France is ready to defend its partners if they request help after Iranian retaliatory strikes and reserves its right to intervene, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.
"This war... is dragging a number of countries in the region into the conflict with which we have relations, defence agreements, and interests, including military bases," Barrot told French broadcaster BFM TV.
He added that France has deployed Rafale fighter jets over the United Arab Emirates to protect its naval and air bases against Iranian attacks.
France has hundreds of navy, air force and army personnel based in the United Arab Emirates. Its Rafale aircraft are stationed at the Dhafra base near Abu Dhabi.
"These Rafales and their pilots are mobilised to ensure the security of our facilities," Barrot said in response to a question on French action in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to neutralise Iranian drones.
"They have carried out operations to secure the airspace above our bases."
On Sunday, "a hangar at a French base in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a drone," Barrot said.
"Exchanges are multiplying to determine both how the country can defend itself against future attacks and how France can protect its interests there," he added.
Around 400,000 French nationals are currently in the countries affected by the crisis in the Middle East and the French government is ready to fly back those most at risk using both commercial and military flights, Barrot added.
The United States and Israel on Saturday launched attacks against Iran, killing Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has responded by targeting US allies in the Gulf region, threatening explicitly to drive up energy costs, which could wreak havoc on the global economy.
In Abu Dhabi, a drone struck a fuel tank terminal on Monday, causing a fire though operations were not impacted.
Tech giant Amazon said late Monday that two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were "directly struck" by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.
(Reuters and AFP)
