Following the UAE’s withdrawal from Yemen in late 2025, Saudi Arabia has intensified a coordinated media campaign against the Emirati regime, aiming to consolidate its dominance within the Gulf order.
Reporting by Middle East Monitor suggests that Saudi state broadcaster Al-Ekhbariya has increasingly framed this campaign through human rights allegations, accusing Abu Dhabi of operating secret detention facilities in Yemen and continuing to back separatist militias whose activities in Hadhramaut and Al-Mahra are portrayed as threatening both Saudi security interests and civilian safety, despite the formal withdrawal.
These accusations have fuelled tensions between the two countries, with the UAE dismissing the claims as “nothing more than deliberate fabrications and misinformation.” This episode represents only the tip of the iceberg in the Saudi-Emirati war of narratives, as both states seek to expand their influence within the Gulf, particularly in arenas such as economic primacy, tourism, and artificial intelligence.
Crucially, this rivalry is no longer confined to the Gulf. According to CNN, Saudi officials believe the UAE has cultivated links with elements of the Druze community in Syria, some of whose leaders have publicly entertained the prospect of secession, raising concerns in Riyadh about further fragmentation and instability. Saudi Arabia has characterised such activity as a direct threat to Syria’s territorial unity and to its own national security. Indeed, CNN reports that these concerns reflect a wider Saudi assessment that supporting non-state actors or engaging in sensitive local power arrangements risks fuelling regional instability and establishing dangerous precedents that could reverberate across neighbouring states, particularly Saudi Arabia itself.
Ultimately, this struggle for power and influence across the region has unfolded largely to the detriment of local populations. As Saudi Arabia and the UAE compete for strategic primacy, their rivalries have contributed to political fragmentation, prolonged insecurity, and the instrumentalisation of local actors, leaving civilian communities exposed to the consequences of externally driven power contests rather than benefiting from meaningful stability or reconstruction.