A Mysterious Airstrip Has Appeared in the Red Sea | Built by Genocidal UAE?

✈️ Satellite imagery has revealed the construction of a new airstrip on Zuqar Island, a volcanic outcrop in the Red Sea off Yemen's coast. This development is believed to be the latest project by forces aligned against the country's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The facility adds another crucial link to a growing network of offshore military bases in a region vital for global shipping. Houthi militants have already attacked over 100 vessels, sinking four and causing at least nine mariner deaths amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A few months ago, the UAE built a 185m long seaport on Jabal Zuqar Island in Yemeni waters, which includes auxiliary facilities, an advanced maritime radar, and air defense systems. It is likely that these facilities are intended to support the UAE’s military activities on the island.

On this island, the UAE has also built other infrastructure such as a 2.1 km aircraft runway, 8 helicopter pads, weapons depots, and a network of tunnels and underground storage. Beyond purely military purposes, these create significant logistical, supply, and economic capacities to control the flow of goods, fuel, and local resources.

While UAE-backed “Yemeni” governments—including Aden—remain silent, Yemen’s lands, ports, and geostrategic positions are being handed over one after another as economic concessions to the UAE, this threatens not only Yemen’s security but also its economic future.

In 2024 an airstrip was being built on a Yemeni Abd al-Kuri island near the Red Sea with 'I LOVE UAE' next to it

As Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to target ships in a Mideast waterway, satellite pictures analyzed by The Associated Press show what appears to be a new airstrip being built at an entrance to that crucial maritime route.

No country has publicly claimed the construction taking place on Abd al-Kuri Island, a stretch of land rising out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. However, satellite images shot for the AP appear to show workers have spelled out “I LOVE UAE” with piles of dirt next to the runway, using an abbreviation for the United Arab Emirates.

Both the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to which it leads have become a battleground between the Houthis and U.S.-led forces in the region as Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages — potentially allowing a nation to project its power into the area.

The construction comes as the presence of troops from the Emirates in the Socotra island chain to which Abd al-Kuri belongs — and that of the separatist force it backs in southern Yemen — have sparked clashes in the past.

In response to questions from the AP, the United Arab Emirates said Thursday that “any presence of the UAE on Socotra island is based on humanitarian grounds that is carried out in cooperation with the Yemeni government and local authorities.”

“The UAE remains steadfast in its commitment to all international endeavors aimed at facilitating the resumption of the Yemeni political process, thereby advancing the security, stability, and prosperity sought by the Yemeni populace,” it added, without elaborating.

The Yemeni Embassy in Washington and Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition fighting the Houthis, did not respond to questions.

Abd al-Kuri is about 35 kilometers (21.75 miles) in length and about 5 kilometers (3.11 miles) at its widest point. It sits closer to the Horn of Africa than it does to Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, which has been at war for years.