The head of the 2nd Department for Western Europe at Iran's Foreign Ministry dismissed as "false and baseless" allegations by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that two employees of the French Embassy in Tehran had been intimidated by Iranian authorities.
Citing reports from the relevant Iranian authorities, Mohammad Tanhaei said the two French nationals attended a meeting on the evening of Sunday, July 19, with several security suspects who were under prosecution. He said they were briefly questioned by security officers, while numerous documents indicating anti-security activities were discovered at the location and are currently under examination by the competent authorities.
Rejecting Barrot's claim that the two embassy employees had been assaulted, Tanhaei said law enforcement officers transferred them to the Diplomatic Police headquarters immediately after learning of their affiliation with the French Embassy. Following coordination with Iran's Foreign Ministry and after the two contacted the French ambassador, they were handed over to the embassy.
He stressed that the unlawful conduct of the two French Embassy employees violated the laws of the host country as well as the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Instead of "escaping forward," Tanhaei said, the French foreign minister should answer for the conduct of his country's embassy employees, which he said was incompatible with diplomatic norms.
The Iranian official also challenged Barrot's assertion that the two employees had been working to support "civil society" in Iran, saying the claim itself demonstrated France's interventionist approach and activities inconsistent with the normal functions of a diplomatic mission.
He asked under which international treaty governing diplomatic and consular relations France considered "assisting the civil society" of a host country to be part of a diplomat's legitimate responsibilities.
Tanhaei emphasized that the French government should refrain from pursuing interventionist policies in Iran and instead align its approach toward Tehran with the established principles governing relations between states.