Signal France Sending Forces To Help Defend Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Oil Facilities

Summary

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will send troops, radar systems and defense equipment to protect Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil facilities on the Red Sea from drone and missile attacks. Numbers and an arrival timeline were not disclosed. The Houthis claimed two waves of ballistic missile, cruise missile and drone attacks, including on a Saudi Aramco facility in Yanbu, and six ballistic missiles were reportedly shot down. The East-West pipeline was damaged by a long-range drone attack and later reopened, and Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels a day to Yanbu. The Houthis are described as blockading the Bab al-Mandab Strait and holding Mokha port and two Red Sea islands. Brent crude reached nearly $107 a barrel on Thursday evening, up from below $100 two days earlier, while the U.S., Pakistan and Turkey had not given direct military aid despite a joint defense agreement.