Al Jazeera Net - Private
The Yemeni island of Socotra is witnessing a serious escalation with the arrival of forces loyal to the UAE, a week after the governor of the island Ramzi Mahrous that his powers will not allow the existence of security belts or armed formations outside the organs of the state.
A move described by observers as an Emirati challenge to the government and island authorities and residents who were entrusted to live in peaceful and peaceful conditions, away from the fever of war that hit Yemen since the beginning of 2015.
According to a source in the local authority Al-Jazeera Net, about 300 soldiers from the "security belt" arrived in the island wearing civilian clothes, and received by leaders of the "southern transition" pro-UAE.
He said the soldiers - most of them young and young - arrived aboard a UAE ship and had been trained by Emirati officers in Aden, which is also under Abu Dhabi control.
Provocation and disintegration
The UAE is preparing to impose these forces on the island as it tries to control it completely, such as the military presence of the security forces in Aden and the elite in Hadramout and Shabwa.
In May 2018, Socotra experienced unprecedented tension after the UAE sent military force to the country. The government then rejected the move. The incident provoked residents after they found their island threatened by foreign military forces.
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The events also look similar to last year's, and although the soldiers are unarmed, they have raised suspicion and fear among the island's 150,000 population.
"He rejects the deployment of the security forces and all the military formations that operate outside the framework of the legitimate government and its military and security institutions.
"We reject these efforts by the UAE through the Transitional Council that supports them, and we can not in any way allow it as citizens, and we will do our duty towards our homeland and safety and security, and by all means."
He describes the arrival of the belt forces as a new provocation by Emiratis after they were expelled from the island in mid-May 2018. He added that "the return of the UAE to the island with local tools and soldiers from the islanders this time represents a greater danger because it will cause a social rift and confrontation, The full responsibility of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. "
Military congestion
To the extent that the pro-UAE forces are provoking the population, the island remains a hot tin, given the precarious situation and the explicit refusal of local authorities to deploy any troops on the island, observers said.
A source in the security department in Socotra - attended a meeting of the security committee headed by governor Mahrous a few days ago - that the situation could explode into confrontations between local authorities and Emiratis, under the support of the Saudi forces to the first there.
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The commander of the Saudi forces attending the meeting clearly threatened the commander of the special security forces affiliated with the transitional council. "If I open a camp for the security belt in the camp of your forces, I will surround you with tanks and throw you in prison," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He pointed out that tension between the Saudis and Emiratis in the race to control Socotra, and the overthrow of the governor during the past days with leaders close to the UAE, after a dispute between him and the UAE representative Khalfan Marzoui.
According to the source, the soldiers of the security belt went to their homes as soon as they arrived, but the local authority's warnings still exist to prevent the deployment of any forces outside the control of the Yemeni government.
Do you succeed this time?
It seems that the UAE is determined this time to get its hands on the island more comprehensively, according to adviser to the Minister of Information Mukhtar Rahbi, but wished in his speech to the island Net "not to happen."
He added that what Abu Dhabi is doing in Socotra is revenge from the government for the expulsion of the last Emirati forces last year, and that the UAE wants to say that it returned to Socotra through local tools to tampering and undermine security.
These militias have been mobilized against the legitimacy and its components to be the hands that implement the directives of the UAE and the so-called Transitional Council rebel against the state and legitimacy and comes the arrival of these militias in coordination with the officers of Socrates working for the UAE and receive salaries and support from the UAE. # Socotra |
According to political researcher and head of the SAS Center for Strategic Studies Adnan Hashim that the UAE may collide with Saudi Arabia in light of the conflict between the two parties a year ago, and that it may develop into armed confrontations.
"The UAE relies on local tools in its struggle with Riyadh, while Riyadh, which dominates the local authority, is trying to keep the conflict politically at least until now. But pushing the UAE with a military force like the security belt is an escalation of this conflict," Hashim told Al Jazeera.net.
He explains that this development by the UAE will be doomed to failure "because Abu Dhabi is an emergency state and does not have the elements of the colonial state dominant, and money alone does not keep the occupation continues as much as the dismantling of the community."