Why Has France Been Neither Forewarned Nor Involved in the Greatest Liberating Epic of the Twenty-First Century?
On 28 February 2026, the United States of America and the State of Israel, in a concert of implacable resolve, unleashed the operation that sealed the fate of the mullahs’ regime. Massive, surgical, inexorable strikes on Tehran, Natanz, Fordow, the missile arsenals, the headquarters of Hezbollah and the Houthis: within a few hours, Trump and Netanyahu accomplished what a pusillanimous West had deferred for twenty years. They struck at the very heart of the terrorist theocracy that, for decades, has been irrigating global jihad with its venom. It is the greatest liberating epic since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And France? “Neither forewarned nor involved.” Thus it was declared.
Semantic Analysis: Macron, Offended, Reproves… and Borrows the Semantics of Objective Responsibility “Involved”
The formula that Emmanuel Macron let fall on 28 February, at the opening of the Defence and National Security Council, remains a jewel of presidential language, at once icy and charged with contained rage:
“France has been neither forewarned nor involved, just as, moreover, the whole of the countries of the region and our allies.”
The neither… nor… constitutes a double absolute negation, almost childish in its spite, which betrays the president stung to the quick, like a child whom one would have excluded from the table of the great. Not “we were not fully informed,” but indeed: zero information, zero participation. It is the cry from the heart of one who knows himself relegated.
“Forewarned”: the diplomatic verb par excellence, which implies with palpable bitterness: “Trump and Bibi did not even deign to grant me a simple courtesy telephone call.” Supreme humiliation for one who still dreamed of himself as “European leader”.
“Involved”: here resides the stroke of involuntary genius. Macron knowingly borrows the legal semantics of objective responsibility in civil law: one is responsible for the damage by the mere fact of being “involved” in the causal chain, even without intentional fault. He does not say “we did not actively participate.” He asserts: we bear no implication whatsoever, be it passive, logistical, of intelligence or of mere complaisance. It is the absolute denial. He thus covers himself juridically and penally: “If Iran wishes to take revenge, let it not turn toward us.”
In a single period, Macron passes from personal vexation to moral reprobation (“this is dangerous, diplomacy is needed”), while washing his hands in the manner of Pontius Pilate. Classic Macronian: posture of proclaimed grandeur, flight from responsibilities, and victimhood erected into an art.
Why Is No One Informing Macron Anymore? Because Macronism Is Saadé, Hezbollah and Business… and Because CMA CGM + MSC Are the Golden Exit Planned for the Post-Élysée Macron Inner Circle
The true reason, which the great organs of the press take good care not to state clearly, nevertheless stares one in the face for years.
Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest shipping company, Franco-Lebanese by birth, a long-standing intimate of Emmanuel Macron, was elevated to Officer of the Legion of Honour by the President himself on 26 February 2026 – the very eve of the strikes – during an intimate ceremony at the Élysée Palace, in the presence of one hundred and seventy-five carefully selected guests, without any official photograph being authorised. The synchronism is perfect.
The facts, long established by Georges Malbrunot in Le Figaro, by Ynet, Enab Baladi and Intelligence Online:
• After the explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020, Macron went there… accompanied by Saadé. Moreover, the said explosion was due to stocks of dynamite stored there, of which no one was unaware.
• The presumed pact is crystal-clear: France consents to remain silent on the Hezbollah arsenals stored in the port (and on its cardinal role in the trafficking of captagon, arms and drugs that fuel jihad). In return, CMA CGM snaps up the contract for the reconstruction of the port market as well as the operation of the container terminal (2022, for ten years, for hundreds of millions of euros).
• Saadé also operates in Latakia in Syria, a fiefdom of Assad, Hezbollah and Iran, and in Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
• The port of Beirut remains, as everyone knows – Western services, Israeli services, the Lebanese themselves –, an essential logistical hub for Hezbollah.
Immediate consequence in 2026: an open war against Iran means the possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz or the explosion of insurance premiums – an existential catastrophe for CMA CGM and its seven hundred vessels plying the Asia-Europe routes via the Gulf. On the evening of 28 February, the group publishes an unequivocal communiqué: “All our vessels in the Gulf are to take shelter immediately.”
Macron cannot support the liberating epic. Supporting the strikes would amount to torpedoing the interests of his billionaire friend, the very one who provides him with an essential part of his media ecosystem (BFMTV, RMC, La Provence, La Tribune) and of his influence. Saadé is the economic and media backbone of Macronism.
