Abstract

The importance of the island comes mainly from its geographical location, which gave it geostrategic importance, as it oversees vital sea lanes, which is the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, so this location achieved supervision of the navigation route between the West and the East in both parts, whether military navigation or economic navigation in particular, and energy supplies through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the transit route towards the African continent.                                                        
Its location in the Indian Ocean has strengthened its commercial position linking the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and the countries of North Africa with the countries of South and Southeast Asia, and made it an island in the middle of international shipping routes, facilitating the docking of ships in its ports, and geomorphological factors have helped to form its winding coasts that provided ports protected from strong winds.                                                                         
Among the geographical characteristics, we expect that many international and regional powers were and still aspire to exploit the island as a military base, and that Yemen sees it as a strategic depth when targeting the island.