France has announced the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats posted in the country after two French diplomats were detained in Tehran over accusations of foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.
In a spiralling diplomatic row, France on Tuesday announced the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats posted in the country.
The move is in retaliation for the detention of two French diplomats in Tehran over accusations of foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Iranian authorities had “scandalously and deliberately assaulted” the two diplomats —one of whom was the cultural attache— in Tehran and condemned their conduct as “intolerable”.
“I had announced that this intolerable act would be followed by consequences. It has been done. Two Iranian diplomats in France will be expelled in the coming days,” Barrot said in a statement in French.
On July 19, Iranian authorities detained and questioned the two diplomats, saying they had “interfered in Iran’s internal affairs under the pretext of engaging with civil society”. Following their return to France, Iran banned them from re-entering the country.
The development comes at a time when Iran’s relationship with the West has nosedived over the war on Iran. While European nations, including France, have stayed out of the American-Israeli war on Iran, they have been involved in defensive operations in the West Asia theatre, with French warships and warplanes taking down Iranian projectiles targeting their assets and those of their allies.
Iran links action against French diplomats to artists’ arrests
Iranian authorities have previously said that a preliminary investigation showed the two diplomats were “planning and designing a vast scheme aimed at exerting influence and engaging in foreign interference” to undermine Iran’s independence.
Separately, supporters of two well-known Iranian artists, Aria Kasaei and Elly Naghilou, told AFP that they were arrested on July 19 during a meeting with the French diplomats to discuss a cultural project. Barrot did not address the artists’ arrests or the meeting in his statement.
The artists’ supporters said that as “two French representatives directly witnessed part of these events”, the French government should “fully establish the circumstances of these arrests” and “take every necessary step to guarantee their rights, safety and release”.
The arrests occurred at a time when the crackdown on civil liberties and critics has intensified in Iran as hardliners within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have gained influence over the country’s affairs following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.