Saudi-UAE coalition imposes new steps to separate Socotra from Yemen

ADEN, March 06 (YPA) – The Saudi-UAE coalition has started imposing new obstacles to flights from Aden city, south of Yemen, to Socotra Island.

Sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday that the Yemenia airways’ flight, which was heading to Socotra Island, was forced to return to Aden Airport, after the coalition forces refused to refuel the plane at Mahra Airport, which Yemenia uses as a refueling station before departing to Socotra Airport.

The sources explained that the foreign forces present at Mahra Airport in eastern Yemen, stipulated that the Yemeni plane return to Aden in exchange for providing it with fuel.

The sources added that preventing Yemenia Airlines from reaching Socotra Island represented a dangerous step in the UAE’s efforts to separate the island from Yemen, especially the move came days after the UAE-owned Eastern Triangle Holding Company took over the management of Socotra Airport, amid a wave of popular rejection by the airport’s workers and Island residents of the issue of handing over the airport to the UAE company, in a step violating the Yemeni constitution and law, which prohibits handing over airport management to foreign parties.

The UAE, the main partner with Saudi Arabia in the coalition fighting the war on Yemen, is trying hard to separate Socotra Island from Yemen. Since 2020, the UAE has been operating individual flights to Socotra Island without obtaining approval from the coalition-backed Yemeni authorities, in addition to a number of steps taken by the UAE to control Socotra, such as imposing an Emirati communications network on the island, controlling Socotra airport and port, and building military bases in cooperation with the Israeli occupation and the United States, as well as several measures aimed at changing the identity of Socotra Island amid complete silence from the coalition-funded Aden government.

AA