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France Says 2 Citizens Arrested in Iran, Demands they be Freed Immediately

A general view shows Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, with the Eiffel Tower and the Dome des Invalides in Paris, France March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
A general view shows Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, with the Eiffel Tower and the Dome des Invalides in Paris, France March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
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France Says 2 Citizens Arrested in Iran, Demands they be Freed Immediately

A general view shows Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, with the Eiffel Tower and the Dome des Invalides in Paris, France March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
A general view shows Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, with the Eiffel Tower and the Dome des Invalides in Paris, France March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

France said on Thursday that two of its citizens have been arrested in Iran and demanded they be freed immediately.

"The French government condemns this baseless arrest. It calls for the immediate release of these two French nationals," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Iran's intelligence ministry had said on Wednesday that it had arrested two Europeans for allegedly fomenting "insecurity" there, but it had not revealed their nationalities.

Christophe Lalande, federal secretary of France's FNEC FP-FO education union, told Reuters earlier that he suspected that one of his staffers and her husband, missing on a holiday in Iran, were the two arrested.

While there was no "absolute certainty", there was a "strong presumption" that she has been arrested, Lalande said of his colleague, adding that she had been due back in France earlier this week.

The two arrested were accused of "organizing chaos and social disorder aimed at destabilizing (Iran)" in conjunction with foreign intelligence services, Iranian state TV on Wednesday cited Iran's intelligence ministry as saying.

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Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket with Dozens of Satellites, Including Two from Iran

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket with Dozens of Satellites, Including Two from Iran

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Russia launched a Soyuz rocket early on Tuesday carrying two satellites designed to monitor the space weather around Earth and 53 small satellites, including two Iranian ones, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said.
The Soyuz-2.1 launch spacecraft, which lifted off from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome, carried two Ionosfera-M satellites, which will become part of the space system for monitoring the Earth's ionosphere, the agency said.
The ionosphere, where Earth's atmosphere meets space, stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles (80 to 644 km) above Earth's surface, according to information provided on NASA's website.
Each Ionosfera-M satellite weighs 430 kg (948 lb) and its working orbit is at an altitude of 820 km (510 miles), according to Interfax news agency.
The system will include in total four of the Ionosfera-M satellites. The next two devices are planned to be launched in 2025, Roscosmos reported.
Among the 53 small satellites are two Iranian satellites, the Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, as well as the first Russian-Chinese student satellite Druzhba ATURK, Reuters reported.
Russia in February launched into space an Iranian research satellite that will scan Iran's topography from orbit, Iran's state media reported at the time.