accused by the Yemeni government of bombing his forces.
It continues to support the STC, the most powerful southern group. The STC is apparently part of the Yemeni government, but wants the south to become a separate state, as it was before the unification of Yemen in 1990.
In its strongest statement yet on the STC offensive, Saudi Arabia on Thursday condemned the group’s military advances, saying they were carried out unilaterally without the approval of Yemen’s government or coordination with the Saudi-led coalition.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said, “As such, these movements resulted in an unjustified escalation that harmed the interests of the Yemeni people.”
It said it was working with the “brotherly” UAE and Yemeni governments to “contain the situation”. She said she hoped the public interest would be maintained by the STC “ending tensions” and “withdrawal of its forces” from both provinces.
The STC said it launched its offensive after local groups blocked crude oil production in Hadramaut, the main source of oil revenue for southern authorities. The STC said the attack was also aimed at countering Islamic extremists and preventing arms smuggling to the Houthis, who control the majority of the northern population.
The group claimed the offensive gave it control over Yemen’s southern provinces, causing a crisis in the Riyadh-backed government and reducing Saudi Arabia’s influence in Yemen.
Amr al-Bidh, a senior STC official, said that while it had shown no desire to withdraw, it was “not an option”.
Saudi Arabia has been trying to get itself out of the war for several years after agreeing to a ceasefire with the Houthis in 2022.
