After Saudi Arabia’s Yemen strike, UAE rejects support for separatists

Saudi ‍Arabia said its national security ⁠is a “​red line” ‍it will defend hours after a coalition it leads attacked vehicles and cargo in Yemen that it said were supplied by a foreign military to separatists in the south.

The coalition’s “limited military operation” at Mukalla port came days after it warned the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) group against taking military action in Hadramout province.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) named the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the country that supplied the assistance to the STC that was targeted in Tuesday’s air strikes.

Head of PLC, Rashad ⁠al-Alimi, ​said after the air strikes all forces from the UAE must leave Yemen within 24 hours. Saudi Arabia said it hopes the UAE will respond to the demand, adding it’s committed to the “security, stability, and sovereignty of Yemen”.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted the cabinet as saying Saudi Arabia will not hesitate to “take the necessary steps to confront any threat” to its security.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it “categorically rejects any attempt to implicate it in the tensions between Yemeni parties and condemns the allegations of pressuring or directing any Yemeni party to carry out military operations that threaten the security of the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or target its borders”.

Dealing with the recent developments “must be done responsibly and in a manner that prevents escalation”, it added.

Any action must be “based on verified facts and existing coordination among the concerned parties, in a way that preserves security and stability, safeguards shared interests, and contributes to supporting the political solution pathway and ending the crisis in Yemen”, the statement said.

Later in the day, the UAE’s Defence Ministry ⁠announced it ended the ‍”counterterrorism mission” in Yemen voluntarily, state news ​agency WAM ‌reported.

“In light of recent developments and their potential implications for the safety and effectiveness of counterterrorism missions, the Ministry of Defence announces the termination of the remaining counterterrorism personnel in Yemen of its own volition in a manner that ensures the safety of its personnel,” it quoted a statement as saying.

‘We will protect our people’

In a televised address, al-Alimi framed the move as a sovereign requirement and renewed his praise for Saudi Arabia and the coalition for their support. He also cancelled the joint defence agreement with the UAE, announced a 72-hour air, land and sea blockade, and declared a state of emergency for 90 days.

Southern Transitional Council representative Nabeel bin Lasem accused al-Alimi of “manufacturing political vacuums in the south that [will] have political ramifications”.

“Rashad’s statements today are illegal in their substance. His decisions are an abuse of power. This just deteriorates the situation,” bin Lasem told Al Jazeera from Abu Dhabi. “As southerners, as the STC and the Southern Armed Forces, we are on our land, we will protect our people, we will protect our achievements.”

Bin Lasem said attempts to “delegitimise” the STC are pushing it to “assess the options to take into consideration the security and safety of our people”.

“This is of paramount importance,” he added.

‘Limited military operation’

Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said two ships entered Mukalla port on Saturday and Sunday without coalition authorisation, disabled their tracking systems, and unloaded large quantities of weapons and combat vehicles “to support” the STC.

The coalition said there were no casualties or collateral damage and emphasised the operation was conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The strikes come amid heightened tensions following an offensive earlier this month by the STC against Yemeni government troops backed by the coalition.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud posted on X that the STC troops should “peacefully hand over” two regional governorates to Yemen’s government.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for “restraint and continued diplomacy with a view to reaching a lasting solution”.

A divided Yemen

“For a long time, people have been debating whether the Saudi-UAE competition is going to spill over into a rivalry or not,” Abdulaziz Alghashian, a lecturer at Naif Arab University for Security Sciences in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera.

“When it comes to Yemen, the actions of the STC have, for all intents and purposes, spilled it into a rivalry now … There is no doubt that the situation is entering a stage where things might not go back to normal.”

The UAE joined the Saudi-led military coalition to attempt to reverse the Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa in 2014, but relations between the two countries have since become more complex, Sultan Barakat, professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera.

“Little by little, the UAE started the habit of undertaking foreign policy and independent decisions in Yemen without going back to Saudi Arabia,” Barakat said. “This resulted to some extent in strengthening the position of the southern separatists in Yemen.”

The STC was initially part of the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, but the group later pursued self-rule in southern Yemen. Since 2022, the STC, which has previously received assistance from the UAE, has controlled southern territories outside Houthi areas under a Saudi-backed power-sharing arrangement.

In recent weeks, however, the STC has swept through swaths of the country, expelling other government forces and their allies.

The head of the STC in the districts of Yemen’s recently seized Hadramout region signalled his forces have no intention of withdrawing from the region.

Mohammed Abdul Malik al-Zubaidi told Al Jazeera the Saudi-led bombing of Mukalla port was “a blatant attack on Hadramout and its people”.

He described the UAE as an “allied and friendly country” to the group working to take control of the southern parts of Yemen as a separate country, adding it would be “unreasonable to reward them by leaving Hadramout”.

The STC official also tried to portray the internationally recognised government of Yemen as a “clear enemy” since it is allegedly “inciting Saudi Arabia against us”.