Saudi Arabia and UAE face calls to reconcile as Houthis advance in Yemen

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates face calls to reconcile over Yemen after a Houthi advance toward the Bab al-Mandab strait. Saudi and Emirati officials discussed Yemen in Riyadh on Tuesday, 29 September, according to the Guardian. The talks matter because their split has complicated efforts to organise forces against the Houthis, but no joint military arrangement has been announced.

The Guardian reported that the White House has privately urged the two countries to set aside their differences and allow a unified military command including the Southern Giants Brigades. Its account did not identify the US officials involved or cite a public commitment from Riyadh or Abu Dhabi. The proposal remains an account of diplomatic advocacy, rather than an agreed plan for the UAE to return to Yemen.

Why Saudi Arabia and the UAE split over Yemen

Relations deteriorated in January after Saudi Arabia attacked and defeated the UAE-aligned Southern Transitional Council, or STC, as it sought to revive a separate southern state, the Guardian reported. The UAE subsequently effectively left Yemen. STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi fled into exile, and the movement was marginalised, according to the same report. Those events left the two governments with sharply different relationships to southern forces that could be called on to resist the Houthis.

The reported meeting in Riyadh brought together Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and UAE Vice-President Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Guardian described it as one sign that the governments may be looking for a way to improve relations. A discussion does not establish agreement on the STC, a joint command or an Emirati military role. Those questions remain central to any proposed cooperation.

Baraa Shiban, a Gulf and Yemen specialist at RUSI who had recently spent a week in Taiz, offered a more guarded assessment. He told the Guardian that efforts to end the Saudi-UAE rift may be under way, but said Riyadh was unlikely to welcome back an Emirati partner aligned with the STC. Saudi Arabia has resisted backing southern separatists partly because a divided Yemen could leave Houthi rule entrenched along its border, the Guardian reported.

Houthi gains raise the stakes at Bab al-Mandab

The diplomatic pressure follows a rapid Houthi advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The Guardian reported that forces led by Tareq Saleh lost ground as the Houthis pushed toward Bab al-Mandab in September. In separate reporting, the Associated Press said the Houthis captured Mokha and several Red Sea islands, extending their reach toward the strait. AP described the campaign as their largest territorial gain in years and said it ended the ceasefire that had largely stopped major fighting since 2022.

The strait connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and is important to commercial shipping. A 15 September analysis by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies said the Houthi gains could strengthen their ability to influence traffic, while leaving their forces exposed along a long coastline that is difficult to supply. The analysis cautions against treating a coastal advance as settled control over all shipping. It also recalled a precedent for Emirati-linked forces: UAE-backed troops helped remove the Houthis from Mocha in 2017.

Around Taiz, Shiban described repeated Houthi attacks on the city’s defenders, with assaults returning on different fronts after being repelled. The Guardian also reported that the parliament of Yemen’s internationally recognised government had sanctioned a general mobilisation against the Houthis. Neither account establishes how many people have mobilised or whether the defenders can hold their positions. Battlefield control and the cohesion of the forces involved remain uncertain.

Civilian costs and the diplomatic path

The Guardian attributed to the World Health Organization a toll of 838 people killed and 3,643 injured in the escalation from 6 August 2025 through 26 September 2026. AP separately reported UN figures of at least 838 killed and more than 3,640 wounded, and said the UN migration agency counted more than 145,000 people displaced within Yemen and over 3,000 who had fled to Djibouti. In reporting from Yemen on 25 September, AP described hospitals overwhelmed by wounded patients, with medicine shortages and some facilities prioritising trauma cases over other care.

UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg told AP that he had met Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam in Muscat over the weekend to explore ways to prevent further escalation. He said he had also held talks in Riyadh with the internationally recognised government and regional powers, including Saudi Arabia. Grundberg described the escalation as dramatic and warned that fighting along the Red Sea coast threatens maritime corridors important to global trade. He recommended separating Yemen’s war from other regional conflicts and pursuing a settlement defined by Yemenis.

The Guardian also reported a proposal involving Israeli intelligence and private security firms, but did not establish that it had been accepted. It said Riyadh was reluctant to be seen cooperating with Israel. For now, the reported US appeal, the Saudi-UAE meeting and the UN talks are distinct diplomatic developments. Whether the two Gulf governments can bridge their dispute over southern Yemen, and whether any arrangement would change the fighting, remains unresolved.