DIRECT. War in the Middle East: Emmanuel Macron denounces Iranian strikes "unacceptable" against the United Arab Emirates

Criticizing Tehran for blocking the Strait of Hormuz and its attempts to impose a toll there, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s control over the sea lane should not be normalized.

“They are trying to make this a new norm,” he said. “There is no way we can allow them to normalize the fact that they can blow up commercial ships and lay mines in the water.”

During a press briefing at the White House, the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, assured that the offensive phase was “over” in Iran.

“Operation ‘Epic Fury’ is over, as the president told Congress. We have passed this stage,” he declared, before suggesting that the American priority was now the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices have fallen, with hopes of unblocking the Strait of Hormuz growing after the announcement of two crossings of merchant ships and new American threats.

The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in July, lost 3.99% to 109.87 dollars. Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, for delivery in June, lost 3.9% to 102.27 dollars.

The Iranian military command “categorically” denied having attacked the United Arab Emirates.

“The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have not carried out any missile or drone operations against the United Arab Emirates in recent days,” said the spokesperson for the headquarters of the armed forces command Khatam Al-Anbiya, quoted by the television of State.

Earlier in the day, the United Arab Emirates indicated that its air defenses intercepted missiles and drones fired from Iran for a second consecutive day.

Iran has set up a new mechanism to regulate maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian public channel Press TV reported.

All ships wishing to transit the Strait of Hormuz will receive an email from an address linked to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), informing them of the new rules and regulations applicable to the passage.

Ships are also required to obtain a transit permit before crossing this waterway.

Ali Al-Zaidi, Iraqi Prime Minister since April 27, proposed that Iraq serve as mediator between Iran and the United States. He made the proposal during a telephone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

According to the Prime Minister’s office, Ali Al-Zaidi indicated that he took advantage of this interview to reaffirm Iraq’s support for diplomacy and dialogue.

Israel is “ready to respond with force” in the event of an attack from Iran, said the chief of staff of the Israeli army, Eyal Zamir.

“The Israeli army remains on high alert on all fronts. We are monitoring developments closely” in the Gulf, and “are ready to respond forcefully to any attempt to harm Israel,” he said. declared during the handover ceremony of the head of the air force, near Tel Aviv.

Israel is ready to deploy “the entire air force” against Iran “if necessary”, declared its new leader during his taking office ceremony.

“We are closely monitoring developments in Iran, and are prepared to deploy the entire air force to the east if necessary,” declared General Omer Tischler, who succeeds General Tomer Bar in this key post.

Ships must use marine corridors demarcated by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the Revolutionary Guards have warned, or risk being inflicted with a “firm response”, reports the Fars news agency.

“Any diversion of ships to other routes is dangerous and will result in a firm response from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy,” according to the statement published by state television.

Donald Trump called on Iran to “do the smart thing”, adding that he did not want to intervene and “kill people”.

“They should do what’s smart, because we don’t want to go out there and kill people. I don’t want to do that,” Trump said during an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office.

Donald Trump, seeking to downplay the scale of the war against Iran, described the conflict as a “small skirmish.”

“We are in a little skirmish on the military level. I speak of ‘skirmish’ because Iran has no chance,” said the American president at the White House, during an event devoted to physical exercise at school.

TotalEnergies will “not be able to maintain” its cap in the event of a tax on oil super-profits, warned its CEO Patrick Pouyanné in an interview with Sud-Ouest.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked the energy giant to “redistribute in one way or another” its possible “exceptional” profits and to put in place a “generous cap” on fuel prices.

“We decided this cap ourselves at the start of the crisis,” recalls the CEO of Totalenergies, congratulating himself on being “the only oil company in the world to have made such a decision.”

For Patrick Pouyanné, this cap is “a strong, generous and united decision”. But this measure could be revised “in the event of a surcharge on our refineries”. If this were to be implemented, then Totalenergies “could not maintain the cap”, warns Patrick Pouyanné.

