French Foreign Legion Landed in Yemeni Port to Secure LNG Facility, Former Yemeni FM Claims
23:54 GMT 23.08.2022 (Updated: 10:58 GMT 05.03.2023)
© AP Photo / Jean-Francois Badias
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According to former Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, French Foreign Legion forces have landed at the port of Balhaf in southern Shabwa Province, about 230 miles east of Aden. Their aim, he said, is to secure an important liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility there.
Al-Qirbi served as Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2001 until the Houthi-led revolution in 2014. Despite having claimed the Houthi movement was backed by Iran, al-Qirbi joined their National Salvation Government briefly in 2016 to reprise his role as chief diplomat.
“Preparations [are] being made to export gas from the Balhaf facility … in light of increased international gas prices and to reduce Russian pressure on Europe,” al-Qirbi tweeted on August 16, speaking about the legion’s goals there. “That may be the reason for the events in Shabwa.”
According to The Cradle, those “recent events” were battles between UAE-backed mercenary groups and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated forces on one side, and forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s government on the other.
The Yemen LNG facility in Balhaf was finished in 2006 and turned off in April 2015, a month into the Saudi-led coalition’s attack on the country, and has remained inactive. Since then, Balhaf became a major base of operations for Emirati troops in Yemen, although nearly all Emirati forces have withdrawn from the country.
Shabwa's governor at the time, Mohammed Saleh bin Adyo, accused the UAE of seizing the city because of the LNG plant, and of trying to use it to foment “rebellion” to its own ends. The area surrounding Balhaf has long been considered a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)* during the civil war, and the UAE is accused of helping to arm them.
Investigations by Amnesty International and CNN in early 2019 revealed that Western weapons sold to the UAE were later appearing in the hands of rebel groups across Yemen, including AQAP.
French weapons have been especially prominent in the conflict. In April 2019, a highly classified report from a year prior was leaked to the press, which revealed the French government had lied when it said it had no knowledge of French-made weapons being used against civilians in Yemen, or indeed, being used in Yemen at all.
Two years later, French President Emmanuel Macron had apparently learned little, and was widely criticized for flying to Abu Dhabi to seal a $19 billion deal to sell the emirate 80 Rafale fighter jets and 12 Caracal helicopters.
Last month, Macron and Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed penned a new deal on the joint exploitation of LNG resources.
The Houthi government has also claimed that US troops were spotted setting up bases on the Red Sea coast in the west and in Hadhramaut and al-Mahrah provinces in the east. Indeed, US President Joe Biden revealed in a June letter to the heads of the House and Senate that the US has deployed a “small number” of troops in Yemen for operations against AQAP and Daesh.*
A Houthi technical fires its cannon at pro-government forces in a battle near Marib, Yemen
The war in Yemen began in March 2015, when Hadi fled to Riyadh after being ousted by the Houthi-led revolution. The Saudis gathered a coalition of Sunni-led states, including the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan, with support by the United States, to crush the Houthis and return Hadi to power. A devastating air campaign followed, supplemented by ground proxy forces and a blockade of Yemen’s ports, creating what the United Nations described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
According to estimates in November 2021, some 377,000 people had been killed in the war, the majority of them by noncombat causes, such as disease, famine, and lack of medicine or clean water.
Despite the assault, the Houthis have held firm and steadily expanded their territory, pushing south toward Aden and east into Ma’rib and Shabwa Provinces, where the country’s valuable oil and gas deposits lie. They have also mounted drone and missile attacks against Saudi and Emirati installations inside those countries, turning the war into a battle of attrition.
* Terrorist groups in Russia and many other countries.
