France to expel two Iranian diplomats in the coming days
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced on Tuesday that his country would expel two Iranian diplomats from its territory, in response to Tehran’s decision to designate diplomats from the Paris embassy as “persons non grata.”
Barrot stated in a post on the X platform, which included an interview with the French daily newspaper La Montagne, “I inform you that two Iranian diplomats will be expelled from France in the coming days.”
Earlier on Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that it had informed France that the two French diplomats who were briefly detained in Tehran last month before leaving the country would not be allowed to return to Iran.
On July 20, Barrot condemned the diplomats’ exposure to “an extremely dangerous intimidation campaign by Iranian security agencies,” noting that one of them had been “assaulted,” and pointed out that one of them was the cultural attaché at the embassy.
He said they were detained “for hours without cause, interrogated, and one of them suffered a physical assault” before they were able to return to the embassy.
For its part, Tehran denied the assault on the diplomat, stating that security agencies “briefly questioned the two diplomats” after they participated in “a meeting with several individuals wanted by the authorities.”
Then, on Saturday, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence accused France of carrying out a “large-scale project aimed at exerting influence” in Iran and “paving the way for France to take actions against the country’s independence.”
Glenn Salic, deputy spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, said, “Instead of highlighting this planned and deliberate assault, punishing those responsible, and taking necessary measures to ensure the security of our premises and staff, in accordance with its international obligations, the Iranian authorities chose to level false accusations against our employees and fabricate a case of interference to justify their behavior.”
He added, “This decision (the expulsion) has been communicated to the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who was summoned today (Tuesday) to the French Foreign Ministry headquarters.”
On Monday, relatives of two Iranian graphic designers told Agence France-Presse that Aria Kasaei and Elham “Elie” Naghili have been imprisoned since their arrest on July 19 in Tehran after meeting with the two French diplomats.
Relatives of Kasaei (46) and Naghili (36) stated in a press release that the two were detained during a working meeting with representatives from the cultural section of the French Embassy, which was dedicated to the “Villa Zadig” project, an artist residency and exchange program overseen by the French Embassy’s cultural section in Iran.
The meeting took place at Kasaei’s home in Tehran, while the designers were working on preparing the visual identity for the project.
Barrot did not mention the graphic designers, but he emphasized that “France stands with the Iranian people by supporting its artists, scientists, and researchers, and it is precisely for this reason that two French diplomats were subjected to a shameful and deliberate assault on July 19.”
He added, “The Iranian people, a great people, is the biggest victim of this highly tense phase in the Middle East, finding itself caught between the hammer of the bloody crackdown on the protests witnessed in January 2026 and the anvil of bombing.”
Diplomatic relations between France and Iran have been severely strained for years.
