France deploys its aircraft carrier to eastern Mediterranean as tensions escalate

By Necva Tastan Sevinc

ISTANBUL (AA) - France decided to redeploy its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its naval strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, interrupting their mission in the Baltic Sea, amid rising regional tensions, French broadcaster BFMTV reported on Sunday.

The move comes as French President Emmanuel Macron convened a National Defense and Security Council meeting at the Elysee Palace to assess the evolving security situation.

Addressing the council, Macron revealed that “in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a hangar at our base adjacent to the Emirati base was hit in a drone attack targeting the port of Abu Dhabi.”

He added: “The damage is limited and purely material. There are no injuries.”

The UAE was “by far the most affected and most exposed,” Macron said, noting that Qatar was also highly targeted, while “all other countries in the region have been struck.”

Macron also stressed that US and Israeli strikes against Iran since Friday morning had triggered “an unprecedented regional escalation.”

He added that Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks, carried out “in a totally disproportionate and indiscriminate manner,” had struck military facilities as well as “numerous civilian targets” in partner and allied countries across the region.

He further added that authorities would conduct a “detailed, country-by-country review of the situation” to ensure protection measures and prepare for the repatriation of French nationals “as soon as airspace reopens.”

France’s Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin also confirmed the incident earlier, saying on US social media company X: "Our forces are maintaining maximum vigilance in the face of a situation that is evolving rapidly."

Earlier Sunday, the UAE Defense Ministry said that two Iranian drones targeted a warehouse at Al-Salam Naval Base in Abu Dhabi, leading to a fire in two containers storing general materials.

The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran retaliated with a series of drone and missile attacks that targeted Israel, US assets and several Gulf countries.

Israel and the US launched a similar attack on Iran last June, triggering a 12-day war before a ceasefire was announced.