What’s Behind UAE Security Pact with Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council?

It is noteworthy that Rashad al-Alimi, the PLC president, paid a several-day work visit to the UAE in mid-November and then similar visits ensued by al-Daeri and Ahmad Arman, the minister of legal affairs of the PLC. 

New era of UAE militarism in Yemen 

One the main driving factors behind signing the secret deal with Yemen is allowing Abu Dhabi to legitimize its military intervention and occupation in Yemen, especially that the Emiratis now have forces stationed in the provinces of Mukala and Aden in the south and Hadhrahmaut in the east, and the oil-rich Belhaf region of Shabwa in the southeast. Also, the agreement intends to cover up the Emirati occupation of the Yemeni islands on the world stage. 

The presence of the Emiratis in the Saudi-led coalition in invasion of Yemen was at times even opposed to by the cabinet of the resigned and fugitive former President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, especially at the end of 2018, when the tensions between the southerners supported by the Emirates and the forces loyal to Mansour Hadi rose. Clashes ensued, leading to the seizure of the presidential palace by the Southern Transitional Council (STC). At the time, Aden authorities said the request for intervention in Yemen was made only to Saudi Arabia not the UAE. 

The UAE even in later 2019 said it planned to remove all of its troops from Yemen. 

But ever since, Abu Dhabi sought an alternative formula to legitimize its presence and launch operations on Yemen soil especially against its opponents to continue its intervention and advance its expansionist agenda. 

In February 2020, Lieutenant General Issa al-Mazrouei, commander of joint operations in Yemen, said: “Five years after the start of Operation Decisive Storm, the military strategy has shifted from a direct approach to an indirect one, a strategy that the Yemeni forces themselves are implementing today.” 

The UAE controlled the islands and coasts of Yemen through the militias it established and financed, so that there is practically no exercise of sovereignty by the Yemenis on some islands. Tourists from all over the world go to Socotri Island after receiving visas from the UAE via flights coming from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This entry takes place without the Yemeni government having any presence or representation and even without coordination with Aden. 

For a long time, the Emirati leaders were eyeing domination of Yemen’s islands, ports, coasts, and international waterways, especially after 2012, the year Sana’a canceled an agreement with UAE’s DP World, a port operation company. This agreement granted the Emirati company the right to operate Aden port, which is one of Yemen’s most important ports in the Gulf of Aden. The agreement would have disrupted the operation of this port to the detriment of Yemen’s maritime and economic interests and to benefit of the UAE ports of Dubai and Jebel Ali. 

Two weeks ago and following Aden leaders’ visit to Abu Dhabi, the UAE government announced a plan to deposit $300 million in Central Bank of Yemen. 

“This agreement grants Emirates a mandate of Yemen and a permit to intervene in its security and military affairs,” said Yemeni political expert Ali al-Dhahab. 

End of coalitions and alliances 

From another perspective, this pact is the first legal step to organize or justify direct military and security intervention in Yemen by the UAE, independent of Saudi Arabia. 

In fact, the UAE wants to get rid of the challenges of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen and gain the freedom to act freely and in accordance with its interests. One of the biggest challenges is the reluctance to confront Ansarullah, the leading revolutionary force holding the north and capital Sana’a, because the Emiratis believe that confronting the movement has nothing to do with their plans in Yemen. Ansarullah is present in the north of Yemen and near the southern borders of Saudi Arabia and is not considered a threat to the UAE. 

Mustafa Naji, a Yemeni writer and researcher in diplomatic affairs, considers the signing of the security and military cooperation agreement between the PLC and the UAE as “an important step to dismantle the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.” 

In a Twitter post, Naji wrote that he predicts dismantling the Arab coalition as a channel for legitimizing the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council’s intervention in Yemen after pact was signed between the UAE and the PLC. 

On the other hand, this agreement drew concerns of the Islah Party with its highly vague ‘fight against terrorism’ article. The Islah Party currently has a weak presence in the PLC and even this is intolerable for the Emiratis who find the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates their enemies and even blacklists them as terrorists. 

Actually, the UAE has its own flowing and purposeful interpretation of the concept of terrorism in total disregard of the international laws to impose its influence on the Yemenis. The Emirati officials even sometime labeled the Yemeni army a “terrorist organization.” 

Previously, the UAE brought an American security company called Spear Operation Group owned by the Zionist figure Abraham Golan into Yemen with an agreement under the ruse of fighting terrorism. The group’s main mission was basically elimination of political opponents. According to what the American newspaper Buzzfeed published in its research in October 2018, most of the victims of these assassinations were from Islah party. 

Contributing to Israeli influence 

This presumption that the UAE is paving the way for presence of foreigners, particularly Israelis, in Yemen has been a source of concerns to Sana’a-based government. 

In this regard, deputy foreign minister of Sana’a-based National Salvation Government (NSG) condemned the UAE-Yemen agreement and threatened that there will be more attacks against the UAE if the latter refuses to “correct” its hostile behavior, including cooperation with the Israelis. 

The UAE, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020 along with Bahrain, intends to tie its security and economic interests to those of the Israelis in the whole region to help advance its programs. For example, in January last year, Yemeni media broke the news about Emirates bringing Israeli intelligence and military experts to Socotra under the cover of tourists to supervise construction of military bases and spying infrastructure on this strategic island. Under the newly-signed pact, Abu Dhabi’s hands would be even wider open in Yemen and, indeed, this means that security of Yemen would be the first victim to security pact with UAE.