The U.S.-supported Saudi war on Yemen is causing wide-spread starvation and cholera for those able to survive massive amounts of death and infrastructure destruction. Source: UNICEF figures September 14, 2018. Image: Al Jazeera.

The Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometers off the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometers South of the Yemeni coastline… Socotra is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is of crucial importance to the U.S. military.

Among Washington’s strategic objectives is the militarization of major seaways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China’s industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. — “Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways: Securing US Control over Socotra Island and the Gulf of Aden.” Michel Chossudovsky. Global Research. June 13, 2018, (first published February 7, 2010)

In addition to the Suez Canal, there are two significant chokepoints – narrow waterways, or straits – that oil tankers and trade ships can pass through connecting the Middle East with other parts of the world: Iran’s Strait of Hormuz and Yemen’s Strait of Bab Al-Mandeb. Iranian-American geopolitical analyst/peace proponent Sorarya Sepaphour, who has long been noticing British and U.S. plans for alternatives to Iranian oil, observed that “control of Bab Al-Mandeb would diminish the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormus in case of war.”* She states that geopolitical researcher Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s assessment was correct in his 2015 article, “The Geopolitics Behind the War in Yemen: The Start of a New Front Against Iran,” (Strategic Culture Foundation), in which he reiterates the significance of the area’s water routes and asserts that “Bab Al-Mandeb is an important strategic chokepoint for international maritime trade and energy shipments…it is just as important as the Suez Canal…”

*Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Trump: Trumpeting for a War on Iran, Women Against Military Madness, Plan B: West Africa and Yemen, Newsletter Vol. 35 No. 2, 2017

Note: This article ran in the print edition of the WAMM Newsletter, Volume 36, Number 6, Fall II edition. Go here to see more WAMM newsletters.

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