“We must act on Iran so that they do not have nuclear weapons,” declared the American president from the Oval Office.

“They are sick and we are not going to let these crazy people have power of this level,” he said again.

In the Strait of Hormuz, the United States “hit hard, they are reduced to using small speedboats, they no longer have a navy”.

Raman Kapoor, the captain of a ship stuck in the Strait of Hormuz since February 28, testified on BFMTV.

“We have been stuck since the start of the war. We have 24 crew members with us on board,” detailed the captain. “We take care of daily activities. Morale is good because we have these tasks,” he added.

“Before the ceasefire, the situation was much more tense,” said Raman Kapoor, adding that he did not want to take “the risk of going to Hormuz.”

The United Arab Emirates indicated that its air defenses intercepted missiles and drones fired from Iran for a second consecutive day, despite the fragile ceasefire in force since April 8 in the region.

“The air defense systems of the United Arab Emirates are activated in the face of threats from missiles and drones”, which “come from Iran”, declared the Ministry of Defense in a press release on X.

Ferrari has anticipated deliveries elsewhere in the world so as not to be “affected” by the war in the Middle East, the Italian manufacturer said.

“Total deliveries were not affected by the upsurge in hostilities in the Middle East, with Ferrari taking advantage of the flexibility of its geographic allocation by anticipating certain deliveries to other regions,” the luxury car manufacturer said in a press release.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting Bahrain, said he had proposed to Manama the signing of an agreement on drones, kyiv asserting its expertise in the fight against drones in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East.

He said he had spoken in particular with King Hamed ben Issa Al Khalifa about the situation in the Middle East, where a fragile truce has been running since the beginning of April, as well as “security opportunities”.

“We discussed Iran’s strikes against Bahrain and other countries, as well as the situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

“Our country faces similar terrorist attacks almost every day and our population has relevant experience in large-scale defense. Ukraine is ready to share this security expertise with Bahrain,” he said. detailed.

According to figures from the American Automobile Association, cited by CNN, the price of gasoline in the United States increased by almost 3 cents, to reach an average of $4.48 per gallon of regular gasoline.

This represents an increase of 30 cents from last week and an increase of 50% since the start of the war with Iran.

This is the highest price since July 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Asked in the National Assembly during Questions to the government on the price of fuel, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu spoke of the renewed tensions in the Middle East.

“The negotiations are not succeeding and we are not even far from a risk of resumption of fighting”, estimated the head of government, specifying that the consequences of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz lead to a situation “particularly difficult and serious for our compatriots”.

The Chief of Staff of the United States Armed Forces, Dan Caine, affirmed alongside the American Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that the American army is ready to resume “major combat operations” if the order is given by Donald Trump.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “six ships tried to break the blockade” in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are not looking to fight. But we cannot let Iran block (access to) an international shipping route for innocent countries,” said the minister.

“If you attack the United States or innocent American ships, you will face American firepower. We are ready to fire to protect the ships, our ships and our planes,” he warned Iran.

Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, spoke about Operation “Project Freedom” in the Strait of Hormuz. “We will not need to enter Iranian waters, Iranian airspace,” he assured.

“Iran is the aggressor who harasses ships and uses the strait as a weapon,” he lambasted, referring to “an extortion plan on an international scale” and accusing Iran of holding “the world economy hostage”.

From Everan, in Armenia, Emmanuel Macron spoke on the situation in the Middle East, specifying that he will speak today with the Iranian president.

“France has had a constant position since the beginning: we call for the cessation of all hostilities, the return of diplomatic negotiations and respect for all countries in the region,” reaffirmed the head of state.

“The only possible option is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the free movement of all container ships, tankers, and the absence of any constraint measures,” he declared, before concluding: “Any unilateral strike is a fault which fuels the war and which leads to escalation.”

More information here.

A shipment of Russian crude oil arrived in Japan yesterday, the first delivery from Moscow to the country since the Strait of Hormuz was blocked due to the war in the Middle East, according to local media.

