How Saudi crown prince MBS's rivalry with UAE is bleeding Riyadh in Yemen

Saudi Arabia is facing an extraordinary security and trade crisis from Yemen's Houthis. The Iran-backed militia is attacking Saudi assets and has cut off Riyadh's vital Red Sea route. Here's why Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's rivalry with the UAE is to blame for the precarious situation Riyadh finds itself in.

The oil-rich Gulf nation of Saudi Arabia is facing a crisis, and it has to do with a country called Yemen and the choices Riyadh made. Over the past week, militants of the Iran-backed Islamist group Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthis, have seized control of much of Yemen's Red Sea coast, as well as islands near the strategically critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait, in an 18-hour blitzkrieg. Riyadh now has a resurgent Houthi militia on its doorstep, with the Iran-backed group threatening both Saudi security and maritime access. The crisis, experts believe, is of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's own making as it tried to hit the interests of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which Riyadh considers a rival.

A year ago, Yemen was in a state of relative stability. Sure, the country was divided into several factions that had never seen eye to eye with each other, but at least each side stuck to their territory. All this changed in late 2025, when Saudi airstrikes targeted one of the few forces in the country capable of combatting the Ansar Allah. It was the Southern Transitional Council and funded and built by the UAE, a country that Saudi leaders, including Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), consider a rival of the kingdom.

The Houthi advances last week were one of the most successful actions in their entire history. And this was made successful, thanks to Saudi Arabia's decision to start a proxy war in Yemen against the UAE, which gave Ansar Allah (Houthis) the opening it needed to take over both the Red Sea Coast and the all too-vital Bab el-Mandeb.

"Bin Salman placed his personal feud with the UAE above strategic stability," author and former Pentagon official Michael Rubin wrote in an article in the Middle East Forum, adding, that MBS "cannot blame anyone but himself" for the crisis.

MBS has been working to steal the UAE's thunder, challenging Dubai's long-standing position as the Gulf's aviation and business hub. The rivalry has seen Saudi Arabia invest hundreds of billions and then shelve projects like The Cube (Mukaab) and The Line.

The rivalry was also seen in the cap that was imposed on the UAE's oil production capabilities by the Saudi-controlled petroleum cartel OPEC. The Saudi-imposed limit forced the UAE to exit the OPEC in May this year.

SAUDI ARABIA AND THE UAE ENTERED YEMEN AS ALLIES

Before we go into how the Saudi's rivalry with the Emiratis made them lose Yemen, it is first important to have a look at how both sides ended up in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia's involvement in Yemen goes back at least 15 years and has mostly to do with the Houthis.

The first Saudi incursion came in 2009 after skirmishes between the kingdom's troops and Houthi militants. That particular incursion, designed to secure the kingdom's borders, achieved little more than the deaths of a couple of hundred Saudi troops, and led to the sidelining of former deputy defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Sultan.

The second and much larger incursion came in 2015 after Houthi militants overthrew the Presidency of Rashad al-Alimi. This sparked the Yemeni civil war and Saudi Arabia, at the head of a coalition of Gulf and African countries, led an armed intervention seeking to crush the Houthis once and for all.

The 2015 incursion also failed. Despite being decked out with top-of-the-line American equipment, Saudi forces were bogged down and suffered thousands of casualties. Eventually, ground troops were withdrawn in 2019, and after hundreds and thousands of Yemeni civilians were killed, a UN-brokered ceasefire led to the end of fighting.

This resulted in the sidelining of then interior minister Muhammad bin Nayef, who lost his position as crown prince. That title went to his son, Mohammed bin Salman or MBS, who, thanks to current monarch, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's declining health, has become the Kingdom's most powerful individual.

SAUDI ARABIA AND THE UAE ADOPTED VASTLY DIFFERENT PRIORITIES IN YEMEN

The Saudis and the Emiratis entered Yemen as allies, with a shared goal of mitigating the Houthi threat. But both sides soon adopted different priorities.

Abu Dhabi, for its part, patronised the Southern Transitional Forces (STC), while fighting against al-QaIda forces present in Yemen. The STC, based out of the port of Aden and holding sway over Southern Yemen, are a separatist group that nevertheless cooperated with the Saudi-backed Republic of Yemen.

