US Getting More Deeply Involved as Yemen War Spreads to United Arab Emirates

Airstrikes in Yemen are on the rise in recent weeks, and with them, the Houthis have been firing more missiles and drones against neighboring Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is greatly complicating the increasingly uncertain US strategy in Yemen.

The Biden Administration has called for getting out of Yemen, but doesn’t appear to be moving toward that. In addition to publicly saying they want the Saudis to remain involved in Yemen after the war, the US also is firing some defensive missiles amid the cross-border fire.

The Pentagon confirmed that during recent missile fire on Abu Dhabi, the US fired Patriot interceptor missiles to try to intercept the Houthi missiles. The UAE claimed to have intercepted the missiles with Patriot fire, and the White House statement seemed to suggest they were involved in that process, despite the UAE not crediting them.

Economic interests in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are likely to mean that US defensive involvement will continue, so long as the escalation of the war means those nations are targets.

This deeper involvement is exactly what the US says it doesn’t want, and heading in that direction is only going to widen the war, in turn widening the temptation to intervene.