France says Iranian officers detained two of its diplomats, ‘physically abused’ one
Paris warns of ‘consequences’ for ‘extremely serious act of intimidation’ against French officials who, they say, oversee support for artists and scientists in Iran
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Two French diplomats in Iran suffered “an extremely serious act of intimidation” by Iranian security services, with one of them physically abused, France said Monday, warning of unspecified “consequences.”
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement that the two diplomats were targeted by the Iranian officials late Sunday, “in flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity.”
Both were “detained for several hours without reason, interrogated, and one of them was physically abused” before they were able to return to the embassy, he said.
They were now safe and expected to return to France within hours, Barrot added.
“The assault is all the more shocking given these two officials oversee our programs supporting civil society, particularly Iranian artists and scientists,” he said.
“I congratulated them for their courage in carrying out their mission, which places France at the forefront of support for the Iranian people, whom we will not abandon,” he added.
Barrot, currently on a visit to Iceland, said he had told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that the “serious and unacceptable” incident “cannot go without consequences.”
Dimanche soir deux agents de l'ambassade de France en Iran ont été la cible d'une action d'intimidation extrêmement grave de la part des services de sécurité iraniens, en violation flagrante des immunités diplomatiques dont ils bénéficient.
Détenus sans raison pendant plusieurs…
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) July 20, 2026
The comments came after Barrot reiterated last week that European sanctions on Iran would not be lifted unless Tehran abandoned its nuclear program and what Paris calls its destabilizing activities in the region.
France, which operates an embassy in Tehran, has long had rocky ties with the Islamic Republic, though it has been one of the more cautious countries in Europe when it comes to angering the regime, fearing harsh measures could hurt negotiations to release European citizens held in Iranian prisons.
In the wake of the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests in Iran in January, France moved to support the inclusion of Iran’s elite paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, which it had been hesitant to do for years, signaling a major shift in its policy towards Tehran.
France has since slammed Iran for its attacks against Gulf Arab states amid the war with the US and Israel, though Paris also decried the “unilateral” Israeli and US attacks that kicked off the conflict, saying the issue should have first been debated in the collective bodies set up for that purpose, such as the United Nations.
The Times of Israel Community.