A ship carrying crude oil from the Sakhalin-2 natural gas project reached the coast of Imabari (southwest) yesterday and began unloading its cargo at a refinery, public broadcaster NHK and other media said on Tuesday, citing anonymous officials from the wholesaler Taiyo Oil.

Japan depends on the Middle East for about 95% of its oil imports and is working to diversify its sources of energy resources.

American Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Rome and the Vatican from Wednesday to Friday to “strengthen bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican” announced the American Embassy to the Holy See.

“Secretary Rubio will meet with leaders of the Holy See to discuss the situation in the Middle East and common interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the embassy said.

The talks between Marco Rubio and his Italian counterparts will mainly focus on their common interests in terms of security.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit China this Tuesday, his ministry announced on Telegram.

“During this visit, he will meet with his Chinese counterpart (Wang Yi) and will discuss bilateral relations as well as regional and international news,” indicates a brief press release from the ministry.

Iran is entering its 67th consecutive day of internet shutdown imposed by the Revolutionary Guards, or 1,584 hours, according to the cybersecurity monitoring NGO NetBlocks.

Never has a country experienced such a long outage, a record that continues to grow day by day.

The Paris Stock Exchange has crossed the threshold of 8,000 points thanks to an upward start to the session pending a press conference in the United States on tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

At 10 a.m., the CAC 40 index showed an increase of 0.41% to 8,009.39 points. The day before, the Paris Stock Exchange ended sharply lower, with the CAC 40 falling 1.71% to 7,976.12 points, a loss of 138.72 points.

South Korea announced that it would “carefully re-examine its position” regarding possible participation in American operations in the Strait of Hormuz, after the explosion suffered by a cargo ship chartered by the South Korean shipowner HMM, without making of victim.

In a telephone interview with an American journalist, Donald Trump estimated that the conflict in the Middle East could continue for “two to three weeks”, but that “the United States has already won”.

“Either we make the right deal, or we achieve victory very easily. From a military point of view, we have already won. You know, you have heard me say it a million times, and others say it too. They had 159 ships, today they have none left. They are all at the bottom of the sea”, launched the president of the United States.

Donald Trump also insisted that the United States now has “control” of the Strait of Hormuz with Operation “Project Freedom”.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, a central country in the negotiation process between Iran and the United States, “strongly condemned the missile and drone attacks against civilian infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates” which occurred yesterday.

“It is absolutely essential that the ceasefire be respected and maintained, in order to allow the necessary diplomatic space for dialogue leading to lasting peace and stability in the region,” Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X.

The Interstellar, a ship under the Panamanian flag, has just entered the area of ​​the Strait of Hormuz claimed by Iran. After the passage without incident yesterday of the Alliance Fairfax, a boat from the Maersk company, it remains to be seen whether the Interstellar will also manage to cross the strait.

Gilles Kepel, professor emeritus of universities and specialist in the Middle East, believes that there is no “immediate interest” in the conflagration of the region, as much for the United States as for Iran.

“Iran has this kind of harassment strategy with the aim of making Donald Trump’s polls, in the Midterm perspective, increasingly worse and pushing him to make mistakes,” he explains on BFMTV-RMC. “For Iran, there are no fixed deadlines, and Iran has demonstrated its ability to resist, but by holding on until the end the economy deteriorates.”

After the drone attack in the United Arab Emirates, Gilles Kepel believes that Iran is “in a situation of neither war nor peace. There is no real resumption of hostilities but there is military pressure”, he analyzes. “Tehran shows that it is capable of derailing processes.”

Mohammad Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, assured on X that Iran “has not even started yet” its standoff against the United States.

“The security of navigation and energy transit (in the Strait of Hormuz, Editor’s note), in the hands of the United States and its allies, has been compromised by their violation of the ceasefire and the imposition of a blockade,” he denounced on his social networks. “We know full well that maintaining the status quo is intolerable for the United States, when we haven’t even started yet.”

