France has been on high alert since a string of terror attacks that began in 2015, which have killed more than 230 people.
Fekl gave no details about potential targets or motives, and it was unclear whether the attack could have targeted a campaign event as the country gears up for the presidential election.
"The fact that these two individuals were arrested in Marseille when Marine Le Pen is holding a rally there the next day is perhaps not a coincidence", a source from the Le Pen camp told AFP.
The arrests come five days before the French go to the polls in the most uncertain French presidential election in the country's recent history - nearly a third of the electorate is still undecided and the four front-runners are clustered around 20 percent in the polls for the first ballot.
Marie Le Pen is France's own Trump candidate, Oliver warns, a populist candidate with a hard stance on immigration and support for a Frexit movement - taking France out of the European Union - which could potentially destroy the EU.
But radical leftist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative ex-premier Francois Fillon have gained ground, transforming the election into a tight four-way race.
"They were aiming to commit in the very short term, in other words in the next few days, an attack on French soil", Fekl said.
Japan's Abe calls for 'peaceable' resolution on North Korea
For Pence's part, he said "peaceable means" - including negotiations - are still ideal, but that "all options are on the table". But it's also clear team Trump isn't letting the willingness to take military action slip from the conversation.
Socialist President Francois Hollande, whom Fillon has accused of masterminding a plot against him, deplored the campaign's lack of substance in an interview Sunday evening with French TV France 5.
A state of emergency, put in place after the Paris attacks in late 2015, has been extended until July of this year.
On the campaign trail, the race was narrowing ahead of Sunday's vote, with the pack closing behind frontrunners Macron and Le Pen. "The security forces are mobilised everywhere across France to ensure the security of French people and to ensure the presidential campaign goes smoothly", he added.
For weeks, centrist former banker Macron and National Front (FN) leader Le Pen have been out in front but opinion polls now show any of the four leading candidates could reach the second-round run-off on May 7.
Macron and Le Pen are tied on 22-23 percent, with Fillon improving to around 21 percent and Melenchon surging as high as 20 percent in some polls. French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, second left, talks with butchers as he visits the meat pavilIon at the Rungis wholesale food market, south of Paris, Tuesday April 18, 2017.
But he told supporters Tuesday - appearing simultaneously in seven towns by hologram, one of this campaign's most innovative gimmicks - he did not want France to follow Britain out of the bloc.
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