France and U.K. Get Roped Into Trump’s Iran War

France and the United Kingdom have entered the Iran conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron ordered France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to move from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea.

In a prerecorded speech that aired on French television Tuesday afternoon, Macron told his countrymen that he had also deployed Rafale fighter jets, air-defense systems, and airborne radar systems in the preceding hours to aid the Middle East offensive.

“This requires our support. That is why I have decided to send additional air-defense assets there as well, along with a French frigate, the Languedoc, which will arrive off the coast of Cyprus later this evening,” Macron said. “And we will continue this effort as much as necessary.”

Hours earlier, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his country would send a warship and helicopters to Cyprus, where a drone hit an outlying U.K. military base. The development occurred around the same time that Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with the U.K.’s decision to withhold base access on the island from U.S. military forces.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump told reporters at the White House, seated beside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The U.S. and the U.K. had clashed on the issue over the weekend, though Starmer capitulated to Trump’s demands by Sunday, permitting U.S. forces to use U.K. bases to strike Iran. British officials believe that the drone strike on their base in Cyprus occurred before Starmer’s revised guidance was issued, reported The Wall Street Journal. British forces have so far been unable to note with certainty which government was behind the drone strike.

“The strike on RAF Akrotiri last night is deeply concerning, an example of the dangerous and indiscriminate attacks by Iran & its proxies,” British Defense Secretary John Healey wrote on X, noting in another post that there were no casualties on the island and damage was minimal. “Our best assessment is that the drone was fired before the Prime Minister’s statement last night on the US use of UK bases.”

Greece also issued military support to Cyprus after the airstrike, ordering two frigates and a pair of F-16 fighter jets to the island on Monday.

“Following the unprovoked attacks on the territory of Cyprus, Greece will … contribute in every possible way to the defense of the Republic of Cyprus in order to address the threats and illegal actions taking place on its territory,” Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said in an address on Monday.

More than a dozen countries were roped into the conflict just 72 hours after the U.S. began bombing Iran, effectively destabilizing the entire region while disrupting global markets and oil production.