The spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense, Herve Granjan, said that the French fighters continue to carry out their missions within the international coalition against ISIS, but warned that the organization has the ability to re-emerge in Iraq “as evidence of the attacks it is launching there.”
In an interview with the correspondent of Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath channels in Paris, Granjan said that “French Rafale fighters carry out daily strikes or intelligence missions against ISIS” in that region.
He stressed that “France is the second contributor within the international coalition against ISIS after the United States, as 30% of the intelligence tasks of the coalition against ISIS are carried out by France.”
On the African Sahel region, the spokesman said that France will keep 3,000 soldiers there to confront terrorism, adding that Paris is concentrating its efforts in the Sahel at the borders between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
He continued: “We will continue to combat terrorist groups at the request of the countries of the Sahel region Revealing that France has noticed that “the terrorist threat in the Sahel has moved south, especially towards the Gulf of Guinea.”
Commenting on the Ocos Security Agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, Granjan said that “French defense industries have not shaken” by the cancellation of the submarine deal with Australia.
He revealed that France has launched a generation of attack nuclear submarines, which will be ready in 2035.
