Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) in Abu Dhabi, on November 27, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to wield influence in the Middle East and make itself known as the leader of Arab world (if not Muslim world) have been undermined by the United Arab Emirates’ divisive role in the Middle East, regional experts tell Turkey’s TRT World.

A clear example is the war in Libya, where Saudi Arabia directly supported the new campaign of Libyan rebel commander General Khalifa Haftar to seize control of the capital Tripoli last year, offering tens of millions to the bloody offensive.

However, despite Riyadh’s financial support for Haftar, the UAE has overtaken Riyadh as the Libyan strongman’s leading patron, the experts say.

Saudi Arabia most likely holds secret resentment toward the UAE’s more assertive and increasingly independent stance, particularly in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, along with the UAE and a coalition of its vassal states, launched a military aggression on Yemen in 2015 in a bid to reinstall the regime of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

However, over five years into the war, the kingdom has achieved neither of its objectives, and the UAE has gradually parted ways with Riyadh.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are already in competition for the upper hand in Yemen’s south, where the UAE supports a separatist movement which says it wants renewed independence for South Yemen.

On April 25, the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC), which represents a secessionist movement within southern Yemen backed by the UAE, declared self-administration and claimed authority over state institutions in the interim capital of Aden.

The move has sparked political competition for Saudi patronage, and all of this poses a major diplomatic challenge for the Saudis.

The Saudis, struggling with their limited military capabilities and the financial strain of the conflict, have engaged with the Houthis in backchannel talks over the last few months, an apparent recognition of their defeat in the war.

The Western-sponsored bombing campaign has plunged Yemen into what the UN says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and killed more than 100,000 people in the impoverished state.

SOURCE: PRESS TV