AFP – President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France would do everything in its power to help avoid an escalation of the situation in the Middle East following Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attacks on Israel.
Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory late Saturday in retaliation for an April 1 airstrike on Tehran’s consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, for which Israel was widely blamed.
“We will take all measures to avoid a conflagration, an escalation,” President Macron told news channel BFMTV.
That would include “persuading Israel not to respond by escalating,” he said.
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He added that the focus should be on “isolating Iran, convincing regional countries that Iran is dangerous, tightening sanctions and increasing pressure on its nuclear activities” in Iran.
“We need to stand by Israel to ensure its maximum protection, but we also need to call for restrictions to avoid escalation,” Macron said.
The French president also said that during the attack, French military aircraft helped repel Iranian violations of Jordanian airspace.
“For several years now we have had an air base in Jordan to fight terrorism,” he said.
“Jordanian airspace was violated…We took off planes and intercepted what we were supposed to intercept.”
French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourne said on Sunday that he had asked the foreign ministry to summon the Iranian ambassador on Monday to send a “resolute message.”
– “Sanctions” –
Israel said Iran launched “more than 350 intimidated ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, rockets and suicide drones” during the unprecedented onslaught.
Nearly all the missiles and drones were intercepted by Israel and other countries, including the United States, Britain, and France.
U.S. Central Command announced that the U.S. military had destroyed “more than 80 One-Way Attack Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (OWA UAVs) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to attack Israel from Iran and Yemen.” .
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday urged the Security Council to designate the Islamic Republic’s ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, as a “terrorist” organization and “impose all sanctions against Iran before it is too late.” did.
Iran’s UN special envoy said Iran had “no choice” in response to the April 1 attack on Damascus that killed seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including two senior generals.
He said his country “does not seek escalation or war” but would respond to any “threats or aggression.”
Hostilities between Israel and Iran’s regional allies have intensified since the recent outbreak of war in Gaza.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli statistics.
Israel’s retaliatory attacks have killed at least 33,797 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry.
