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| DATE | 2025-12-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] This is why you do NOT send F35s to Saudi Arabia
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Saudi strikes UAE-backed faction in Yemen as Gulf rift deepens
Crisis has laid bare the increasingly fraught relations between Riyadh
and Abu Dhabi
People at a rally hold a large banner with images of Sheikh Mohamed bin
Zayed al-Nahyan and Mohammed bin Salman.
A rally organised by the Southern Transitional Council in Aden where
people hold a banner showing UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed
al-Nahyan, left, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman © Fawaz
Salman/Reuters
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Andrew England, Middle East editor
PublishedDecember 27 2025
UpdatedDecember 27 2025
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Saudi Arabia has launched air strikes against a separatist faction in
Yemen that is backed by the United Arab Emirates, underscoring a
deepening rift between the Gulf’s two powerhouses.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council said on Friday the Saudi
bombardment was of “serious concern” and that it targeted some of its
elite forces in central Yemen’s Hadhramaut province, which borders Saudi
Arabia.
Riyadh did not comment on the strikes. Its military intervention comes
three weeks after the STC launched an offensive to take control of
Hadhramaut after clashing with factions aligned to the Saudi-backed
Yemeni government, as well as al-Mahra province in the south-east, which
borders Oman.
Analysts said it was unlikely the STC would have launched the offensive
without the UAE’s acquiescence.
Hadhramaut is Yemen’s largest and richest region and has close ties to
Saudi Arabia. The STC’s advance was regarded as a direct threat to the
kingdom’s national security interests, as well as Riyadh’s role in
Yemen, where it backs the internationally recognised government.
The crisis has laid bare the fraught relations between Saudi Arabia and
the UAE, traditional allies that have become increasingly at odds over
conflicts in Yemen and Sudan.
Armed members of the Southern Transitional Council ride in military
vehicles on a rocky, dusty road during an operation in Abyan, Yemen.
Southern Transitional Council fighters motor through the south-western
province of Abyan at the start of their military offensive on December
15 © Reuters
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 the two events were linked, with the UAE annoyed
that Prince Mohammed had raised the role of the paramilitary Rapid
Support Forces in the Sudanese conflict and intended to send a message
to the kingdom.
The UAE’s role in Sudan has come under increasing scrutiny because it is
alleged to have supplied weapons to the RSF, which has faced accusations
of genocide. Abu Dhabi denies that it arms the RSF.
Saudi Arabia is considered a supporter of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the
RSF’s main rival.
“The developments in eastern Yemen point to a quiet but consequential
Riyadh—Abu Dhabi rivalry, one whose spillover effects risk intensifying
proxy violence across both Yemen, Sudan and beyond,” said Mohammed
Albasha, founder of Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory group
Saudi Arabia considers Sudan vital to its national security as it shares
a long border with the Red Sea.
The UAE, one of the region’s most assertive nations, also views it as
strategic to its interests and fears the Sudanese Armed Forces have been
infiltrated by Islamists.
Map showing Houthi control in Yemen
In Yemen, Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition that intervened in that
country’s civil war in 2015 to fight Iranian-backed Houthis after the
rebels seized Sana’a, the capital, and ousted the government.
The UAE was its main partner in the coalition, but it and Saudi Arabia
backed different anti-Houthi factions that have at times fought with
each other.
Abu Dhabi began pulling its forces out of Yemen in 2019 as it shifted
its policy. That year, it was accused by the Yemeni government of
bombing its forces.
It continues to back the STC, which is the most powerful southern group.
The STC is ostensibly part of the Yemeni government, but it wants the
south to become a separate state, as it was before Yemen’s unification
in 1990.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday condemned the group’s military advances, saying
they were carried out unilaterally without the approval of Yemen’s
government or in co-ordination with the Saudi-led coalition.
“As such, these movements resulted in an unjustified escalation that
harmed the interests of the Yemeni people,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.
It added that it had been working with the “brotherly” UAE and the
Yemeni government to “contain the situation”. It was hopeful, it said,
that the “public interest would prevail through ending the escalation”
by the STC and “the withdrawal of its forces” from the two provinces.
On Saturday, Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman posted an
open letter on X to “our people in Yemen”. He said the kingdom had
always considered the southern cause to be a “just political cause that
cannot be ignored” and urged the STC to act rationally.
“It is time for the STC in this sensitive period to prioritise the voice
of reason, wisdom, public interest and unity by responding to the
Saudi-Emirati mediation efforts to end the escalation, withdraw their
forces from the camps in the two governorates, and hand them over
peacefully to the National Shield forces and the local authority,” he said.
The UAE has said Abu Dhabi’s position was in line with Saudi Arabia’s in
supporting the political process to end the war.
The STC said it launched its offensive after local factions halted crude
production in Hadhramaut, the main source of oil revenue for the
southern authorities. The offensive also aimed to combat Islamist
extremists and to prevent weapons smuggling to the Houthis, who control
most of the populous north, the STC said.
The group claimed the offensive gave it control across Yemen’s southern
provinces, triggering a crisis in the Riyadh-backed government and
undermining Saudi Arabia’s influence in Yemen.
It has shown no willingness to withdraw, with Amr al-Bidh, a senior STC
official, saying this was “not an option”.
Saudi Arabia has been seeking to extract itself from the war for several
years, after agreeing to a truce with the Houthis in 2022.
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