A mysterious airstrip being built on a remote Yemeni island is nearing completion, according to analysis of satellite images by The Associated Press. It was shown to be one of the runways.
The airstrip on Abd al-Kuri Island, which juts into the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, could become an important landing zone for military operations patrolling the waterway.
This could help as commercial shipping through the Gulf and Red Sea, a key route for cargo and energy shipments to Europe, has been halved following attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. There is.
The region has also witnessed arms smuggling from Iran to rebel groups.
The airstrip was likely built by the United Arab Emirates, which has long been suspected of expanding its military presence in the region and has supported the Saudi-led war against the Houthis.
The Houthis have linked their operations to the Israeli-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, but experts say only a ceasefire in the conflict will stop the rebels from carrying out operations that have drawn global attention. I am concerned that this is not enough.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked US warships operating in the Red Sea as well as Israel, raising concerns that they could breach the Red Sea and endanger the lives of US military personnel.
Miscalculations on the battlefield by Yemen’s many hostile forces, another deadly attack on Israel, or even a deadly attack on an American warship could easily shatter the country’s relative peace.
And it remains unclear how President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, will deal with this emboldened insurrection.
“The Houthis feed on war. War is good for them,” said Ulf Christian Paes, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Yemen.
“At last they were able to proclaim their famous slogan, “Death to America, Death to the Jews.” They realized that they were participating in an epic battle against their arch-enemy. From their perspective, they think they’re winning.”
Satellite images show the runway is almost complete
Satellite photos taken on January 7 by Planet Labs PBC for the Associated Press show trucks and other heavy equipment on the north and south runways being built in Abd al-Kuri. The runway is approximately 34 miles long and approximately 3 miles at its widest point.
The runway is paved and has designation markings “18” and “36” on the north and south sides of the runway, respectively.
As of January 7, sections of the 1.5-mile-long, 150-foot-wide runway were still missing. Trucks were seen clearing the missing 950 feet and laying asphalt over it.
Once completed, the runway will be long enough to allow private jets and other aircraft to land, but the largest commercial aircraft and heavy bombers likely won’t be able to reach it given its length.
As long as it is within range of Houthi drones and missiles, Abd al-Kuri is far from mainland Yemen, meaning there is “no threat of the Houthis taking over in pickup trucks or technical vehicles.” , said Mohamed Al-Basha, a Yemeni expert. Basha Report Risk advisory company.
The United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, which is based in Montreal and assigns unique airport codes to airfields around the world, had no information about Abd al-Kuri’s runway, reports William Rylant Clark. the official said.
As an ICAO member state, Yemen should provide ICAO with information regarding its airfields. An airport has already been declared to ICAO on the nearby island of Socotra.
This is not the only airfield that has seen expansion in recent years. In Mocha, on the Red Sea, a project to expand the city’s airport has allowed much larger aircraft to land.
Local officials credited the project to the UAE, a consortium of seven emirates based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
This airfield is also located on the same north-south route as Abd al-Kuri airstrip, and is approximately the same length.
Other Planet Lab satellite images show another unowned airstrip currently under construction just south of Mokha near the coastal town of Dubab in Yemen’s Taiz governorate.
Images taken by Planet for The Associated Press on Thursday showed the runway was fully constructed, but there was nothing painted on it.
Important locations in a war-torn country
Abd al-Kuri is part of the Socotra Islands, just 90 miles from Africa and about 400 miles from Yemen. During the last decade of the Cold War, the archipelago’s strategic location occasionally hosted Soviet warships.
In recent years, the island has been overseen by Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council, which has advocated for another Cold War-era separation of Yemen into north and south.
The UAE has supported and armed the council as part of the Saudi-led war against the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014.
Home to the giant Jebel Ali port in Dubai and logistics company DP World, the UAE previously built a base in Eritrea but later dismantled it and skied to Mayun Island (Perim Island) in the heart of the strategic Bab. tried to build a road. El Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
However, unlike those efforts, the Emirates is likely to open the Abd al-Kuri airstrip and has even signed on to the effort. Just east of the runway, there had been a mound of dirt with the words “I LOVE UAE” written on it for months.
United Arab Emirates-flagged landing craft were also sighted off Abd al-Kuri in January 2024 and multiple times off Socotra Island in the same year, according to data analyzed by The Associated Press from MarineTraffic.com.
The ship was previously involved in UAE military operations in Yemen.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) operates one weekly flight to Socotra via Abu Dhabi, and has long said the effort is aimed at getting aid to the islands.
Asked for comment on Abd al-Kuri airfield, the UAE similarly pointed to aid operations.
“Any UAE presence… will be based on humanitarian grounds, carried out in cooperation with the Yemeni government and local authorities,” the Emirati government said in a statement.
“The UAE remains steadfastly committed to all international efforts aimed at facilitating the resumption of Yemen’s political process and thereby promoting the security, stability and prosperity sought by the Yemeni people.”
The Southern Transitional Council and Yemeni government-in-exile officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the airfield.
The UAE’s presence on Socotra has caused tensions in the past, and the Houthis have used this to portray the Emirates as trying to colonize the island.
The Houthi-affiliated SABA news agency said in November that the plan “is a serious violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and threatens the sovereignty of neighboring countries through the espionage and sabotage activities it is expected to carry out.”
Smuggling routes pass through the island
A new airport in Abd al-Kuri could provide a secluded new landing strip for surveillance flights around Socotra Island.
That could be crucial to stopping Iranian arms smuggling to the Houthis, which are under a U.N. arms embargo.
According to a report to the United Nations Security Council, the weapons seizure by the US military took place off the coast of Socotra Island near Abd al-Kuri in January 2024.
The seizure, in which two U.S. Navy SEALs were lost at sea and presumed dead, involved a traditional dhow, and which U.S. prosecutors say was linked to the Houthi militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards militia. It is alleged that he was involved in multiple smuggling operations.
The disruption of this weapons route, along with continued attacks by the United States, Israel and others against the Houthis, likely contributed to a slowing of the pace of rebel attacks in recent months.
The United States and its partners alone have attacked the Houthis more than 260 times, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Next week, President Trump will decide how that race goes.
He has already experienced how difficult fighting in Yemen can be, with the first military action of his first term in 2017 in which a Navy SEAL was killed in a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound. The attack also killed more than a dozen civilians, including an eight-year-old girl.
President Trump may reapply the designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, which was rescinded by Biden, and the UAE supports this.
President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, mentioned the Houthis several times during testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, alongside the threat from Iran and its allies.
Any U.S. action would escalate the war, even though the Houthis’ enigmatic leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi promised on Thursday night that rebel attacks would end if a ceasefire was reached in Gaza. There is a possibility.
“There is no hope that tensions with the Houthis will ease in 2025,” Yemen expert Al-Basha said. “The situation in Yemen is extremely tense. The outbreak of war could become a reality in the coming months. We do not expect the current situation to continue.”
