The recent fatal stabbing attack near Eiffel Tower in Paris with the victim a young German-Filipino tourist and the perpetrator a 26-year-old Franco-Iranian, who was known to French authorities and had a history of mental health problems, has heightened concerns regarding security issues during the Olympic Games which will be held in the summer of 2024 in the French capital.

The newspaper Liberation reports that “in the specialized services there is a fear of the arrival of a new deadly cycle, which will put an end to the relative peace of the last years”.

An official of the French intelligence service points out to the newspaper that a large part of those who joined the Islamic State in the mid-2010s have now been neutralized, but the phenomenon of activation, with the aim of committing terrorist attacks, teenagers aged between 13 and 18 who were born and live in France.

As for the question of whether Afghanistan, under the control of the Taliban since August 2021, could serve as a new base for organizations wishing to attack France, the doubt in this regard is underlined by the French intelligence services, which note that, in contrast to Syria, which was easy to access by low-cost flight through Turkey, Afghanistan “is a fortress that is much more difficult to penetrate”, as the ethnic balance, the complexity of dialects and the mountainous way of life “make it a hostile destination for potential European recruits”. Finally, as the French newspaper reports, cells of the Islamic State in Khorasan are creating “transnational connections” and are targeting Russian-speaking citizens in particular, with the aim of committing terrorist attacks in France.