Saudi Arabia pledges $500m for Southern Yemen development

Saudi Arabia has unveiled a package of development initiatives worth roughly $500 million across southern Yemen, including in areas long dominated by the United Arab Emirates and its allied separatists, who were pushed out in a Saudi-backed offensive earlier this month, as reported by The New Arab plus agencies on 15th January.

The announcement underscores Riyadh’s increasingly assertive stance in Yemen amid rising tensions with the UAE. The separatist Southern Transitional Council seized swathes of the south in 2025 and advanced close to the Saudi border, prompting Riyadh to label the move a national security threat, demand the UAE pullback, and support a counteroffensive that removed the Southern Transitional Council from power.

On January 14th, Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman met with the head of Yemen’s internationally recognized government and several members of the Presidential Leadership Council, reaffirming the kingdom’s backing, according to a post on his official X account.

The same post detailed a broad slate of aid and development projects across 10 provinces, including new hospitals, schools, and roads, as well as fuel shipments to boost electricity generation.

It also announced the construction of a mosque on the island of Socotra named “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” invoking the formal title of the Saudi king. The strategically located island had been under UAE influence for years until recently.

“This support embodies the kingdom’s keenness to enhance security and stability, and to contribute to building a better future for Yemen and its brotherly people,” the post said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE once cooperated closely in a coalition fighting the Iran‑aligned Houthis in Yemen’s civil war, a conflict that produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. But the Gulf’s two most powerful states have increasingly diverged on regional issues, from geopolitics to oil policy, and those differences surfaced sharply during the Southern Transitional Council’s advance.

 

The New Arab Staff & Agencies, Maghrebi.org