Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday after a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates arrived for separatist forces in the war-torn country, and warned that it viewed Emirati actions as “extremely dangerous.”
The bombing followed days of tensions over the advance of the separatist forces known as the Southern Transitional Council, which are backed by the Emirates. Despite the warning, the Council and its allies issued a statement supporting the UAE’s presence, even as others allied with Saudi Arabia demanded Emirati forces withdraw from Yemen in 24 hours’ time.
The UAE separately called for “restraint and wisdom” while disputing Riyadh’s allegations against it. It did not say it would withdraw from Yemen as demanded.
The confrontation threatened to open a new front in Yemen’s decade-long war, with forces allied against the Iranian-backed Houthis possibly turning their sights on each other in the Arab world’s poorest nation long stalked by famine and disease.
It also further strained ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, neighboring nations on the Arabian Peninsula that increasingly have competed over economic issues and the region’s politics, particularly in the wider Red Sea region.
“I expect a calibrated escalation from both sides. The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council is likely to respond by consolidating control,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert and the founder of the Basha Report, a risk advisory firm.
“At the same time, the flow of weapons from the UAE to the STC is set to be curtailed following the port attack, particularly as Saudi Arabia controls the airspace.”
A military statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency announced the strikes, which it said came after ships arrived there from Fujairah, a port city on the UAE’s eastern coast.
“The ships’ crew had the disabled tracking devices aboard the vessels, and unloaded a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of the Southern Transitional Council’s forces,” the statement said.
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“Considering that the aforementioned weapons constitute an imminent threat, and an escalation that threatens peace and stability, the Coalition Air Force has conducted this morning a limited airstrike that targeted weapons and military vehicles offloaded from the two vessels in Mukalla,” it added.
It wasn’t clear if there were any casualties from the strike.
The Emirati Foreign Ministry hours later denied it shipped weapons but acknowledged it sent the vehicles “for use by the UAE forces operating in Yemen.” The UAE broadly withdrew its forces from Yemen years earlier. It also claimed Saudi Arabia knew about the shipment ahead of time.
“These developments raise legitimate questions about how to deal with them and their repercussions, at a stage that requires the highest levels of coordination, restraint and wisdom, taking into account the existing security challenges and threats,” the ministry added.
Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces declared a state of emergency Tuesday, ending their cooperation with the UAE and ordering all Emirati forces within their territory to evacuate within 24 hours. They issued a 72-hour ban on all border crossings in territory they hold, as well as entries to airports and seaports, except those allowed by Saudi Arabia.
The Council’s AIC satellite news channel aired footage of the aftermath of the strike, but avoided showing damage to the armored vehicles near the port.
“This unjustified escalation against ports and civilian infrastructure will only strengthen popular demands for decisive action and the declaration of a South Arabian state,” the channel said.
The attack likely targeted a ship identified as the Greenland, a roll-on, roll-off vessel flagged out of St. Kitts. Tracking data analyzed by the AP showed the vessel had been in Fujairah on Dec. 22 and arrived in Mukalla on Sunday. The second vessel could not be immediately identified.
Footage later aired by Saudi state television, which appeared to be filmed by a surveillance aircraft, purportedly showed the armored vehicles moving from the ship through Mukalla to a staging area. The types of vehicles corresponded to the social media footage.
Strike comes as separatists advance
Mukalla is in Yemen’s Hadramout governorate, which the Council had seized in recent days. The port city is some 480 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of Aden, which has been the seat of power for anti-Houthi forces in Yemen after the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, back in 2014.
Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the globe’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war, greatly disrupting regional shipping.
The strike Tuesday in Mukalla comes after Saudi Arabia targeted the Council in airstrikes Friday that analysts described as a warning for the separatists to halt their advance and leave the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra.
The Council had pushed out forces there affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, another group in the coalition fighting the Houthis.
Those aligned with the Council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990. Demonstrators have been rallying for days to support political forces calling for South Yemen to secede again from Yemen.
The actions by the separatists have put pressure on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and are members of the OPEC oil cartel, but also have competed for influence and international business in recent years. Saudi Arabia in particular has sought to draw foreign firms from Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and long a hub for expatriate workers.
The countries have had border disputes in the past, even before the UAE’s founding in 1971. Tuesday’s airstrikes and ultimatum appeared to be the most-serious confrontation between the nations in decades.
There has also been an escalation of violence in Sudan, another nation on the Red Sea, where the kingdom and the Emirates support opposing forces in that country’s ongoing war.
A statement Tuesday from Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry directly linked the Council’s advance to the Emiratis for the first time.
“The kingdom notes that the steps taken by the sisterly United Arab Emirates are extremely dangerous,” it said.
Allies of the Council issued a statement afterward in which they showed no signs of backing down.
Meanwhile, Israel has acknowledged Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation, the first to do so in over 30 years. That’s sparked concern from the Houthis, who have threatened to attack any Israeli presence in Somaliland.
