France deploys to guard Yanbu Red Sea oil hub as Mecca Alliance activates

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on 24 September that France will send soldiers, radar systems and air-defence equipment to protect Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu energy complex on the Red Sea after Houthi attacks damaged the site.

Macron said the deployment, agreed with Riyadh, is strictly defensive and intended to secure a route that had been moving several million barrels of oil a day. He emphasized that French forces would not take part in combat.

BIG: French President Macron says France will deploy troops, radars, and air defense systems to protect Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil terminal, damaged by a Houthi attack.
"Not to engage in any conflict, but to protect this site."
The terminal was exporting 5+ million barrels/day… pic.twitter.com/nalCNGzjjd
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 24, 2026

The Houthis tightened their grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in mid-September after a rapid coastal offensive that captured the port of Mokha, the town of Dhubab and Perim (Mayun) Island, which sits in the middle of the 18-mile-wide waterway and splits it into two shipping channels. They also took the Hanish Islands farther north, giving them positions on both the Yemeni mainland and the islands that dominate the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The gains allow the group to monitor or threaten traffic through a chokepoint that carries a large share of global oil and container shipping, especially now that Saudi exports have been rerouted away from the blocked Strait of Hormuz. Government forces later claimed limited recoveries near the strait, but the Houthis retain the decisive coastal and island positions.

France already maintains a standing military footprint across the Red Sea and Gulf that makes the Yanbu deployment easier to execute. Its largest permanent overseas base is in Djibouti, opposite Bab el-Mandeb, with roughly 1,500 personnel and air, land and naval assets. Additional Rafale fighters and support units are based in the United Arab Emirates. Macron noted that France already has Rafales in the region and would decide later whether to send more, depending on how the threat to Yanbu evolves.

Macron’s announcement came as Saudi authorities reported intercepting six ballistic missiles fired toward Taif and Yanbu. Yemen’s Houthis claimed they had launched dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets the same day.

Those strikes have now prompted the first operational activation of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani foreign ministers met under the pact and condemned attacks on Mecca and other civilian sites. They arranged an urgent meeting of the three countries’ chiefs of staff to discuss concrete support for Saudi Arabia. The agreement, signed in Mecca on 7 August by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, treats an armed attack on one party as an attack on all.

What is behind the Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan Collective Defence Framework?

The pact was institutionalized later in August when the three states named it the Mecca Alliance, placed a secretariat in Riyadh and assigned Pakistan the first secretary-general term. Until this week the grouping had remained largely political. The latest Houthi campaign, including alerts over Islam’s holiest city, has turned it into an active coordination mechanism.

France’s limited, site-specific deployment and the Mecca Alliance’s staff-level talks now form two parallel responses to the same pressure: protecting Saudi energy infrastructure and holy sites while the wider regional war continues.

The United States has stayed on the sidelines of the fight over Yanbu and Bab el-Mandeb. After Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked President Trump for strikes against the Houthis, Washington declined. U.S. officials instead held talks with Houthi representatives in Oman, where the group pledged not to attack American ships while continuing to target Saudi-linked traffic. The administration is providing intelligence and a limited advisory presence but has drawn a line against new offensive operations, citing a 2025 ceasefire with the Houthis and a focus on keeping U.S. shipping safe. That restraint has left Riyadh looking to France at Yanbu and to Turkey and Pakistan under the Mecca Alliance.

Caption: Screenshot from Macron’s interview on French national television on 24 September 2026 [EUalive]