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French Citizen Olivier Grondeau Freed after Imprisonment in Iran, Macron Says

A demonstrator holds a photograph of Olivier Grondeau at a Paris gathering in support of French nationals jailed in Iran, February 1, 2025. Sebastien Dupuy, AFP
A demonstrator holds a photograph of Olivier Grondeau at a Paris gathering in support of French nationals jailed in Iran, February 1, 2025. Sebastien Dupuy, AFP
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French Citizen Olivier Grondeau Freed after Imprisonment in Iran, Macron Says

A demonstrator holds a photograph of Olivier Grondeau at a Paris gathering in support of French nationals jailed in Iran, February 1, 2025. Sebastien Dupuy, AFP
A demonstrator holds a photograph of Olivier Grondeau at a Paris gathering in support of French nationals jailed in Iran, February 1, 2025. Sebastien Dupuy, AFP

A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days has been freed, French officials said Thursday.

The release of Olivier Grondeau comes as France and the rest of Europe try to pursue negotiations with Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump meanwhile has sent his own letter to Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to jumpstart talks. Trump is also pressuring Tehran over its support of Yemen's Houthi extremists as the American military has launched an intense new campaign of airstrikes targeting the group.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote online that Grondeau had been freed. He offered no immediate details of what led to Grondeau’s release, though it came on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when Iran has released prisoners in the past.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France's minister for Europe and foreign affairs, posted a picture online of Grondeau smiling aboard what appeared to be a private jet. On his lap appeared to be a picture of the pop star Britney Spears, something the official did not acknowledge in welcoming Grondeau's release.

“We will tirelessly continue our efforts to ensure that all our compatriots still held hostage, including Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, are in turn released,” Barrot wrote.

Macron also raised the case of the other two French nationals held in Iran.

“Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris must be freed from Iranian jails,” he wrote. “My thoughts are with them and their families today.”

The Iranian government did not immediately acknowledge Grondeau’s release. Such releases of Westerners in Iran typically come in exchange for something. Early this week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that France had arrested an Iranian women who supported Palestinians, but said Tehran was still trying to gather more details about her case.

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World

Iranian Hardline Clerics Seek Swift Naming of New Supreme Leader

An Iranian woman flashes the victory sign while holding a picture of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as she arrives to attend the Friday prayer ceremony at Mosallah mosque in Tehran, Iran, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman flashes the victory sign while holding a picture of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as she arrives to attend the Friday prayer ceremony at Mosallah mosque in Tehran, Iran, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
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Iranian Hardline Clerics Seek Swift Naming of New Supreme Leader

An Iranian woman flashes the victory sign while holding a picture of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as she arrives to attend the Friday prayer ceremony at Mosallah mosque in Tehran, Iran, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman flashes the victory sign while holding a picture of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as she arrives to attend the Friday prayer ceremony at Mosallah mosque in Tehran, Iran, 06 March 2026. (EPA)

Two influential and ‌hardline Iranian clerics have called for the swift selection of a new supreme leader to help guide the nation amid a new wave of US and Israeli strikes, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

The calls by the clerics suggest that at least some in the clerical establishment are uncomfortable with leaving a three-man council in charge, even temporarily under constitutional rules, after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali ‌Khamenei.

US President ‌Donald Trump has said the ‌US ⁠should have a role ⁠in choosing the new leader, a demand Iran has rejected.

Naser Makarem Shirazi said an appointment was needed swiftly to "help better organize the country’s affairs", state media reported.

Hossein Nouri Hamedani also urged members of the Assembly of Experts, ‌a clerical body charged with choosing the new leader, to accelerate the process ⁠of ⁠picking Khamenei's successor, state media reported.

Following rules laid out in Iran's constitution, a three-man council comprising the president, a senior cleric and the head of the judiciary, has taken on the supreme leader's role until the Assembly of Experts decides.

