French authorities said Rafale fighter jets have neutralised Iranian drones targeting the United Arab Emirates, as the widening Middle East war also forced France to bring citizens home. A first repatriation flight carrying French nationals stranded in the region landed in Paris early on Wednesday, with more evacuations planned.
President Emmanuel Macron has also called a new defence and national security council meeting for Wednesday evening to assess the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East, the government said.
France is reinforcing its military presence in the region, including deploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Mediterranean.
The first flight organised to repatriate French nationals stranded in the Middle East since the start of the war arrived early on Wednesday morning at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport from Oman.
The aircraft chartered by Air France left Muscat, Oman, in the early evening and landed shortly before 3am on Wednesday in Paris.
The Minister for French Nationals Abroad Éléonore Caroit told journalists at the terminal that around 100 places had been reserved by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to bring back "the most vulnerable" people.
Families first
The flight was carrying customers and staff of the airline as well as families, young children, pregnant women, participants of a holiday camp and other passengers who were mainly in Dubai.
"The idea is to increase the number of such arrangements so that as many French citizens as possible can return home safely," she added.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on France 2 television that there would be "several flights" on Wednesday, including one carrying French nationals from the United Arab Emirates and "another leaving from Egypt to bring back some of our most vulnerable compatriots (...) from Israel".
French authorities said additional repatriation flights were planned on Wednesday as the government steps up efforts to help citizens leave the region.
Barrot also said French Rafale jets had intercepted and destroyed Iranian drones aimed at the United Arab Emirates, underlining France’s military presence in the region.
Paris says its military involvement in the region is “strictly defensive”, aimed at helping partners such as the United Arab Emirates protect their airspace from Iranian attacks.
Following the Israeli-American attack on Iran on Saturday and the Islamic Republic's retaliation against Gulf monarchies and Israel, the airspace of many countries has been closed.
Caroit warned the "highly volatile" situation meant the airspace "could open and close, and corridors that are set up but can be suspended".
France mobilises to help 400,000 nationals stranded due to Middle East war
Long journeys home
French tourist Xavier Figuls and his family's holiday was cut short: this night-time landing at Roissy marked the end of a long journey, after "10 hours on a bus from Dubai to Muscat".
The couple, originally from Perpignan, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday morning with their 4- and 9-year-old children "almost at the start of the bombings," Marie recalls.
"We were cut off from the outside world, and we were in a part of the city where we couldn't hear the bombing," she says.
"We heard from our families in France that things were starting to look very bad," adds the Air France employee.
When the first bombs hit Dubai, 18-year-old Emmy Coutelier was in the hotel swimming pool joking with her boyfriend Adam, "far from imagining what was about to happen".
Fear and uncertainty
After a long hug with her sister, who had come to pick her up at the airport, she recounts, still very emotional, her deep fear when "an alarm sounded in the middle of the night telling us not to stay near the windows".
"We went down to the basement: we never thought it would happen," says the young woman, who, when she took the repatriation flight, felt "as if she were fleeing danger, even though it's a relatively safe country".
Some 400,000 French nationals are present in the 15 or so countries affected by the conflict, and more are reporting to the consular authorities, "but not all of them want to return to France," the minister said.
The government is also closely monitoring the situation of two French nationals detained in Iran since 2022 – Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. Officials say the aim is to bring them back to France as soon as possible.
In four days, the war in the Middle East has caused the cancellation of 19,000 flights, according to specialist data provider Cirium.
(with newswires)
