France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that two Iranian diplomats will be expelled in the coming days, in retaliation for Iran’s detention and intimidation of two French embassy staff members in Tehran in July.
France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the decision was in response to what he described as “unacceptable actions.”
He said: “I had announced that this unacceptable act would have consequences, and it has. Two Iranian diplomats currently in France will be expelled very soon.”
Last month, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that two employees of its embassy in Iran had been detained and threatened by Iranian security forces in Tehran.
Following the incident on July 19, Barrot summoned Iran’s acting representative in France to seek an explanation over what had happened.
Barrot announced the planned expulsion one day after Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two French embassy employees would not be allowed to return to Iran.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the two French employees had violated the Vienna Convention governing the rules and rights of diplomatic representatives, accusing them of involvement in activities supporting Iranian civil society.
On the French side, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said that the Iranian authorities had “chosen to make completely baseless accusations against our staff and fabricate a case of interference in order to justify their actions.”
