Greece Keeps Patriot Battery Guarding Yanbu as Houthis Target Saudi Oil Sites

by · Greek City Times

Greece will keep its Patriot missile battery in Saudi Arabia, where it guards energy infrastructure at the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The decision comes as Yemen’s Houthis step up drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil facilities, pipelines and airports.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday 25 October that Greece “responds positively” to the Kingdom’s request for the Patriots to stay “during these difficult times”, the Greek Prime Minister’s Office said.

Mitsotakis condemned the attacks on Saudi Arabia. He said the Greek presence contributes “not only to the security of the Kingdom but also to regional security, as it protects critical energy infrastructure in Yanbu”, GCT reported, citing the state news agency AMNA.

Read more: Flames and Black Smoke Seen Near Riyadh Airport After Saudi Arabia Warns of Aerial Attack

A week of Houthi attacks on Saudi energy sites

Mitsotakis’s visit came amid a wave of Houthi attacks on the Kingdom’s oil industry.

Early on Monday 26 October, the Houthis said they had launched drone attacks on crude oil pumping stations along the East-West Pipeline, as well as firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, Anadolu Agency reported. The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a missile aimed at Riyadh.

The coalition also said it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa, while there was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi claims, Reuters reported via Al-Monitor.

On Saturday 24 October, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had targeted an Aramco facility in Yanbu, the Rabigh oil refinery and several airports, Middle East Eye reported. The group also said it had targeted the East-West Pipeline. Again, Saudi authorities did not confirm those claims.

Earlier in the week, the Houthis claimed missile and drone strikes on Yanbu and on the Shaybah oil field, saying both sites caught fire. A source told Argus the claim was untrue and that the facilities were intact.

However, the attacks have had deadly consequences. On Wednesday 21 October, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said debris from an intercepted drone that targeted a processing facility at Shaybah killed a Filipino and a Nepali worker and injured two others, Arab News reported. The ministry said oilfield operations were not affected.

The next day, the Houthis said they had again attacked Aramco facilities in Yanbu, as well as the Saudi Defence Ministry in Riyadh, The Hindu reported, citing Reuters. The same day, Aramco told staff to evacuate its Dhahran headquarters, according to six people with knowledge of the matter, and oil prices rose to their highest level since May, Reuters reported.

That headquarters had already been struck once this month. A Houthi missile hit an Aramco office tower in Dhahran overnight on 13–14 October, causing what the energy ministry called a “limited fire”, the BBC reported.

Why Yanbu matters

Yanbu has become central to the world’s oil supply. The port is home to three Aramco-linked refineries. Its export terminal became Saudi Arabia’s main crude outlet after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in early March, according to Argus.

Crude reaches Yanbu through the East-West Pipeline, which runs about 1,200 kilometres from the Abqaiq area in the east to the Red Sea coast, Anadolu reported. Saudi Arabia temporarily shut the pipeline in September after a drone attack that Riyadh and Baghdad said came from Iraq.

The Greek mission

The Greek Patriot battery, operated by the Hellenic Force in Saudi Arabia (ELDYSA), has been in the Kingdom since 2021. It has helped intercept Houthi drones and missiles aimed at Yanbu and other targets, Kathimerini reported.

On 24 September, it fired two interceptors, one at a ballistic missile and one at a drone.

In early October, Greece’s Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defence (KYSEA) granted a one-month extension of the deployment. Sunday’s announcement keeps the battery in Saudi Arabia, although no new end date has been given, Military Press noted.

Greece is not alone. The UK said on 20 October that RAF Typhoons would fly defensive missions to protect Saudi cities and critical infrastructure, the Ministry of Defence announced.

Mitsotakis also used the talks to stress freedom of navigation. He said Greece, as a major maritime power, attaches “paramount importance” to the security of international shipping lanes, Kathimerini reported.

The fighting has effectively ended a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022. Earlier this month, a Houthi attack on Riyadh’s main airport killed 13 people, the deadliest in the Kingdom in more than a decade. GCT has previously covered the attacks on the airport.

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