President Emmanuel ​Macron on Tuesday (March 3, 2026) said France was sending its ‌aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the ​Mediterranean and working to build ⁠a coalition that would help secure maritime traffic imperiled by the escalating crisis in the West Asia

In ‌a televised address to the nation, Mr. Macron said that action needed to ‌be taken with the Straits of ‌Hormuz ⁠closed and the Suez Canal and Red ⁠Sea shipping routes threatened by the widening conflict. “We have economic interests to protect, because oil prices, gas prices ​and the international ‌trade situation are being profoundly disrupted by this war.,” Mr. Macron said.

He said France had also sent a frigate to Cyprus ‌and had shot down drones in the ​skies above its Gulf allies.

Rafale jets were among the assets being ⁠used.

Macron on U.S.-Israel role on Iran attack

“We have defense agreements that bind us to Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. ‌The latter are particularly targeted, and we owe them solidarity,” Mr. Macron said. He said France was helping its citizens who wanted to leave the region get out and that two flights were due to arrive ‌in Paris on Tuesday evening. Security had also been ​reinforced at some sites in France, he added.

Mr. Macron said Iran itself “bears primary ⁠responsibility” for the U.S.-Israeli action, but added: “the United States ⁠of America and Israel have decided to launch military operations; they were conducted ‌outside international law, which we cannot approve.” 

France, Germany and the U.K. said on Sunday (March 1, 2026) they were ready to defend their interests and those of its allies in the Gulf if necessary by taking “defensive action” against Iran.

The three countries’ leaders were “appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks launched by Iran against countries in the region, including those who were not involved in initial U.S. and Israeli military operations”, said the joint statement.

“Iran’s reckless attacks have targeted our close allies and are threatening our service personnel and our civilians across the region,” the statement added.

“We call on Iran to stop these reckless attacks immediately.

“We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” said the statement.

“We have agreed to work together with the U.S. and allies in the region on this matter.”

Iran has launched a series of missile and drone strikes on several Gulf countries, saying it is targeting U.S. bases, after being hit by U.S.-Israeli missile strikes from Saturday (February 28, 2026).

Iran’s attacks have hit a multinational military base near Arbil in northern Iraq, and a German army camp in the east of Jordan, a German army spokesman told AFP, confirming media reports.

There had been no casualties in the attacks, he added.

Use of British ‌bases

British Prime ​Minister Keir ‌Starmer said on Sunday (March 1, 2026) ​that ⁠his country has accepted a U.S. ‌request to use British ‌bases for ‌defensive ⁠strikes ⁠against Iranian missiles in storage depots or ​launchers.

“The ‌United States has requested permission to use ‌British bases for ​that specific and limited ⁠defensive purpose. We have taken ‌the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran ‌firing missiles across the ​region,” Mr. Starmer said in ⁠a video ⁠message on X.

He added: “We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now.

Iran on U.S.-Israeli attack

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced a “large-scale” attack on Sunday (March 1, 2026), and blasts were heard in Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Israeli rescue services reporting at least nine people killed in the city of Beit Shemesh.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” and warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told U.S. channel ABC News on Sunday (March 1, 2026): “We are defending ourselves whatever it takes, and we see no limit for ourselves to defend our people, to protect our people.”

​France plans to ban children under 15 from social media ‌sites and to prohibit mobile phones in high schools from ​September 2026, local media reported on Wednesday (December 31, 2025), moves that underscore rising public angst over the impact of online harms on minors.

President Emmanuel Macron has often pointed to social media as one of the factors to blame for violence among young people and has signalled he wants France to follow Australia, whose world-first ban for under-16s on social media platforms including Facebook, ​Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube came into force in December.

His government will ⁠submit draft legislation for legal checks in early January, Le Monde and France Info reported.

Mr. Macron did not reference the legislative push in a New Year’s Eve address but he did ​pledge to “protect our children and teenagers ⁠from social media and screens.”

Earlier, the Elysee and the Prime Minister’s office declined to comment on the media reports.

Mobile phones have been banned in French primary and middle schools since 2018 and the reported ‌new changes would extend that ban to high schools. Pupils aged ‌11 to 15 attend middle schools in the French educational system.

France also passed a law in 2023 requiring social ‍platforms to obtain parental consent for under-15s to create accounts, though technical challenges have impeded its enforcement.

Macron wants more action at European Union level

Mr. Macron said ‍in June he would push for regulation at the level of the European Union to ban access to social media for all under-15s after a fatal stabbing at a school in eastern France shocked the nation. The European Parliament in November urged the EU to set minimum ages for children to access social media to combat a rise in mental health problems among adolescents from excessive exposure, although it is member states which impose age limits. Various other ⁠countries have also taken steps to regulate children’s access to social media.

Mr. Macron heads into the New Year with his domestic ​legacy in tatters after his gamble on parliamentary elections in 2024 led to a ⁠hung parliament, triggering France’s worst political crisis in decades that has seen a succession of weak governments.

However, cracking down further on minors’ access to social media could prove popular, according to opinion polls. A Harris Interactive survey in 2024 showed 73% of those ⁠canvassed supporting a ban on social media access for under-15s. 

France’s fractured parliament approved an Emergency Bill on Tuesday (December 23, 2025) designed to prevent a U.S.-style government shutdown next week, after negotiations on a 2026 budget collapsed.

With just days left before the new year, France President Emmanuel Macron and his Cabinet met on Monday night (December 22) to present the brief draft law. It aims to ensure the continuity of national life and the functioning of public services, including collecting taxes and disbursing them to local authorities based on tax and spending levels in the 2025 budget, the Cabinet said.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly, the French parliament’s powerful lower house, made several amendments and voted to approve the bill Tuesday evening, followed by the Senate. It passed despite deep divisions among the Assembly’s three main camps — Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, left-wing forces, and Macron’s centrist minority government.

The next step will be harder: building a real budget for 2026, and averting a new political crisis.

The emergency law ”is like a spare tyre,” Finance Minister Roland Lescure told lawmakers, urging quick work on a real budget for next year. Relying on it for too long risks greatly weakening the French economy.

Mr. Macron is desperate to bring down the huge deficit to 5% of economic output, or GDP, and bring back investor confidence in France’s economy after protracted political deadlock and turmoil prompted by his ill-fated decision to call snap elections last year.

France has a high level of public spending driven by generous social welfare programs, health care and education, and a heavy tax burden that falls short of covering the costs.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who resigned and then was reappointed this fall, appealed Tuesday to all parties to work through the holidays to find compromises on a 2026 budget after a previous effort crashed last week.

Mr. Lecornu’s minority government won relief earlier this month when parliament narrowly approved a key health care budget bill, but at the cost of suspending Macron’s flagship pension reform meant to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu will propose the suspension of a contested plan raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, in a move to avoid his fragile minority government being immediately toppled.

Mr. Lecornu said Tuesday in a speech at the National Assembly that the law, a flagship policy of French President Emmanuel Macron, would be put on pause until after the next presidential election, to be held in 2027.

The Socialist Party, which is not part of the government, had demanded that the law be repealed.

Mr. Lecornu faces two no-confidence motions by the hard-left France Unbowed and far-right National Rally parties. The two parties do not hold enough seats to topple Lecornu’s government on their own, but the prime minister could quickly be undone if the Socialist Party join forces with them.

Mr. Lecornu earlier met with his cabinet to discuss proposals for the 2026 budget, which needs to be approved by the end of the year.

With his government hanging by a thread, France’s newly reappointed Prime Minister must make concessions to his political opponents to avoid a no-confidence vote later this week, as the country struggles to end a lingering political crisis.

The opposite sides of the political spectrum have slammed Mr. Macron’s decision to reappoint Mr. Lecornu, France’s former Defence Minister and fourth Prime Minister in barely a year. With less than two years before the next presidential election, National Rally is urging Macron to call another early parliamentary vote, while France Unbowed wants Macron to step down.

Rammed through parliament without a vote in 2023 despite mass protests, the pension change gradually raises the retirement age from 62 to 64. Opposition parties want it scrapped.

The Socialist Party has demanded that the law be repealed, and those calling for its suspension have gained a high-profile ally. Nobel Prize-winning economist Philippe Aghion told broadcaster France 2 that it should be suspended until the next presidential election.

“I think we need to stop the clock now until the presidential election,” Aghion said, arguing that doing so would be “the way to calm things down” and “it doesn’t cost very much to pause it.” Mr. Lecornu’s reappointment is widely seen as Mr. Macron’s last chance to reinvigorate his second term. His centrist camp lacks a majority in the National Assembly, and he is facing increasing criticism even within its ranks.

Mr. Macron’s surprise decision last year to dissolve the National Assembly resulted in a hung parliament and political paralysis.

Over the past year, Mr. Macron’s successive minority governments have collapsed in quick succession, leaving France mired in deadlock while confronting a rising poverty rate and a mounting debt crisis that has alarmed markets and EU partners.

The next French government will have to reflect the composition of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Saturday (October 11, 2025) after his reappointment.

“We need a government that reflects the reality of parliament but is not held hostage to partisan interests,” Mr. Lecornu told journalists after a visit to a police station in L’Hay-les-Roses, a suburb south of Paris.

Asked about the potential suspension of France’s pension reform, Lecornu said “all debates are possible as long as they are realistic”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot insisted that Greenland “is not for sale,” and criticized the U.S. for its intentions to take control of the strategic Arctic territory during a visit Sunday to its capital, Nuuk.

Mr. Barrot spoke in a news conference following a working meeting with Greenland’s prime minister and foreign minister.

“Greenland is not for sale,” he said, echoing French President Emmanuel Macron’s similar comments during a June visit to the vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland. He has not ruled out a military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.

“You’ll not make a nation great again by imposing yourself on your neighbors and allies,” said Barrot. “You’ll make a nation great again by contributing to the freedom of the world and to the ability of friends and partners to thrive and to live in peace and prosperity.”

Mr. Barrot, who visited a French military ship moored in Nuuk on Saturday, said his two-day trip aims to show France’s support for the sovereignty and freedom of Denmark and Greenland.

“My visit is a message: Greenland and Denmark are not alone,” he said. “Europe and France stand by them today and tomorrow.”

Earlier this week, Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country for talks after the main national broadcaster reported that at least three people with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.

The U.S. Ambassador to Paris has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over anti-semitism in France with a letter calling the government’s action on anti-Jewish hatred insufficient, days after similar criticism from Israel.

U.S. envoy Charles Kushner’s letter to Mr. Macron was dated August 25, which he noted was “the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil” under Nazi German occupation.

In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, he wrote: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it…

“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” he added.

While “anti-semitism has long scarred French life”, the Ambassador argued that hatred of Jews “has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023,” which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

His remarks tally with those made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday accused Mr. Macron of fomenting anti-semitism, saying it had “surged” in France following the French President’s announcement last month that he will recognise Palestinian statehood.

Mr. Macron’s Elysee office was quick to hit back at Mr. Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader’s allegation “abject” and “erroneous”.

‘Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism’

But like Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Kushner denounced Mr. Macron’s criticisms of Israel over the war in Gaza and his planned recognition of a State of Palestine. Such moves, he said, “embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France”.

“In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple,” the Ambassador added.

“Surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all.

“What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?,” the letter read.

France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Both communities have reported a spike in hate crimes since Israel’s retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the besieged coastal strip.

Mr. Macron’s announcement that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September drew a swift rebuke from Israel at the time.

With the move, France is set to join a list of nations that has grown since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago.

France is among at least 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to an AFP tally.