Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday its national security was a red line, hours after an airstrike on Yemen's southern port of Mukalla by a Saudi-led coalition, and gave UAE forces 24 hours to leave, in Riyadh's strongest language against Abu Dhabi yet.
As tension between the two Gulf oil powers reaches boiling port, the coalition struck what it described as foreign military support to UAE-backed southern separatists, while the head of Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential council set the deadline.
Yemen’s Saudi-backed government coalition conducted a “limited” air strike on two ships in the Yemeni port city of Mukalla early Tuesday morning, Saudi state-owned outlet Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The strike occurred shortly after an evacuation warning was issued for all civilians in the Mukalla area, advising them to leave the area until further notice ahead of military operations.
The head of Yemen's presidential council called on Tuesday for all United Arab Emirates forces to leave the country within 24 hours, shortly after an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition at the southern port of Mukalla.
SPA reported that the strike targeted two ships that reportedly delivered “a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles” to United Arab Emirates-backed separatist group Southern Transition Council (STC) forces.
After arriving in Mukalla, the vessels disabled their tracking systems and unloaded large quantities of weapons and combat vehicles to support the STC, it added.
General Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the coalition, stated that Yemeni forces observed the ships dock without proper permits before unloading the weapons. Al-Malki also noted that the ships’ tracking systems were both disabled by their crew prior to the docking.
SPA reported that the weapons were seen as a threat to Yemeni security and stability and were targeted due to the “danger and escalation posed” by the import of weapons by the STC.
Al-Maliki affirmed the coalition’s commitment to preventing outside military support from reaching “any Yemeni faction without coordination with the legitimate Yemeni government and the Coalition.”
“This is aimed at ensuring the success of the Kingdom and the Coalition's efforts to achieve security and stability and prevent the conflict from spreading,” al-Maliki said, emphasizing the importance of “de-escalation and enforcing calm in the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra.”
Yemen's presidential council head, Rashad al-Alimi, canceled a defense pact with the UAE and set a 24-hour deadline for all Emirati forces to leave Yemen, the state news agency said.
In a televised speech, Alimi accused the UAE of fueling internal strife in Yemen.
"Unfortunately, it has been definitively confirmed that the United Arab Emirates pressured and directed the STC to undermine and rebel against the authority of the state through military escalation," he said.
Yemeni coalition's previous warning to the STC
On Saturday, SPA also reported that al-Malki had announced the Yemeni coalition’s intent to protect civilians from "violations committed by armed groups affiliated with the STC."
The Yemeni coalition’s Saturday announcement was made in response to an STC refusal to evacuate from areas it had recently seized in the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra.
In early December, the STC seized parts of southern Yemen and pushed the internationally recognized Yemeni government coalition out of Aden.
Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run news agency, reported that following the takeover, the STC controlled around 52% of Yemen. The Houthis, an Iran-backed terrorist organization, has control of around 33% of Yemen, while the Saudi-backed Yemeni coalition only controls around 10%.
According to Anadolu Agency, the remaining portion is "controlled by forces loyal to Tareq Saleh, a nephew of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.”
Seth J. Frantzman and Reuters contributed to this report.