Emirati VP to visit Saudi Arabia for first face-to-face meet since Yemen rift

UAE Vice President Mansour bin Zayed has accepted an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s defense minister to visit the kingdom on Tuesday for the first face-to-face meeting since a rift over Yemen.

In July, top officials and ministers in both countries posted about friendship and unity on social media, signalling a rapprochement months after a public fall-out between the two countries.

“His Royal Highness Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Defence, extended an invitation to his brother, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the sisterly United Arab Emirates, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Presidential Court, to visit the Kingdom tomorrow, Tuesday,” the defence ministry says in a statement on X.

The UAE’s official news agency WAM says Sheikh Mansour had accepted the invitation and would travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a “brotherly visit.”

During the July detente, Saudi General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh posted a picture of bin Salman alongside Sheikh Mansour that he said was taken a few days ago.

The Saudi olive branch came as the kingdom reels from weeks of Houthi attacks on its tankers, oil facilities, airports and even its capital, with the group taking control of the Red Sea coast from Saudi-backed government forces.