France blames Iran for cyberattack, pushes for EU sanctions
France has pinned a cyberattack that heated freezers at nearly 700 supermarkets to 50 degrees on Tehran. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the attack. Paris is summoning Iran's ambassador to the ministry and pressing the EU for new sanctions. Barrot said countermeasures not disclosed to the public are also on the table.
RastinewsFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris is ruling out no option in response to a large-scale cyberattack on cooling systems at hundreds of supermarkets across the country, which he said Iran was behind.
Speaking to FranceinfoTV, Barrot said Iran's ambassador to Paris would be summoned to the Foreign Ministry and that France would push for new European Union sanctions against Iran.
Barrot said it was the first time French territory had faced a cyberattack of this scale, adding that some measures being considered would not be made public.
Describing the scope of France's planned response, Barrot said:
"I can say that we are ruling out no possibility, and that we will take all measures we deem proportionate and necessary, including steps we may not make public, in order to deter anyone — in Iran or elsewhere — who might consider carrying out similar acts."
Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Paris, Barrot pointed to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as responsible for the attack.
Barrot said the sabotage was unprecedented both in its operational scale and in the level of aggression it displayed.