Thanks to generous Emirati aid in the form of weapons, instructors and military advisors, the STC soon became one of the most well-trained and well armed forces in the country, aside from the Houthis.

Riyadh, meanwhile, sought a united Yemen more amenable to its interests, backing the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council headed by Rashad al-Alimi, the president overthrown in 2014.

But after years of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi infrastructure, MBS pursued a quiet accommodation, limiting Saudi strikes in return for reduced Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

Writing on MBS's attempts to reach an understanding with the Houthis, former Pentagon official Rubin wrote that "appeasing ideological enemies" was far from an ideal solution.

"It didn't [work] when Saudi authorities appeased al-Qaeda... nor did it work with the Houthis," Rubin wrote.

The Houthis, left alone, took the time to develop its own forces, including acquiring drones and missiles and the ability to manufacture them from Iran. The Houthis' military capabilities were well demonstrated when, in late 2023, they set off the Red Sea Crisis by attacking ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb.

HOW YEMEN TORE APART THE UAE–SAUDI BROTHERHOOD

Notwithstanding the Houthi attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea, Yemen had a few rare years of stability between 2022 and 2025. This stability, however, would not last, and it was because of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's decision to nurture a rivalry with the UAE.

There have already been more than a few bones of contention between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. The two countries have vied for influence in the Gulf. Then came the UAE's decision to recognise Israel and sign the Abraham Accords in 2020. Though Saudi Arabia was on the verge of signing the Accord, the October 7 attacks by Iran's proxy Hamas in Israel, and the Jewish country's pummelling of Gaza led to the scuttling of the plan.

However, it was Yemen that drove the biggest wedge between the two "brotherly nations".

As mentioned earlier, while the Saudis and the Emiratis were part of the same anti-Houthi coalition, they had vastly different priorities. Riyadh wanted a united Yemeni government, while Abu Dhabi was supporting a movement that wanted to secede.

As far as Riyadh was concerned, such a state of affairs could not last, even if the UAE-backed STC had, for the time being, put its secessionist desires on the back burner. Emirati support for the group was soon being described as a "red line for its national security".

In December 2025, fighting broke out again. Saudi jets struck STC forces in southern Yemen, targeting what it called, Emirati weapons shipments. Riyadh's bombing was followed with an ultimatum that the UAE's forces must leave Yemen within 24 hours.

"Riyadh treated the UAE as a rival to be boxed in rather than as the only Gulf state that had built a usable Yemeni army on this shore," wrote regional observer and commentator, Nervana Mahmoud, in a post on X, while summing up MBS's actions in Yemen.

In response to the Saudi diktat, the STC launched a massive offensive against the Yemeni Republic with a force of over 10,000 fighters the same month, taking over most of Southern Yemen. These were, however, temporary gains. Backed by Saudi airstrikes, the National Resistance Front launched their own counteroffensive in January 2026, taking back most of the lost territory in Southern Yemen.

Ironically, the two forces that were supposed to take on the Houthis were fighting against one another in Yemen.

Hence, by the time the Houthis launched their own offensive last week, Emirati forces were long gone, and the STC were decimated. The only force standing in their way was the Saudi-backed National Resistance Front, which melted away in front of the Houthi blitz.

Mohammad bIn Salman's rivalry with the UAE had thus destroyed the only force capable of containing the Houthis, and now his Kingdom is paying the price. "Saudi Arabia chose a political quarrel with the UAE over the operational coalition that made the western front possible. It then discovered that no substitute existed," Mahmoud noted.

This is thus the crisis that Saudi Arabia is facing. The kingdom's primary oil routes, the Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, are closed. Calls for assistance to the US and Mecca Pact allies, Pakistan and Turkey, have been met with indifference. While the Saudis have stepped up airstrikes against the Houthis, without deploying their own ground forces, they won't stop the Ansar Allah from letting go of the chokehold they have over the Gate of Tears. Because of Mohammad bin Salman's desire to nurture a rivalry with the UAE, the Saudis might have lost Yemen.

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