French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans to deploy French troops to Saudi Arabia to defend an oil refinery and a pipeline that carries crude oil to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, according to infohub.kz.
According to NUR.KZ, citing RBC, Macron made the statement while commenting on Paris's plans. The Wall Street Journal reports that the move involves assistance in protecting a strategically important piece of Saudi oil infrastructure.
"We will send military assets, that is, soldiers, radar systems and defense systems to protect this facility. Paris is not getting involved in any conflict. The decision was coordinated with the Saudi authorities," Macron said.
Since the war with Iran began, the port of Yanbu has been one of the main hubs for supplying diesel, crude oil and other petroleum products to Europe, allowing Saudi exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
In August, Macron met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the two leaders signed a number of strategic agreements.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry halted operations on sections of the East-West pipeline in the Medina and Riyadh areas following several attacks.
Today it became known that the Houthis claimed attacks on important targets in Riyadh and the city of Yanbu in western Saudi Arabia in response to strikes on Yemen.