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France deploys aircraft carrier to Mediterranean over Iran war
France deploys aircraft carrier to Mediterranean over Iran war
1 hour agoAFP
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The Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier is expected to take 10 days to reach the eastern Mediterranean.
French President Emmanuel Macron said two French bases had been damaged since the start of the Iran conflict. (EPA Images pic)
PARIS: France is sending its flagship aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the widening conflict in the Middle East, president Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday.
“I have ordered the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean,” he said in a televised speech a day after he warned of the risk of the conflict spilling over Europe’s borders.
The Charles de Gaulle carrier has been pulled out of a deployment in the North Atlantic to head for the eastern Mediterranean. It made a stopover in the Swedish port of Malmo last week.
Macron said he was also sending additional air defence units to Cyprus, a day after Iranian-made drones hit the British Royal Air Force (RAF) base of Akrotiri in the Mediterranean island.
“In addition to assets already in place, Rafale jets, air-defence systems and airborne radar aircraft have been deployed in recent hours” to the region, he said.
He said the frigate Languedoc and the “additional air defence assets” would arrive off Cyprus on Tuesday, as the conflict spreads after the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Saturday. Britain has also put a warship in position off Cyprus.
“The United States of America and Israel decided to launch military operations, conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of,” the French president said.
But “the Islamic republic of Iran bears primary responsibility for this situation,” he said, citing Iran’s “dangerous” nuclear programme, support for regional proxies, and orders to shoot “its own people” during protests in January.
Iran has responded by targeting Gulf states, Israel and US facilities across the Middle East, as well as threatening shipping in the area.
