France stayed out of a Britain-US coalition that carried out air strikes against Iran-backed Houthis who have attacked shipping in the Red Sea as Paris feared an escalation, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
"France has decided not to join a coalition that has carried out pre-emptive strikes against the Houthis on their soil. Why? Precisely because we have a position that seeks to avoid any escalation," Macron told reporters, emphasising that the subject was not "military" but "diplomatic".
This came as the US military carried out new strikes in Yemen on Tuesday against anti-ship ballistic missiles in a Houthi-controlled part of the country as a missile struck a Greek-owned vessel in the Red Sea.
Attacks by the Iran-allied Houthi militia on ships in the region since November have affected companies and alarmed major powers - an escalation of Israel's more than three-month-old war with Palestinian Hamas in Gaza. The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and have threatened to expand attacks to include US ships in response to American and British strikes on their sites in Yemen.
