Saudi Arabia has accused the United Arab Emirates of secretly smuggling Yemeni separatist leader Aidarous Al-Zubaidi out of the country, deepening tensions within the Arab coalition involved in Yemen. According to a coalition statement released early Thursday, Al-Zubaidi travelled by boat to the self-declared republic of Somaliland before boarding a flight through Somalia to Abu Dhabi.
The coalition claimed UAE officers supervised the operation, adding that a plane departing Somaliland waited in Mogadishu for nearly an hour before flying to a military airport in Abu Dhabi. However, the statement did not confirm whether Al-Zubaidi remained on board during the final leg of the journey.
Escalation follows removal from leadership council
A day earlier, Yemeni authorities accused Al-Zubaidi of high treason and removed him from the Presidential Leadership Council. Meanwhile, coalition forces bombed his home province after he failed to attend talks in Riyadh. As a result, uncertainty has surrounded his fate, complicating efforts to prevent further military escalation that began last month.
The coalition cited what it described as reliable intelligence showing Al-Zubaidi and associates escaped under cover of darkness. It detailed how the Southern Transitional Council leader sailed from Aden to Berbera in Somaliland after midnight Wednesday. He then reportedly boarded a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft to Mogadishu before continuing to Abu Dhabi later that evening.
Gulf alliance strained by southern Yemen crisis
No immediate response came from the UAE foreign ministry. Nevertheless, the fast-moving crisis in southern Yemen has exposed a growing rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the coalition’s most influential members. Both nations intervened after Houthi forces seized Sanaa in 2014. However, the UAE-backed STC, formed in 2017, recently seized large areas, shifting power balances and intensifying divisions.
