How Saudi Arabia and the UAE Went From Alliance to Open Friction

The two regional heavyweights were once closely aligned but now seem to be on divergent tracks, amid their respective backing for rival groups in the Yemen war.

Members of United Arab Emirates-backed southern Yemeni separatist forces stand by a tank during clashes with government forces in Aden, Yemen, on Aug. 10, 2019. Reuters/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

A Saudi airstrike on Yemen’s southern port city of Mukalla this week, which Riyadh said targeted a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Yemeni separatist forces, marked a major escalation of tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, widely regarded as the Gulf’s two most powerful states.

Once the twin pillars of regional security, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have seen their interests steadily diverge, from oil policy and trade to geopolitics and influence across the Middle East. Yemen, where both intervened a decade ago as partners, has increasingly become a fault line where friction between the two is causing sparks.

From Unified Front to Strategic Rivalry

The modern Saudi–UAE partnership was forged during the upheavals of the 2011 Arab Spring, when both countries moved aggressively to counter Islamist movements they viewed as existential threats. They deployed joint forces to Bahrain to suppress unrest and later coordinated support for Egypt’s 2013 military overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government.