00:00Now, France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is currently en route to the Middle East.
00:04Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron pulled the French flagship out of deployment in the North Atlantic,
00:11sending it to protect French and allied assets as the U.S.-Israel war on Iran rages on.
00:18For more on this, I'm joined in the studio now by our reporter Clovis Casali.
00:22Good to have you with us, Clovis.
00:23Let's talk about the French strategy in this war in the Middle East.
00:26First, France sending its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean Sea.
00:31And to the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, to be precise, close to Cyprus.
00:35Why? Of course, because it's an EU member state that was attacked by Iranian drones,
00:40or should I say a British base in Cyprus attacked.
00:43And actually, the British Prime Minister is currently on his way to Cyprus to see this base, presumably.
00:50And the entourage of the French presidents has told us that this morning,
00:54Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone to Giorgio Maloney, the Italian Prime Minister,
01:00as well as to the Greek Prime Minister.
01:02Why?
01:03Well, to discuss coordinating the sending of military means to Cyprus and to the Mediterranean Sea,
01:13also with a goal to achieve the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
01:19Coming back to the Charles de Gaulle, what is it?
01:21It's basically the flagship of France that carries some 20 planes, several frigates and submarines.
01:29And this morning, the Minister for Army, for Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin,
01:34repeated France's clear strategy.
01:37And one word keeps coming up.
01:39That's defensive.
01:40Take a listen to Catherine Vautrin.
01:43As the President stated in his address to the French people Tuesday evening,
01:48France is mobilizing to protect our citizens, our facilities,
01:51and the support we provide to countries with which we have defense agreements.
01:56This means France's position is strictly defensive.
01:59To be clear, as I've already told you, we are not engaged in this war offensively,
02:04we're acting defensively, and we're not talking about sending troops.
02:09And, Clovis, some voices here in France very worried that France is about to be dragged into this war.
02:15Absolutely. And this morning, a bit of a funny situation with first the news that France would allow
02:22U.S. planes to go to French bases in the region.
02:27Actually, a few media outlets were reporting that.
02:31The French Army dismissed that information, saying it's not the case.
02:35The U.S. are going to be allowed to send their planes to a French base set in France,
02:41only if these U.S. planes are taking part in operations in Iran.
02:45So, a bit of a change there.
02:46The U.S. planes would be allowed to go to that base if they are helping, defending countries in the
02:54region,
02:54say, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, countries like that.
03:00Why is this important?
03:01Because France has been targeted.
03:03Its main base in the Gulf region is in Abu Dhabi, with 900 soldiers and civilians.
03:10It was attacked by Iranian drones.
03:13No casualties, but still some logistical damage there.
03:19And France clearly is part of the war in some ways, not in an offensive way,
03:25but it's basically securing skies over the United Arab Emirates,
03:30over nations like that that are allies of France.
03:33There are defense agreements that mean that if some of these nations are victim of an aggression from the outside,
03:41say, from Iran, France is allowed to defend these nations.
03:46And that's why it's securing these skies.
03:48However, France is not planning to attack targets or hit targets on Iranian soil.
03:55That would clearly be a red line for Tehran.
03:58Tehran has already said that if France hits targets on Iranian soil,
04:02it will be seen as an aggression, a red line.
04:05But it's not the aim of France for the time being.
04:08Clavis Casadis, sorry.
04:09Thank you very much.
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