The UAE’s Phantom Exit: How “Withdrawal” From Yemen Masks a Deepening Proxy Empire

Behind public pledges to leave, Abu Dhabi’s surrogate forces and quiet security deals with Israel keep southern Yemen locked inside a dangerous external power grid

The United Arab Emirates has twice declared that it is pulling out of Yemen, in 2019 and again at the end of 2025, but in both cases it has kept a tight grip on southern Yemen through local allies an…