And here we grasp the ultimate, almost testamentary dimension of this maritime stranglehold. For it is by no means fortuitous that this web does not limit itself to CMA CGM alone. MSC, the world’s largest shipping company, controlled by the Aponte family, maintains close and ancient links with the very heart of Macronian power, notably through the intermediary of Alexis Kohler, Secretary-General of the Élysée, whose family and professional networks have always been closely associated with these spheres of international shipping. CMA CGM and MSC thus constitute, in the mind of the Macron inner circle, the exit by the top planned for the post-Élysée: should the European project founder under the weight of its contradictions and accumulated failures, these two oceanic empires would offer the regime’s faithful the most sumptuous sinecures, seats on opulent boards of directors, and gilded retirements sheltered from political storms and alternations. The sea, ultimate refuge of the powerful in peril, would then become the haven where Macronism, once the Élysée is left behind, would continue to reign by proxy. Such is the sublime gateway of Macronism:
To reign over the seas like Neptune by realising the CMA CGM–MSC merger-acquisition.
Trump and Netanyahu know this perfectly well. Why warn a president whose entourage is structurally linked to the Iran-Hezbollah axis through the ports, and whose very future rests upon these same shipowners? Why run the risk of a leak? They have chosen the only rational option: France no longer exists as a reliable ally. It has become a mere compromised Franco-Lebanese-Italian-Swiss shipping subsidiary.
Neither Trustworthy Nor Neutral
Macron’s France has not been forewarned because it is no longer worthy of trust.
It is not involved because its president has chosen, since 2020, the camp of Saadé’s affairs rather than that of civilisation.
“Neither forewarned nor involved” is not a declaration of neutrality.
It is the public admission of a voluntary decline.
It is the phrase of a man who prefers to protect the portfolio of his oligarch linked to Hezbollah rather than participate in the eradication of the Iranian cancer.
While American and Israeli F-35s liberate the Middle East, France looks elsewhere, offended, so as not to ruffle its great maritime carrier.
Such is the “European sovereignty” à la Macron in 2026: to be a spectator of History… and to glory in it.
The greatest liberating epic of the century is accomplished without us.
And that is precisely what Macron deserves – though not France.
Sources
- Remise de la Légion d’honneur à Rodolphe Saadé (26 février 2026)
• Le Marin / Ouest-France (article officiel avec discours de Macron)
https://lemarin.ouest-france.fr/shipping/emmanuel-macron-a-rodolphe-saade-pdg-de-cma-cgm-vous-avez-toujours-une-idee-davance-sur-votre-epoque-b9a2102a-1363-11f1-b716-b464f6755d91
• Challenges (coulisses, liste invités, photos)
https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/rodolphe-saade-promu-officier-de-la-legion-dhonneur-discours-de-macron-invites-de-premier-plan-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-ceremonie_641152
• LinkedIn Thibaud Teillard (discours intégral)
https://fr.linkedin.com/posts/thibaud-teillard-2205b8159_emmanuel-macron-%C3%A0-rodolphe-saad%C3%A9-pdg-de-activity-7432925019032195073-vLtF
• Mondafrique (photo Charles Kushner à la cérémonie)
https://mondafrique.com/limage-du-jour/usa-france-reception-entre-amis-a-lelysee/
2. Communiqué CMA CGM – navires dans le Golfe (28 février 2026)
• Marine & Océans (texte intégral AFP)
https://marine-oceans.com/actualites/cma-cgm-demande-a-tous-ses-navires-dans-le-golfe-de-se-mettre-a-labri-et-suspend-le-passage-par-le-canal-de-suez/
• Boursorama / Reuters
https://www.boursorama.com/bourse/actualites/cma-cgm-a-dit-avoir-indique-a-ses-navires-se-trouvant-a-proximite-du-golfe-persique-de-se-mettre-a-labri-85d4d062c3d3f7b6f1c8f74165543ad0
• Times of Israel (version française)
https://fr.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/cma-cgm-demande-a-tous-ses-navires-dans-le-golfe-de-se-mettre-a-labri-et-suspend-le-passage-par-le-canal-de-suez/
3. Liens historiques Rodolphe Saadé / Hezbollah / Port de Beyrouth (allégations journalistiques documentées)
• Ynet News (Georges Malbrunot, Le Figaro – deal présumé 2020)
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hysn3sfe1g
• Intelligence Online (mars 2022 – collusion présumée)
https://www.intelligenceonline.com/europe-russia/2022/03/02/cma-cgm-targetted-by-allegations-of-collusion-with-hezbollah,109737363-gra
• Alestiklal (rapport sur le deal Beyrouth)
https://www.alestiklal.net/en/article/a-corrupt-deal-between-hezbollah-and-france-exposed-by-lebanons-postal-services
• The Tahrir Institute (contexte 2022)
https://timep.org/2022/07/26/why-the-beirut-port-deal-with-cma-cgm-is-business-as-usual/
• Washington Institute (2021)
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/french-german-proposals-rebuild-beirut-port-policy-implications