⁠The Iranian ambassador to France, whose country is suspected of being at the origin of large-scale cyberattacks that targeted the refrigerators of several supermarkets, was summoned Tuesday morning, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Jean-Noël Barrot declared on Tuesday that Paris "does not forbid anything" in its response against Tehran.

Published on: 10/11/2026 - 08:32 Modified on: 10/11/2026 - 10:07

Relations are getting even worse with Tehran. France, which accused Iran of being at the origin of the large-scale cyberattacks that targeted hundreds of connected refrigerators in supermarkets in October, "does not hold back" in its response, warned Tuesday, November 10, the head of diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot.

Summoned, the Iranian ambassador to France was received Tuesday morning by the secretary general of the Quai d'Orsay, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

In addition to summoning the ambassador and implementing European sanctions, "I also tell you that we are not prohibiting ourselves from doing anything and that we will take all measures, including those which we will not report publicly, deemed by ourselves to be proportional and necessary to deter any new attack and punish the perpetrators of this unacceptable aggression," the minister declared on the FranceinfoTV channel.

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“The French cyber defense doctrine opens up a certain number of possibilities for the authorities to take actions, even if we do not reveal the exact content,” he insisted.

The objective, according to him, is to “dissuade all those who might have the idea, in Iran or elsewhere, of reproducing it”.

Also read: What we know about the hacking of supermarket refrigerators in Europe

Other ongoing investigations

Asked about a possible responsibility of Iran in the cyberattacks which targeted a refrigeration service provider of the French Blood Establishment, the French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa or even the Directorate of Public Finances, the Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated on the other hand that he was not able to respond "on these points", the investigations being still in progress.

France officially attributed Monday to a cyber unit reporting to the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic responsibility for the cyberattack which targeted, on the night of October 11 to 12, refrigeration controllers of supermarkets of around 700 mass distribution sites in France.

Also read: Cyberattacks, Strait of Hormuz: the multiple facets of Iranian asymmetric warfare

The Paris prosecutor's office has requested the issuance of international arrest warrants against two leaders of this unit named Shahid Kaveh, some of whom have already been wanted for several years by the American services for other operations.

With AFP

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