Saudi Airstrikes Target UAE Arms Shipments as Gulf Allies Clash Over Yemen Strategy

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday, destroying weapons and military vehicles that Riyadh says arrived aboard vessels from the United Arab Emirates destined for separatist forces, marking an extraordinary rupture between two Gulf monarchies traditionally aligned in regional conflicts.

The kingdom’s Foreign Ministry issued an unusually sharp rebuke hours after the strikes, directly accusing the UAE of pursuing “extremely dangerous” policies by supporting the Southern Transitional Council’s territorial expansion. The warning represents one of the most serious public disputes between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in recent memory, exposing deep fractures in what had appeared to be a unified anti-Houthi coalition.

Yemen’s internationally recognized anti-Houthi government responded by declaring a state of emergency Tuesday evening, terminating all cooperation with the Emirates and ordering Emirati forces to evacuate Yemeni territory within 24 hours. The government imposed a 72-hour ban on all border crossings, airport operations, and seaport activities in areas under its control, with exceptions only for movements authorized by Saudi Arabia.

The escalation highlights how Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite their membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council and close coordination on many regional issues, have increasingly pursued competing agendas in Yemen’s complex civil war. What began as a joint military intervention against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in 2015 has evolved into a proxy struggle where the two Gulf powers back different factions with divergent visions for Yemen’s future.

According to a military statement distributed through the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the coalition conducted limited airstrikes targeting weapons and combat vehicles offloaded from two ships that arrived in Mukalla from Fujairah, a port on the UAE’s eastern coastline facing the Gulf of Oman. Saudi military officials said the vessels’ crews had disabled tracking devices aboard the ships before delivering what the statement characterized as “a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of the Southern Transitional Council’s forces.”

The Saudi military justified the overnight operation by asserting the weapons “constitute an imminent threat, and an escalation that threatens peace and stability.” Military planners said they conducted the strikes during nighttime hours to minimize what they termed “collateral damage,” though authorities provided no immediate casualty figures.

The Associated Press reported that the UAE did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The National, Abu Dhabi’s English-language state-linked newspaper, published coverage of the strikes. The Council’s AIC satellite news channel acknowledged the attacks occurred but offered no detailed information about damage or casualties.

Analysts identified the likely target as the Greenland, a roll-on, roll-off cargo vessel registered in St. Kitts and Nevis. Tracking data examined by the Associated Press showed the ship departed Fujairah on December 22 and reached Mukalla on Sunday. Investigators could not immediately identify the second vessel referenced in Saudi military statements.

Mohammed al-Basha, founder of the Basha Report risk advisory firm and a Yemen specialist, cited social media footage purportedly showing new armored vehicles moving through Mukalla streets following the ship’s arrival. The vessel’s owners, operating from Dubai, could not be reached for immediate comment.

“I expect a calibrated escalation from both sides. The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council is likely to respond by consolidating control,” al-Basha told journalists. “At the same time, the flow of weapons from the UAE to the STC is set to be curtailed following the port attack, particularly as Saudi Arabia controls the airspace.”

Saudi state television later broadcast surveillance footage, apparently filmed from reconnaissance aircraft, showing armored vehicles traveling from Mukalla’s port area to what analysts described as a military staging ground. The vehicle types visible in the official footage matched equipment seen in earlier social media posts from the city.

The strikes occurred as the Southern Transitional Council consolidates territorial gains across Yemen’s southeastern regions. Mukalla sits in Hadramout governorate, which Council forces seized in recent days through operations that pushed out the National Shield Forces, a separate Saudi-backed militia within the broader anti-Houthi coalition. The port city lies approximately 480 kilometers northeast of Aden, which has functioned as the seat of government for Yemen’s internationally recognized authorities since Houthi forces captured the capital Sanaa in 2014.

Tuesday’s bombing represented the second Saudi military action against Council positions within five days. The kingdom conducted airstrikes Friday against separatist forces that analysts interpreted as warnings for the Council to halt territorial expansion and withdraw from Hadramout and Mahra governorates. The Council has ignored those warnings, instead accelerating its campaign to establish control over Yemen’s southeastern corridor.

