Secret photos reveal Israeli base on Yemeni island of Socotra
SANAA, Sept. 21 (YPA) – The UAE has established a joint military base with US and Israeli forces on the island of Jabal Zaqr, off the western coast of Yemen.
A source familiar with the matter affirmed the military base aimed at launching new attacks against Sanaa-based armed forces, explaining that since March 2025, the UAE has been constructing military facilities for equipment and troops on Jabal Zaqr, an island located almost 32 km from the Yemeni coast and 150 km from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, making it a strategic location for future US-Israeli special operations against what they call “the Houthis”.
The source added that a 2.1 km runway was built, extending an existing helipad on the island, to accommodate large military transport aircraft. Furthermore, a new 185-meter-long pier has been constructed to support military logistics on the island, along with storage facilities connected to the pier.
Satellite images captured in early September, for the first time, have revealed construction work that began in last March, indicating a significant escalation of Israeli-Emirati naval military activity against Yemeni forces in Sanaa. The images also showed the location of an Emirati helicopter base and a military base under construction on the island.
This came alongside threats issued by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday in a post on X, in which he vowed to “raise the Israeli flag in Sanaa, the capital of a unified Yemen,” a clear message of defiance to the Yemeni people.
In response, Hizam al-Asad, a member of Ansarallah political office in Sanaa, described Katz’s threats as “mere rhetoric,” stating that Sanaa is more away from him than the sun itself, adding that the Zionist entity to awaits hell.
Consequently, these Israeli moves and threats coincided with the announcement of a naval alliance in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in partnership with Britain, last Tuesday. This alliance, which ostensibly aimed at protecting Israeli shipping, was intended to legitimize Saudi and Emirati-backed factions and curb Yemeni military operations in support of the people of Gaza, as part of the outcomes of the so-called “Maritime Security Conference”.
In his weekly address last Thursday, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the supreme leader of Ansarallah movement, pointed out that the Saudi announcement regarding its partnership with Britain in the Red Sea was aimed at protecting Israeli shipping, adding that any claim of protecting maritime navigation made by any party at this stage, in reality, only means protecting the shipping interests of the Israeli enemy. The leader further stated that neither the Saudis nor the British, nor any other party that aligns itself with the Israeli enemy, would succeed in protecting Israeli ships.
This comes after the UAE has established a joint military base with Israeli forces on the island of Mayun, located in the middle of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The UAE also constructed an airstrip on the island in 2016, and worked to complete it has been scheduled to resume in early 2025. In addition, the UAE established a military base on the island of Abd al-Kuri, part of the Socotra archipelago in the eastern Gulf of Aden, in 2020.
Additionally, the UAE has deployed several maritime surveillance centers across the archipelago, including one in Ras Qatanan, southwest of Socotra, overlooking the islands of Samha and Abd al-Kuri and the Horn of Africa; another in Mumi, northeast of Socotra, a high-altitude location overlooking the sea; and a third in Balabuda, near Hadibu Airport, the main airport on Socotra.
Therefore, the UAE military bases on the Yemeni islands, particularly in Muqall and Socotra, as well as the Rayyan airport in Mukalla, the Balhaf facility in Shabwah on the Arabian Sea, and Mukha west of Taiz near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and other areas, may be as a key hub for UAE projects. As a major ally of “Israel”, the UAE will deploy Israeli-made sensors to monitor Yemeni missiles and drones targeting Israeli ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, starting from the time of the announcement of its support for Yemen in October 2023, until the cessation of hostilities and the collapse of the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.
The Saudi-led coalition forces had announced their control of the Yemeni island of Zakr on September 15, 2015, a week after taking control of the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea.
AA