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French-Iranian Academic Marks One Year in Iran Prison

File photo of Fariba Adelkhah
File photo of Fariba Adelkhah
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French-Iranian Academic Marks One Year in Iran Prison

File photo of Fariba Adelkhah
File photo of Fariba Adelkhah

French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah on Friday marked one year of incarceration in Iran as Paris reiterated its demands for her release.

Adelkhah was arrested on June 5, 2019, and has been held behind bars ever since.

Last month she was ordered to serve five years in prison after being convicted on national security charges, in a verdict slammed by Paris as "political".

She is one of several foreigners and dual nationals being held by Iran in what activists condemn as a policy of hostage-taking aimed at pressuring the West.

Born in Iran in 1959 but living in France since 1977, Adelkhah has maintained her innocence, and colleagues and other supporters have rubbished the charges against her. She went on a 49-day hunger strike to protest her conditions.

"Fariba Adelkhah is a hostage of the Iranian government," Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who now lives in exile, said in a video message to mark the anniversary.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called Adelkhah's continued imprisonment "unacceptable."

"My message to the Iranian authorities: justice demands that our compatriot be released immediately," he posted on Twitter.

“Today, I once again formally demand on behalf of France the immediate liberation by Iran of Madame Adelkhah," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.

"This ongoing situation can only have a negative impact on the bilateral relations between France and Iran," he said.

Adelkhah was arrested with her partner Roland Marchal, a fellow academic at the Sciences Po university in Paris.

Marchal was freed and returned to France in March after France released Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, who risked extradition to the United States on accusations of violating sanctions.

Michael White, an American held in Iran for nearly two years, returned home this week after Iranian scientist Cyrus Asgari, who had been held in the United States, was allowed to go home.

Another Iranian scientist detained in the US, Majid Taheri, was also released at the same time, Tehran said.

In December, Iran also freed US academic Xiyue Wang in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani, and said it was open to further swaps.

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UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
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UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

The new head of the UN humanitarian aid agency says it will be “ruthless” when prioritizing how to spend money, a nod to challenges in fundraising for civilians in war zones like Gaza, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.

Tom Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took up the UN post last month, said his agency is asking for less money in 2025 than this year. He said it wants to show "we will focus and target the resources we have,” even as crises grow more numerous, intense and long-lasting.

His agency, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on Wednesday issued its global appeal for 2025, seeking $47 billion to help 190 million people in 32 countries — though it estimates 305 million worldwide need help.
“The world is on fire, and this is how we put it out,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The office and many other aid groups, including the international Red Cross, have seen donations shrink in recent years for longtime trouble spots like Syria, South Sudan, the Middle East and Congo and newer ones like Ukraine and Sudan. Aid access has been difficult in some places, especially Sudan and Gaza.
The office's appeal for $50 billion for this year was only 43% fulfilled as of last month. One consequence of that shortfall was a 80% reduction in food aid for Syria, which has seen a sudden escalation in fighting in recent days, The Associated Press reported.
Such funds go to UN agencies and more than 1,500 partner organizations.
The biggest asks for 2025 are for Syria — a total of $8.7 billion for needs both within the country and for neighbors that have taken in Syrian refugees — as well as Sudan at a total of $6 billion, the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” at $4 billion, Ukraine at about $3.3 billion and Congo at nearly $3.2 billion.
Fletcher said his office needs to be “ruthless” in choosing to reach people most in need.
“I choose that word carefully, because it's a judgement call — that ruthlessness — about prioritizing where the funding goes and where we can have the greatest impact," he said. “It's a recognition that we have struggled in previous years to raise the money we need.”
In response to questions about how much President-elect Donald Trump of the United States — the UN's biggest single donor — will spend on humanitarian aid, Fletcher said he expects to spend “a lot of time” in Washington over the next few months to talk with the new administration.
“America is very much on our minds at the moment," he said, acknowledging some governments “will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort” laid out in the new report.
This year has been the deadliest on record for humanitarians and UN staff, largely due to the Middle East conflict triggered by Palestinian militants' deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel.