Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 25th, 2026: France Deploys Ground Troops To Saudi Arabia & China’s Nuclear Program Draws Scrutiny

Transcript

PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 25th, 2026: France Deploys Ground Troops To Saudi Arabia & China’s Nuclear Program Draws Scrutiny · The President's Daily Brief

0:12
It's Friday,
0:13
the 25th of September.
0:14
Congratulations,
0:15
we've made it to the end of another work week.
0:18
Well done,
0:18
everyone.
0:19
Welcome to the PDB
0:20
afternoon bulletin.
0:21
I'm Mike Baker,
0:22
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:24
All right,
0:25
let's get briefed.
0:26
First up,
0:27
the conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudis is widening
0:32
as France sends troops and defensive systems to the kingdom,
0:36
and Riyadh
0:37
turns to Turkey and Pakistan for additional military support.
0:42
I'll have the details.
0:43
Later in the show,
0:44
the Trump administration is reportedly quietly pressing China
0:48
over suspected secret nuclear tests as
0:51
Beijing rapidly expands its nuclear arsenal.
0:55
But first,
0:56
today's afternoon spotlight.
0:58
Another European nation is stepping in to help defend Saudi Arabia
1:01
as the Iranian-supported Houthi campaign against the Saudi kingdom continues.
1:06
France says it's sending troops,
1:08
radar systems,
1:09
and air defense capabilities
1:11
to protect Yanbo,
1:12
the critical Saudi oil hub on the Red Sea.
1:15
President Emmanuel Macron announced the deployment on Thursday,
1:19
describing it as a defensive mission
1:22
aimed at protecting Saudi infrastructure and
1:24
helping stabilize global energy supplies.
1:27
Paris has not said how many French troops will be involved,
1:31
exactly what air defense systems will be sent,
1:33
or when they will arrive,
1:35
but the significance is clear.
1:38
French military personnel
1:39
will now be on the ground,
1:41
potentially positioned underneath incoming Houthi missiles and drones.
1:46
As we've discussed here on the PDB,
1:48
with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely disrupted by the war with Iran,
1:52
Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on its east-west pipeline
1:56
to move crude across the kingdom to terminals on the Red Sea.
2:00
Yanbo sits at the western end of that route.
2:03
So if the Houthis can threaten Yanbo,
2:05
they can threaten one of Saudi Arabia's most important alternatives
2:09
to the Strait of Hormuz.
2:11
Saudi officials said Thursday that their
2:12
forces intercepted 6 Houthi ballistic missiles
2:15
aimed at targets including Yanbu and Taif.
2:19
The Houthis claimed an even larger barrage involving missiles and drones and
2:23
also said they targeted Saudi Aramco facilities at Yanbu.
2:26
That particular claim
2:28
has not been independently confirmed.
2:30
France is presenting its deployment as defensive,
2:33
and
2:34
there's no indication at this point that French
2:36
forces are preparing to conduct strikes inside Yemen.
2:39
But as we've been reporting,
2:41
Paris is not acting alone.
2:43
The UK has already agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with aerial refueling support,
2:47
deploying a Royal Air Force
2:49
Voyager tanker from Cyprus
2:51
to help keep Saudi aircraft airborne longer.
2:55
So now you have the UK helping sustain Saudi air operations,
2:59
France preparing to put troops and defensive systems on the ground,
3:02
and today we learned
3:03
that Riyadh is calling in two more partners.
3:06
Saudi Arabia,
3:07
Turkey,
3:07
and Pakistan are preparing an urgent meeting of their military chiefs.
3:11
To discuss what support Riyadh may receive
3:14
under the three countries' new defense agreement,
3:17
their foreign ministers met this week in New York during the UN General Assembly,
3:21
and Turkish officials say the country's chief of general staff is traveling
3:25
to Saudi Arabia to meet with his Saudi and Pakistani counterparts.
3:29
The purpose of the meeting,
3:30
according to officials,
3:31
is to discuss ways to support the kingdom.
3:35
The trilateral agreement signed by Saudi Arabia,
3:38
Turkey,
3:38
and Pakistan
3:39
says that an attack against one member
3:42
will be treated as an attack against all three.
3:45
Now when the deal was signed,
3:47
it all sounded fairly theoretical,
3:49
but that's now changed.
3:51
Saudi Arabia is facing repeated missile and drone attacks,
3:54
and its military partners are being asked to
3:56
decide what their commitment actually means in practice.
3:59
Turkey's parliament has not yet completed ratification of the agreement,
4:03
and no Turkish or Pakistani combat deployment has been announced.
