Does the Saudi-led coalition seek to colonize Yemen’s Socotra island?
YemenExtra
Y.A
Analysts believe that the measure by the Saudi-led coalition to occupy the Yemeni island of Socotra is aimed at gaining dominance over major waterways that cross near the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
Saudi Arabia has dispatched additional military reinforcements to the island of Socotra in the past two days.
Saudi forces came to Socotra after the outbreak of a severe crisis between officials in the outgoing government and the UAE, when the latter sent military forces to the island. The discord ended with mediation by Riyadh, which then strengthened its military presence there, confirming that the reinforcements are “armor, light weapons and ammunition” for the Saudi forces, which are stationed at the airport and the port of the island.
Along with the weapons that arrived in Socotra, it is not excluded that the Saudis would have reinforced additional soldiers.
Head of the National Delegation, Mohamed Abdulsalam, Commented the militarily mobilization of Saudi Arabia in Socotrah saying “it reveals the nature of the aggression on Yemen. It is an aggression of that leads to occupation and expansion.”
“The infiltration of the invading forces in those areas, which are not part of the military conflict, is under the excuse of reconstruction. Our Yemeni People, however, all of its components, does not fall for such false allegations,” he explained.
Prime Minister Dr. Abdul Aziz Saleh ben Habtour condemned during his meeting with the Governor of the Socotra Archipelago, Hashim Saad Al-Soqatri, the destructive roles being carried out by the coalition in Socotra archipelago.
In the meeting, the Socotra Governor briefed the Prime Minister on the current situation in Socotra under the policies of the coalition in order to remove it from the list of world heritage as well as the coalition approach to consecrate the dispute among the people of the government to serve its objectives.
Ambassador and head of Yemen’s permanent delegation to the Paris-based UNESCO, Ahmed al-Sayyad, told Al Jazeera Arabic Channel that Saudi-UAE synergy, in wake of row over troop deployment to Socotra, has a hidden inclination to divide Yemen.
“It’s time to sit down with the Saudi-led coalition and find out what they want in Yemen,” Al-Sayyad said.
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition 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 and prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
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