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Macron says will do everything to avoid Middle East 'conflagration'
Iran launched its first-ever direct assault on Israeli territory late Saturday in retaliation for a deadly April 1 air strike on Tehran's consulate building in Syria's capital Damascus that was widely blamed on Israel.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) greets French President Emmanuel Macron before a meeting in Jerusalem on October 24, 2023. (AFP/Christophe Ena)
P
resident Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would help do everything to avoid an escalation in the Middle East after an unprecedented Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel.
Iran launched its first-ever direct assault on Israeli territory late Saturday in retaliation for a deadly April 1 air strike on Tehran's consulate building in Syria's capital Damascus that was widely blamed on Israel.
"We will do everything to avoid a conflagration that is to say an escalation," he told the BFMTV news channel.
French jets helped repel an Iranian violation of Jordan's air space, Macron added.
"For several years now we have had an air base in Jordan to fight terrorism," he said.
"Jordanian airspace was violated... We made our planes take off and we intercepted what we had to intercept."
Experts say Israel was able to neutralise most of the missiles and drones.
Iran launched over 100 medium-range ballistic missiles, more than 30 land-attack cruise missiles and over 150 attack drones at Israel, a senior US military official said.
US forces also helped, destroying "more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen," US Central Command said on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne on Sunday said he had asked the foreign ministry to summon the Iranian ambassador on Monday to express a "message of firmness".
