France examines sea options as it starts evacuating citizens in Iran and Israel via land
France is due to start evacuating its citizens in Iran and Israel by land, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday.
Mr Barrot also said that he had asked the ministry's crisis and support centre to present options for French citizens in Israel, believed to number a few thousand, to leave via the Mediterranean Sea. The air space of a dozen countries in the region remains closed.
The French decision comes days after some European countries made similar announcements.
"In this situation, France's voice is clear: it is peace and security for all," Mr Barrot said, as he called on a ceasefire between Iran and Israel and in Gaza.
French citizens in Iran were invited to travel to the Armenian or Turkish borders before flying to France. Those who cannot make it to the border by their own means will be accompanied by convoys "by the end of the week," Mr Barrot said.
France, which will deploy civil servants at borders to help evacuees, will also organise buses for citizens in Israel to travel to Jordan and Egypt. "A flight will be chartered from Amman by the end of the week, depending on the opening of border crossings," Mr Barrot said.
Yet diplomatic staff will not be evacuated, the minister added, saying they would remain on the ground "to support French communities, in Israel as in Iran, in the trying period that they are going through." Iranian strikes landed overnight "several dozen meters away" the French embassy in Tel Aviv, Mr Barrot said.
Lithuania on Thursday evacuated non-essential diplomatic staff and their families from Tel Aviv after an Iranian missile landed 200 metres from its embassy. A number of countries, including the UK, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary have also pulled out some staff and their families.
The UK is planning for a 'variety of scenarios and contingencies' for Britons stranded in Israel as the US said it was looking at evacuating Americans using cruise ships and flights.
Asked why the UK was not following the US example, a No 10 spokesman said: 'There's a huge amount of work being done in the background on contingency planning. It is a fast-moving situation and we keep all our advice and planning under constant review."
Mr Barrot has been entrusted by President Emmanuel Macron to put forward a diplomatic initiative in the coming days, in co-ordination with European partners, aimed at proposing a negotiated settlement to end the continuing conflict between Israel and Iran.
Details on the initiative are yet to be unveiled but Foreign Ministers from France, Germany and the UK – known as the E3 – are expected to meet their Iranian counterpart Abbas Arghchi in Geneva on Friday after a phone call on Monday.
Mr Barrot did not confirm the meeting, despite an announcement earlier in the day from Iranian state media and European diplomatic sources. The EU's foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, is also expected to attend the talks.
The E3 were the only European countries that took part in a failed 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran that collapsed when the US withdrew under President Donald Trump three years later. There is a "very strong unity" between Germany, the UK and France on Iran, Mr Barrot said.
Should Iran acquire a nuclear bomb, it would represent an "existential threat" to Israel, the region, and Europe, Mr Barrot said. Iran insists its nuclear programme has civilian, not nuclear, goals. Israeli strikes on Iran, which started last Friday, were described by Israeli leaders as designed to prevent Iran from acquiring a bomb.
Mr Barrot said France was keen to continue diplomatic discussions with Iran.
"We stand ready, as we have done in recent months and years, to present a formula that guarantees the security interests of Israel, the region, and Europe, which concerns both Iran's nuclear programme, its ballistic missile programme, and its regional destabilisation activities," he said.
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