PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday France would send military resources to protect Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, a vital route for energy transport, while warning of wider security and energy risks facing Europe.
Macron also said a US ban on diesel exports, which the White House has denied is un-der consideration, would be “catastrophic,” both globally and for the US economy.
Macron was speaking in a wide-ranging primetime television interview on the interna-tional situation, in which he also warned about possible Russian attacks on French soil.
Facing growing pressure at home over high energy prices, Macron sought to assure the French that France had adequate gas and oil supplies as winter approaches. He said Par-is was actively working to ensure flows were not disrupted.
Crude oil prices have surged recently as the main alternative route for Saudi oil exports through Yanbu has come under missile attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
“We are going to send military resources, that is to say, soldiers, radar systems and de-fence systems, to protect this site – not to get us involved in any conflicts, but to protect this site,” Macron told TF1 and France 2 TV.
Russian threat
Macron dismissed a report by Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the US Central Intelli-gence Agency had warned European governments about the threat of potential drone attacks from the Mediterranean.
“I can deny it. The CIA did not inform French services,” he said.
Still, Macron said Russia is multiplying hostile and criminal acts against European countries, and France could face strikes similar to the failed attack in Leipzig. Germany said Russia was responsible for an attempted drone attack in August on the Leipzig air-port.
Macron gathered French party chiefs at the Elysee last week to brief them on the grow-ing threat from Russia. He later said he had ordered his government to draw up a plan to protect critical infrastructure against drone and cyber attacks.
Macron said Moscow was seeking to intimidate Europe and break the continent’s re-solve in supporting Ukraine.
Russia says European allegations of hybrid attacks are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.
Yet Macron’s position on Russia was weakened this week after France shocked other EU members by getting Russian-Uzbek metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov exempted from EU sanctions, citing national security concerns. That prompted Azerbaijan to pardon a French national jailed for espionage. –Agencies
