Middle East

France to Send Soldiers, Radars and Air Defenses to Protect Saudi Oil Port of Yanbu

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of French soldiers in camouflage and body armor watching an allied short-range air-defense vehicle on a grassy coastal plain, redrawn from a U.S. Army photograph of January 2024 combined air-defense training in Romania; archival context, not a depiction of the Yanbu deployment, rendered in warm ochre and slate-blue pastel strokes.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on September 24 that France will send soldiers, radars and air-defense systems to Saudi Arabia to protect the Red Sea oil port of Yanbu. Speaking in a televised interview from the Élysée Palace, he said the plan had been finalized with the Saudis and that the forces would go “not to get us involved in any conflicts, but to protect this site.” He gave no troop numbers or timeline. Yanbu is Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea crude export terminal, fed by the East-West pipeline that lets exports bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and has been targeted by Yemen's Houthis. Macron tied the move to easing fuel prices.

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