FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris approaches the sequence with the French grid of conflict analysis: count the days, measure the economic risk, listen for diplomatic signals. BFMTV opens its international newscast with a sentence that captures the Hexagon's framing: 'On the 96th day of the conflict, tensions are high in the Gulf region, where Iran has resumed strikes hoping to disable American military bases.' The channel immediately notes the American reply — 'self-defense strikes' claimed by the Pentagon — then gives Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi the floor to say there is 'no tangible progress' in negotiations. France 24 documents the IRGC claim on Bahrain and Kuwait. French coverage stays restrained, technical, with no explicit condemnation. It reflects the Quai d'Orsay's doctrine: do not take a public position before a common European stance emerges. The risk haunting Paris is double — economic first, oil weighs on French inflation and therefore on purchasing power; security second, several thousand French nationals live in Dubai, Doha and Kuwait. No French editorial today mentions the Iranian theory of a failed Patriot. None picks up the Korea Herald analysis of the failed Trump style either. The French perspective is that of a country waiting for Brussels to take a position, and watching the Brent curve as a domestic political barometer.