DUBAI, Jan 6 - When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had flown in but could no longer fly out.

Air traffic at the island's main airport came to a halt as a deepening crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia translated into fresh conflict on Yemen's mainland, where the two Gulf powers now back opposing groups in the country's civil war.

“Nobody has any information and everyone just wants to go back to their normal lives," said Aurelija Krikstaponiene, a Lithuanian who travelled to Socotra over New Year's Eve.

She wasmeant to fly back to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, but now may find herself having to travel through Jeddah in Saudi Arabia instead, as Emirati control over the island wanes.

AN UNSINKABLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER

Socotra, which lies more than 300 km (186 miles) south of Yemen's coast, and until recently wasmainly accessible by air via the UAE, has been a haven of tranquillity through the years of conflict on the mainland.

For tourists, it offers magical beaches and unique flora, such as its renowned Socotra dragon blood tree. It sits in the Gulf of Aden, alongside a shipping route leading to the Red Sea.

But Socotra came under effective UAE control in 2018 when Emirati military transport planes first landed on the island.

The tanks and troops that unloaded........

© Al Monitor