US allies Saudi Arabia, UAE risk a split in Middle East over competing visions
A ‘new order’ is emerging as Abu Dhabi-backed separatist allies clash with pro-Riyadh governments in the region
The Saudi bombing of an arms shipment reportedly provided by the UAE to separatists in southern Yemen last week has exposed the two Arab heavyweights’ divergent foreign policy approaches in the strategically important Red Sea and Horn of Africa, according to analysts.
According to Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, a major division appears to be emerging between some states that aim to anchor regional stability through “functioning” countries and others that view the existing state system as “chronically weak” and hence require their intervention through proxy groups.
“There now seems to be a fundamental misalignment between the Saudi and Emirati visions of regional order and willingness to take or tolerate geopolitical risk,” Ulrichsen told This Week In Asia.