France will send 10 warships to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, where oil tanker traffic has been choked off by the war with Iran, in addition to the two ships already deployed to the Mediterranean, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.
“This mobilization of our navy is unprecedented,” Mr. Macron said during a news conference Monday afternoon at a military base in Cyprus.
Later, aboard the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle stationed in the Mediterranean, he explained that the naval presence was intended to protect French citizens in the region, guard against attacks on France’s allies and, potentially, escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
In recent days, Mr. Macron has been working to organize an international escort force to ensure that the strait, the conduit for about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, reopens to oil tankers and container ships once it is safe to do so. So far, several European nations “are ready to do it with us,” he said, along with India and other Asian countries. He noted that he had spoken with President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran about the proposal on Sunday.
“This is not an offensive mission,” Mr. Macron said. “It is an escort and support mission.”
France has defense agreements with Persian Gulf countries that have endured Iranian aerial attacks since the war began nine days ago. The United States, Britain and France have helped Middle East countries to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, and French ships could further assist in that effort.
In addition, France says some 400,000 of its citizens live in the Middle East.
Mr. Macron said he believed the intense phase of the war in the Middle East would continue for “several more days, maybe several weeks.”
Over the next 48 hours, Mr. Macron said, France will send eight frigates and two helicopter carriers to the region. It has already deployed the Charles de Gaulle, its sole aircraft carrier, to the Mediterranean and sent a frigate and air defense systems to Cyprus after it was targeted early in the war by Iranian drones and missiles.
The attacks on Cyprus and a pair of missile strikes on Turkey carry symbolic weight for Europe. Cyprus is a member of the European Union and Britain maintains military bases there, while Turkey is a member of NATO.
“When Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked,” Mr. Marcon said during a news conference with President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece. Greece sent two frigates and four F-16 fighter jets to the island, Mr. Kyriakos said.
Catherine Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is based in Paris.
The post France Is Sending a Large Naval Force to the Middle East appeared first on New York Times.