Pascal Confavreux, spokesperson for the Quai d’Orsay, calls on the countries involved in the war in the Middle East to demonstrate diplomacy rather than engaging military means in order to find a solution in the region and re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

“If we want to have a lasting solution to restore this freedom of navigation, we need a concerted opening which includes Iran and the United States, and therefore a diplomatic solution rather than a force operation,” he declared on franceinfo this morning.

“We are doing everything to call for de-escalation,” adds Pascal Confavreux.

He assures that France has “honored” its defense agreement with the United Arab Emirates and that it will continue to be alongside its allies in the region, without engaging in war. “This is not our war, we do not want to be belligerent,” he insisted.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Iran to “return to the negotiating table” and “stop taking the region and the world hostage”. “The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz must stop,” he wrote on X. “Tehran must not acquire nuclear weapons.”

Friedrich Merz also condemned Iranian drone attacks against the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli army warns of upcoming strikes in southern Lebanon after denouncing Hezbollah shelling towards the area where the IDF operates, in southern Lebanon, “in two separate incidents” and without causing any casualties.

This morning, an Israeli army spokesperson shared an evacuation notice for the villages of Jbait and Sarafina. “In light of the terrorist party Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Defense Forces are forced to act forcefully against it,” the spokesperson wrote.

Danish container freight giant Maersk said one of its ships, the American-flagged Alliance Fairfax, had left the Strait of Hormuz.

“The FAIRFAX ALLIANCE, a US-flagged vehicle-carrying vessel operated by Farrell Lines, Inc., a subsidiary of US carrier Maersk Line Limited (MLL), passed through the Strait of Hormuz and departed the Persian Gulf on May 4,” Maersk said in a statement. at AFP. “The transit took place without incident and all crew members are safe.”

Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that the “Freedom Project” launched by Donald Trump to unblock the Strait of Hormuz is a “Dead End Project”.

“The events in the Strait of Hormuz clearly show that there is no military solution to a political crisis,” the minister wrote on quagmire by ill-intentioned actors. The United Arab Emirates should do the same.

The American president’s “Project Freedom” enters its second day today. Centcom assured that two American merchant ships have already crossed the Strait of Hormuz.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine will speak at 2 p.m. about Operation Epic Fury in the Middle East.

A press conference to follow live on BFMTV.

A senior Iranian military official yesterday denied the destruction of six Iranian ships by the United States, after American forces announced that they had shot down six Iranian boats and intercepted missiles and drones launched by Iran.

“The United States’ statement claiming to have sunk several Iranian warships is false,” declared a senior Iranian military official, quoted by state television.

More information on the Iranian declaration in our full article.

Saudi Arabia warned of a new “military escalation” in the Gulf and called for the continuation of mediation efforts between Iran and the United States “with a view to achieving a political solution which spares the region from drifting towards greater tensions and instability”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday evening condemned Iranian attacks against the United Arab Emirates, the first reported since the truce came into effect at the beginning of April, and called for a diplomatic solution in the Middle East.

“The United Kingdom condemns the drone and missile strikes which targeted the United Arab Emirates,” responded Keir Starmer in a press release.

“This escalation must stop. Iran must genuinely engage in negotiations to ensure that the ceasefire in the Middle East lasts and that a long-term diplomatic solution is obtained,” added the head of the British government.

French President Emmanuel Macron described as “unacceptable” the Iranian strikes against the United Arab Emirates, which yesterday marked Tehran’s first attacks in more than a month in the war in the Middle East, with drones and cruise missiles.

“The Iranian strikes today (Monday) against Emirati civilian infrastructure are unjustified and unacceptable,” denounced Emmanuel Macron in the night on region.

Hello and welcome to our live broadcast dedicated to the war in Iran and the Middle East.

Yesterday marked the return of strikes in the region, with the United Arab Emirates announcing that it had been targeted by an Iranian drone attack and having intercepted cruise missiles, in Tehran’s first strikes in more than a month, which weaken the truce. “These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression,” responded the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.