UAE to withdraw remaining forces in Yemen voluntarily
The United Arab Emirates announced it would withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen after Saudi Arabia backed its call for UAE forces to leave the country within 24 hours.
The move followed an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition on the port of Mukalla in southern Yemen.
The attack, which Riyadh said was a UAE-linked arms shipment, marked the most significant escalation yet in the widening rift between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi between the two Gulf powers.
Once two pillars of regional security, the Gulf heavyweights have seen their interests diverge on everything from oil quotas to geopolitical influence.
Saudi Arabia, which has declared its national security a red line, claimed early Tuesday that the UAE was pressuring Yemen’s southern separatists to launch military operations reaching the kingdom’s borders.
This was Riyadh’s strongest language in the dispute between Yemen’s neighbors, who once cooperated in a coalition against the pro-Iranian Houthis but whose interests in Yemen have steadily grown in recent years; against the UAE.
Frictions grew within the coalition over Abu Dhabi’s support for southern separatists seeking self-rule; Riyadh continued to support Yemen’s internationally recognized government, resulting in an open rift among its Gulf allies.
On Tuesday, the coalition struck a jetty said to be used to provide foreign military support to UAE-backed separatists. The head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed presidential council has given Emirati forces a 24-hour ultimatum to leave the country.
The UAE said in a statement that it was surprised by the airstrike and that the shipment attacked did not contain weapons and was sent to Emirati forces.
Yemen’s presidential council chairman Rashad al-Alimi canceled the defense agreement with the UAE and accused the UAE of fueling conflict in Yemen with its support for the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in a televised speech, Yemen’s state news agency said.
“Unfortunately, it has been conclusively confirmed that the United Arab Emirates pressured and directed the STC to undermine the authority of the state and rebel against it by escalating military tensions,” he said.
The UAE has previously emphasized that “dealing with the latest developments must be done responsibly and in a way that avoids tension, based on reliable facts and existing coordination between the parties involved.”
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are major players in the OPEC group of oil exporters, and any disagreement between the two could hinder consensus on oil production decisions.
They and six other OPEC+ members are meeting online on Sunday, and OPEC+ delegates say they will maintain their current policy of no changes to first-quarter production.
