Europe rallies around Cyprus during Iran war as Macron visits island

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives at Andreas Papandreou Air Base in Paphos, Cyprus (Petros Karadjias/AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Cyprus on Monday, days after dispatching a warship to the east Mediterranean island nation, where a Shahed drone struck a British air base on its southern coast last week during the Iran war.

Mr Macron ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus, a fellow European Union member, to bolster its anti-drone and anti-missiles defences. The French president also decided to send ground-based anti-drone and anti-missile defences to the island, which sustained the first drone attack of the Iran war on European territory.