maritime trade and control gives superiority in the world, no matter how big a trade on the land is, it won't find a better route for of business than the sea. these are the words of alfred their mahan, the author of the influence of sea power upon history, which deals with importance of sea routes in maritime trade and control over them. about 200 million years ago, all of the lands on

the earth were connected in a supercontinent named pengia, but gradually the unified continent started to be divided into different chunks. after tens of millions of years, the map of the earth looks like what we see today with several separate continents. now the link between the continents on earth has been established in two ways, through land between asia, africa and europe and through the oceans in the americas. australia and antarctica, meanwile some waterways, natural straights and artificial canals that were constructed later, had a strategic role in shaping the famous maritime corridors today for shipping to access the shortest and most cost effective rots. choke points are the links that connect the sea and land. today, having control over the strategic. gives astonishing

powers to countries. some of the most important waterways in the world are the malaka, hormos, gibraltar, and babal mandab straits as well as man-made canals like the suez and panama. the panama canal was constructed in 1914, so ships in the atlantic ocean, one have to turn all the way around south america. the straight of gibraltar connects the mediterranean to the atlantic ocean, between spain and morocco, it's been officially under british control since 1713. the cape of good hope in the south. tip of

africa serves as a link between the atlantic and indian oceans. this is part of the route for the ships that sail from the south asia to eastern coast of america. the boss for astradian turkey connects the black sea to the sea of marmara and then the mediterranean. besides a straight facilitates countries like russia and ukraine with access to the mediterranean and high seas. we can argue the hormostrate that joins the persian gulf to the sea of oman is now considered the most vital waterway in the world for a transit of energy. the suez canal in egypt was constructed in 1869 by france and britain. besides its strategic importance, it is used to establish a link between europe to west asia and led to a flourishing business in to other natural straights in the world,

namely babelman dub and malakka. the malaka straight is located in southeast asia between the indonesian island of sumatra and the meley peninsula. many experts believe it's the most important maritime choke point in the world. according to the united nations conference on trade and development, about 60% of maritime trade passes through asia. the south china sea alone carries 1/3ird of the global shipping. the route depends on the malaco straight which connects the south china sea and the pacific ocean to the indian ocean. the route is the artery of major economic powers in asia like japan, taiwan, south korea, and especially china, the second largest economy in the world. every year, over 100 thousand. ships in the south china

sea sail towards the malaka straight. the baband dab straight, a straight between the gulf of aden and the red sea, and joins asia to the horn of africa. in 2014, the anstrilla movement turned into the main power in sona in northern yemen. mansur hadi stepped down after he saw the political situation in the country and fled to riyad. the yemen war coincided with the ascendant of ascendance of new king, king salman, who more broadly saw saudi arabia as needing to take a greater position on the regional stage and and this is very clear. the horn of africa, saudi arabia describing it as sort of a missed opportunity to be a leader. gradually, the anseril asserted its control over yemen's army and other parts of the country. six months after the revolution in september of 2014, the emeny forces reached the port of

aiden, the last bastian supported by the saudi led coalition in march 2015 and became the dominant force in the strategic bubble mundob straight. saudis did not have the power to rest back control over yemen by the ansurla, so they asked arab rulers in the persian gulf and some other countries like egypt, sudan and jordan for help. our large coalition comprised of nine arab countries was preparing for invasion on yemen. the coalition was led by saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. abu dhabi had been laying in wait for years. to practice its influence in the region. the uae used its military experience in the horn of africa and assumed command rule in the southern part of yemen and bubble mondab region. the emerts

knew full well that they're given a golden opportunity that won't repeat. it had to gain control over southern yemen and the babel mondav straight. even at cost of spending millions of dollars or losing hundreds of military forces. the united states is a partner in this war. it is a partner uh every day, as you laid out, refueling aircraft, providing additional ordinance, providing intelligence, providing logistics. if the united states of america and united kingdom tonight told king salmon this war has to end, it would end tomorrow, because the royal saudi air force cannot operate with. without american and british support, we've not done that, the same time the president has yet to explain to the american people why we are engaged in a war in yemen against the people, by using military bases in africa and by

using the asab air base in eritria as the headquarters, the uae air force launched a massive air strike. yemeni forces and as a first step managed to take control of the aiden port in southern yemen by supporting the militants of the so-called southern transitional council, the stc. one of the things that the uae is doing at this particular base is actually building new naval facility so that over time they won't have to use the the port of the city asab itself, but they'll have their own docs right at their military base, and since september 200. 15 uh dredging vessels have been creating a new channel shaping the the coastline um to form that port basically. the southern ports of yemen were the scenes of heavy clashes between 2015 and 2018. considering the military superiority of the

