Keyword: Jean-Yves Le Drian

Reacting to a message posted on Twitter by US President Donald Trump, in which he goaded his French counterpart over current social unrest in France, foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 'I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be'.

Yves Le Drian and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in April 2018. © Reuters

On November 12th, 2018, Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted on French television that he was not aware of evidence supplied by Turkey regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi killers. Yet no fewer than seven French diplomats and intelligence agents have contradicted this claim by France's foreign minister. Thomas Cantaloube, Lucie Delaporte, René Backmann, Nicolas Cheviron, Matthieu Suc and Rachida El Azzouzi investigate.

Foreign minister suggests Europe should align itself with countries such as India, Australia, Mexico and other 'powerful democracies'.

Speaking in parliament, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assa and its ally Russia might be held to account for war crimes over indiscriminate aerial bombing of 'civilian populations and hospitals' in Idlib, the beseiged last major stronghold of active opposition to the regime.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that despite US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 agreement with Iran limiting its nuclear development programme in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions France would stick to the deal, while economy minister Bruno Le Maire said the US must not consider itself as the world’s 'economic policeman'.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday that the air strikes by the US, France and Britain on Syrian targets overnight were 'proportionate and targeted' and warned that they would be repeated if the Damascus regime used chemical weapons in the future, but also insisted that France will pursue diplomatic channels to help reach an end to the Syrian civil war.

Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is one of the key figures in President Emmanuel Macron's government. © Reuters

At the start of the new school year in 2017 two teenage boys were able to take up places in the prestigious French lycée in Barcelona, even though their applications had missed the deadline. Meanwhile the school had to turn down applications from hundreds of other pupils that year. But these two particular teenagers were fortunate enough to have had the support of their grandfather Jean-Yves Le Drian, France's foreign minister. His private office intervened directly and a visit to the school by the minister was offered as a potential incentive for allowing the children to get in. Antton Rouget reports.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has visited Benghazi to revive UN talks between rival groups controlling the west and east of Libya, when he was barred from visiting a migrant detention centre.

French foreign minister warns US that abandoning nuclear agreement with Iran would trigger a 'spiral of proliferation' in the Middle East.

On visit to Baghdad foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France would help reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Iraq.

Emmanuel Macron with the King of Morocco Mohammed VI, right, during the French presdent's visit to Rabat on June 14th, 2017. © Reuters

Emmanuel Macron's first visit beyond Europe as French head of state was to Morocco, where anti-corruption protests have caused unprecedented unrest over the past seven months. The visit brought succour to the embattled kingdom but was also a little unsettling for Rabat, which has yet to fully understand the new Macron administration. But it was essentially a trip to signal continuity in Franco-Moroccan relations. Lénaïg Bredoux reports.

On visit to London foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also confirmed one French citizen died in the attack and eight had been injured.

Maverick centrist Emmanuel Macron received a significant boost to his presidential election campaign when defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, a veteran Socialist Party figure, announced his support for Macron's candidature in an interview published Friday. 

Benoît Hamon on the evening he won the socialist primary election in January 2017. © Reuters

The official Socialist Party candidate in the French presidential election, Benoît Hamon, has been deserted by a section of the right wing of his own party who are opting to support the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron. The latest high-profile figures to support Macron are former Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë and defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close ally of President François Hollande. Some in Hamon's team say the defections make it easier for their candidate to make his pitch on the left. But as Stéphane Alliès and Lénaïg Bredoux report, his campaign is so far pretty much inaudible.