UAE pulls troops from Yemen after rift with Saudi Arabia escalates

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday said it was pulling its remaining troops out of Yemen, hours after Saudi Arabia backed a Yemeni government ultimatum for the UAE to withdraw from the war-torn Arab state.

The demand was issued after Saudi Arabia on Tuesday bombed a Yemeni port, saying it was targeting weapons and armoured vehicles it alleged the UAE had shipped to a separatist movement.

The dramatic escalation laid bare the deepening rift between the Gulf’s two powerhouses — traditional allies and key US partners that are increasingly at odds over regional conflicts and intensifying economic competition.

The crisis was triggered after a UAE-backed Yemeni faction, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), launched an offensive this month to take control of two strategic provinces, Hadhramaut, which borders Saudi Arabia, and al-Mahra.

After days of diplomatic efforts failed to convince the STC to withdraw and return control to the Saudi Arabia-backed Yemeni government, Riyadh on Tuesday for the first time directly blamed the UAE for backing the offensive.

It accused the UAE of “pressuring” the STC “to conduct military operations on the southern borders of the kingdom”, adding that it considered the operations a “threat” to its national security and to Yemen’s stability.

The kingdom’s foreign ministry said: “The steps taken by the UAE are considered highly dangerous, inconsistent with the principles upon which the coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen was established, and do not serve the [Saudi Arabia-led] coalition’s purpose of achieving security and stability for Yemen.”

Riyadh echoed the Yemeni government's call for the UAE to withdraw its remaining troops within 24 hours and halt its support for Yemeni factions, while warning that any threat to the kingdom’s national security was “a red line”.

The kingdom would “not hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralise any such threat”, the foreign ministry said.

The UAE rejected Riyadh’s allegations, saying the shipment bombed by Saudi Arabia at al-Mukalla port in Hadhramaut did not include weapons. It said the vehicles targeted in the strikes were intended for its own forces — not for any Yemeni party.

“The UAE categorically rejects any attempt to implicate the country in tensions among Yemeni parties,” its foreign ministry said. “And [it] strongly denounces allegations that it exerted pressure on, or issued directives to, any Yemeni party to undertake military operations that would undermine the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or target its borders.”

The UAE’s defence ministry said “in light of recent developments” and their potential implications for the safety of its forces, it was terminating “the remaining counterterrorism personnel in Yemen of its own volition”.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control much of the country’s populous north. But they back factions that often compete with each other.

The UAE had withdrawn most of its forces after 2019, but continued to support the STC and kept some troops in Yemen which it said were for counterterrorism operations.

Hadhramaut has historical and social links to Saudi Arabia and is Yemen’s largest and richest region. Both it and al-Mahra, which borders Oman, were controlled by Yemeni government forces and Riyadh-affiliated factions before the STC’s advance.

The crisis between the Gulf allies comes after months of friction in other areas, particularly over the civil war in Sudan.

The STC launched its offensive three weeks after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised concerns about the Sudan conflict with US President Donald Trump during his visit to the White House.

Some analysts suspected the two events were linked, believing the UAE was annoyed that Prince Mohammed had raised the role of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in Sudan.

The UAE is alleged to have supplied weapons to the RSF, which has faced accusations of genocide. Abu Dhabi denies arming the RSF. Saudi Arabia is considered a supporter of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the RSF’s main rival.

In Yemen, the STC is the most powerful southern group and wants the south to become a separate state, as it was before Yemen’s unification in 1990.

A Saudi Arabia military spokesperson described the air strike on Mukalla as “limited” and no casualties were reported.

Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed government said it was cancelling a defence agreement with the UAE over its support for the STC.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Saudi Arabia-supported Presidential Leadership Council in Yemen, also declared a 90-day state of emergency and issued a 72-hour ban on all border crossings in government-held territory, as well as all unauthorised entries to airports and seaports.

Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemen analyst at Chatham House, said the statements “mark a critical turning point”.

“These actions suggest that the situation is entering a particularly volatile and dangerous phase,” he said, while the Houthis are likely to view the growing rift between its adversaries “with considerable advantage”.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio held a telephone call with Saudi Arabia foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Tuesday “about the ongoing tensions in Yemen”, the state department said.

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, the STC said.

Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner