UAE reinforcements in Socotra amid rift with Saudi-led coalition
YemenExtra
Y.A
Residents and authorities on Yemen’s Socotra island said that the UAE is boosting its military presence in the world heritage site as divisions widen among a Saudi-led coalition”.
The military reinforcements of the United Arab Emirates forces sent ,Wednesday ,a ship carrying a number of tanks ,armored vehicles and heavy weapons, in conjunction with the arrival of three warplanes to the airport of Socotra.
The deployment comes amid widening divisions between forces loyal to the UAE and those backing the fugitive former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, loyal to Riyadh.
The movements of the UAE came after Bin Dagher had visited the 1st Marine Brigade in the island, which praised the members of the brigade and the support for the legitimacy of Hadi.
Bin Dagher had also visited several social figures on the island and carried out inspection visits to a number of government facilities inside Socotra.
The controlling of Socotra also comes against the backdrop of previous reports showing the UAE was seeking to illegally exploit the natural resources of the island and turn the place into a permanent military outpost-cum-holiday resort.
Socotra, located near Somalia in the Gulf of Aden, is protected by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO, meaning that even the Yemeni government is unable to interfere in the natural habitats and places of natural beauty.
Reports have suggested that the UAE has been actively cementing its presence in Socotra since the very beginning of the Saudi-led war on Yemen in March 2015. A Persian Gulf country rich in oil, the UAE has initiated similar extraterritorial projects in other areas including in Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland and the Yemeni islet of Perim.
To win public support among Socotra’s population of 60,000 people, UAE authorities have arranged free tours for residents to Abu Dhabi, while offering free healthcare and special work permits.
Critics say UAE’s tourism ambitions in Socotra are simply superficial and the country is seeking a permanent military presence there while trying to steal UNESCO-protected species of plants and animals from the island.
Residents of Socotra have angrily responded to the mid-week deployment of around 100 forcesto the island. Videos posted on the social media confirmed that people had taken to the streets to reject the increasing presence of the UAE forces.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its regional allies — mainly the united Arab Emirates and Jordan — started a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people later, the war has yielded little to that effect.
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