Saudi Arabia Accuses UAE of Extracting al-Zubaidi, Escalating Rift Over Yemen and Horn of Africa
It appears Riyadh has decided to drop a new bombshell on Abu Dhabi every morning. Yesterday, it announced the fall of Aden to the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and the flight of UAE-backed secessionist leader al-Zubaidi. Today, the Saudi-led coalition has now gone further: it has directly accused the UAE of extracting al Zubaidi. According to the statement, al-Zubaidi was first moved to Somaliland and then flown to the Al-Reef military base in Abu Dhabi under the supervision of UAE Maj Gen Awad Saeed.
This matters for two key reasons. First, it is a direct indictment of the UAE’s state and military apparatus for backing actors the Saudis define as national-security threats. Earlier accusation was easy to deflect; this one more seriously implicates UAE as not on a saboteur of peace but also threat to Saudi Nat Sec. Abu Dhabi’s response will reveal how far it is willing to escalate.
Second, the statement implicitly frames the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as a single strategic theater – and rightly so. It signals that instability in Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan is interconnected and that the UAE’s interventions across Africa are now squarely in Saudi crosshairs.
Meanwhile, Riyadh is clearly building a coalition. The Saudi foreign minister’s trip from Cairo to Washington, and the deputy FM’s meeting with Sudan’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, point to coordination against UAE-backed RSF. Parallel negotiations involving JF-17 sales and financial arrangements tied to Pakistan likely aid Sudan’s war effort.
Still, the path ahead will not be simple. The destabilization of Africa is not driven by the UAE alone; Israel is deeply involved with this Axis of Secessionists. Saudi Arabia may enjoy leverage in Washington, but when Israeli interests are at stake, we know which way Washington’s calculus will tilt.
