Saudi Arabia and UAE planning New Airport Runway on Occupied Socotra

A joint military delegation from Saudi Arabia and the UAE arrived on the Yemeni island of Socotra with the purpose of establishing a new runway at Socotra Airport to receive Saudi-led coalition aircraft, local sources reported on Thursday.

The sources said that the governor appointed by the government loyal to the coalition, Raafat al-Thaqali, was in the reception of the Saudi-Emirati military delegation, before he toured with the Emirati military delegation in the area that was designated for the military runway within the Socotra Airport.

Al-Thaqali held, during the past few days, a series of meetings with leaders from the coalition and local ones to discuss plans to establish a military runway for the coalition warplanes.

Since June 2020, Socotra Island has been under the sole control of Abu Dhabi forces, in addition to the presence of Saudi forces. Then, the Zionist entity’s interventions in Socotra Island were exposed, which, in coordination with Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, established a monitoring center on the Island, which occupies strategic importance in its location overlooking the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.