UAE Announces Withdrawal From Yemen as Rift With Saudi Arabia Deepens

The United Arab Emirates declared on Tuesday that it is withdrawing its remaining forces from Yemen, a move that comes amid escalating tensions with Saudi Arabia and a recent Saudi‑led coalition airstrike on Mukalla port.

Riyadh claimed the strike targeted weapons linked to the UAE and its allied southern separatist factions, while Abu Dhabi insisted the attack hit nothing connected to its forces. Emirati officials said the departing units—described as “counterterrorism units”—were the last UAE troops in the country and denied providing support to southern separatist groups.

The announcement immediately sharpened the divide within the anti‑Houthi coalition. The UAE‑backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) rejected Saudi Arabia’s demand to pull back its fighters, with STC leader Mohammed Abdul Malik al‑Zubaidi condemning the Mukalla strike as an attack on Hadramout itself. The confrontation highlights a widening fracture between coalition partners who once fought side‑by‑side but now increasingly operate as rivals.

On the ground, UAE‑aligned forces have become the dominant military actors across much of southern Yemen. The STC is entrenched in Aden, Lahij, Abyan, parts of Shabwa, and coastal Hadramout, where it enjoys political and military backing from Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, Saudi‑supported units aligned with the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) are concentrated in eastern Yemen, including Seiyun, interior Hadramout, and areas near the Saudi border.

Over recent months, STC‑aligned and other UAE‑backed factions have made significant territorial and security gains, steadily pushing out Saudi‑backed forces and tightening control over key cities, ports, and infrastructure. These shifts have reshaped the internal balance of power within the anti‑Houthi camp. In response, Saudi Arabia has reportedly deployed up to 20,000 allied troops near the Yemeni border, raising fears of a direct confrontation between the two nominal partners.

The UAE’s claim that its remaining forces were limited to “counterterrorism” units has drawn renewed scrutiny following a BBC documentary aired in January 2024. The investigation detailed how the UAE funded and directed covert assassination operations in southern Yemen, including the creation of target lists labeling political figures as “terrorists.”

The film includes interviews with American mercenaries from Spear Operations Group, who describe carrying out killings of political opponents, including individuals affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

One operative acknowledged that targets were designated as “terrorists,” while the documentary shows that several victims-politicians, imams, and civil society members-had no proven links to armed or extremist groups. Members of Yemen’s political Islamic party Al‑Islah appeared repeatedly on these lists, with some surviving assassination attempts.

As the UAE formally steps back from Yemen, the power struggle it helped shape continues to intensify. The widening rift with Saudi Arabia, the rise of UAE‑aligned forces on the ground, and the legacy of covert operations all point to a conflict entering a new and uncertain phase.