Macron denies CIA warned France of drone attack threat

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed a range of international issues during a primetime interview on TF1 and France 2 on Thursday, including the risk of Russian drone strikes reaching French territory.

Macron rejected a report by Spanish newspaper El Mundo claiming the US Central Intelligence Agency had warned European governments about potential drone attacks originating from the Mediterranean. "I can deny it. The CIA did not inform French services," he said.

Despite the denial, Macron said Russia is stepping up hostile and criminal actions against European nations, warning that France could face an attack similar to the failed drone incident in Leipzig. Germany has attributed that August attempt, targeting Leipzig airport, to Russia. Last week, Macron convened French political party leaders at the Elysee Palace to brief them on the escalating Russian threat, and he later said he had instructed his government to prepare a plan to shield critical infrastructure from drone and cyber attacks. He argued Moscow is trying to intimidate Europe and undermine the continent's support for Ukraine, while Russia continues to describe such hybrid-attack claims as baseless and driven by anti-Russian sentiment.

Saudi port and energy supplies

Macron also announced that France will deploy soldiers, radar systems and defence equipment to help protect Yanbu, a Saudi Arabian Red Sea port city that plays a crucial role in energy exports. He stressed the deployment is meant purely to safeguard the site, not to draw France into any conflict. Oil prices have risen sharply as Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue striking the alternate export route through Yanbu. Macron additionally described a potential US ban on diesel exports — which the White House says is not under consideration — as potentially "catastrophic" for both the global and US economies, while assuring French citizens that the country has adequate gas and oil reserves heading into winter.

Macron's stance on Russia has come under strain this week after France pushed to have Russian-Uzbek metals magnate Alisher Usmanov exempted from EU sanctions on national security grounds, a move that surprised other EU member states. In response, Azerbaijan pardoned a French citizen who had been imprisoned there on espionage charges.