The UAE supports the Southern Transitional Council, while Saudi Arabia backs the central government and allied tribal forces.
Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s southern port city of Mukalla on Dec. 30, saying the strike targeted a shipment of weapons it said had arrived from the United Arab Emirates to support separatist forces.
Riyadh followed the attack with a demand that UAE forces leave Yemen within 24 hours and warned that Saudi Arabia’s national security remains an inviolable “red line.” The UAE later said it would withdraw its remaining forces from the country.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are both influential members of OPEC, which is scheduled to hold a virtual meeting on Jan. 4, 2026. Any prolonged dispute between the two could complicate efforts to maintain consensus on oil output policy, with implications for crude prices.
Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee south. Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened the following year, backing the government in a campaign to roll back Houthi control.
Although Riyadh and Abu Dhabi entered the war as partners, they have since backed competing allies.
The UAE supports the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a powerful southern faction that seeks to restore an independent South Yemen. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, backs the central government and allied tribal forces.
Airstrike Targets Alleged Arms Shipment
The Saudi military said in a Dec. 30 statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency that the early-morning strike targeted weapons and military vehicles unloaded at Mukalla’s port after the unauthorized arrival of two vessels from the UAE port of Fujairah.
The military said the ships disabled their tracking systems upon arrival and unloaded “large quantities of weapons and combat vehicles” intended to support the UAE-backed separatist forces of the STC.
“Considering that the aforementioned weapons constitute an imminent threat, and an escalation that threatens peace and stability, the Coalition Air Force has conducted this morning a limited airstrike that targeted weapons and military vehicles offloaded from the two vessels in Mukalla,” the statement said.
It also said that the operation was carried out at night to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage.
Saudi state television aired footage that it said showed armored vehicles moving from the port to a staging area. Yemen’s state TV broadcast images of black smoke rising from the port and burned vehicles. The Epoch Times could not independently verify what was struck or the origin of the cargo.
Divisions Within the Anti-Houthi Camp
Following the Mukalla strike, Yemen’s Saudi-backed presidential council announced it had canceled a defense pact with the UAE and ordered all Emirati forces to leave Yemen within 24 hours, according to Yemen’s state news agency.
In a televised address, presidential council head Rashad al-Alimi accused the UAE of fueling internal conflict by directing and supporting the STC’s recent military advances.
“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 said.
Saudi Arabia urged the UAE to comply with Alimi’s demand, warning that further actions threatening its security interests would not be tolerated.
By Tom Ozimek
