France is sending troops, radar and air defenses to protect Saudi Aramco’s facilities at the Red Sea port of Yanbu after another Houthi attack.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that the French forces would protect the site but would not take part in combat. Macron acted after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan called for international help to contain the Houthis, saying the threat extends beyond the kingdom.

Yanbu has become a critical outlet for Saudi oil as the war disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted missiles aimed at Yanbu and the city of Taif on Thursday, while the Houthis claimed attacks on Aramco facilities at the port and a target in Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey said they would arrange an urgent meeting of their military chiefs to show support for the kingdom after Houthi attacks. Prince Faisal discussed the gathering with the Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers in New York on Thursday under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all three.

Also in New York, U.S. and Iranian negotiators are reportedly exploring a phased deal that would see Tehran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and Washington lift its blockade of Iranian ports.

The two countries, which have failed to reach similar agreements in recent months, were pushing for a breakthrough Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, with Qatari officials mediating the negotiations, Bloomberg reports.

Saudi Arabia’s expatriate jobs boom is fading as the Iran war compounds Public Investment Fund cutbacks and a broader hiring slowdown, resulting in fewer opportunities and less generous pay packages.

“The war has exacerbated PIF cutbacks,” Mark Butler, a partner at Saudi recruitment company Sterling Bell, told Arabian Gulf Business Insight.

The shift has come after a hiring boom that recruiters described as “so intense” that they were often given just months to find thousands of workers for PIF-led projects, often with generous salaries and incentives.

Hiring could accelerate again ahead of Expo 2030 Riyadh and the 2034 World Cup, but recruiters expect the market to remain subdued in the near term.

The UAE central bank has barred Bank Melli Iran’s local branches from conducting financial transactions to and from Iran.

The regulatory body said its action followed examinations that found breaches of UAE rules and supervisory requirements.

The violations were related to anti-money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.

The central bank said the measures are aimed at safeguarding the integrity of the UAE financial system and ensuring compliance with international standards.

The move marks the latest crackdown on Iranian-linked businesses and financial activity after months of Iran’s missile and drone strikes against the UAE.
 

Microsoft plans to invest more than $10 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure while expanding its operations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait by 2030.

The U.S. software giant is preparing an “aggressive spending schedule” as it expands working relationships with Abu Dhabi’s G42 tech conglomerate and works on selected projects with Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai, Microsoft President Brad Smith told Reuters.

Smith, who holds a seat on G42’s board, said Microsoft will spend more than $400 million over the next three years on undersea cables and land connections across the Middle East.

Asked how the Iran war has affected its projections, Smith said: “We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we’re in fact adding to them.” 

Amid the conflict, Smith said Microsoft is working to help Gulf countries in areas such as readiness and critical data protection as part of a “digital resilience” initiative.

Europe’s largest private investment firm is opening its first Middle East office in Abu Dhabi, in the latest sign that the Iran war has done little to dent the UAE’s appeal as a financial hub. 

Swedish firm EQT, which manages $389 billion in client assets, will join a growing lineup of global asset managers in the Abu Dhabi Global Market free zone, The National reports. Smiyet Belrhiti will lead the Abu Dhabi office.

“The launch of EQT’s Middle East platform reflects our conviction in the scale and momentum of opportunity across the GCC,” EQT CEO Per Franzén said. 

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Lesha Bank signed an agreement with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners to invest more than $1 billion alongside the infrastructure investor.

BlackRock plans to deploy up to $100 billion in the Middle East, targeting infrastructure and opportunities created by the opening of state-owned assets to private investment, Zawya reports.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, plans to create a gas division, giving the business its own president and preparing for major investments in LNG.

The overhaul could pave the way for Aramco to sell a minority stake in the gas business or list parts of it to raise money for Saudi projects and overseas energy investments, Reuters reports.

Aramco is expanding the Jafurah shale gas field to supply more gas at home, freeing up oil now burned for power generation for export.

The company raised $11 billion last year through a lease deal involving Jafurah’s gas processing facilities, offering another model for funding its expansion.

Wealthy Gulf residents and family offices are building private data centers for homes and luxury yachts.

Demand has accelerated since Iranian drone attacks disrupted Gulf cloud infrastructure, including Amazon Web Services facilities in Bahrain and the UAE.

Rain Ibajo, Chief Technology Officer at Dubai-based Ragoa Technologies, told Arabian Gulf Business Insight that private systems cost between about $550,000 and $1.1 million.

Advances in AI are also making the systems more useful, allowing owners to analyze sensitive data locally while reducing reliance on external cloud providers.

Saudi Arabia is postponing its Red Sea International Film Festival, pushing the star-studded annual event to late 2027 as an escalating conflict with Yemen’s Houthis and continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz deepen security concerns.

Organizers scrapped the red-carpet premiere scheduled for Dec. 3 in Jeddah, though they cited only the logistical demands of staging the international festival, The National reports.

Last year’s event drew Hollywood stars including Dakota Johnson, Uma Thurman, Queen Latifah and Vin Diesel. The decision to delay the Jeddah event comes just days after news that neighboring Dubai plans to revive its own international film festival in December 2027 after a decade-long break.

Despite the growing conflict with the Houthis, Saudi Aramco told several Asian refiners that oil shipments from the Red Sea port of Yanbu should resume soon. At least three processors received informal assurances from company executives, though no timetable was given, Bloomberg reports.

Loadings have largely stopped since drone attacks from Iraq shut the East-West pipeline on Sept. 10. The pipeline had carried about 4 million barrels a day to Yanbu, with Aramco now working to restore half its capacity.