"I can confirm that the French military has intercepted fewer than 10 drones in the past few days during the various military operations carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israel, both with surface-to-air systems and our Rafale fighter jets," Lecornu said.
He noted that Iran launched approximately 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones toward Israel during the 12-day conflict.
This Thursday morning, the French embassy in Tel Aviv said in a post on the X platform that "French forces did not participate in the attacks on Iran, but our defense systems intercepted drones en route to Israel."
During a conference in Paris on June 13, French President Emmanuel Macron denied that his country had any role in the Israeli strikes on Iran, and expressed France's readiness to defend Israel against Iranian attacks.
Macron then accused the Tehran government of continuing to "enrich uranium to levels that could be sufficient to manufacture a nuclear weapon," stressing that "we cannot live in a world in which Iran possesses a nuclear weapon, because this would be an existential threat to the security of us all."
He explained that if Israel were subjected to a retaliatory attack by Iran, France might participate in operations to protect Israel within available capabilities, but it does not intend to participate in any offensive operations.
On June 13, Israel, with US support, launched a 12-day aggression against Iran, targeting military and nuclear sites, civilian facilities, and the assassination of military leaders and nuclear scientists. Iran responded by targeting Israeli military and intelligence headquarters with ballistic missiles and drones.
As Iran responded to Israel's missile attacks, inflicting heavy losses, the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22nd. Tehran responded by bombing the U.S. military base in Qatar. Washington then declared a ceasefire between Tel Aviv and Tehran on June 24th.
