France's priority in the wake of air strikes launched by the Israel and the United States on Iran will be to protect its citizens and forces in the Near and Middle East, said defence chief Alice Rufo on Saturday.
"The crisis is ongoing," the Minister Delegate for the Armed Forces told French broadcaster France 2.
"Obviously, our priority in such cases is to protect our nationals and our forces in the region and to monitor the situation in real time, which is what we are doing," she said.
France has several military bases in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan.
Rufo said that France had received information from the Israeli military chiefs of a pre-emptive strike.
"We are well aware that there is a state of maximum alert in Israel in the event of an Iranian retaliatory strike.
"We also know that there is a large American deployment in the region that will inevitably participate or at least be there to defend Israel," she added.
Rufo said French nationals should exercise extreme caution and follow the instructions given by the French Embassy's diplomatic and consular services.
"They are extremely professional. We must therefore trust our services," she added.
"We are clearly in a situation where military escalation is underway. We must see what happens in the coming hours."
Israel launched strikes against Iran on 13 June 2025, hitting nuclear and military sites as well as residential areas, and prompting waves of Iranian missile attacks on Israel.
The United States president, Donald Trump, announced 12 days later that Iran and Israel had agreed to a staggered ceasefire that would bring about an "official end" to their conflict.
US asked France to speak to Iran before Israel truce
In a video message published on social media on Saturday, Trump cited Washington's decades-long dispute with Iran, including the seizure of the 1979 US embassy in Tehran, when students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, as well as a range of other attacks the US has blamed on Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution brought the clerics to power.
He urged Iranians to stay sheltered because of bombing. "When we are finished, take over your government," he added.
"It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Iran was preparing a crushing retaliation, an Iranian official told Reuters news agency.
In the prelude to the strikes, the United States had built up a vast military presence in the region to try to force Tehran to make concessions in nuclear talks.
Iran's ballistic missile programme has been a significant sticking point in negotiations. Trump said Iran was developing long-range missiles that threaten the US.
"Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime," Trump said.
