Since the Saudi-Emirati rift erupted in southern Yemen after Abu Dhabi’s policies working against Saudi interests came into full view the Emirati media machine has labored brazenly and foolishly to patch what cannot be patched, to obscure glaring truths with sieves.
Yet such efforts are in vain. Empty allegations and claims unmoored from evidence carry no weight among people of reason, no matter how loudly their proponents clamor.
The suns of truth distinguish the vile from the virtuous, betrayal from fidelity, and falsehood from fact. When those suns rise, they strip conspiracies bare and expose the conspirators, revealing the magnitude of their crimes against their own nation.
They make unmistakably clear that these actors are instruments of demolition and sabotage in every Arab country they have infiltrated and that they have aligned themselves with the enemies of the nation to advance plans to fragment Arab states, particularly the major ones, into ethnic, sectarian, and religious mini-states.
In an article titled “A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s,” published in the Israeli journal Kivunim in February 1982, Israeli journalist Oded Yinon who served as a senior official in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, advised the late former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and worked for many years at The Jerusalem Post outlined a strategic vision for Israel in the 1980s.
Its core thesis held that Arab states were primed for fragmentation along ethnic, sectarian, and religious lines, and that Israel should seek to encourage such outcomes to secure its medium- and long-term security.
In their 2017 book, A New Path for World Peace: From American Empire to the First World State, Brian Polkinghorne, a professor of conflict analysis and dispute resolution, and Ted Becker examined Yinon’s plan as part of broader geopolitical strategies. They noted that the ideas presented in Yinon’s 1982 article were adopted and further developed in the 1996 policy paper “A Clean Break:
A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” drafted by Israeli political strategists and later influential in shaping U.S. foreign policy. They argued that the sequence of Middle Eastern events territorial occupations, wars, and regional interventions can be interpreted in light of Yinon’s framework.
The Global Research Center republished the document in English on November 7, 2015. Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and founder of the Center for Research on Globalization, described the document as a cornerstone of modern Israeli policy, reflecting the orientation of Israel’s military and security establishments.
This view was echoed by Israeli historian and thinker Avi Shlaim, who stated that Yinon’s strategy aligns with the far-right currents in Israel. The renowned linguist and Jewish intellectual Noam Chomsky likewise characterized it as an expression of extreme nationalist and right-wing sentiment in Israel.
In his 1983 book The Fateful Triangle, Chomsky placed the plan within the broader context of Israeli history, calling it a logical—albeit extreme—extension of prevailing tendencies toward expansion and the fragmentation of states surrounding Israel.
Anyone observing the conduct of Abu Dhabi’s leadership across numerous Arab countries in recent years can harbor little doubt that its actions mirror what Yinon proposed: the partition and weakening of Arab states into small, fragile entities. What, otherwise, is Abu Dhabi’s interest in backing the Libyan insurgent Khalifa Haftar with billions of dollars and military hardware?
Why import mercenaries from around the world to support his revolt against Libya’s internationally recognized government? What purpose is served by supporting and even managing Sudan’s separatist Rapid Support Forces, condemned by U.N. bodies and international rights organizations for killings, rape, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes?
What explains its support for separatist factions in northern Somalia (Somaliland), which have embraced the occupying entity and enabled it to plant a dagger in the flank of Arab states? Its interventions in Tunisia? Its stoking of tensions between Arabs and Berbers in Algeria?
Its backing of separatists in southern Yemen and the recruitment of American, French, and Russian mercenaries to assassinate scientific, intellectual, political, and military leaders there?
Its incitement of certain ethnic and religious minority leaders in Syria against the legitimate government established at the cost of millions of Syrian lives? And above all, what purpose is served by undermining Saudi Arabia’s efforts to unify Yemen and restore security and dignity to its people?
In late 2020, on December 1, the United States accused the United Arab Emirates of financing Russian mercenaries in Libya implicated in human rights abuses and violations of an international arms embargo. The U.S. Department of Defense said the UAE had provided “air and logistical support” to the Wagner Group a Russian private military contractor and other forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar.
A counterterrorism report issued by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) added that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded that the UAE was funding the group’s operations.
