Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemen Over UAE Weapons, US Media Sees 'Complex Conflict'
Saudi Arabia just bombed the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, claiming a weapons shipment from the UAE for a separatist group was the target. AP calls this a 'new escalation' and a strain on Riyadh-Abu Dhabi ties. Yet, this intricate family feud among US-backed Gulf states fighting a US-backed war in Yemen has been a grotesque pantomime for years. The US has provided billions in weapons and logistical
support to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, ensuring their 'decades-long war' (now 'decades-long' as of 2025 in the article, despite starting in 2014) remains well-funded and thoroughly destructive. While US presidents from Obama to Biden have approved massive arms sales enabling this humanitarian catastrophe (Obama's 2015 approval of over $1 billion in weapons; Biden's $650 million in 2021), media
outlets frame it as an internal regional squabble. One might wonder if the 'threat to security and stability' the Saudis cite extends to the US government's stability—financially speaking—given the arms deals. How many Yemenis have to die for Washington's 'complex' foreign policy to finally just be called, say, war profiteering?