French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday on a surprise visit, in a show of solidarity with Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks.
Mr Macron met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an unannounced stop on his three-day tour of the Gulf. He had already visited Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The Saudi Press Agency said Mr Macron was received at King Khalid International Airport – the scene of several Houthi attacks – by Riyadh deputy governor Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman and the French ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Patrick Maisonnave.
The French President is the first western leader to visit the kingdom since Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis intensified their attacks this month.
The visit is “to demonstrate France's solidarity with the kingdom in the face of attacks launched by the Houthis against its territory, and to continue efforts aimed at securing and diversifying hydrocarbon supplies”, the French presidency said.
Riyadh has come under heavy fire as Yemen's heaviest fighting in years spilt over into Saudi Arabia. Attacks on the capital's airport killed 17 people and injured 333 others this month.
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war in support of the government in 2015, fearing the rise of Iranian influence and the prospect of chaos on its borders, after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.
The UN brokered a 2022 truce between the warring sides in Yemen that kept a fragile peace in place until this year.
Saudi Arabia resumed its military campaign in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government in a bid to reverse the Houthis' sudden gains last month, when they swept along the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab Al Mandeb strait.