4:07
Officials have also suggested that any immediate support could come
4:11
through bilateral arrangements rather than the
4:13
formal activation of the trilateral pact.
4:16
So this could still result in relatively limited assistance,
4:20
technical teams,
4:21
intelligence sharing,
4:23
interceptors,
4:23
air defense systems,
4:24
or logistical support.
4:27
But step back and look at the direction in which this is all moving.
4:30
Britain is providing refueling support.
4:33
France is sending troops and air defenses.
4:35
Turkey and Pakistan
4:36
are now holding urgent military consultations.
4:39
All of it is happening as Houthi attacks on Saudi territory
4:43
become more frequent
4:44
and Riyadh looks for outside help
4:46
to protect its cities and energy infrastructure.
4:50
And there's another layer to all of this.
4:52
Iranian President Massoud Pazeshki has been
4:55
publicly distancing Tehran from the Houthi offensive.
4:58
We have nothing to do with that,
5:00
arguing that the group makes its own decisions
5:03
and because he probably lacks a sense of humor or irony or self-awareness,
5:08
he said that with a straight face,
5:10
not even a quick snicker after claiming that the Houthis are independent.
5:14
Of course Tehran would have every reason,
5:16
of course,
5:16
to downplay its role in attacks that are now
5:19
threatening to pull additional countries into the conflict.
5:22
At the same time,
5:23
regional and Iranian sources have told Reuters that the
5:27
Revolutionary Guard Corps,
5:28
the IRGC,
5:30
has provided guidance to Houthi forces during their recent operations,
5:34
not to mention,
5:34
but I think I'm about to,
5:36
the regime's efforts over the years to build the Houthis.
5:40
An effective Iranian proxy force
5:42
weapons,
5:43
munitions,
5:43
money,
5:44
training,
5:44
strategic guidance,
5:46
credible reporting has repeatedly noted that IRGC
5:49
commanders are on the ground in Yemen
5:51
working with the Houthis.
5:53
But of course Poseskian says
5:56
it's no connection to us.
5:57
But it does raise an interesting question.
5:59
Who inside the Iranian regime actually has the authority
6:02
or the responsibility
6:04
for controlling the Houthis?
6:05
It's not clear,
6:07
just as it's not clear
6:08
who actually is in charge in Iran.
6:11
Regardless,
6:11
the reality is
6:13
if the Iranian regime wanted the Houthis to stop
6:15
their attacks on the Saudis and their current ground offensive
6:18
against Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces,
6:21
well,
6:21
they could make that happen.
6:22
But right now
6:23
the regime is using the Houthis in a broader strategy
6:27
to exert further pressure on the US
6:29
and attempt to gain maximum leverage in any negotiations.
6:34
All right,
6:34
coming up next,
6:35
China's nuclear buildup is drawing new scrutiny as
6:39
the Trump administration raises allegations of secret testing
6:43
and reportedly
6:44
pushes Beijing for answers.
6:46
I'll be right back.
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Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin.
8:56
The Trump administration is talking with China
8:59
about nuclear weapons,
9:01
and one of the biggest issues on the table
9:03
is Washington's suspicion that Beijing may
9:05
have secretly conducted nuclear tests,
9:08
despite a decades-old international testing moratorium.
9:11
According to the Wall Street Journal,
9:13
American and Chinese officials have been holding confidential
9:16
discussions on the sidelines of meetings in Geneva,
9:19
New York,
9:19
and Casablanca.
9:21
More talks are expected next month.
9:23
Now these are not formal arms control negotiations.
9:26
Nobody's talking about a new treaty
9:28
limiting the size of a nuclear arsenal,
9:31
at least not yet.
9:33
The discussions appear to be much narrower,
9:35
focusing on nuclear risk reduction,
9:37
missile test notifications,
9:39
transparency,
9:39
and
9:40
possible new ways to verify whether countries are
9:43
secretly conducting very low yield nuclear tests.
9:46
And that last point is
9:48
where all this gets very interesting.
9:50
The Trump administration has accused China of conducting
9:52
what it describes as extremely small nuclear explosions,
9:57
including one
9:57
allegedly carried out at China's LAP Nur testing complex in June of 2020.
10:03
China
10:04
strongly denies that accusation.
10:06
The US says Beijing crossed the line
10:08
and produced an actual nuclear explosive yield,
10:11
but outside experts
10:13
have not been able to independently prove that.
10:15
International monitoring systems did detect very small seismic
10:19
activity in that region at the time,
10:22
but those signals were weak enough that analysts have not
10:24
been able to say with confidence what caused them.
