Emirati military aircraft arrives at Yemen Mayun Island
SOCOTRA, Jan. 03 (YPA) – An Emirati military cargo plane has arrived at the strategic Yemeni island of Mayun in the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the southern Red Sea and Aden Gulf.
Sources familiar with the matter said on Friday revealed, according to images from air traffic tracking sites, the Emirati C-130H plane landed on Mayun Island, (Perim), which the UAE turned into a joint military base with the Zionist enemy in May 2021.
The Emirati movements on the Island were attributed to limiting Yemeni military operations supporting the Palestinian people of Gaza by preventing the passage of Israeli ships heading to the occupied Palestinian ports until the war is stopped and the siege on Gaza is lifted.
Some observers believe that the UAE is working to prepare Mayun to launch Zionist attacks on Yemen, coinciding with its completion last month of the construction of the runway of the military base it established on Abd al-Kuri Island in the Socotra Archipelago during 2020.
The leadership of the coalition forces had acknowledged, through the Saudi Press Agency in May 2021, that a military base in Yemen’s Mayun Island was established with the aim of confronting the Sanaa forces to secure maritime navigation.
This comes after the American “Associated Press” Agency posted aerial photos showing the construction of a 1.85-kilometer runway on Mayun Island in Yemen, along with 3 aircraft hangars, at the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
While the Israeli website “DEBKA” reported in early June 2021 that the UAE’s establishment of the military base and an airstrip would enable it to control the maritime passage in the region, and monitor oil tankers and commercial ships from the Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Suez Canal.
The DEBKA explained that the UAE established “an airstrip in Mayun before leaving it in 2017 in an effort to control the port of Aden,” indicating that “Israel” would benefit from the base in monitoring the maritime region.
The website discussed the strategic importance of the UAE military base on Mayun Island, which would change the balance of military power in the region.
Earlier, Abdullah bin Amer, a Yemeni military researcher, revealed that the secret meeting, which was held in November 2022 between Yemeni leaders loyal to the coalition, including Emirati and Saudi officials in Abu Dhabi and Israeli intelligence officers, had resulted in an agreement that the air base on Mayun Island would be under “nominal” American supervision, while direct supervision would be by Israel and the Emirates.
This came after the forced displacement operation was carried out by the Emirates against the island’s residents, during the past years, while it continued to send forces and military and engineering equipment from it in October 2023.
AA