The constitution states a supreme leader should be chosen within three months, although with war raging, it is not immediately clear how quickly the 88-member Assembly of Experts can convene. Sources have said some clerics have held some consultations online.

World

Sri Lanka to Treat Iranian Sailors According to ‘International Law’

An ambulance enters Sri Lanka's southern naval headquarters in Galle on March 4, 2026, to pick up Iranian sailors rescued from Iranian frigate Iris Dena that was sunk off their island earlier in the day. (AFP)
An ambulance enters Sri Lanka's southern naval headquarters in Galle on March 4, 2026, to pick up Iranian sailors rescued from Iranian frigate Iris Dena that was sunk off their island earlier in the day. (AFP)
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Sri Lanka to Treat Iranian Sailors According to ‘International Law’

An ambulance enters Sri Lanka's southern naval headquarters in Galle on March 4, 2026, to pick up Iranian sailors rescued from Iranian frigate Iris Dena that was sunk off their island earlier in the day. (AFP)
An ambulance enters Sri Lanka's southern naval headquarters in Galle on March 4, 2026, to pick up Iranian sailors rescued from Iranian frigate Iris Dena that was sunk off their island earlier in the day. (AFP)

Sri Lanka will treat Iranian sailors rescued from a torpedoed frigate according to international law, a minister said Saturday, following reports Washington was pressuring Colombo to not repatriate them.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told a conference in New Delhi that Sri Lanka was caring for 32 sailors from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena under Colombo's international treaty obligations.

The frigate was sunk by a US submarine on Wednesday just off Sri Lanka's southern coast.

Sri Lanka sent its navy to rescue survivors and recover 84 bodies.

Asked if Colombo was under pressure from the US to not repatriate the Iranians, Herath did not answer directly.

"We have taken all the steps according to international laws," Herath said.

Sri Lanka also provided safe haven to a second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew a day after the Dena was torpedoed.

The ship was taken to Trincomalee on Sri Lanka's northeast coast after reporting engine problems.

India, meanwhile, said Saturday it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on "humane" grounds after it too reported operational problems.

The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last Saturday.

"I think it was the humane thing to do and I think we were guided by that principle," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishkar said.

The Lavan docked in the southwest Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.

"A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility," said Jaishkar.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said this week that Colombo would follow the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a warring state until hostilities end.

A senior administration official said Colombo was in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross to deal with the survivors of the torpedoed ship.

International humanitarian law applied to the survivors from the Dena, an official said, and the wounded could be repatriated at their request.

Iranian diplomats in Colombo said they have asked for the remains of 84 sailors killed in the US attack to be taken back to Iran.

World

Pakistani Convicted of Plotting to Kill Trump over Death of Iran Commander

FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
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Pakistani Convicted of Plotting to Kill Trump over Death of Iran Commander

FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo

A Pakistani ‌man was convicted on Friday of planning to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran, the Department of Justice said.

Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington's killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, when Trump was in his first term.

Targets in the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump ‌that year for ‌the Republican presidential nomination, federal prosecutors said.

Merchant ‌was ⁠convicted of "murder for ⁠hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries," directed by the Iranian authorities, the DOJ said in a statement.

The trial in the New York City borough of Brooklyn started last week, days before Trump ordered an assault on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region's biggest ⁠war in years.

Merchant admitted to joining the plot ‌with Iran's elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards ‌Corps but testified he did so unwillingly, to protect his family ‌in Tehran.

Merchant said he was never ordered to kill ‌a specific person but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations in the Iranian capital.

Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 ‌to help with the plot reported his activities and became a confidential informant, the DOJ said. ⁠Merchant was ⁠arrested and pleaded not guilty that year.

The Revolutionary Guards have a central role in Iran, with a combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. Tehran has denied accusations that it targeted Trump or other US officials.

US and Israeli attacks since Saturday have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran's UN ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have been killed.

The US military has said six of its service members were killed in a strike on a facility in Kuwait, while Israeli tallies show at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel.