French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, June 23, called for a return to negotiations after Iran carried out a retaliatory strike on a US military base in Qatar. “The spiral of chaos must end,” he wrote on X. “I call on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint, de-escalate and return to the negotiating table.”
Speaking to broadcaster France 2, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said: “This is a dangerous escalation in which Iran bears a heavy responsibility. It is a cycle of violence that puts the region at risk of a widespread conflagration, which would have very serious repercussions even here at home.”
Earlier on Monday, Macron said US strikes on Iran were not legal, but that France supported the objective of keeping Tehran from developing nuclear arms. “While we can consider there being legitimacy in neutralizing nuclear structures in Iran given the objectives we share (…) There is no legality in these strikes,” Macron told reporters during a visit to Norway.
“We have consistently believed from the beginning that this can only be achieved through diplomatic and technical means,” the French president said, speaking alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. Store echoed the sentiment. “International law has some clear principles on the use of force. It can be granted by the Security Council, or it can be in pure self-defense,” he said, noting that this meant the strikes were “outside the realm of international law.”
Macron also voiced his opposition to any intention of a regime change in Iran through military means. “Every time we’ve made this choice, whatever the legitimacy of the initial approach (…) we made a mistake,” he said, adding that such actions had not led to increased stability in the past.
Macron added that Israeli strikes on Iran’s Evin prison on Monday had nothing to do with Israel’s “stated objectives” of destroying the nuclear program and had endangered civilians. Macron also warned of the economic impact on the global economy in the event of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. “The consequences for the global economy, especially China and many others, would be massive, and I think it would prompt a lot of reactions,” the president said.
