Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen port over weapons shipment from UAE, issues
warning to Abu Dhabi
[December 30, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen's port city
of Mukalla on Tuesday over what it described as a shipment of weapons
for a separatist force there that arrived from the United Arab Emirates.
The kingdom later directly linked the UAE to the separatists' recent
advances in Yemen and warned Abu Dhabi its actions were “extremely
dangerous.”
The attack signals a new escalation in tensions between the kingdom and
the separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council, which is
backed by the Emirates.
It also further strains ties between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which had
been backing competing sides in Yemen’s decadelong war against the
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels amid a moment of unease across the wider
Red Sea region. The two nations, while closely aligned on many issues in
the wider Mideast, increasingly have competed with each other over
economic issues and the region's politics.
Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces later declared a state of emergency Tuesday,
ending its cooperation with the UAE and ordering all Emirati forces
within its territory to evacuate within 24 hours. It issued a 72-hour
ban on all border crossings in territory they hold, as well as entries
to airports and seaports, except those allowed by Saudi Arabia.
Airstrike hits Mukalla
A military statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency
announced the strikes, which it said came after ships arrived there from
Fujairah, a port city on the UAE’s eastern coast.
“The ships’ crew had the disabled tracking devices aboard the vessels,
and unloaded a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of
the Southern Transitional Council’s forces,” it said.
“Considering that the aforementioned weapons constitute an imminent
threat, and an escalation that threatens peace and stability, the
Coalition Air Force has conducted this morning a limited airstrike that
targeted weapons and military vehicles offloaded from the two vessels in
Mukalla,” it added.
It wasn't immediately clear if there were any casualties from the strike
or if any other military besides Saudi Arabia's took part. The Saudi
military said it conducted the attack overnight to make sure “no
collateral damage occurred.”
The UAE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the
AP. Abu Dhabi's English-language state-linked newspaper The National
reported on the strike.
The Council's AIC satellite news channel acknowledged the strikes,
without offering details.
The attack likely targeted a ship identified by analysts as the
Greenland, a roll-on, roll-off vessel flagged out of St. Kitts. Tracking
data analyzed by the AP showed the vessel had been in Fujairah on Dec.
22 and arrived in Mukalla on Sunday. The second vessel could not be
immediately identified.
Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert and the founder of the Basha Report, a
risk advisory firm, cited social media videos which purported to show
new armored vehicles rolling through Mukalla after the ship's arrival.
The ship's owners, based in Dubai, could not be immediately reached.
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This frame grab from video broadcast by Saudi state television on
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, shows what the kingdom describes as a
shipment of weapons and armored vehicles coming from the United Arab
Emirates, at Mukalla, Yemen. (Saudi state television via AP)
“I expect a calibrated escalation from both sides. The UAE-backed
Southern Transitional Council is likely to respond by consolidating
control,” al-Basha said. “At the same time, the flow of weapons from
the UAE to the STC is set to be curtailed following the port attack,
particularly as Saudi Arabia controls the airspace.”
Footage later aired by Saudi state television, which appeared to be
filmed by a surveillance aircraft, purportedly showed the armored
vehicles moving through Mukalla to a staging area. The types of
vehicles corresponded to the social media footage.
Strike comes as separatists advance
Mukalla is in Yemen's Hadramout governorate, which the Council had
seized in recent days. The port city is some 480 kilometers (300
miles) northeast of Aden, which has been the seat of power for
anti-Houthi forces in Yemen after the rebels seized the capital,
Sanaa, back in 2014.
The strike in Mukalla comes after Saudi Arabia targeted the Council
in airstrikes Friday that analysts described as a warning for the
separatists to halt their advance and leave the governorates of
Hadramout and Mahra.
The Council had pushed out forces there affiliated with the
Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, another group in the coalition
fighting the Houthis.
Those aligned with the Council have increasingly flown the flag of
South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990.
Demonstrators have been rallying for days to support political
forces calling for South Yemen to secede again from Yemen.
The actions by the separatists have put pressure on the relationship
between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and
are members of the OPEC oil cartel, but also have competed for
influence and international business in recent years.
There has also been an escalation of violence in Sudan, another
nation on the Red Sea, where the kingdom and the Emirates support
opposing forces in that country’s ongoing war.
A statement Tuesday from Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry directly
linked the Council's advance to the Emiratis for the first time.
“The kingdom notes that the steps taken by the sisterly United Arab
Emirates are extremely dangerous,” it said.
Meanwhile, Israel has acknowledged Somalia’s breakaway region of
Somaliland as an independent nation, the first to do so in over 30
years. That's sparked concern from the Houthis, who have threatened
to attack any Israeli presence in Somaliland.
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