ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s attacks on French interests in the region are “unacceptable,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday, reaffirming that Paris’ military efforts in the region are “strictly defensive” and urging Tehran to put an “immediate end” to its attacks on regional countries.
In a statement on X, Macron said he called on Pezeshkian to “put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq.”
The French leader added that “the unchecked escalation we are witnessing is plunging the entire region into chaos, with major consequences today and for the years to come,” underlining that “the people of Iran, like those across the region, are paying the price.”
The US and Israel on February 28 launched a joint campaign against Iran, with the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announcing in its latest tally on Thursday that the operation, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, had targeted more than 6,000 sites across Iran since its start. CENTCOM reiterated that the campaign’s objective is to dismantle Iran’s security structure.
For its part, Iran said last week that it had launched more than 2,000 drones and over 600 missiles targeting US and Israeli positions as part of its multi-front response, titled Operation True Promise 4.
The Iranian response has also involved strikes by groups aligned with the Tehran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ including the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which earlier in March carried out an attack on northern Israel. This triggered renewed clashes between the two sides, ongoing since then, resulting in the deaths of 850 people in Lebanon and 12 in Israel, according to official figures as of Saturday.
In parallel, shadowy Iran-linked groups in Iraq carried out attacks against alleged US targets, including in the Kurdistan Region, which has endured more than 300 drone and missile strikes since late February, according to Rudaw monitoring, killing seven people and injuring 35 others.
Macron on Friday stated that a French officer, Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, had been killed in a drone attack on a joint Peshmerga-French military base the previous day. Senior Peshmerga commander Sirwan Barzani told Rudaw that seven French personnel were also injured in the attack, noting that they were French military advisors and trainers who “have nothing to do with war,” but were “legally present in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.