Iran Bars Two French Embassy Employees from Returning to Country

IRNA

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.

Iran said on Monday that two French embassy employees at the centre of a diplomatic dispute last month would not be allowed to return to the country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the two employees had violated the Vienna Convention, which sets out the rules and privileges governing diplomatic missions, by engaging in activities supporting Iranian civil society.

“Insisting that these individuals were engaged in activities related to supporting civil society is itself an admission that the Vienna Convention was violated,” Baghaei told a weekly press conference, without providing further details.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with France Inter last month that the two embassy employees had been tasked with “developing programmes supporting Iranian civil society, students and artists”.

“France is one of the countries in the world that does the most for Iranian civil society, and we have paid the price for it,” Barrot said.

France summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires on 21 July after accusing Iranian security forces of detaining and physically intimidating French embassy staff in Tehran.



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