TEHRAN – The latest turmoil in Yemen underscores how regional rivalries and foreign entanglements continue to destabilize the country.
Aidarous al-Zubaidi, leader of the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), has been expelled from Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council and charged with treason after failing to attend talks in Riyadh. Coalition forces accused him of mobilizing armed units toward al-Dhale, prompting Saudi-led airstrikes that turned deadly and deepened the fractures among anti-Ansarullah factions.
While Saudi Arabia frames its actions as necessary to preserve Yemen’s stability and protect its own borders, the crisis also exposes the problematic role of the UAE. For years, Abu Dhabi has cultivated separatist forces in southern Yemen, pushing them to expand their reach even into eastern provinces like Hadramawt and al-Mahra. These moves have not only undermined the Saudi-backed initiative but also risked dragging Yemen into yet another layer of conflict.
What makes the UAE’s involvement particularly controversial is its broader geopolitical posture. Since normalizing relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords in 2020, the UAE has deepened military, intelligence, and economic cooperation with Tel Aviv. Critics argue that this partnership has emboldened Abu Dhabi to pursue aggressive regional policies, including in Yemen, where its support for separatists aligns with a strategy of carving out influence zones rather than supporting a unified Yemeni state. The UAE’s ties with Israel raise uncomfortable questions: are separatist advances in Yemen being leveraged as part of a wider regional agenda that prioritizes Emirati–Israeli interests over Yemeni sovereignty?
The STC’s insistence on southern independence echoes grievances rooted in Yemen’s history, but the way these aspirations are being instrumentalized by external powers risks turning them into tools of geopolitical maneuvering. The UAE’s denial of supplying weapons to the STC, followed by its agreement to withdraw remaining forces, reflects the tension between its public diplomacy and its long-standing military footprint in Yemen. Meanwhile, its growing alignment with Israel suggests that the Yemen conflict is not only about local rivalries but also about how Persian Gulf Arab states position themselves in a shifting regional order.
For Yemenis, the tragedy is that their country continues to be treated as a chessboard for external powers, with civilians paying the price in blood and instability.
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