Israel confirmed on Wednesday, its receipt to Socotra Island as part of a deal with the Saudi-led coalition in its war on Yemen for seven years, and in a move that confirms further rapprochement between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, in light of the Iron Dome system arrival.
Exclusive-Alkhabar Alyemeni:
The Hebrew journalist, Eddy Cohen, stated in a post on social media that an Israeli company had obtained the right to expand and operate the only Socotra airport, which means controlling all movement to and from the island.
Media reports said that Emirates Red Crescent had signed an agreement with two Israeli companies to expand the airport. The expansion process includes a spy center and another center for air intelligence of Israeli forces.
In this context, Anis Mansour, a consultant at Hadi’s embassy in Riyadh, and the most prominent theorists of Saudi war on Yemen revealed about Saudi Arabia’s reduction to its forces on the island, he pointed out that the number of Saudi soldiers and officers was more than 700, but only 60 of them remained.
These simultaneous developments, with US reports on negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel to buy air defense system known as “Iron Dome” indicating that Saudi Arabia handed over the island as a goodwill gesture to rapprochement with the Zionist entity, especially since it has been pressuring on “legitimacy” to officially hand over the island for a century, amid the attempt of Hadi and his entourage to reduce the period to only 40 years.
Socotra is posing a great importance to Israel in light of the international conflict over the maritime navigation line around the world due to the island’s location on the Arabian Sea and its mediation in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden, where Tel Aviv aims to acquire on the island to change China’s map of maritime navigation and to provide its need through in Eilat ports on the Red Sea.
