French Troops to Protect Saudi Arabian Port on Red Sea Oil Route, Macron Says

A Saudi man looks at the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau arriving at the port of Yanbu on Sept. 24, 1990. Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images

France announced Thursday that it would deploy troops and military assets to protect the key Saudi oil and gas port of Yanbu after Yemen’s Houthis launched several missiles at the site earlier in the day.

“We will send military assets: soldiers, radars, defense systems, to protect [Yanbu],” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “Not to engage in any conflict, but to protect this site.”

The Yanbu region on Saudi Arabia’s west coast is home to major oil refineries and a port that serves as the starting point of a bypass route for oil tankers trying to avoid the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran conflict.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for firing six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port and the southwestern city of Taif. A spokesman for the Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen said the missiles were intercepted and destroyed by coalition forces.

The “escalation and violations by the terrorist Houthi militia will be dealt with firmly,” the spokesman said. The coalition, consisting of Arab and African nations, was formed in 2015 to intervene in the Yemeni civil war by defeating the Houthi movement.

Greek forces in Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile and a drone Thursday in the wider Yanbu region using a U.S.-made Patriot air defense system.

Saudi civil defenses issued alerts earlier Thursday warning residents of potential incoming danger in Mecca, the northwestern area of Tabuk, in the Red Sea areas of Jeddah and Yanbu, and the southern area of Taif.

Tankers fill up in Yanbu with oil from Saudi Arabia’s East West Pipeline, then take it north through the Suez Canal to Europe or south through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward Asia.

If the Houthis damage the Yanbu port, oil exporters would be forced to rely more on the Strait of Hormuz on Saudi Arabia’s east coast.

“That means the United States will need to perpetually move even MORE oil through the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani Route,” said Brett Erickson, a managing principal with Obsidian Risk Advisors, in a post on X.

Yemen and its capital, Sanaa. AP Photo

The foreign ministers of G7 nations denounced this week’s Houthi attacks in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia and urged Iran to end its support for the group.

“We condemn in ‌the strongest terms the unacceptable continued strikes carried out by ‌the Houthis in Yemen ‌and  against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said in a joint statement after meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Reuters contributed to this report.