The French Foreign Ministry has strongly recommended to not travel to Israel, Lebanon, Iran or the Palestinian Territories in view of fears of a further military escalation in the Middle East conflict.
Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné made the recommendation in a crisis meeting, the ministry announced in Paris on Friday.
French officials are not to be sent on missions to these countries for the time being. Furthermore, the families of French diplomatic personnel should return from Tehran, the ministry wrote Friday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following a suspected Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria on April 1, threats from Tehran towards Israel have recently increased.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the airstrike was just like an attack on Iranian territory.
During a prayer ceremony to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday, he said Israel had made a mistake and "must and will be punished."
Khamenei criticized Western allies of Israel, in particular the US and the United Kingdom. They should have stopped Israel's actions in Gaza, he said, but had failed to fulfil their duty. "These governments have shown the world the evil nature of Western civilization."
Khamenei is the most powerful man in the Islamic Republic and has the final say in all strategic matters. He is also commander-in-chief of Iran's armed forces.
Israel has been Iran's declared arch-enemy since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The decades-old tensions between the two countries have escalated following the outbreak of the Gaza war last October.