Araghchi to Macron:
Too late to shift blame for France unrest
Iran’s foreign minister reacted to recent remarks by French president who had blamed the US war on Iran for the ongoing violent protests in France, saying that Emmanuel Macron cannot shift the blame to the aggression that he supported.
In a post on X, Araghchi said it was too late to shift blame and urged Macron to listen to the French people’s calls for fundamental change and guarantees of freedom of assembly.
Araghchi said Macron had “made his bed” by assuring US President Donald Trump that he welcomed atrocities against Iranians.
The Iranian foreign minister also shared a screenshot of a message Macron had sent Trump, which the US president had published in January, citing the exchange as evidence of Macron’s support for Washington’s policy toward Tehran. In the message, Macron wrote: “We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran.”
France has been gripped by a nationwide student protest movement that began on September 17 at the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry High School in Créteil over deteriorating school conditions and has since expanded into broader demands over education, inequality, and the government’s response.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Sunday that more than 2,000 protesters had been arrested, while over 600 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters were reported injured.
In an address to the nation on Sunday, Macron connected ongoing riots in France to increased living costs and fuel prices resulting from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“France did not participate” in the war, the French leader said, adding that the country is now “suffering” its consequences.
Macron’s double standard
In a Sunday post on X, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei also warned the French president that those behind “sinister alliances” will eventually face the consequences of their own actions amid widespread unrest in France.
Baqaei criticized Macron for applying a double standard toward protests, contrasting his January support for “peaceful assembly without fear of punishment” in Iran with his response to ongoing unrest in France. “Back in January, you prescribed ‘peaceful assembly without fear of punishment’ for those attacking our law enforcement centers and public institutions at the behest of foreign malign actors,” Baqaei wrote, addressing Macron.
However, he added, Macron had quickly declared that the destruction of and attacks on state institutions in France would not be tolerated and that those responsible would face swift punishment.
Call for curfews
The French prime minister on Monday called for localized curfews as protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre in Paris and authorities scrambled to stem public discontent that over the weekend saw mass cost-of-living demonstrations spill over into some of the worst street violence in recent years.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu huddled with ministers in a crisis meeting after the interior minister said the police “had lost control” during the weekend’s unrest.
With the Yellow Vests movement, which organized the weekend’s rallies, calling for a new round of protests next Saturday, Lecornu called for regional authorities to impose “partial” and “localized” curfews to protect businesses after hundreds of shops were damaged and looted.
Other European countries, where anger over rising prices has also led to protests, were keeping a nervous eye on the developments, with smaller clashes breaking out in Milan and Belgium over the weekend and protests simmering in Spain and Portugal.