France calls for ‘isolation’ of Iran

Tehran carried out a massive airstrike on the Israeli occupied-territory on Saturday and Sunday in response to the deadly bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus earlier this month.

In an interview to BFMTV and RMC radio, Macron condemned Iran’s response, calling it “disproportionate”.

“Instead of targeting Israeli interests outside Israel, [Tehran] went after Israel on its soil, and attacked from their own soil, which is a first,” he said, noting that the airstrikes had caused “a profound rupture” in already strained relations between the two Middle Eastern states, paving the way for further “dangerous reactions” on both sides.

Macron added the international community “will do everything to avoid escalation” in the conflict and urged Israel not to retaliate via military means. Instead, he stated the focus should be on “isolating“ Iran and called for more sanctions on Tehran, including “boosting pressure on its nuclear activities”, which he believes would help “find a path to peace in the region”.

Iran has justified the recent attack by citing its right of self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. It also pledged not to take further action, unless Israel strikes again, but warned that a military response from the Zionist regime would prompt an even bigger escalation.

Iran has been the subject of various international sanctions for decades amid fears in the West that its nuclear enrichment program was aimed at producing a nuclear bomb. Tehran has repeatedly declared that its nuclear program remains purely peaceful as always and that the Islamic Republic had no intention of developing nuclear weapons as a matter of an Islamic and state principal.