Saudi Arabia early Tuesday bombed the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, saying it was targeting a shipment of weapons that had arrived from the United Arab Emirates for a separatist group. The strike marked a sharp rise in tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC). It also added strain to the already uneasy relationship between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, who have supported different sides in Yemen’s long war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency said the airstrikes were launched after two ships from Fujairah, a port in the UAE, arrived in Mukalla. The statement said the weapons unloaded from the ships posed a threat to security and stability, prompting a “limited military operation” to destroy them.The UAE has not yet commented on the strike.Mukalla lies in Yemen’s Hadramout region, which the STC recently captured. The city is about 480 kilometers northeast of Aden, the base of anti-Houthi forces since the rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.Tuesday’s attack follows Saudi airstrikes last Friday that analysts saw as a warning to the STC to stop its advances and withdraw from Hadramout and Mahra. The STC had earlier pushed out the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces from those areas.STC supporters have been increasingly raising the old South Yemen flag. South Yemen existed as a separate country between 1967 and 1990, and recent demonstrations have called for restoring that independence.These moves by the separatists have increased friction between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. While both countries maintain close ties and work together in OPEC, they have been competing for influence and business in the region.At the same time, violence has also escalated in Sudan, another Red Sea country, where the two Gulf powers back rival sides in the ongoing conflict.
