Socotra has a unique ecosystem and been listed by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site.
Sanaa: Authorities here have condemned a recent move by the United Arab Emirates to fly Israeli tourists to the strategic island of Socotra on Emirati visas.
Ansarallah led Yemeni Tourism Ministry said in a statement issued on Monday that the UAE’s measure violates international law, given that Socotra is a Yemeni island occupied by the Saudi-led coalition, Saba Net news agency reported.
“The transfer of tourists to the Socotra Island reveals the plans and programs of the aggressor forces, which are in line with the Zionist schemes to dominate Yemeni islands as well as the steps towards normalization with the regime,” it said.
Two weeks earlier, Yemeni sources said the UAE is continuing to operate weekly direct flights and tours to Socotra without authorization from the government.
Hundreds of foreign tourists have arrived on the archipelago over the past few days using visas granted to them by Abu Dhabi, these reports added.
Images of foreign tourists have circulated recently across social media, with many activists claiming most are Israeli. Reports emerged last month after an image purporting to show a group of Israeli tourists accompanied by Emirati security officers and their assistants on the island.
Israeli Tourists in Socotra –
https://t.co/0oC73DE1eM pic.twitter.com/H9gV39jvy2
— الخبر اليمني (@alkhabar_ye) April 9, 2021
The development came more than eight months after the UAE established full diplomatic relations with the Tel Aviv in a deal brokered by former US president Donald Trump.
Home to some 60,000 people, Socotra overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a main shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. It has a unique ecosystem and been listed by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site.
Last June, the UAE-backed separatists of the so-called Southern Transitional Council [STC] took control of the resource-rich island in a move described as a “coup” by the regime of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Now, the Emiratis have a military base in Socotra that is used to collect intelligence on maritime traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden. Moreover, they are reportedly working with the ‘Israelis’ to set up spy bases on the Yemeni island.
The occupation of Socotra came two months after the UAE-backed separatists broke with once-allied Saudi-sponsored pro-Hadi militants in Yemen, saying they would establish a self-ruled administration in the war-torn country’s southern regions.
The infighting has dealt a blow to the Riyadh-led military coalition, which has been engaged in a military campaign against Yemen since March 2015 with the aim of reinstalling Hadi in Sanaa.
The Western-sponsored bombing campaign has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and plunged the impoverished state into what the UN says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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