Islamabad, June 18, 2025: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday spoke out against violently changing the Iranian government, warning that Iranian regime change could cause widespread chaos in the Middle East.
“The biggest mistake today would be to try to do a regime change in Iran through military means because that would lead to chaos,” Macron told reporters on the final day of the G7 summit in Canada. He added that “no one can say what comes next” and stressed that France “never supports actions of regional destabilization.”
Macron’s comments come as worries grow that the U.S. might join Israel’s military campaign in Iran. This campaign, which began late last week, has reportedly damaged Iranian nuclear sites and killed high-ranking officials. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump was indeed considering joining the military action. On his way back to the U.S., Trump had said he wanted a “real end” to the conflict. He was “not too much in the mood to negotiate.”
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Macron referred to past mistakes in Iraq (2003) and Libya (last decade), where forced regime changes by the U.S. and NATO allies led to deadly instability. He argued that these consequences should not be repeated, emphasizing that countries in the region do not need “chaos.”
Regarding President Trump’s earlier criticism—where Trump slammed Macron for suggesting he was leaving the G7 early to work on an Israel-Iran ceasefire, saying Macron “always gets it wrong,”—Macron stated he was not offended.
He called it “an incident” that “doesn’t move me,” noting that Trump had friendly words for him during the rest of the summit and their relationship remains good.
The French president maintained, however, that Trump had indeed told him he was working on a possible ceasefire, suggesting Trump might have changed his mind.
“There has undoubtedly been a change of mind. But I’m not responsible for the American administration’s change of mind,” Macron concluded.
