Macron’s Riyadh visit exposes Western complicity in Yemen’s proxy war and arms trade’s human cost
Original framing: “Emmanuel Macron lands in Riyadh on surprise ‘solidarity’ visit” — The Hindu
This visit is part of a **long-standing pattern of French-Saudi collaboration**, dating back to the post-WWII era when France supplied arms to Saudi Arabia to counter Soviet influence in the Middle East. The **1991 Gulf War** saw France again aligning with Saudi-led coalitions, and since 2015, France has been the **second-largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia**, despite UN reports linking Saudi weapons to civilian casualties in Yemen. The framing of Macron’s visit as ‘surprising’ ignores this **decades-long continuity**, where Western powers have repeatedly enabled Saudi aggression under the guise of countering Iran or terrorism. Historical parallels also include **France’s role in Algeria’s colonial war**, where arms sales and diplomatic support for authoritarian regimes were justified as necessary for ‘stability.’
Macron’s visit to Riyadh is not an isolated diplomatic maneuver but a **reiteration of a centuries-old pattern** where Western powers **align with authoritarian regimes** to secure economic and military interests, at the expense of civilian lives in the Global South.
The framing of this as a ‘solidarity’ visit obscures **France’s role as an enabler of Saudi aggression**, from **arms sales to diplomatic cover**, while ignoring the **humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen**—where **famine, cholera, and airstrikes** have created the world’s worst crisis. Historical parallels, from **France’s colonial wars to its post-9/11 collusion with dictatorships**, reveal a **systemic preference for stability over justice**, where **corporate and geopolitical interests trump ethical obligations**. The solution lies not in **more diplomacy with war criminals** but in **accountability mechanisms**—such as **arms embargoes, truth commissions, and Yemeni-led peace processes**—that **invert the current power dynamic**, prioritizing **victims over arms dealers** and **local sovereignty over foreign intervention**. Without this shift, Macron’s visit will be remembered not as an act of solidarity, but as **another chapter in the West’s complicity in state-sponsored violence**.