France’s aircraft carrier strike group is moving south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential mission as part of a French-British plan for the Strait of Hormuz, the French armed forces said on Wednesday.
The southward repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts is the latest stage of a Middle East deployment first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in a televised address on 3 March, the day before Iran closed the critical strait.