Overview
- France is deploying roughly a dozen naval vessels — the Charles de Gaulle carrier group, eight warships and two helicopter carriers — across the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and potentially the Strait of Hormuz.
- European partners are reinforcing defenses around Cyprus, with Greece sending four F-16s and frigates, and warships from Italy, Spain and the Netherlands joining; France will boost the EU’s Operation Aspides with two frigates.
- During a visit to Paphos, Emmanuel Macron met Cyprus’ Nikos Christodoulides and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, declared that an attack on Cyprus is an attack on Europe, and inspected French deployments with the carrier operating off Crete.
- Cyprus reported that a Shahed drone struck RAF Akrotiri on March 2, causing minor damage, with officials tracing it to Lebanon and suspecting Hezbollah; additional drones were intercepted and Lebanon’s foreign minister condemned the attack.
- Macron said France and allies are preparing a purely defensive escort mission to restore navigation through Hormuz after the peak of fighting, as he pursued calls with Iran’s president and Israel’s leader to press de-escalation and protect shipping disrupted by the war.