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Paris has asked about 45 foreign countries to contribute several thousand military, police and civilian personnel to help secure the Olympics this summer, French government sources said on Friday.
France intends to deploy about 45,000 police and security forces, 20,000 members of private security companies, and about 15,000 military personnel every day to secure the event, during which millions of sports fans and tourists will stay in the country for several weeks at the height of the summer.
The ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, in addition to threats of terrorist attacks , forced the French government to raise security alert to its highest levels during the past few days.
A French military official said: “The security context, especially in the past few weeks, means that there is extreme vigilance regarding the security of these Olympic Games.”
It is common to call on foreign police to help deal with the presence of large numbers of visitors during international sporting events, but it is rare to request military assistance, and France has previously provided military support to the Qatari local authorities in the FIFA World Cup in the form of police dogs and individuals concerned with combating drones. .
A source in the French Ministry of the Interior reported that a request was submitted last January to about 45 countries to help strengthen security capabilities.
France requested assistance in the tasks of both the army and the police, including mounted brigades, equestrian battalions, document forgery detection experts, mine clearance specialists, anti-drone specialists, and police dog teams.
Poland said Thursday that it would join international efforts and would send forces, including police dog trainers. Germany stated this month that it would also contribute to insurance.
Diplomats said that other European allies, including Britain and Italy, would also participate by providing dozens of police personnel to help patrol the streets.
The French government source stated that 35 countries have so far responded positively. The sources also said that Israel and the United States will also send their own security contributions.
The sources indicated that the war in Gaza and the subsequent violent reactions in some countries led to severe concerns about the safety of the Israeli delegation and that greater security measures than were planned were needed for the Israeli athletes. The sources refrained from providing further details due to the sensitivity of the issue, stressing that several Israeli delegations had already visited France to overcome potential difficulties.
In the same context, the Directorate of Internal Security (Intelligence) in France recommended yesterday, Thursday, the cancellation of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games scheduled to be held in the capital, Paris, and other cities due to increasing terrorist threats.
Since the terrorist attack that struck Moscow last Friday , the terrorist concern has returned to the forefront of French concerns, which it had not completely lost sight of since 2015.
French security sources said, “The Moscow massacre made clear that the terrorist organization ISIS-Khorasan is capable of carrying out operations outside the scope of its normal activities (i.e. Afghanistan and Pakistan), and that what happened in Russia could happen anywhere else and in any European capital.”
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