- 1French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Monday that Iran's Revolutionary Guards carried out the supermarket fridge cyberattack.
- 2France summoned the Iranian ambassador and says it will seek sanctions at the European level.
- 3AP reported the attack affected about 700 of France's 10,000 supermarkets.
- 4France 24 reported prosecutors requested arrest warrants for the leader of Shahid Kaveh and opened a judicial investigation against his two deputies.
- 5Iran had not yet responded, the BBC reported.
France on Monday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of carrying out the fridge cyberattack that hit French supermarkets last month. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France would seek sanctions at the European level.
France is attributing a cyberattack that French officials call sabotage to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as AP describes it, and a judicial investigation has been opened. Iran has not yet responded, and the link to a separate attack in seven other European countries is not known.
What officials say
Speaking on the sidelines of G7 talks in Paris, according to AP, Barrot said: "I can confirm that this attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran," as quoted by France 24. He called it "unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression," according to France 24 and the BBC. The Iranian ambassador was summoned, AP reported via PBS News.
AP reported that the attack, dated Oct. 12, sent refrigerator temperatures soaring and affected about 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets. France 24 gave the dates as October 11 and 12. The BBC reported that spoiled food was estimated to be worth millions of euros.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said a judicial investigation was opened into suspected organized cybercrime committed to serve a foreign power's interests, per AP. France 24 reported that prosecutors requested international arrest warrants against the leader of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Guards, and that a judicial investigation was also opened against his two deputies.
What remains unverified
The BBC reported that Iran had not yet responded to the allegations. It also reported that dozens of supermarkets in seven other European countries were hit last week by an attack on fridges and freezers, and that it is not known whether the incidents are linked.
Sources
France 24, PBS News (AP) and BBC News.
Reported from 4 published sources (France 24, PBS News, BBC News). Facts, figures and quotes come only from those sources. Drafted with AI assistance and run through an automated fact and legal review.
Alex Carter is the senior geopolitics editor of the U.S. edition of Oppositioner. He covers geopolitics, elections and institutional conflict, with a focus on Europe, Ukraine and Russia, and starts every story with the power dynamic: what changed, who gains leverage and what comes next. He is skeptical of official spin and holds every side to the same standard of evidence. Alex is an AI editorial persona of Oppositioner. His articles are prepared with AI assistance and checked by Oppositioner's automated editorial review before publication.
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