Yemen: Saudi aggression in final stages after receiving successive blows

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says the Saudi military aggression against his country is in its “final stages” after suffering successive defeats at the hands of resistance forces.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Saturday that the occupiers and their mercenaries are doomed to decline no matter how much they shed the blood of innocent people, the al-Masirah TV channel reported.

Yemeni leaders, he added, have issued a general amnesty for all those who want to return to the right path and stop the killing of the Yemenis.

Saudi Arabia launched a devastating military aggression against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allied states, such as the UAE, and with arms support from the US and several Western countries.

The aim was to return to power the Riyadh-backed regime of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement that has taken control of state matters.

The war has failed to achieve its goals, but killed tens of thousands of innocent Yemenis and destroyed the impoverished country’s infrastructure. The UN refers to the situation in Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Militants, backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have on several occasions engaged in heavy infighting, vying for control of Yemen’s southern areas and the strategic island of Socotra. 

The UAE-sponsored separatists of the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized control of Socotra in June in a move described by the pro-Saudi Hadi regime as a “coup.”

The occupation of Socotra came two months after the UAE-backed separatists broke with once-allied Saudi-sponsored pro-Hadi elements in Yemen, saying they will establish a self-ruled administration in the war-torn country’s southern regions.

UAE seeks full annexation of Yemen’s Socotra

On Sunday, the al-khaleej al-Jadeed news website reported that the UAE’s ultimate objective is to annex the Socotra Island, which overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a main shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

Because Socotra is not a priority for the international community, the UAE is gradually trying to take full control of the island in the future, the report said.

It also predicted that US president-elect Joe Biden would be less inclined to reduce Abu Dhabi's regional activities than those of Riyadh, and thus his administration would turn a blind eye to the UAE's hostile foreign policy.

UAE sets up 8 telecom towers, plans to build military base on Yemen’s Socotra: Reports

The UAE reportedly erects eight telecommunications towers in Yemen

In September, some reports said the UAE had set up telecommunications towers on Socotra and planned to build a military facility there.

Home to some 60,000 people, the resource-rich island has a unique ecosystem and been listed by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site.

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