(Photo by Fahd Sadi via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 DEED)
In December 2025, the decades-long war between multiple factions within Yemen took a new turn. The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group based in Southern Yemen, took control of several cities and government buildings across the country. This coup attempt was supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of several monarchies located on the Arabian Gulf.
As of January 2026, the governing coalition, supported by Saudi Arabia, has regained control of these institutions. Located directly north of Yemen, Saudi Arabia has historically taken an active role in its neighbour’s politics, most notably by leading the ongoing international intervention into the country.
Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been heavily involved in Yemen’s conflict in recent years, but they are not the only foreign powers with a stake in the nation. Iran, Israel, and the United States (U.S.) have and will continue to play an important role in shaping conditions in the country. Yemen remains a battleground for international influence that continues to cause the suffering of its residents.
The Yemeni Crisis
Located on the southernmost tip of the Arabian Gulf, Yemen won its independence from British colonial rule in 1967. Ruled as two separate countries—North and South Yemen—for several decades, they were formally unified in 1990. A brief civil war broke out in 1994 due in part to the South’s concerns about its marginalisation in the new country. Present-day conflict traces some of its origins to this reunification. Underdeveloped rural areas of the country became discontented with the elite-dominated government that governed the country for 33 years.
The series of protests that spread throughout the Arabic-speaking world in 2011, known as the ‘Arab Spring,’ also took root in Yemen. Domestic grievances against the authority of the ruling government eventually unseated President Abdullah Saleh in 2012. The following power vacuum, however, eventually spiraled out of control and devolved into a civil war in 2014.
While it has had periods of relative peace in the 12 years since, Yemen and its population have suffered immensely as a result of this civil war. The fighting has directly killed over 150,000 people, with a significant number being civilians. The catastrophic famines and health epidemics that have come with the collapse of basic infrastructure brought about by the war have killed over 200,000 more people. With millions of Yemenis suffering malnutrition and chronic illness, many refer to Yemen’s war as the ‘world’s worst humanitarian crisis.’
Yemen’s Network of Foreign Interests
To understand how conditions in Yemen became so dire, it is important to distinguish between the different factions within the country. One of the main authorities in Yemen today is known as the Houthis. The Houthis grew in support after the reunification of Yemen by appealing to populist discontent with foreign involvement and economic underdevelopment in Yemen’s northwestern region. They launched an insurgency against the central government in 2004, achieving territorial gains until the outbreak of the 2014 civil war.
To this day, they continue to govern most of the country’s northwest. The Houthis also remain active in domestic and international affairs; since 2023, they have blockaded Israeli and American ships passing through the Red Sea in opposition to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and, as a result, the U.S. have launched airstrikes against them in opposition.
The other main faction is the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the internationally recognized governing body in Yemen. The PLC is closely supported by Saudi Arabia with further assistance from the UK, the U.S., and France. Saudi Arabia led an international intervention into the country’s civil war in 2015 and has since taken a key role in running the country. While Iran officially denies this accusation, multiple sources have confirmed that it has historically provided material support for the Houthis throughout their existence. This has led many observers to label the civil war as a ‘proxy war’ between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The 2025 STC Offensive & The Saudi-Emirati Split
UAE support for the separatist Southern Transitional Council seeking greater representation for the south of Yemen has made this intricate web of influences even more complex. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were historically allied with one another in their intervention into Yemen since 2015, with both supporting the internationally recognized PLC. The UAE’s increased support for the STC over the PLC, however, can be seen as the Gulf monarchy making a play for greater influence in the country. This attempted coup eventually resulted in failure, with UAE-Saudi talks about dissolving the STC and the Emirates pledging to exit the country outright.
This development comes as the two Gulf monarchies are at odds in other conflicts. This is most evident in Sudan, where the UAE is the principal international supporter of the insurgent Rapid Support Forces, while Saudi Arabia supports the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Despite this brief change in allegiances, this chain of events nonetheless demonstrates a renewed international focus on Yemen. After years of relative stalemate in the civil war, renewed Saudi control over the country may signal a new offensive against the Houthis to regain northwestern territories. Indeed, in the aftermath of a brief period of tension between the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Senior Advisor on African and Arab Affairs stated that all parties “agree on the importance of defeating the Houthis.”
Beyond Houthi War Crimes in Yemen
As an international coalition potentially prepares to take back Houthi-controlled territory, it is crucial to foreground once more the suffering that this war has already inflicted on the Yemeni populace. Millions of lives have been impacted by a war that has gone on for over a decade.
Houthi war crimes have been well-documented and highly publicized during this civil war. Their enlistment of child soldiers, killing of civilians, and anti-semitism has drawn global condemnation. This has led them to be designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and others.
To lay blame solely at the feet of the Houthis, however, is to fundamentally misunderstand the conditions in Yemen. The Saudi-led international coalition has killed and displaced thousands of civilians in its airstrikes on hospitals and schools. What’s more, international human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch have argued that Saudi Arabia’s strict control of Yemeni ports in PLC-run areas directly contributed to and worsened famine conditions by delaying food shipments.
The STC & Enduring Regional Inequality
The UAE has, through its push to support the STC, attempted to use the legitimate grievances of the Yemeni people against both the Saudi-backed PLC and the Houthis, for its own goals. As noted by commentator Yasmeen al-Eryani, the December offensive reflects the unrest that has been mounting in the region since 2023, which saw widespread protests over continued poor living conditions.
While the Houthis have been widely condemned and sanctioned, Western nations continue to conduct new trade deals and resume arms transfers to Saudi Arabia in spite of its crimes in the country. Negotiations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia resulted in the latter strictly demanding the dissolution of the STC as a condition for peace.
While opposition to the Houthis is, in theory, now unified under the PLC, the short-term result of the STC’s absence will undoubtedly be further unrest and instability in the country. As the Saudi-led coalition seeks to exert greater control over the non-Houthi-controlled areas of the country, this unrest, if unchecked, may risk further fragmentation of the nation. Altogether, Yemeni people are left with fewer choices, the possibility of impending war, and a lack of international attention.
Toward a Resolution in Yemen
Shortsighted analyses of the conflict in Yemen view the conflict as either a proxy war or a domestic struggle between democracy and terrorism. These viewpoints fail to foreground how international actors have exploited conflict conditions in order to gain control of the country’s crucial port territory and its precious natural resources. Caught between a network of foreign interests ranging from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Iran, and Israel, it is the Yemeni population that has paid in blood for geopolitical competition.
In addition to wider recognition of the civil war, resolution in Yemen requires putting pressure on these international actors that are transparently seeking influence in the country. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in particular, continue to court lucrative business dealings with numerous countries around the world at the same time as they seek to exploit Yemen for their own gain. Placing economic pressure on these nations while coordinating international mediation is essential to creating a solution to the legitimate grievances that have and continue to fuel the disastrous humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Edited by Khushi Mehta
