UAE and Saudi Arabia are working in the waters between Africa and Asia to counter any possible Iranian threat from north Yemen.
By Francis Matthew, Editor at Large
The UAE is establishing two naval bases in the Red Sea in Somaliland’s Berbera and Eritrea’s Assab at the same time that Saudi Arabia is boosting its naval presence in the south Red Sea with a naval base in Djibouti. A few years ago, such a forceful presence would have been to combat Somali pirates, but today the threat is from a burgeoning Iranian presence in north Yemen, where Iran is backing Al Houthi rebels against the Yemeni government backed by the Saudi-led coalition in which the UAE plays a vigorous part.
On February 12, the parliament of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland agreed to allow the UAE to set up a military base in Berbera. The scale of what is planned is unclear, but the UAE is already constructing an air and naval base in Eritrea at the Red Sea port of Assab under a 2015 agreement, from which it has already mounted operations in the Yemen, 60km to the east across the Red Sea.
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Source: http://gulfnews.com/
On February 12, the parliament of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland agreed to allow the UAE to set up a military base in Berbera. The scale of what is planned is unclear, but the UAE is already constructing an air and naval base in Eritrea at the Red Sea port of Assab under a 2015 agreement, from which it has already mounted operations in the Yemen, 60km to the east across the Red Sea.
To continue reading, please click here.
Source: http://gulfnews.com/
