“In terms of security and defense, we have very clearly improved things (…) with the desire to move forward on the Rafale, which is a major change in the bilateral relationship and which for us also consolidates development of this club,” he told French journalists in Riyadh.
An announcement was not expected during the president's visit to Saudi, but at least a desire to “make a decision” in this direction, indicated a source close to the matter.
Nearly a dozen countries already have Rafales or have concluded commercial agreements to acquire them: Egypt, Qatar, India, Greece, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia and Serbia.
Emmanuel Macron also indicated that the two countries had “advanced on everything that is naval, air defense, satellites”. “We signed contracts that were expected,” he added without further details.
At the beginning of January, Germany decided to unblock a giant pre-order of 48 planes from Saudi Arabia, on which Berlin had maintained its veto since 2018 and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Heavyweight in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition mobilized since 2015 to support the Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and have since controlled large areas of the territory.
The war in Yemen has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Fighting has reduced significantly since a UN-brokered truce was negotiated in April 2022, although it officially ended six months later.
NGOs and UN experts have accused all parties of having committed war crimes in this neighboring country of Saudi Arabia, the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula.
