After Netanyahu Talks, Macron Warns of Iran Nuclear 'Consequences'

Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
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After Netanyahu Talks, Macron Warns of Iran Nuclear 'Consequences'

Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced on Thursday the "headlong rush" of Iran's nuclear program after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Paris to seek a stronger European stance against Tehran.

In a statement released after a dinner meeting in the Elysee Palace, Macron warned that Tehran continuing with the atomic project "would inevitably have consequences".

Israel has long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at generating energy, AFP said.

Netanyahu hopes Iran's role in supplying drones to Russian invaders in Ukraine, as well as its crackdown on protests at home, will prompt Western allies to drop any pursuit of a revival of the 2015 atomic program deal.

The prime minister has also said Israel is considering sending military aid to Ukraine, apparently dropping its more neutral stance over the conflict in the hope of securing a more confrontational Western position towards Tehran.

By "playing the Ukraine card", Netanyahu hopes to "consolidate an anti-Iranian front" with the West, said David Khalfa at the Fondation Jean Jaures, a Paris-based think tank.

He hopes for "increased sanctions against Iran and the full addition of the Revolutionary Guards to the list" of sanctioned entities, Khalfa added -- a step both France and Germany have so far resisted.

France agrees that "firmness" is needed in dealings with Iran, a diplomatic source told AFP earlier, saying the nuclear program had reached "a dangerous point" and highlighting Tehran's role in the Ukraine war.

Siding with Ukraine is not without risk for Netanyahu, as Russian air defenses deployed in neighboring Syria could be turned against Israeli aircraft during their occasional raids on Iranian interests there.

- Tensions mount -
Iran also holds several foreign citizens who are considered political hostages by Western governments.

Netanyahu's visit came after a weekend drone attack on a defense ministry facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan, which Tehran has blamed on Israel.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, have said the attack was carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, though this has not been confirmed by Israel.

Netanyahu visits as violence has intensified between Israelis and Palestinians with Israeli warplanes striking the Gaza Strip early Thursday, drawing Palestinian rocket fire in retaliation.

Last Friday, a Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people outside a synagogue in an Israeli settler neighborhood of annexed east Jerusalem.

It was the deadliest attack targeting Israeli civilians in more than a decade, and came one day after an Israeli raid in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians.

Macron's office said before the get-together that the French leader would also "reiterate the need for all sides to avoid measures likely to feed the cycle of violence" between Israelis and Palestinians, while offering "France's solidarity with Israel in the face of terrorism".

Staying in France until Saturday, Netanyahu is also set to meet French business chiefs and leaders of the country's Jewish community, the Israeli embassy said.

Judicial reforms planned by the prime minister's latest coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have raised the hackles of some business executives, notably in the financial sector, who have threatened to quit Israel.



Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack that killed three people in Ukraine's Dnipro and the nearby region on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow's troops launched 235 drones and 27 missiles, damaging residential and commercial buildings and causing fires, the Ukrainian Air Force said. It said in a statement that 10 missiles and 25 attack drones hit nine sites. The rest of the drones and missiles were brought down, the Air Force said.

"A terrible night. A massive combined attack on the region," Serhiy Lysak, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said on the Telegram app.

He said three people were killed in the attacks and six others wounded in the city of Dnipro and the nearby region.

Lysak posted pictures showing firefighters battling fires, a residential building with smashed windows, and charred cars.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed retaliatory strikes.

"Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, and Russian airports should feel that Russia’s own war is now hitting them back with real consequences," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.

Ukraine's attacks on Russia have heated up in recent months, with Moscow and Kyiv exchanging swarms of drones and fierce fighting raging along more than 1,000 kilometers of the frontline.