Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are showing signs of seeking a rapprochement after months of tensions over Yemen, as the Houthis’ rapid military advances increase pressure on the two Gulf powers to rebuild coordination against a common threat.
According to The Guardian, efforts are underway to narrow the Saudi-Emirati divide after Houthi forces pushed toward the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and placed anti-Houthi forces under mounting pressure.
The prospect of renewed cooperation represents a sharp reversal from the confrontation that engulfed Saudi-Emirati relations earlier this year. Riyadh moved against the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) after the separatist group sought to revive an independent southern state, while Abu Dhabi subsequently withdrew its remaining forces from Yemen. The crisis exposed a fundamental difference between the two countries: Saudi Arabia has backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government and opposed the country’s partition, while the UAE developed close ties with southern separatists and other local armed groups.
That rivalry is now colliding with a dramatically different military reality. Houthi forces swept through much of Yemen’s western coast in September, overwhelming anti-Houthi units and expanding their presence around Bab al-Mandab, one of the world’s most strategically important shipping routes. More than 15 brigades were defeated during the collapse of the western front, according to The Guardian, including forces that had previously benefited from Emirati support.
The deteriorating battlefield situation has triggered renewed high-level contacts between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Riyadh on Tuesday, following regional discussions in Abu Dhabi over the future of Yemen. The Guardian reported that Washington has also been privately encouraging Saudi Arabia and the UAE to overcome their differences and support a unified military command capable of confronting the Houthis.
For Riyadh, closer cooperation with Abu Dhabi could nevertheless come at a political price. Some of the better-equipped forces available to counter the Houthis, including the UAE-trained Giants Brigades, emerged from the southern military landscape cultivated by Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia remains wary of empowering separatist forces, fearing that Yemen’s formal partition could leave a Houthi-controlled entity permanently established along its southern border. The UAE’s former allies, meanwhile, continue to press for southern self-determination.
The pressure on Saudi Arabia has intensified as Washington has so far declined to intervene militarily against the latest Houthi advance. U.S. officials met Houthi representatives in Oman earlier this month, after which Washington decided against joining a Saudi-backed effort to drive the group back, The Guardian previously reported. The Houthis have also renewed missile and drone attacks against Saudi targets, while their growing presence around Bab al-Mandab has heightened concerns over the security of Saudi energy exports and regional shipping.
Any Saudi-Emirati rapprochement would therefore be driven as much by strategic necessity as by political reconciliation. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi remain divided over what Yemen should ultimately look like and over the role of southern separatists in any future settlement. But the Houthis’ recent gains have changed the cost-benefit calculation for both Gulf powers, confronting them with the possibility that containing the group may require reviving a partnership that their competing ambitions in Yemen had brought close to breaking point.
