Macron presses Iranian president to stop ‘unacceptable’ attacks

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iran to immediately halt regional attacks and allow two French citizens to return home during a phone call with Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday.

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The call came three days after an Iranian-made drone killed Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, 42, at a French military base near Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Six other French soldiers were wounded in Thursday’s strike.

Macron told Pezeshkian it was “unacceptable” for France to be targeted, according to the French president’s statement posted on X.

“I called on (Pezeshkian) to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq,” Macron said.

He reminded the Iranian president that France “is acting within a strictly defensive framework aimed at protecting its interests, its regional partners, and freedom of navigation.”

Macron warned that the “uncontrolled escalation” risks plunging the entire region into chaos with consequences for years to come.

According to Macron, “only a new political and security framework will ensure peace and security for all.” Such a framework must ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons while addressing threats posed by its ballistic missile programme and its regional destabilising activities, he said.

Macron also stressed the need to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the war began on 28 February. The narrow passage is a critical energy corridor through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes.

The French president also raised the cases of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French teachers detained in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges that France says are fabricated.

The couple were released from Evin prison on 4 November 2025 after more than three years of detention but remain confined to the French embassy in Tehran, barred from leaving Iranian territory. They were sentenced to 20 and 17 years in prison respectively before their release.

Macron said he “urged” Pezeshkian “to allow Kohler and Paris to return to France in safety as soon as possible.”

The call marked Macron’s second conversation with Pezeshkian since the war began. He was the first Western leader to speak with the Iranian president, holding an initial phone call on 8 March, during which he urged Iran to halt its strikes. That appeal has gone unanswered.

France has deployed eight warships, two helicopter carriers and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle with 20 Rafale fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean and wider Middle East in what Macron has described as an “unprecedented” naval presence. The frigate Languedoc is positioned off Cyprus to bolster air defences.

Approximately 800 French troops are deployed across Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Chammal, France’s contribution to the international coalition against the Islamic State. They train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in counter-terrorism operations.