The Saudi-led war in Yemen is one of the most dangerous and paradoxical developments in the region in recent decades. The six-month conflict continues to intensify and attract troops from other Arab countries, threatening to exacerbate violence and insecurity across the Middle East.

The war in Yemen is a rite of passage for members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are asserting their power and the maturity of their statehood by launching a war against a weaker neighbor. It is equally driven by their exaggerated but nonetheless real fear of growing Iranian influence in the region. The Saudis were especially terrified of being surrounded by Iran’s involvement in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and finally in Yemen, given Tehran’s links with the Houthis.

Half a year into the war, the risks of this venture are just becoming clear for the Saudis and their allies. The aerial bombings that began in March have failed to wrest back control of all Yemen from the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who late last year swept into Sana’a and dissolved the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia and its multi-nation coalition are expected to launch ground operations, which could threaten and burden the region for years. This may also increase local and global terrorism threats by providing Al-Qaeda with a substantial territorial base similar to that of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) already appears strengthened by the chaos in Yemen in its drive to anchor itself among disaffected populations. AQAP has built alliances with anti-Houthi tribes and political forces, penetrating into local governance systems in the southern Hadramawt province — including the port of Mukalla that allows the group to move men and materials at will. It has also informally fought alongside the Saudi-allied Yemeni forces that are trying to restore Hadi’s exiled government.

Al-Qaeda and ISIL have both attacked targets inside Saudi Arabia, a trend that could spread to other GCC countries if the chaos in Yemen allows them to cement their local presence.

“Yemen’s civil war has secured nearly all of AQAP’s immediate military objectives,” the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center, said in a report on Sept. 11. “The West retreated. The Yemeni military and security forces, what is left of them, are no longer fighting AQAP. The Yemeni state is broken, and local authorities have filled the void. … There is an active insurgency in Yemen rooted in Sunni communities that provides an opportunity for AQAP to further establish itself.”

The Yemen war has claimed some 5,000 lives — one-third of them civilians. Yet the bloodshed seems secondary to the Saudi-led coalition, which continues to fight on, with little regard for the perilous consequences of foreign interventions, as we still witness in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

For the Saudis and Emiratis in particular, this is also about their identity, their place in the region and the world, and their ability to come together when they feel threatened. It is about achieving maturity in the arena of statehood.