SAUDI, UAE RIVALRY BURSTS INTO VIEW

FORMER FRIENDS FALL OUT OVER YEMEN

- STORY: CALLUM PATON / AFP

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, ruler of the United Arab Emirates, escorts President Donald Trump at an arrival ceremony in Abu Dhabi on May 15, 2025.

For years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia projected geopolitical and economic power across the Gulf and beyond, seemingly in tandem.

But a growing rivalry and struggle for influence has come to a head - most recently in Yemen - following years of divergence over a tangle of competing interests that reach from regional waterways to the corridors of power in Washington, analysts say.

The once-close relationship between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was long seen as the backbone of the alliance between the two Gulf powers.

But as their ambitions grew apart and Prince Mohammed accelerated sweeping economic reforms at home while reasserting Saudi dominance abroad, talk has swirled of a rift with the Emirati leader, previously considered his mentor.

Now the pair find themselves on opposing sides over oil production and in Sudan, the Horn of Africa and now Yemen, where the two countries are part of an anti-Houthi military coalition but support rival factions within the internationally recognised government.