How Oman went from mediator to silent Saudi partner in Yemen fight
By Sean Mathews
Published date: 9 January 2026 18:58 GMT | Last update: 1 day 1 hour ago
For years, as fighting raged in Yemen, neighbouring Oman strained to keep its profile as a neutral mediator among warring sides. But when UAE-backed separatists swarmed into a Yemeni region on its border, Muscat took sides.
Oman shared intelligence with Saudi Arabia and cooperated on military strikes in late December into early January against the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen’s al-Mahra region, a western and Arab diplomat based in the Gulf region told Middle East Eye.
A Gulf analyst speaking on condition of anonymity told MEE that Muscat and Riyadh shared intelligence that the UAE-backed STC planned to announce secession in the vein of Somaliland across the Red Sea.
“Oman acted in the shadows,” Ibrahim Jalal, an expert on the Gulf and Arabian Sea security, told MEE. “But as much as Saudi Arabia was impacted by the STC’s adventurism in Hadhramaut, Oman was impacted by the STC’s miscalculated adventurism in al-Mahra,” he said.
The STC's advance on Yemen’s two most eastern governorates turned into a strategic blunder for the group and its patron, Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia’s air force decimated the STC in the open, desert terrain.