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France on Thursday confirmed it had temporarily allowed the US Air Force to use one of its bases for missions in Iran. The French military says it has guarantees that only planes not involved in carrying out strikes will land at the country’s facilities.
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“US aircraft providing operational support (not combat aircraft) have been accepted at the Istres air base in France,” the French general staff said in a statement.
“France has required that the assets involved in no way take part in the operations conducted by the United States in Iran, but strictly in support of the defence of our partners in the region. It has obtained full guarantees to that effect. This is a routine procedure within the framework of NATO.”
Earlier reports on Thursday suggested that France would allow US planes to land at its bases in the Middle East, but a military spokesperson told news station Franceinfo that was not the case.
President Emmanuel Macron has insisted France will take a “strictly defensive” stance in relation to the conflict.
On Tuesday, three days after Israeli and US air force planes launched their bombing campaign on Iran, Macron said the operations had been conducted “outside international law”.
However, he blamed Iran for the conflict that has spread since the initial American and Israeli strikes last Saturday to other parts of the Middle East.
Refueling aircraft
The US planes landing at Istres, near Marseille in southern France, are understood to be military support jets that will stop to refuel.
French Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin told reporters: “A refueling aircraft is a service station, it is not a fighter jet”.
“And so the issue is clearly refueling capability, that is the only authorisation that has been given by the president,” she said.
How the war in Iran is testing Europe’s US military base network
Vautrin also confirmed that French Rafale jets would patrol the skies to prevent attacks on Gulf partners. She said six extra Rafale planes had been deployed to the United Arab Emirates, which has come under assault from Iranian missiles.
“France isn’t at war,” she told French broadcaster RTL. “We’re taking a stance of defending. We are not attacking anyone.”
Two days after Macron announced that a French aircraft carrier and its escort flotilla would head to the Mediterranean, Vautrine said the vessels would arrive at the weekend or early next week in the east of the sea.
Europe mobilises
Macron has expressed support for Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has refused to allow Washington to use its bases for the war in Iran despite threats of economic reprisals.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially declined to allow the US to use the UK’s air bases. But he later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose”.
On Thursday, the French broadcaster BFMTV reported that Macron called the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the organisation of forces to protect shipping in the Red Sea.
Several European countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, said on Thursday they had sent vessels from their respective navies to defend Cyprus, which came under attack from drones during the first days of the conflict.
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