Socotra: Is it being made UAE 8th Emirate?

[Old_Observer]

Yemen's Socotra: The UAE's "Eighth Emirate"?

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10:03 12.05.2018Get short URL

Andrew Korybko

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The latest reports about the UAE's dispatch of troops and tanks to the Yemeni island of Socotra without the permission of the internationally recognized government that it's supposedly allied with have raised eyebrows and caused some to remark that the territory might be slated to become the Gulf country's "eighth emirate".

 

 

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The UK Independent published the first in an exclusive series of reports last week about the Indian Ocean Island that its journalists recently travelled to, revealing that the UAE was for all intents and purposes in full control of this territory despite there never having been any presence of the Houthi rebels here. This prompted the Yemeni Prime Minister to take to Facebook to condemn what he called the "continuing disagreement" and declare that "correcting this is everyone's responsibility".

The UAE's official response is that its military presence is being "distorted" by what it described as "malicious campaigns led by the Muslim Brotherhood", though unnamed sources told the al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper that Yemen was considering asking the UN Security Council to intervene in restoring Sanaa's sovereignty over the island.

This surprising development comes as the UAE and its Saudi coalition ally are still in the throes of a low-intensity disagreement with one another over the future of the former country of South Yemen, whose Emirati-backed separatists staged a so-called "soft coup" in Aden at the beginning of this year against the Saudi-supported international Yemeni authorities there. Prior to the 1990 unification, South Yemen controlled Socotra, so any UAE-backed secession could see the island fall into Abu Dhabi's hands by proxy, that is, unless the Emirates stage its own separatist-within-a-separatist campaign like some analysts have suspected might be around the corner. From a strategic standpoint and little-known to the rest of the world, this tiny country has taken on an outsized importance lately by establishing a military presence all throughout the Gulf of Aden.

Apart from South Yemen and Socotra, the UAE is also building a base in Somalia's self-proclaimed independent region of Somaliland, with all Emirati-aligned sub-national regions allowing Abu Dhabi to exercise influence over the waterway through which the bulk of EU-Chinese trade must traverse. Bearing this global strategic significance in mind, there's certainly some logic to why the UAE might seek to directly or indirectly make the centrally positioned island of Socotra its "eighth emirate".

[Old_Observer]

In a cruel way, glad don't have t worry about sea or anything to do with it. Just joking. Kililka is smartest of all Somalis. Those of you that brag about being connected to the world of trade, empires, shipping etc are paying price for it. Every few centuries was like that. You never learn do you. Move away from the sea, is too dangerous. You either move away from the sea and be nomad or get on with it and build ships gun boats.... You can't have it both ways.

Kililka will not act like the last 130 years of war.

If you folks want to dance with all those who show up by your seas the Turks, UAE, Qatar, US, Britain, France, China, India...to no end have fun.

And now to make matters worst Technology has speeded up history and the fall and rise of empires is shorter. You will get dizzy. Kililka will just pick and choose ports to use for the few things we need from outside. The rest is all yours, both the fun and the pain.

How does that sound my friend. Bitter truth.

[Tallaabo]

On 14/05/2018 at 2:15 AM, Old_Observer said:

And now to make matters worst Technology has speeded up history and the fall and rise of empires is shorter. You will get dizzy.

That is so true. Even diplomacy which used to take a lot of time and effort is nowadays done instantly over the twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels. Just think of how the former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was sacked via a tweet 

[Old_Observer]

7 hours ago, Tallaabo said:

That is so true. Even diplomacy which used to take a lot of time and effort is nowadays done instantly over the twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels. Just think of how the former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was sacked via a tweet 

In deed. I can see that some oil companies in London are watching live what is happening in Somaliland and Somalia.

Oodweyne,

You should have followed Meles Zenawi:

"Any place there is oil, there is trouble. If we give contract to one oil company other oil companies start wars by going to next tribe. If I am the only decision maker, our oil should stay in the ground until we can have the capability to extract and use it ourselves or at least control  and do 80% of it ourselves"

As if you have not had enough headache by the sea and now you move to oil. Two deadly problems. The sea you cannot help it, you are victim of location, but the oil is your own choice. Let it stay in the ground. Is not worth it.