The facts
The United Arab Emirates has reportedly agreed to re-enter the Yemen conflict by resuming payments to some government forces fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in the south, according to sources in Yemen cited by The Guardian. In return, Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide air cover for the anti-Houthi force. This new cooperation agreement is seen as a sign of renewed cooperation after the UAE withdrew from operations inside Yemen in January and cut off its funding. The advance by Houthi forces across Yemen has alarmed Gulf state rulers. Saudi Arabia is facing daily drone and missile attacks, with Houthi strikes affecting its airports and energy infrastructure. Southern forces, mainly the Giant Brigades, were previously trained and funded by the UAE and are considered effective. Yemen’s UN-recognized government declared a counteroffensive last week to drive Houthi forces from the capital Sana’a, but military progress has been limited around Majzar near Marib and the Bab al-Mandab strait. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have responded to a demand by southern Yemen separatists for a referendum on secession. The separatist Southern Transition Council has also not yet agreed for its troops to fight outside the borders of the old Southern Yemen. On Friday, two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the airport of Aden while a passenger plane was preparing to take off, with no casualties reported. The strike followed a Houthi attack on a presidential palace in Aden that killed at least five people and injured 16.
Our take
Fuck me sideways, the geniuses are back. The United Arab Emirates, which slunk out of Yemen in January like a kid who got bored of a video game, has reportedly agreed to crawl back to the table and start shoveling cash into the conflict again. And in a stunning display of strategic innovation, their partner Saudi Arabia - a country currently getting its airports and oil infrastructure routinely slapped by Houthi drones - has agreed to provide the air cover. It's the diplomatic equivalent of two arsonists, having failed to extinguish the inferno they started, deciding the solution is to piss gasoline on it while standing in the middle of the blaze.
These absolute cunts are 'renewing cooperation' for one simple reason: the Houthis they've spent nearly a decade and untold billions trying to bomb into dust are, against all their princely expectations, winning. The advance has 'alarmed' the Gulf state rulers. No shit it has. You turn a country into a fucking parking lot, and the people you're trying to kill not only survive but get stronger? That tends to happen when your war cabinet is a bunch of rich fucks who think conflict is a procurement issue solvable by buying the most expensive toys and hiring the scariest-looking guys.
So the UAE's masterstroke is to resume payments to the 'Giant Brigades,' the same forces it previously trained, funded, and then abandoned. Because the definition of insanity - doing the same thing and expecting different results - is apparently the core curriculum at Gulf state military academy. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, will provide the air power. Fantastic. More sorties from the air force whose precision targeting is so legendary it can't distinguish a fucking wedding convoy from an armored column. That'll definitely turn the tide.
Let's look at the ground these visionary leaders are trying to save. The UN-recognized government - a title about as meaningful as 'world's tallest midget' - declared a counteroffensive last week. Its 'military progress' has been 'limited' around Majzar and the Bab al-Mandab strait, which is war-nerd speak for 'getting their asses absolutely handed to them in a sack.' Meanwhile, the separatist Southern Transitional Council, another faction these clowns bankroll, won't even agree to let its troops fight outside the borders of the old South Yemen. So the grand anti-Houthi coalition is a fractured gaggle of groups who mostly hate each other, led by two petrostates who can't win a war they started with a blank check.
And the Houthis? They're not waiting for this brilliant new/old strategy to bear fruit. On Friday, they fired two missiles at Aden airport while a passenger plane was fueling up. Before that, they hit a presidential palace and killed people. They are demonstrating, with brutal and fucking embarrassing clarity, that they can strike the heart of their enemies' supposed territory whenever they want. The response from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi? To have a little meeting and agree to do more of the exact same expensive, catastrophic, failing bullshit. It's a masterclass in vanity-funded stupidity, a monument to the idea that if you're rich enough, you never have to admit you're a loser, even as your money burns and people die. These bastards are so profoundly up their own asses they think writing another check counts as a plan. It's pathetic.
