Saudi Arabia turns to UAE 'white horse' as it gears up to battle Yemen's Houthis - Middle East Eye

Saudi Arabia appears to be mending fences with the UAE in an effort to push back a Houthi military offensive in Yemen that threatens the kingdom’s Red Sea oil export corridor and has seen drones strike Riyadh.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted the UAE’s Vice President, Mansour Bin Zayed, in Riyadh on Tuesday, marking the kingdom's most prominent effort yet to reconcile with the UAE after clashing over Sudan, Yemen, and Somaliland.

“The Houthis are bringing Saudi Arabia and the UAE closer together,” Anna Jacobs, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, told Middle East Eye.

The two neighbours have been discussing how to collaborate on Yemen for months, western and Arab officials tell MEE, but the talks have been moving slowly.

The UAE wanted a public signal from Saudi Arabia that it had put its spat behind it, along with concessions to Abu Dhabi’s allies on the ground in Yemen, the Western official told MEE. In July, Saudi Arabia shared a casual photograph of Mansour and Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, Khaled bin Salman, together, but the location and time of the meeting were not disclosed.

The Houthis' lightning offensive in September down the Red Sea coast was the catalyst for a bigger meeting, experts say.

Mansour, the brother of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, was greeted at the airport by Khaled Bin Salman, the crown prince’s brother, whom MEE revealed was tapped by the crown prince in February to mend the rift.

Following Mansour’s visit, the UAE dispatched two Boeing planes with officials to Riyadh in order to coordinate over Yemen, two western officials familiar with the matter told MEE.

Joshua Yaphe, a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and former lead analyst on the Arabian Gulf at the State Department’s intelligence bureau, told MEE the symbolism of Mansour’s visit was important to Abu Dhabi.

“Yemen is going downhill fast, and everybody knows it. The Emiratis know the Saudis are in a worrisome position and they don’t want to see the Saudis flat-out fail, so they are coming in on a white horse, saying, ‘we can help you, if you are nice to us’,” he said.

Saudi Arabia was rebuffed by the US when it sought military assistance against the Houthis earlier this month, and its defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan has not kicked in over the escalation. 

Western officials who work with Saudi Arabia on military operations in Yemen breathed a sigh of relief that Mansour’s visit was successful.

A former US official told MEE that Riyadh’s move could help unlock more cooperation from the Trump administration, which has wanted the Gulf spat resolved. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined forces in 2015 to fight the Houthis after they conquered the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and a wide swath of the northeast.

The UAE dispatched ground forces in addition to training and arming Yemeni factions that were widely considered to be the most effective at fighting. In 2017, forces backed by the UAE ousted the Houthis from the Red Sea coast and rallied to prevent the group, which is armed by Iran, from taking the port city of Aden.

But Saudi Arabia clashed with the UAE over its support for the Southern Transitional Council, a group that wants to revive an independent Yemeni state in the south. Northern Yemen was ravaged by a bloody civil war in the 1960s, while southern Yemen became an independent Marxist state until its unification with the north in 1990.

In December 2025, Saudi Arabia bombed UAE weapons shipments to the STC and launched a military offensive against the group after it swept across much of the country’s south. The UAE announced its withdrawal from Yemen.

One diplomat in the region told MEE that the UAE has asked Saudi Arabia to open space for the STC after it was disbanded in January. 

The UAE also wants Saudi Arabia to ban Islah, Yemen’s main Sunni Islamist party, which is part of Yemen's international government. The UAE has been lobbying the US to label the party a terrorist organisation.

“The Emirates are not going to get what they want from the Saudis: a disavowal of Islah and an acceptance of the STC,” Yaphe told MEE. “[But] the Saudis might tell the Yemeni government to play nicer with the STC in a cabinet reshuffle.”

“The bigger question is, even if the Emiratis put a ton of support behind the Yemeni government, can that turn the tide of the war? In the past, they were able to salvage things, but what’s their capacity now?” Yaphe said.

The UAE’s Yemeni allies include the STC's Security Belt Forces, the Giants Brigade and the National Resistance Forces (NRF). The latter is commanded by Tarik Saleh, the nephew of Yemen’s former president who aligned with the Houthis before being killed by them. The NRF was in control of Yemen’s southern Red Sea coastline before the Houthis defeated them.

Despite its withdrawal from Yemen earlier this year, experts say the UAE has strong leverage over these southern Yemeni factions, in addition to skilled Emirati officers and special forces who effectively commanded troops on the ground a decade ago against the Houthis. 

“This meeting was all about Yemen,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert and fellow at the Baker Institute, told MEE. “The Saudis are preparing to make a significant move against the Houthis and want to make sure the anti-Houthi coalition is not as fragmented as it’s been.”

“The UAE can play a significant role even without getting involved militarily by using their influence on the STC and Tarek Saleh. The UAE was the most effective part of the military coalition,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has been launching strikes on the Houthis, but it has also faced drone and missile attacks. Riyadh airport was bombed earlier this month, and the East-West Pipeline was temporarily disabled by an attack the kingdom said emanated from Iraq. Shia militias in Iraq have coordinated with the Houthis.

A former US official told MEE that Saudi Arabia could ask for Emirati assistance on air defence.

The Trump administration has been trying to push its Gulf allies, particularly the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to coordinate more.

Saudi Arabia's coordination with the UAE could also lead to more cooperation with Israel, which deployed an iron-dome battery in the UAE during the height of fighting with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UAE on Sunday. 

While some Gulf officials are optimistic about the chances of Saudi Arabia and the UAE resuming cooperation in Yemen, experts caution that they remain far apart on key files.

For example, Saudi Arabia condemned, in January, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland across the Gulf of Aden. The UAE owns a commercial port in Berbera and has a military base there. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE also support opposing sides in Sudan’s civil war.

In addition to meeting Mansour on Tuesday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a phone call with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chief of Sudan's military that Saudi Arabia supports against the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces militia. The UAE may look for concessions from Saudi Arabia on Sudan and Somaliland, analysts say.

Still, Jacobs at the Arab Gulf States Institute said a return to Saudi Arabian and UAE dialogue could de-escalate tensions in the Red Sea.

“This could have a positive implication for the wider Red Sea because of the two’s proxy competition,” she told MEE. “The question is whether this can be sustained at a high level because their competition is structural.”