Demonstrators aligned with the Council have increasingly displayed the flag of South Yemen, which existed as an independent Marxist state from 1967 until unification with North Yemen in 1990. According to the Associated Press, rallies have continued for multiple days supporting political movements demanding South Yemen’s secession from the unified republic. The separatist sentiment reflects long-standing grievances among southerners who believe they have been politically and economically marginalized since unification.

The competing Saudi and Emirati strategies in Yemen reflect broader regional dynamics where the two Gulf powers maintain close diplomatic and economic ties while simultaneously pursuing divergent interests. Both kingdoms are OPEC members with deeply interconnected energy policies, yet they increasingly compete for influence across Middle Eastern conflicts and vie for position as regional business hubs attracting international investment and tourism.

The tensions extend beyond Yemen into other Red Sea conflicts. In Sudan, where civil war has raged since April 2023, Saudi Arabia and the UAE support opposing military factions. The kingdom has traditionally backed Sudan’s army leadership, while the Emirates has developed ties with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. The parallel support for rival forces in two separate Red Sea nations suggests a pattern of competing regional strategies rather than isolated policy disagreements.

A statement from Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday represented the first instance where Riyadh directly and publicly attributed the Southern Transitional Council’s military advances to Emirati support. “The kingdom notes that the steps taken by the sisterly United Arab Emirates are extremely dangerous,” the ministry declared, using diplomatic language that barely concealed sharp criticism.

The rebuke carries particular significance given the careful attention Gulf monarchies typically pay to maintaining public unity, especially within the Gulf Cooperation Council framework. For Saudi Arabia to openly criticize Emirati policy suggests the kingdom views the situation as sufficiently serious to warrant breaking with diplomatic convention.

The separatist advances and resulting Saudi response occur amid broader instability across the Red Sea maritime corridor. The Associated Press noted that in a separate development, Israel formally recognized Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation, becoming the first country to grant such recognition in over three decades. The move has triggered threats from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have warned they will attack any Israeli presence in Somaliland.

The Houthi threats add another layer of complexity to Red Sea security calculations. The Iranian-backed rebels have previously attacked commercial shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb strait and launched missiles at Saudi and Emirati targets. The prospect of Houthi operations against Israeli interests in Somaliland could further destabilize maritime routes that handle significant portions of global trade between Asia and Europe.

The UAE’s backing of the Southern Transitional Council appears rooted in Abu Dhabi’s long-term strategic interests in controlling key ports and commercial infrastructure along Yemen’s coastline. The Emirates has historically invested in developing port facilities in Aden and other southern cities, viewing them as crucial nodes in maritime trade networks connecting the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and Mediterranean.

Saudi Arabia’s opposition to separatist territorial expansion likely stems from concerns that an independent or autonomous South Yemen would complicate efforts to achieve a comprehensive political settlement ending the decade-long war. Riyadh has invested substantial military and financial resources in supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and a separatist entity controlling strategic southern territories would undermine that government’s legitimacy and territorial integrity.

The conflict has created a humanitarian catastrophe, with the United Nations estimating that more than 377,000 Yemenis have died from direct violence and indirect effects including malnutrition and preventable diseases. Millions face food insecurity, and basic services including healthcare and education have collapsed across much of the country.

The Saudi-Emirati split threatens to further fragment Yemen’s anti-Houthi coalition at a moment when the rebels control Yemen’s most populous regions including the capital and major northern cities. A divided opposition reduces prospects for either military victory over the Houthis or successful negotiations toward a political settlement.

International diplomatic efforts to broker peace in Yemen have repeatedly stalled, with talks complicated by the multiplicity of armed factions, competing regional powers’ interests, and fundamental disagreements about Yemen’s political future. The latest Saudi-Emirati tensions add another obstacle to peace initiatives that were already facing long odds.

The 24-hour deadline for Emirati forces to leave anti-Houthi territory creates immediate pressure for Abu Dhabi to either comply, risking loss of influence over events in southern Yemen, or defy the ultimatum, potentially triggering direct military confrontation between forces backed by the two Gulf powers. Either scenario carries significant risks for regional stability and the broader effort to contain Iranian influence through the Houthi proxy.