France plans European ‘initiative' to end Iran-Israel conflict

At a national security council meeting, Macron ordered Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to draw up 'an initiative with close European partners that would propose a demanding negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict', it said, without giving details on the nature of the plan.
Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday.
All three countries were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from sanctions.
The United States withdrew from that accord during President Donald Trump's first term.
Macron also urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles.
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He voiced 'concern over the current escalation, with Israeli strikes increasingly hitting targets not linked to Iran's nuclear or ballistic programme, and a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel', his office said.
He said it was 'necessary to urgently end these military operations, which pose significant threats to regional security', it added.
The French president also urged the foreign ministry to take measures to help French citizens leave Israel or Iran if they wished to do so, the Elysée added, without providing further details.

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France 24

33 minutes ago

• France 24

Outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach faced mammoth challenges

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LeMonde

an hour ago

• LeMonde

Trump says US has struck 3 Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israeli air campaign

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Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel's military campaign. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the US. The US ambassador to Israel announced that the US had begun "assisted departure flights," the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump planned to make his decision on the strikes within two weeks. Instead, he struck just two days later. Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently. 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Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, "While President Trump's decision may prove just, it's hard to conceive a rationale that's Constitutional."

France 24

3 hours ago

• France 24

Trump says US bombed three Iran nuclear sites, including Fordow

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the US military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to decapitate the country's nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict. The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," Trump said in a post on social media. "All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.' The strikes are a perilous decision for the US as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.