Overview
- Emmanuel Macron met Cyprus' Nikos Christodoulides and Greece's Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paphos, declaring that an attack on Cyprus is an attack on Europe.
- France has moved the Charles de Gaulle carrier to the eastern Mediterranean near Crete, sent the frigate Languedoc off Cyprus, and deployed ground-based anti-drone and anti-missile defenses.
- Macron said France and partners are preparing a purely defensive escort mission to gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz once the most intense fighting subsides.
- Paris plans to deploy about a dozen naval vessels across the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, including eight frigates, the carrier group and two helicopter carriers, with two frigates earmarked for the EU’s Aspides mission.
- European navies from Greece, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands are joining patrols as the U.K.’s destroyer Dragon is due next week, while Cyprus confirmed a Shahed drone that struck RAF Akrotiri on March 2 originated from Lebanon and said it will not join offensive operations.