The newest flashpoint in Yemen’s five-year warfare is a distant island within the Arabian Sea.
Socotra is typically in contrast with the well-known Galapagos islands within the Pacific. The vegetation and animals on the World Heritage Website are discovered nowhere else on Earth.
Now they’re in a warfare zone.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) in southern Yemen has deposed the island’s governor and declared self-rule.
The fighters are backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Yemen’s internationally-recognised authorities, supported by Saudi Arabia, calls the takeover a “coup”.
So what makes the island so helpful to Yemen’s warring sides? And the way will the occasions have an effect on efforts to finish the battle?
Presenter: Imran Khan
Visitors:
Raiman al-Hamdani – analysis fellow on Yemen on the European Council for Overseas Relations
Elisabeth Kendall – senior analysis fellow in Arabic and Islamic Research on the College of Oxford
Nabeel Khoury – senior researcher on the Atlantic Council Heart for Research and a former US deputy chief of mission in Yemen
Supply: Al Jazeera Information