France said on Monday that it is ready to help defend Middle Eastern countries, including the Arabian Gulf states, against Iranian attacks, but only at their request and in a manner described as proportionate.
Paris, Berlin and London have said they were ready to enable "necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source".
The statement followed Iranian drones strikes on Sunday that hit Al Salam military base in the UAE and a UK base in Cyprus, causing limited damage. There were no casualties.
Asked by The National at a press conference to give more details, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the priority was to protect French assets in the region while remaining ready to defend regional partners.
"It is about ensuring the security of our facilities, our bases, and our military personnel in the region, and also about being ready to contribute to the defence of our partners," he said, speaking after holding a crisis meeting at the ministry about the war.
"Depending on the requests made to us, in a spirit of proportionality and in accordance with international law, we stand ready to contribute to their defence," he added.
France has decided to send two additional warships to reinforce Aspides, the European Union's naval mission to the Red Sea. The Greece-based mission has currently three ships from Italy, Greece and France.
The reinforcement of Aspides was discussed on Sunday during an online meeting of the EU's foreign affairs ministers on developments in the Middle East.
"Our naval mission, Aspides, has seen a sharp rise in protection requests, and we will reinforce it with additional ships to bolster maritime security in the region," the EU's foreign affairs minister Kaja Kallas said in a written statement shared with The National.
"On the diplomatic track, we plan to convene a joint EU-Gulf Co-operation Council ministerial meeting."
'Full support'
Both the EU and France extended their support to Arab partners that had been hit by Iran.
Mr Barrot expressed France's "full support and solidarity" to countries that have been "deliberately targeted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with missiles and drones and drawn into a war they did not choose - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan".
"The attacks against our Gulf partners are unjustifiable," EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said on X. "My thoughts are with all those affected."
France has military bases in the UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon and Iraq. The UK is present in Cyprus and Qatar while Germany operates military bases near Erbil, Iraq, and in Jordan.
According to French daily Le Monde, French Rafale fighter jets intervened over the weekend to shoot down Iranian drones.
US unilateral attacks against Iran should have been debated in the collective bodies set up for this exact purpose, such as the UN, Mr Barrot said.
"Everyone could have taken their responsibilities, because it is only by going before the UN Security Council that the use of force can acquire the necessary legitimacy," Mr Barrot said. "The Iranian regime's reckless and indiscriminate response reflects its long-standing strategy: terror and chaos."
The continuing conflict must "cease as soon as possible", Mr Barrot said, calling on Tehran to end its attacks and commit to "major concessions" so that "a political solution can be found that makes peaceful coexistence possible for Iran with its regional environment and the international community".
In Lebanon, Iran-backed militia Hezbollah "made a grave mistake", Mr Barrot said, by joining the war, provoking an Israeli response that killed 31 people and wounding 149 in the south of the country.
France has indefinitely postponed a conference to support the Lebanese army planned for this week because of the war.
“Nearly 400,000 French citizens are residents or visitors in the dozen countries of the region,” Mr Barrot added. “Our system is already in place locally to facilitate departures by land when possible, which is not the case in all the countries concerned,” he said.
The airspace in most of the region has been shut except in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron held two exceptional defence meetings to address the joint US-Israeli attacks against Iran and Tehran's ensuing strikes on Arab states.
Mr Macron said said France would "strengthen [its] defensive posture" and "stand alongside those with whom we have defence treaties".
