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U.A.E. says it will pull troops from Yemen after Riyadh issued an ultimatum

Tensions between U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates flared Tuesday, when the kingdom warned its Gulf rival against endangering its security and said it would take all necessary measures to counter the threat.

The fast-escalating dispute was spurred by fighting in the two-thirds of Yemen controlled by forces opposed to the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which rules over the rest. U.A.E.-backed forces there have outmaneuvered rivals backed by Saudi Arabia to take control of energy-rich territory along the kingdom’s border.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called the moves a threat to its security and gave the U.A.E. 24 hours to pull its troops out of Yemen and end financial or military support for any forces in the country.

“The steps taken by the U.A.E. are considered highly dangerous,” the ministry warned. “The Kingdom stresses that any threat to its national security is a red line, and the Kingdom will not hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralize any such threat.”

Later on Tuesday, the U.A.E. Defense Ministry said it would withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen, characterizing the move as voluntary, a step that could cool tensions.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether troops had begun to leave or whether that would resolve the crisis. The U.A.E. didn’t mention ending support for Yemeni militias and earlier in the day denied having done anything to escalate the conflict.

Saudi Arabia had signaled its growing impatience in recent days, conducting airstrikes against U.A.E.-backed forces along its border Friday and bombing shipments of what it said were arms supplied by the U.A.E. at Yemen’s Mukalla port overnight.

The kingdom also recently deployed its aligned Yemeni forces to the border area, raising the prospect of conflict with U.A.E.-backed forces there, Yemeni officials said.

The worsening tone came as the two Gulf powers—each courted by the Trump administration as it realigns U.S. policy in the Middle East—find themselves on opposite sides in conflicts across the region, from Yemen to Sudan to Syria.

The rift presents a diplomatic challenge for the U.S. and is an unwelcome complication as Washington works to keep Iran contained and persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program.

While the skirmishing between the two Gulf powers in Yemen is a sideshow to the more important conflict with the Houthis, it threatened to expand the fighting in a region already battered by two years of war.

“The current U.A.E.-Saudi standoff in Yemen has been building across multiple files that have produced a slow-burning rivalry,” said Mohammed Al-Basha, founder of U.S.-based Middle East security advisory company Basha Report.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed concern over the weekend about the developments in Yemen and called for restraint.

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have long maintained peaceful relations with each other and are key security partners for the U.S., but tensions have simmered just below the surface and occasionally erupt. U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was once a mentor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the two leaders have feuded in recent years over who calls the shots in the Middle East.

In the latest strike, Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said weapons and combat vehicles were targeted in the city of Mukalla, Yemen’s largest port on the Arabian Sea and the gateway to Yemen’s oil country. The weapons and vehicles were unloaded from two ships that had left the Emirati port of Fujairah and had disabled their tracking systems, Saudi officials said.

Saudi officials said the weapons were intended to support the Southern Transitional Council, a group that favors splitting out a state separate from northwest Yemen, which is held by the Iran-backed Houthis.

Mohammed Al-Zubaidi, head of the STC in areas near the Saudi border, condemned Friday’s strikes as an assault on the region’s people and praised the U.A.E. as a reliable ally.

The U.A.E. Foreign Ministry called the Saudi allegations inaccurate and said it had done nothing to affect the kingdom’s security. It said the shipment at Mukalla port didn’t include weapons and that the goods were for use by Emirates troops in the country.

Emirati troops in Yemen act as advisers for their allied local forces and provide reconnaissance support for fights against militants like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Saudis support a unified Yemen, though in reality, with the Houthis firmly in control of the northwest and the country’s historic capital, San’a, Riyadh has focused more on managing the internal conflicts between Yemeni factions and putting its own proxy forces in control of border areas.

The Trump administration has invested heavily in relations with the Gulf powers. President Trump conducted a high-profile trip through the Gulf in the spring and welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed to the White House last month.