SANA’A (Dispatches) – A
delegation of military experts from the Zionist regime has apparently been stationed to the Yemeni island of Socotra, more than six months after it was reported that the United Arab Emirates was constructing a settlement on the strategic island to accommodate dozens of Zionist regime troops, officers and military experts.
The Arabic-language Yemen Press Agency, citing informed sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that an Israeli military delegation along with a number of UAE intelligence officers have been present on Socotra Island since a few days ago.
The sources added that the Zionist delegates, who are believed to be technical experts affiliated with the regime’s navy, have many devices and equipment and have been searching and digging in different parts of the island.
Home to some 60,000 people, Socotra overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a main shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, it has a unique ecosystem.
The French-language news outlet JForum said in August 2020 that the occupying regime, in cooperation with the UAE, was planning to build intelligence-gathering bases on the Socotra Island.
The purpose of the bases, according to the report, is to electronically monitor Saudi-led forces waging a war on Yemen.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states.
The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah popular resistance movement says the enemies have failed in their attempt to occupy the country.
“The enemies’ aspirations to occupy our country and control our people are turning to mirages and disappointments…,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said during a speech on Thursday, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network reported.
“The enemy today is in real trouble, as our people stand by their army, loyal and determined to prevent the enemy from occupying our country,” he added.
A United Nations-brokered truce came into force in April between the coalition and Ansarullah. The truce has been extended twice ever since.
On Thursday, the Yemeni official also called on the Saudi-led coalition to “seize the opportunity of the armistice and completely halt its aggression,” as well as a simultaneous siege it has been deploying against the country.
“We call on the coalition of aggression to take the opportunity to completely halt its aggression and end the blockade and occupation. We call on the coalition of aggression to learn from the lessons that have proven its goals of occupying our country and controlling its people as impossible.”