Paris retaliates against Tehran by expelling diplomats

Paris – Agencies: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced 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 Le 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 “highly dangerous intimidation” to which the diplomats were subjected by Iranian security agencies, noting that one of them had been “assaulted,” and added 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 was subjected to physical assault” before they were able to return to the embassy.