Since the beginning of the operation in Yemen against the Houthi rebellion movement in 2015, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sought control over the Socotra Archipelago, which is under Yemeni sovereignty.
The Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Monday morning that this is part of a long-term project within an alliance founded between Israel and several Arab countries, particularly in the Gulf, under an American umbrella.
The archipelago, along with other islands and ports in Yemen, is a central point of this project.
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This accelerated the pace of its development, with an Israeli military base being built on Abd al Kuri Island, the second largest in the archipelago. As part of this project, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi met with US Central Command Commander Michael Kurilla and military commanders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan in Bahrain in June.
An article published in 2020 by a French-speaking Jewish community site claimed that the UAE and Israel were planning to establish a base on Socotra Island.
On September 9, 2020, the French intelligence site Intelligence Online confirmed the arrival of UAE and Israeli intelligence officers on the island at the end of August 2020.
It explained that the Southern Transitional Council was under pressure from the UAE to agree to the establishment of a joint Emirati-Israeli intelligence base.
According to a report published by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in November 2023, Socotra Island includes an Emirati intelligence base where Israeli-made sensors can be deployed to locate Iranian missiles and drones.
The military base project on Abd al Kuri Island may be part of a military intelligence integration that includes Emirati and Western bases overlooking the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Satellite images documented new construction at the port, which was often used to store UAE weapons and equipment under their direct supervision from 2017 to 2022. The forces also use the Mokha port in Yemen to transfer military supplies to militias they support on Yemen’s western coast.
The Socotra Archipelago is one of Yemen’s 22 provinces, located about 350 kilometers south of Yemen and about 250 kilometers east of Somalia. The islands are under Yemeni sovereignty. The main island’s area is 3,650 square kilometers, and the other islands are small, with some uninhabited.
In 2018, as part of the Yemeni civil war, UAE military forces landed on the island and took control of key points. Today, the island is de facto controlled by the Southern Transitional Council, supported by the UAE.
The UAE has done everything to achieve control over the archipelago.
It has recruited 900 young people from the island and transferred them to the Emirates. As for Israel, it has no direct presence in the Socotra Archipelago, but everything happening there aims to serve its security through its ally, the UAE, while providing most of the intelligence information.
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