Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen port over weapons shipment and warns UAE

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 Middle East, 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 on Tuesday. 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.

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.