saudiled coalition and complete support by the us, gradually deports near babandab and the red sea like alhawha, mokha and dubab got. out of the anserla's control. it may be saudi planes that are dropping the bomb, but they are us bombs. it is us assistance that provides the targeting. the uae and forces under its command in southern yemen were dreaming about gaining control over the western coast of yemen and early 2018 launched a massive operation to capture al-hodeda port on the red sea coast, but yemen's army put up a stiff resistance. at the gates of the city and inflicted heavy loss on the coalition forces. the coalition and other forces had to retreat. after a while the sanhab based government and the former government signed the stockholm peace agreement. huge disruption should any point

the baba mendeb, by virtue of the hootis who are the rebels in yemen, will discuss them in a minute, should they decide somehow to cont the flow of maritime traffic to here, huge disruptions to the global economy, the defeat in the operation. had serious impact on the future strategy of abu dhabi in the yemen war. gradually, the uae decided to pull out its forces and complete its geopolitical and economic plans between the babel mondab straight and the arab sea. i think the gulf states and the uae understand very well that that's their future. um, and so military basing comes later and with the kind of first training with the piracy and now larger training. and of course then 2015 yemen, but these things have been building in, in gears

that have been turning and widening in in scope, but the defeat was not the only reason that the uae evaded the military conflict with the ancerola. it was from that period that by changing the balance of power and after the yemini people got access to long range strategic weapons, the emirati leaders felt the main threat is posed against their own terror. by the long-range cruise missiles and suicide drones of yemen's army. on december 3rd, 2017, the yemen media announced that a cruise missile with range of 1600 kilometers have been fired towards the baraka nuclear power plant in abu dhabi's western desert. later, video, the missile strike was released, so all the media in regional countries were amazed. it sent to chill down the spine of the emirati sheikhdom, although the baraka wasn't operational at the time,

and fuel rods were not injected into the nuclear plant, and surla decided to show restraint and set the missile course in a way so it hit an open area several hundred kilometers away, however it served as a reminder to the uae leaders of the constant threat by the yemani army's long-range missiles against the facilities. inside the uae, after several months, when the conflicts in alhudeda heated up on july 26, 2018, yemani media sources reported a long-range asamad drone targeted the abu dhabi airport. abu dhabi initially decided to put up a media gag on the incident, but after a while the airport confirmed on ex social media platform, formerly known as twitter that there was incident involving a supply vehicle at the airport on july 26th at 4 p.m. and

claimed incident had not affected the airport's operation. however, uae officials categorically dismissed any drone attack on the airport less than year in may 2019, the truth came to light. the almacida television network somehow accessed and released the video reported by security cameras at the airport. while yemeny drone launched the suicide attack and exploded inside the airport. it was almost from that time onwards that the uae army ruled out the option of getting directly engaged in military confrontation with popular yemani forces. yemen has 15 islands in the red sea,

babamandab straight and the arab sea that are categorized as five archipelagos of sokotra, hanish, zuber, kameran, and petim. some of the islands have no inhabitants, and some others like sokotra and kamaran, have inhabitants. in march 2015, the saudi lead coalition kicked off. war on yemen, the heavy conflicts inside yemen sent tensions over ownership claims on the islands out of focus, but emirati leaders were after precise planning to occupy the islands and gain control over babalmandab and sokotra near the indian ocean. the presence of the uae military and southern yemen and northeastern coast of africa and occupation of the yemani

islands in that region could give a strategic edge by controlling the maritime transportation through the babel straight. the defeat in al-huda port led to a cease fire deal between the uae and sana based government. gradually uae decided to withdraw its forces but had an eye on another. strategic region, the sokotra island. uae, very active on socotra, and also oman, which has more deep history. historical ties in the east of the country now supporting uh would be sultan of almahhra and sotra, so we've got three international players there. the sokotra island has unique tourist attractions and flants its natural phenomena. before

2008, when the unesco put the... flora and fauna of the island its list, it wasn't known to many people. the dream of the uae leaders to gain control over sokotra dates back to decade before the war on yemen. due to the unique geographical location of the island, the storms from the ocean hit the island and every time inflict huge damage on the infrastructure and the almost 60,000 inhabitants of the island. the uae's presence on the island dates back to

