France warns Iran against ‘military provocation’

France on Thursday called on Iran to refrain from “any military provocation” in Syria following a series of Israeli strikes on what it said were Iranian positions in the country.

A foreign ministry spokesman also warned Tehran “against any temptation for regional dominance”, a matter that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian would address in talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif next week.

The Israeli strikes in Syria come just days after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a key 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, in part because it does not attempt to curb Tehran’s role in several crises in the Middle East.

Tehran has portrayed itself as the focus of Middle East “resistance” against Israel, which said it struck the Syria sites in retaliation for rocket fire it blamed on Iran’s Al-Quds force.

The foreign ministry reiterated France’s “unwavering support for Israel’s security and condemns all attempts to harm it.”

He also called for “restraint by all sides in order to avoid a dangerous escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

“That is why, as the president has said, it hopes in particular to begin talks with Iran over a larger framework that would encompass its nuclear activities as well as its ballistic missile programme and a solution to crises in the region,” it said.

Iran is backing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in his seven-year civil war against rebel opposition groups, and is also supporting Shiite militia forces in Iraq.

UN experts have also accused Iran of violating an arms embargo in Yemen by sending missiles and other weaponry to Huthi rebels fighting government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s archrival in the region.