As fighting rages on between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi rebels, reports have emerged of possible intervention by the United Arab Emirates to help their Gulf neighbour.
The UAE officially announced the end of its involvement in Yemen in December 2025, after the Saudi-led military coalition bombed a southern separatist arms depot in Mukalla, and backed the Yemeni government's call for Abu Dhabi's forces to leave the country.
The episode marked a new low in relations between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, who had both entered Yemen's conflict to oppose the Iran-backed Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sana'a and most of northern Yemen.
Less than a year later, however, it appears that the UAE could once again join Saudi Arabia against the Houthis.
How would the UAE re-enter Yemen's war?
Citing unnamed sources in Yemen, The Guardian reported on Saturday that the UAE had agreed to resume payments to some separatist factions it had previously backed in the south, in order to help the anti-Houthi effort.
Maysaa Shujaa al-Deen, a senior analyst at the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies, says that while it is unlikely that the Emiratis will jump back in militarily, they could help Saudi Arabia logistically.
"They have experience, which they have through their military intervention in Yemen, and experience in fighting the Houthis and being in charge of some important areas, including the coast and Aden," Shujaa al-Deen told The New Arab.
Shujaa al-Deen notes that it was also "take time" for the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which was backed by the UAE, to mobilise in the south.
Meanwhile, questions hang over whether the southern separatists will take their fight beyond the borders of old southern Yemen.
"There are generally two positions int he south - one is that they should engage in the war before it comes to the south, and the other is that we are not going to engage unless the Houthis attack the south - and this second position is that of most of the STC," Shujaa al-Deen said.
What would be the UAE's demands?
Prior to disengaging from Yemen in late 2025, the UAE had backed southern separatist factions, most notably the STC, which led an offensive into against government forces in the Hadramaut region at that time.
The takeover was one of several moves by the separatists that led to the Saudi-backed call for the Emiratis to leave Yemen.
Shujaa al-Deen says that while Abu Dhabi has backed the separatists, its own interest is not to see the complete separation of the south from the rest of Yemen, as this would reduce UAE leverage in the country. Rather, any Emirati intervention would come with guarantees that "that their political agenda will be enforced in return".
"Aidarous al-Zubaidi has shown up for the first time since the crisis of December/ January, so this is one of the indications that the UAE's conditions [are in play]," Shujaa al-Deen said, referring to the STC leader who fled to Abu Dhabi after the fallout from the Saudi-UAE clash in January 2026.
Al-Zubaidi had attempted to establish STC control across southern Yemen, and called for a referendum on independence, leading to the demand that the UAE disengage from Yemen.
Al-Zubaidi made a video appearance last week after a long hiatus, drawing speculation of an attempted return to the political scene.
If re-engaged in Yemen, the Emiratis would also like to influence which factions are able to rule in the country, Shuja al-Deen adds.
"Another condition would be to oppose the Muslim Brotherhood, who have a really strong presence there, particularly in Taiz and Marib," she said.
Are relations cooling between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh?
The prospect of Abu Dhabi re-entering Yemen's war has also been viewed as a signal of a detente with Riyadh.
Shuja al-Deen says that the presence of a common enemy -- the Houthis -- would defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, adding that relations between them also deteriorated after the Saudi-Houthi truce in March 2022.
However, she notes that Yemen is just one theatre in which Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have clashed.
"They disagreed on Israel, Sudan, Somalia, also there is economic competition between them. So any agreement would only be about Yemen, not a comprehensive agreement between the two countries."