PARIS – French military support being given to Saudi Arabia to help it confront attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis is “strictly defensive”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday.
His comment, made on state television network France 2, follows President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement Thursday of French troops, radar units and “defence systems” being sent to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has come under repeated missile and drone attacks from the Houthis, after Yemen’s war reignited in July after a years-long truce, adding another front to the Middle East war.
The attacks have targeted Saudi oil installations and the key oil terminal of Yanbu. Saudi Arabia is militarily backing Yemen’s government forces against the Houthis.
The Houthis are seeking to impose a blockade on Saudi energy exports, which were shifted to the Red Sea after Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz choked transits in the Gulf.
Asked whether France’s aid meant that Paris had become a partner in Saudi Arabia’s war against the Houthis, Barrot said: “Absolutely not… This is strictly defensive.”
He added that “since the start of the (US-Israeli) war against Iran, we have deployed military assets to protect our allies, our partners”.
“Does that mean at any time we can be considered co-belligerents? Never.”
Barrot said the scale of the French deployment to Saudi Arabia would depend on what Riyadh requested, as well as “our own capacities and how the situation develops”. -AFP