A 2020 U.N. report, cited by Middle East Monitor, stated that a UAE-linked private military group had deployed Western mercenaries to support Haftar’s forces alongside foreign fighters such as the Wagner Group. Multiple credible investigations including U.N. inquiries and reporting by major media outlets have documented Emirati intervention in Libya in support of Haftar.
A U.N. panel of experts stated unequivocally that the UAE had provided direct material and military support to Haftar’s forces in blatant violation of the U.N. arms embargo, including shipments of weapons, aircraft, vehicles, and air support, as well as the construction of military bases. U.N. correspondence further indicated that companies linked to the UAE purchased helicopters and boats that were delivered to Haftar’s forces via intermediaries to support attacks on Libyan targets.
On January 27, 2020, Turkey’s TRT published a report titled “Deception and Coercion: How the UAE Turned Sudanese Workers into Mercenaries in Libya and Yemen,” detailing allegations that Sudanese laborers were recruited under false pretenses and forced into combat roles, prompting protests in Khartoum.
In Sudan, Emirati involvement has been described as overt. Sudan’s permanent mission to the United Nations filed a complaint with the Security Council alleging direct Emirati intervention in the war, including the recruitment of Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces.
Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss said such actions violated Sudan’s sovereignty, international humanitarian law, and U.N. Security Council resolutions 1591 (2005) and 2736 (2024).
Other reports have alleged that Dubai-based companies collaborated with Colombian firms to recruit and deploy fighters, some of whom were reportedly captured or admitted to fighting with the RSF. Investigations by The Sentry linked Emirati-associated businessmen and security firms to the recruitment and financing of Colombian mercenaries.
A detailed report by Sky News documented RSF fighters filming and disseminating footage of alleged abuses, including executions and assaults, since the outbreak of war in April 2023. In an exclusive interview, an RSF intelligence officer reportedly confirmed that the UAE was the principal backer of the force in a war that has displaced 13 million people.
In Yemen, beyond its well-known break from the coalition in support of southern separatists, rights groups such as Euro-Med Monitor and SAM have alleged that the UAE employed American and French mercenaries to conduct political assassinations of Yemeni civilian figures unrelated to counterterrorism.
Other organizations have accused UAE-backed armed groups tied to the Southern Transitional Council of carrying out assassinations in Aden targeting political rivals and security officials aligned with the internationally recognized government.
On October 16, 2018, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian security chief living in exile in the UAE, brokered a deal for an Israeli-Hungarian security contractor to use American mercenaries for targeted killings in Yemen on behalf of Abu Dhabi.
Investigations by the BBC in cooperation with Reprieve indicated that nearly 160 assassinations occurred in southern Yemen, targeting politicians, clerics, activists, and community leaders with no proven links to terrorism.
Among those cited were Samhan al-Rawi, Sheikh Ali Othman al-Jilani, Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Mar’i al-Adani, Marwan Abu Shawqi, Muzhir al-Adani, Abdul Rahman al-Zuhri, Faiz al-Dubayani, Abed Mujmal, Yassin al-Adani, Fahd al-Younsi, Hadi Najib, and Adel al-Shahri.
Reports also named Abraham Golan, founder of Spear Operations Group, and former U.S. and French special forces personnel, including Isaac Gilmore and Dale Comstock, as involved in assassination operations allegedly commissioned by Abu Dhabi.
The controversy extended further: despite portraying itself as combating Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Dhabi was accused of recruiting former Al-Qaeda members into units affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council and training them for assassination operations.
In an interview with Arabi21, former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki accused the Emirati leadership of destabilizing the region and described Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed as serving Israeli interests. In remarks to Algerian media, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune alluded to Emirati interference in Algerian elections and accused it of fomenting identity tensions.
In December 2024, as Syrians celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Mohammed bin Zayed hosted Mowafaq Tarif, spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, and later Syrian Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri moves critics saw as interference in Syrian affairs and encouragement of separatist currents.
These, the author contends, are truths that cannot be concealed by defenders of Abu Dhabi’s policies, regardless of their rhetoric. The Quranic verse resonates: falsehood vanishes like foam, while that which benefits people endures.
Finally, it must be said: the people of the United Arab Emirates are innocent of these alleged crimes. Many honorable Emirati leaders, thinkers, and citizens reject what the author describes as reckless policies and oppose any role for their country as a vehicle for Israeli ambitions in the Arab world.
