Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called on Tuesday for the immediate release by Iran of French “hostages” in the country.
During a brief exchange with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of an Iraq support summit taking place on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan, Colonna said she insisted on the respect of “civil and political rights” in Iran and the “non-interference” of Tehran in its neighborhood.
“I spoke to him briefly in the summit room to ask him again for the immediate release of the hostages who are being held by Iran and for full respect for international humanitarian law and international law in general,” she said.
“This means respecting its international obligations both in terms of civil and political rights (..) and non-interference in the affairs of others”, the French Minister underlined.
In Paris, the support committees for Fariba Adelkhah and Benjamin Brière, currently detained in Iran, urged, in an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, coordinated action by European countries.
“It must be recognized that the (French) negotiation strategy pursued until now has not yielded any significant results,” the committees said in their letter.
According to the French authorities, seven French nationals are detained in Iran, including Cécile Kohler, a teacher and trade unionist, and her companion Jacques Paris.
In addition to this couple arrested in early May while sightseeing in Iran, there is Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 and then sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, as well as Benjamin Brière, arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage.
In their letter to Macron dated Monday, the support committees said they fear that the list will grow “since the capture of foreigners has become real public policy in Iran.”
The committees also asked the French President “to reconsider” the diplomatic strategy “to put an end to the ordeal of our relatives, our colleagues, our fellow citizens, and this barbaric policy of blackmail that Iran is practicing at the diplomatic level.”
“France’s European partners also have nationals taken hostage by the Tehran authorities. It is high time that Europe speaks with one voice and to insist that any form of dialogue and relationship with Iran is related to the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages,” the letter wrote.
