The head of state will have dinner with the 350 soldiers of a French air base involved in an international operation against the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq.
After Egypt in 2022, Emmanuel Macron is now choosing Jordan. On December 21 and 22, the President will visit the French air base H5 in the Jordanian desert to celebrate Christmas with French forces stationed abroad, the Élysée Palace announced last Friday. “Ahead of the Christmas holidays, the head of state wanted to offer the 350 soldiers deployed from this base in the fight against terrorism a dinner prepared by the chef of the Presidency of the Republic,” the French presidency stated.
The soldiers of this temporary base are taking part in the international anti-jihadist coalition Inherent Resolve, which operates mainly in Iraq and is led by the United States. “In coordination with the Iraqi government and the allies present in the theater, France provides military support to local forces engaged in the fight against the Islamic State group on their territory,” the Élysée Palace said.
Overall, around 600 French soldiers are deployed in the region as part of Operation Chammal, which represents the French component of this international coalition launched in 2014. The air base in Jordan has been part of Chammal since 2015. Commandos and Rafale fighter jets are stationed there, carrying out intelligence and reconnaissance missions and occasionally air strikes. Three soldiers from this force were killed in action in August.
During his last Christmas with the troops in December 2022, Emmanuel Macron visited the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle off the coast of Egypt. In 2020 and 2021, he had been unable to do so because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In previous years, he had travelled to Africa (to Chad in 2018 and to Côte d’Ivoire in 2019), where the French army was also heavily engaged in the fight against terrorism at the time. In the meantime, the French armed forces have had to withdraw largely from the Sahel region amid growing anti-French sentiment in the region.