French President Macron lands in Saudi Arabia on surprise 'solidarity' visit

Well, the French President Emmanuel Macron has made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia as he wraps up his Gulf tour. The Office of the Presidency said it was to show solidarity with the Saudi kingdom amid attacks by the Houthis and also to help secure hydrocarbon supplies. Well, for more on that, we are now joined by Doug Herbert, our international affairs editor. Hi, Doug. You know, Macron then visiting Saudi Arabia. This was not announced beforehand. And then, of course, yesterday we had Andy Burnham saying that the UK would deploy fighter jets or jets to help in the defense of Saudi Arabia on the lines of what France did recently. You know, they say it's all about defense. Some people are expressing fears that we're on a slippery slope here towards something bigger. It's the natural question to ask, Angela, because whether or not military operations are defensive, it's literally in the eye of the beholder. Yes, you're absolutely right. The Europeans say it's defensive in the sense that what are the Brits doing? Their Royal Air Force Typhoon jet fighters are going to basically be there to shoot down incoming drones and missiles incoming into Saudi Arabia, presumably from the Houthis, to basically give a little bit of extra air defense, if you will, to the vast, and it's a vast country, four times the size of France, to Saudi Arabia's vast territory. Saudi Arabia doesn't need offensive help. It has plenty of good offensive weapons, including a fleet of Eurofighters. But the defense of what the British are calling their defensive cover will be important militarily, politically. The French, what are they doing? They're not going to be shooting down incoming missiles. They're going to be having soldiers' radars, and air defense systems, mainly trying to protect the export infrastructure. Remember, what is the value of Saudi Arabia to Europe, the West in general, is its exports to the West, to the Western energy markets. That's the reason they're in it. They're not in it out of the goodness of their hearts. Now, like I said, whether it's defensive is in the eye of the beholder. The Houthis could very well look at both the British operation and the French operation for different things, right? The export protections, shooting down missiles in the British case, and say, that's not too defensive. That's actually offensive if you're shooting down our missiles and you're taking aim at our assets. And if they decide that, they might ramp up the pressure even more. They might try to target British assets, perhaps, you know, in Saudi Arabia or, say, in Cyprus. For the French, they might do the same thing. It's like I said, the Houthis are likely to, at some point, push the envelope and test the limits here and perhaps go on the offensive against what they will interpret as an offensive operation. There's no such thing to them as a purely defensive operation if you have Europeans, and especially potential troop deployments, Europeans on the ground in that region. How did we get here, you know, with Macron going to Saudi Arabia to discuss all this, Burnham's announcement yesterday? You know, it isn't very long ago that a lot of military observers were talking about the Houthis as a, you know, a kind of a ragtag bunch, and now... No, they've come a long way, Angela. We know that, right? They have sophisticated intelligence right now. You know, we always say the Iran-backed Houthis. And do you have the 100% proof in the satellite images of Iran giving them the weapons? No. But they have built up through a range of military advisors over the years. They've built up their forces to quite a formidable regional sort of force to be reckoned with. And no, they are ragtag no longer and haven't been for a long time. And they're really taking the fight right now to Saudi Arabia. You know, the Saudi energy minister recently acknowledged that right now the attacks on Riyadh's airports, on a lot of its oil facilities recently, the airport attacks, let's not forget, not just in Riyadh, but elsewhere in the country, have killed 19 people, injured an estimated hundreds more. This is a massive, massive sort of upheaval in the sort of balance of forces in the region. Like I said, you're not a ragtag force when you are able to take a military and economic giant, regional giant like Saudi Arabia, and literally put it on the back foot, put it on the defensive. Some economic forums, energy forums have been canceled. They've had those airport shutdowns. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago. You remember we were talking about MBS's, Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 for a new modernized futuristic Saudi Arabia coming into the 21st century. It's not that that's off the table now. It's still on, but it's really the brakes have been slammed on and the Houthis are really, like I said, bringing the fight to the Saudis and a group that's ragtag no more right now showing what a far, far less mighty military force can do simply by shooting a few missiles and drones at the right places at the right time and sowing enough uncertainty to throw everyone sort of out of sorts and wondering what comes next. Indeed. Thanks very much, Doug.