Araghchi criticizes Macron over silence on US-Israeli strikes on Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s position on recent strikes targeting Iran as “sad,” accusing him of failing to condemn the US-Israeli war against his country.

In a post on X, Araghchi argued that Macron “has not uttered one word of condemnation” of the ongoing military campaign, noting that Paris did not criticize earlier Israeli strikes on Iranian fuel and gas facilities. He added that Macron’s “concern” only followed Iran’s retaliatory actions.

On Wednesday, parts of Iran’s South Pars gas field and nearby oil facilities were struck in what Tehran described as attacks on its economic infrastructure. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which had previously warned it would retaliate in kind if its energy infrastructure were targeted, launched missile strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, damaging key energy facilities and triggering fires.

Macron, commenting on the developments, called for an immediate moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly energy and water facilities, stressing that civilians and global energy supplies “must be protected from military escalation.”