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Iran's Intelligence Ministry on Saturday said that two French diplomats were detained over alleged foreign interference during a national security investigation before being handed over to the French ambassador, according to the state news agency IRNA.
In a statement, the ministry said intelligence units encountered the two diplomats while carrying out a judicial order to arrest two suspects as part of an investigation into "foreign infiltration and interference". After verifying the diplomats' identities, authorities notified the Iranian Foreign Ministry before handing them over to the French ambassador to Iran under diplomatic police escort, IRNA reported. The ministry said that while it was investigating the suspects and examining documents and evidence seized from the meeting point, the French side launched a "media campaign aimed at deflecting attention from its confirmed violations". It said a preliminary examination of the documents seized during the inspection of the site revealed details of a broader "project involving foreign infiltration and interference", including efforts to "identify individuals, establish covert contacts inside and outside Iran, and build networks with individuals of interest to foreign parties while observing secrecy". The ministry added that contracts uncovered as part of the project bore the signature of France's former ambassador to Iran, saying the French government must "answer for its illegal and interventionist activities and explain the plan". It said the project constituted "clear interference in Iran's internal affairs, particularly during wartime", and a "blatant violation of Iranian laws and diplomatic norms". The Intelligence Ministry warned that it "will not allow foreign diplomats to engage in illegal and interventionist activities in Iran", stressing that "if such conduct is repeated, those responsible would face an appropriate response", according to IRNA. Earlier on August 13, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi hit back at France, 25 other countries, and the European Union after their condemnation of the alleged executions of protesters in Iran, accusing them of hypocrisy and saying their support for Israel amid the Gaza conflict and its military action against Iran had undermined their claims to the moral high ground. In a post on X, Araghchi said that France should refrain from lecturing others on human rights and international law, accusing them of "blatant" hypocrisy. "Countries like France should stop lecturing the world about 'human rights' and international law. The hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing. Your backing of Israel's genocide in Gaza--and aggression against Iran--has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you had," the post read. His remarks came after France, Canada, Albania, Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the High Representative of the European Union issued a joint statement condemning what they described as the ongoing executions of protesters and the use of the death penalty by Iran. (ANI)
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