10:27
So right now you have Washington saying China conducted a secret nuclear test,
10:32
Beijing saying that it did not,
10:34
and independent monitoring
10:35
that can't conclusively settle the argument.
10:39
Very low yield tests can be extremely difficult to detect,
10:42
particularly if they're conducted underground
10:44
and deliberately designed to minimize their signature.
10:48
And if China is conducting those tests,
10:50
they could potentially allow Chinese weapons designers
10:53
to validate new nuclear technologies and warhead designs
10:57
without carrying out the kind of large explosion
11:00
that would be,
11:00
of course,
11:01
immediately obvious around the world.
11:03
That's why the administration is now discussing means of better verification.
11:08
The journal reports that some of the ideas under consideration
11:11
include placing more seismic equipment near nuclear
11:14
test sites or installing radiation detection systems that
11:17
could help distinguish a tiny nuclear explosion
11:20
from an earthquake,
11:21
mining activity,
11:22
or some other event.
11:24
The goal would be to make it much harder,
11:26
of course,
11:26
for any nuclear power to conduct a small test without being detected.
11:30
And this dispute
11:31
is unfolding against a much bigger change in China's nuclear posture.
11:36
According to the Pentagon,
11:38
China now possesses more than 600 nuclear warheads
11:41
and could exceed 1000 by the year 2030.
11:45
That would still leave Beijing with a smaller arsenal than either the US or Russia,
11:50
but their direction
11:52
is pretty clear.
11:53
China is rapidly expanding a nuclear force that
11:56
for decades
11:57
remained comparatively limited.
11:59
And that creates a very different strategic problem for Washington.
12:04
For much of the Cold War,
12:05
American nuclear planning was overwhelmingly focused on the Soviet Union.
12:09
Now the US increasingly has to think about two major nuclear rivals at the same time,
12:16
and neither one is operating under
12:17
the kind of comprehensive arms control structure
12:20
that once defined the US-Soviet nuclear relationship.
12:24
The US is also pushing China for more warning before ballistic missile tests.
12:29
In July,
12:30
Beijing reportedly gave Washington only about 2 hours' notice
12:34
before conducting a ballistic missile launch from a submarine.
12:37
The US and dozens of other countries have since urged governments
12:41
to provide at least 24 hours of advance notice before major missile launches.
12:46
China has so far refused
12:48
to sign on to that proposal,
12:50
and that might sound procedural,
12:52
but it is the sort of thing that matters
12:55
when multiple nuclear powers are watching one another closely.
12:58
A missile launch that one country considers a routine test
13:01
can look very different to another country's early warning system.
13:06
The more notice everyone has,
13:07
well,
13:08
the less chance there is that a test gets
13:10
mistaken for the opening stages of an attack.
13:13
And there's
13:14
also a larger debate underway in Washington
13:16
about what happens if China really is conducting secret nuclear tests.
13:21
President Trump has previously warned that the
13:23
US could eventually resume its own nuclear testing
13:27
on what he called an equal basis with China and Russia
13:30
if those countries are violating the testing moratorium.
13:34
The US has not conducted a nuclear explosive test since 1992.
13:39
Some lawmakers argue that if Beijing and
13:41
Moscow are secretly conducting low yield tests,
13:44
Washington should not continue imposing restrictions on itself.
13:48
Others argue that restarting American testing
13:51
could open the door to a much broader
13:52
nuclear testing race and ultimately help China and Russia
13:56
improve their arsenals even faster.
13:59
And that my friends,
14:00
on that cheery note
14:02
is the PDB
14:03
afternoon bulletin for Friday,
14:04
the 25th of September.
14:06
Now if you have any questions or comments,
14:07
please reach out to me at PDB@thefirstv.com.
14:12
And just a quick check of the calendar shows that yes
14:14
indeed it is in fact Friday and of course every Friday.
14:17
At 10:00 p.m.
14:18
on the first TV
14:19
we launch a brand new episode of our extended weekend show,
14:22
The PDB Situation Report.
14:24
You can also catch it on our YouTube channel.
14:27
Just go on over to YouTube and search up at President's Daily Brief.
14:30
And of course,
14:31
you can find it on podcast platforms everywhere.
14:34
I'm Mike Baker,
14:35
and I'll be back
14:36
over the weekend with the PDB situation report.
14:39
Until then,
14:41
stay informed,
14:42
stay safe.
14:43
Stay cool.
14:58
Hey,
14:58
Mike Baker here.
14:59
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