By Hatem Maher, Jana Choukeir and Ahmed Elimam
Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of a group of southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates, fled Yemen by boat before boarding an aircraft to Mogadishu that landed at a military airport in Abu Dhabi.
The drama escalates a row between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the most powerful countries in the oil-rich Gulf. Zubaidi had failed to show up in Riyadh for crisis talks over turmoil in southern Yemen on Wednesday.
The separatists said he had been asked to go to Saudi Arabia under threat.
The Saudi claim that the UAE helped him escape raises the stakes in a crisis that erupted last month when the separatists swept through southern Yemen and reached the border with Saudi Arabia.
The fast-moving developments caused a rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, fracturing a coalition headed by Yemen's internationally recognised government which is battling the Iran-backed Houthis.
The close US allies have sharp differences over a wide range of volatile issues across the Middle East -- from geopolitics to oil output -- which burst out into the open with the crisis in Yemen.
BRAZEN ESCAPE
A delegation from Zubaidi's Southern Transitional Council (STC) held fruitful talks in Riyadh with the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, said Mohammed Al Ghaith, a senior official of the group.
His comments on X suggested a split may be emerging among the separatists, complicating efforts to stabilise the south as tension rises between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
In a statement on Thursday, the coalition said Zubaidi and others accompanying him on the plane to Mogadishu from Somaliland were under the supervision of UAE officers and waited an hour before flying to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.
The coalition did not clearly say if Zubaidi was still aboard en route to the UAE capital.
If his presence in the UAE capital is confirmed, it could anger the Saudis, who pressured the UAE to rein separatists after their advance through south Yemen.
The UAE, which withdrew its remaining forces from Yemen, has called for de-escalation in the country, reeling from one of the world's worst humanitarian crises caused by the civil war.
There was no immediate comment from the UAE or the Southern Transitional Council headed by Zubaidi.
The United Arab Emirates has pursued an assertive foreign policy and carved out its own sphere of influence across the Middle East and Africa, a strategy thrown into the spotlight after the rare military escalation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
The plane from Mogadishu turned off its identification system over the Gulf of Oman, before turning it back on 10 minutes prior to arrival at (Al Reef) military airport in Abu Dhabi, the coalition said.
The coalition statement also mentioned by name the UAE officer whose help Zubaidi had sought.
A day earlier, the coalition said Zubaidi had failed to board the flight to Riyadh for talks and his fate was unclear, clouding efforts to contain last month's military escalation.
After al-Zubaidi's unexplained absence from the Riyadh talks, his group said he was overseeing military and security operations in the southern port city of Aden.
The aircraft was of a type similar to those frequently used in conflict zones on the routes of countries such as Ethiopia, Libya and Somalia, the coalition added.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE first intervened in Yemen after the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014.
The UAE joined the Saudi-backed coalition the following year in support of the internationally recognised government.
The STC was set up in 2017 with UAE backing and eventually joined the government coalition, which controls southern and eastern Yemen.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher; Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Kate Mayberry and Clarence Fernandez)
