France’s President Emmanuel Macron ordered the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to leave the Baltic Sea and head to the Mediterranean to help protect allied assets during the war in the Middle East, according to a prerecorded address on French television reported by The Associated Press.
In the speech, Macron said the move was driven by the conflict’s rapid evolution and France’s need to adjust its posture accordingly. He pointed to developments including a drone hit on Sunday at a French naval base, and he said France needed to be able to adapt to changes “of the last few hours,” as he put it, AP reported.
Macron said the carrier would not sail alone: he stated that Charles de Gaulle would be escorted by frigates and accompanied by its air wing. He also said Rafale fighter jets, air-defense systems, and airborne radar systems had been deployed over the past few hours in the Middle East, as part of France’s reinforced defensive posture, AP reported.
To explain why the carrier’s redeployment was necessary, Macron cited Monday’s strike on a British air force base on Cyprus, and he noted that Cyprus is a member of the European Union with which France has recently signed a strategic partnership, AP reported. “This requires our support,” Macron said in the prerecorded message, according to the AP account.
Macron also addressed what France viewed as its role in defending allied airspace. While France, the United Kingdom and Germany had previously said they were not involved in the strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel that began late last week, Macron said French forces had shot down drones “in legitimate self-defense” during the earliest hours of the conflict, AP reported. He said the effort was to defend the airspace of allies who “know they can rely on us,” but he did not provide details in the account.
On the dispute over the strikes on Iran, Macron said France cannot approve of actions by Israel and the U.S. against Iran because they were carried out outside the framework of “international law,” AP reported. He said it would be “desirable” to end the strikes as quickly as possible, and he said lasting peace in the region could come only through the resumption of diplomatic negotiations.
Macron also warned about the conflict’s spread to Lebanon. With the war reaching Lebanon, he said the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah made “the grave mistake of striking Israel” and putting Lebanese people at risk, while warning against Israel launching a ground operation, AP reported. He said “This, too, would be a dangerous escalation and a strategic error,” and he called on Hezbollah to stop all strikes and urged Israel to respect Lebanese territory and its integrity, AP reported.
In the speech, Macron added that he hoped the Iranian people would be able to freely decide their own destiny. He also made comments in reference to Iran’s leadership, saying, as AP reported, that “history never weeps for the executioners of their own people,” and that “none of them will be mourned,” in connection with the killings of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials.
Macron further asserted that Iran bore responsibility for the conflict, AP reported. He said Iran developed a dangerous nuclear program and “unprecedented ballistic capabilities,” armed and financed militant groups in neighboring countries, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, and supported Hamas, while “always affirming its objective of destroying the State of Israel,” AP reported.