2000 when a strong storm hit the island. the uae's red crecent sent a few planes carrying. humanitarian aid to the island. abu dhabi has been seeking to gain a foothole on the island ever since. eight months after the yemen war was launched in november of 2015, cyclone mag struck sokotra. the cyclone was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the uae army so they could deploy their military forces. and station them on the ground under the pretext of sending aid to the island. as of october 2016, 31 cargo airplanes and few logistic ships containing food and medical supplies were sent to the people living on the island. at the same time, they increased the number of emirati forces on the island as well.

april 30th, 2018, the uaes military planes and warships occupied sukutra and took control of the airport and the pier on the port of the island. about 100 uae military forces were stationed in sensitive locations on the island and grab complete control over the island. saudi arabia and the former government of mansur hadi protested the move by their former arab allies. it triggered heavy conflicts between the two sides in southern yemen. it left thousands of forces from both sides dead or wounded in different areas, including aiden and shaua. two weeks after the occupation of sokotra by the uae,

after riad and supporters of mansur hadi ramped up pressure, the uae army agreed to hand over the administrative control. the island to the resigned government of mansur hadi, but it still had military control over the island and airport. the amady see this as an opportunity to demonstrate some real kind of arab style nation building, economic, rebuild them, and they see the ports as the fundamental way to do this, so now the mri is control the port of muka that we talked about earlier, they took back from aqap, the port of aiden. port of moca, if hudata gets resolved, then they control a port of hudata on the on the red sea, so all the major ports are now basically under emirating control, think, think of dubai ports world, in the summer in 2019, the uae started to pull its forces out of southern yemen, a process that took until february of 2020 when they

announced that the last batch of official forces was withdrawn from the port of aiden. the occupation of the sokotra island and the withdrawal of the emirati forces from yemen were heavy blows that abu dhabi dealt against riyad amid the yemen war. it aroused the wrath of saudi leaders. after the skirmishes on the southern front ceased and uae forces withdrew from yemen, the saudi army and forces under its command in northern yemen were being crushed under the heavy strikes. by the yemeni army and popular forces, so they retreated from large oil rich areas in al-jaf and marib. saudi arabia, the mansur hadi's former government. blamed emirati's stab in their back for the retreat, but the uae leaders knew very well that saudi arabia could no longer be their reliable ally in

their greater plot in the bubble mondab region. so they were looking for new partner or regional power to complete their plan, and for this reason they ganged up with the israeli regime. more than 500 the children were killed during the conflict, what have they done wrong? being born in gaza is not the crime. more than year after the war was waged by the israeli regime on the gaza strip and approximately year after the kiro donors conference was held for rebuilding gaza, the

reconstruction project is still teetering between the cruelty of the siege and the procrastination of the israeli regime. what we are doing here to keep people surviving, we are not talking about quality of life in gaza. if you lock deeply in what is going on in gaza. you will find out big slogan that there is no tomorrow, all agree that the slow down in the reconstruction is due to the slow process of transferring funds pledged by the donor countries of the cairo conference where the unwell received only $270 million while the required budget is much more.

it speaks with me, the saint of the soil, from the blood and the ashes, it speaks with me the sound of the rain, from the battle, victory, victory.

palestine, i free you, oh palestine, i free you, oh palestine, i free you, my every breath is a cry to my enemy, and i cry out, cry out, cry out to the evil enemy. the flame within my heart will burn you, i cry out, and

the thunder in my voice will deafhen you, i cry out and the tornado within my soul, will will you away, my bleeding wond once felt those on forgotten but aching sorrow in me never gone, i raise it will, my anger and love, love of my... il anger at your deeds, i rais. did well my anger and

love, love of my land, anger at your dear, wounded by hater, i'm breathing, breathing, breathing, the magic perfume of my homeland palestine, my hands turn around the branches the olive tree, seeking peace, seeking peace, but as long as the pillows of our children are drenching blood, as long as you have the thone brown of evil force, i'm a flame and

thumb. the tornado, and i cried out, i cry out, oh my god, i pray you, i missed you, oh my son, i pray you,

you headlines on press dv, hundreds of palestinians are killed in fresh israel strikes on gaza, day after the international court of just... ordered israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide. israel says the ruling by the international court of iran says the ruling by the international court of justice on the israeli war on gaza is bitter proof of international crimes, including genocide in gaza and lebanon's resistance movement has bolah targets an israeli military base in shabar farms using a new type of missile.