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French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said on Thursday that France has begun implementing practical aspects of an agreement aimed at helping protect oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The spokesperson declined to provide further details regarding the assets that have been sent to Saudi Arabia.
French President Emmanuel Macron had said last month that France would send troops and defensive systems to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Red Sea coastal city of Yanbu, a pivotal point for energy transport.
Attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, have reached an unprecedented scale in recent days.
These included repeated strikes on Riyadh airport, one of which resulted in the death of 13 people and the injury of more than 300 others on Saturday, in the most violent attack on the Kingdom's territory in over a decade. At least 20 people have been killed in total Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since last week.
The Houthis announced on Wednesday that they had targeted the Aramco oil company in Dhahran, King Khalid Airport, and an oil refinery in Riyadh, vowing to continue their attacks on Saudi infrastructure.
The Houthis carried out these attacks following the Coalition's announcement that it had targeted an oil company in the suburbs of Sanaa on Tuesday evening, after previously warning civilians to stay away in preparation for a "qualitative operation."
The Saudi Ministry of Energy confirmed that an administrative building belonging to Aramco in the city of Dhahran, where the company is headquartered, was targeted on Tuesday evening, noting that a "limited fire" had broken out. It confirmed that there were "no injuries or deaths."
Two company employees told Agence France-Presse, on condition of anonymity, that a tower at Aramco's headquarters was attacked on Wednesday night, with one reporting that "the top three floors were destroyed."
On Thursday, the Saudi Civil Defense issued an early warning for "emergency situations" in the cities of Jazan and Najran, which it lifted minutes later. Both regions, located near Yemen, are regularly subjected to Houthi attacks.
The Coalition announced at dawn on Thursday the "interception and destruction of a drone in the Eastern Province."
In light of the recent attacks, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that this could affect everyone "everywhere," amid rising global energy costs and the intensification of multiple conflicts in the crude oil-rich region.
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