This didn’t collapse quietly. It exploded.
What happened this week between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is not another episode in their long, awkward rivalry. It is a betrayal so public, so deliberately humiliating, that there is no realistic path back to alliance. The masks are off. The daggers are out. And Yemen is where Riyadh decided to make an example.
At the center of it all is Aidarous al-Zubaidi , a man who thought the UAE could protect him, and a Saudi leadership determined to prove that it could not.
The Great Escape: How a Cargo Plane Ended an Alliance
On January 6, al-Zubaidi was supposed to fly to Riyadh for “crisis talks.” Everyone involved understood what that meant. At best, forced resignation. At worst, detention. He agreed to go.
His delegation actually did.
They landed in Riyadh. They were taken away in a black bus , the kind with no markings, no plates, no questions. As of today, no one has heard from them again. That detail matters, because it tells you exactly how Riyadh intended to handle al-Zubaidi.
But he never boarded the plane.
Saudi intelligence now claims he fled Yemen by sea, passing through the port of Berbera in Somaliland , a UAE-aligned quasi-state the Emirates have spent years cultivating precisely for moments like this. From there, he was allegedly flown to Abu Dhabi aboard an Ilyushin Il-76, a heavy cargo aircraft synonymous with covert logistics, weapons transfers, and deniability.
That accusation alone would have shattered trust. What followed made reconciliation impossible.
Saudi Arabia didn’t whisper. It published the receipts.
Intercepted calls. Flight-tracking data. Names of UAE officers. Saudi state media didn’t just accuse Abu Dhabi of interference , it accused it of actively extracting a man Riyadh now labels a traitor.
In Gulf politics, that is not criticism. That is a declaration of enmity.
Why Bombing His Hometown Was the Point
Within hours, Yemen’s Saudi-backed leadership stripped al-Zubaidi of his titles and charged him with high treason. Saudi warplanes then moved not symbolically, but personally.
They bombed Al-Zubaid, his ancestral home in Al-Dhale.
This is where most outside coverage misses the meaning.
In Arab tribal culture, bombing a man’s birthplace while he is “safe” in a foreign palace is not just punishment. It is ritual humiliation. It is the stripping of tribal protection. It says: You ran. We stayed. Your bloodline cannot shield you.
Fourteen to fifteen airstrikes hit residential areas, including a school. Civilians were killed. That brutality was not accidental , it was the message. Saudi Arabia was telling al-Zubaidi’s supporters that the UAE’s protection is an illusion, and that loyalty to him brings fire to their doorsteps.
This was psychological warfare, executed with F-15s.
The Moment Saudi Arabia Stopped Pretending
At the same time, Saudi jets were hitting STC positions across Hadramout and Al-Mahra areas the UAE-backed separatists had moved into just weeks earlier to seize oil fields.
This is where the conflict crossed a final line.
Saudi Arabia was no longer pressuring the UAE diplomatically. It was systematically destroying the military project Abu Dhabi spent years building.
And it did so using something the UAE never expected Riyadh to create.
The National Shield: Saudi Arabia’s Answer to UAE Militias
The National Shield Forces are not just an elite unit. They are an insult.
After watching the UAE build private militias across southern Yemen , forces that answered to Abu Dhabi, not Sana’a or Riyadh , Saudi Arabia quietly did the same. Except this time, it built an army from scratch, loyal upward, funded directly, and designed for one purpose: to take Yemen back from the UAE’s proxies.
When the offensive came, it was fast and brutal.
Hadramout’s oil fields fell. Mukalla port was seized. The Balhaf LNG terminal shifted hands. STC units were given a blunt choice: leave or be treated like the Houthis.
They left.
The message to Abu Dhabi was unmistakable: You do not get to carve up our backyard while we watch.
Why This Is the Point of No Return
This is not a misunderstanding that can be smoothed over by summits or statements.
Saudi Arabia is bombing forces the UAE created.
The UAE is sheltering a man Saudi Arabia has charged with treason.
Saudi media is naming UAE officers on air.
Saudi jets are destroying UAE-linked shipments at ports.
States do not do this to allies they plan to reconcile with.
This is not about Yemen anymore. It is about power and hierarchy. Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leader of the Arab world , the authority that sets red lines. The UAE no longer accepts that role and is trying to replace hierarchy with control of networks: ports, corridors, chokepoints.
Those two visions cannot coexist.
The Brutal Reality
Aidarous al-Zubaidi bet everything on the UAE’s shadow empire on ports like Berbera, on deniable aircraft, on quiet protection in Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia responded by burning his roots out of the ground.
While Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed fight over who controls ports and shipping lanes, the people of Al-Zubaid are digging their children out from the rubble of a bombed schoolhouse , collateral in a power struggle they did not choose.
The Gulf Cooperation Council was already hollow. This week, it became a fiction.
The Saudis have the planes. The Emiratis have the ports. Yemen is where Riyadh decided it would rather burn the house down than let Abu Dhabi walk away with the furniture.
There is no reset after this. Only escalation, denial, and more bombs.
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