DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A new airstrip is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show, likely the latest project by forces allied to those opposed to the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The airstrip on Zuqar Island provides yet another link in a network of offshore bases in a region key to international shipping, where the Houthis have already attacked over 100 ships, sunk four vessels and killed at least nine mariners during the Israel-Hamas war.

It could give a military force the ability to conduct aerial surveillance over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the strategic, narrow, Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways off East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Still, it remains unclear what would trigger the airstrip to be used for a military campaign. The United Arab Emirates, which has built other runways in the region, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces, divided by warring interests and unable to launch a coordinated assault against the rebels even after intense American and Israeli bombing campaigns that targeted them.

In recent months, the anti-Houthi forces have been able to interdict more cargo bound for the Houthis, something that having a presence on Zuqar could aid.

“The possibility of a new Yemeni offensive against the Houthis, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, can’t be ruled out, although I don’t see it as approaching,” said Eleonora Ardemagni, an analyst at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies who has long studied Yemen.

“There’s a more important point in my view regarding the build-up in Zuqar: the countering of........

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