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Retaliation escalates
France will expel two Iranian diplomats in the coming days after Iran declared two French diplomats persona non grata, with French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announcing the move on Tuesday, August 18.
“France would expel two Iranian diplomats”
Barrot said on X, "Two Iranian diplomats in France will be expelled in the very near future," framing it as a consequence of what he called an unacceptable move by Tehran.
The dispute traces back to July 20, when Barrot accused Iranian security forces of violating the diplomatic immunity of the two French representatives in Iran and subjecting them to "serious intimidation."
Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry described the diplomats’ conduct as "unusual" and accused them of interference in Iran's internal affairs, while Iran’s intelligence ministry on August 15 accused France of "clear interference in the internal affairs of Iran and infiltration."
Competing accounts
Iran rejected France’s allegations of mistreatment, saying the French diplomats were only briefly questioned over suspicions of interference in the country’s internal affairs under the pretext of contacts with civil society representatives.
In response, Barrot described the treatment of the French representatives as a blatant violation of diplomatic immunity and said, "an extremely serious act of intimidation" occurred when the diplomats were detained and questioned for several hours.
The Iranian side said its intelligence ministry accused France of "clear interference in the internal affairs of Iran and infiltration" and claimed that during the arrest of two suspects, Iranian authorities discovered the "illegal" presence of two French diplomats at the site of a "secret meeting."
French reporting also emphasized that the Iranian Foreign Ministry told France the two French diplomats would not be allowed to return to Iran, and that Barrot said the diplomats had already returned to Paris and would no longer work in Iran.
Diplomats and wider tensions
The expulsion decision is presented as reciprocal action after Iran’s Foreign Ministry said two French embassy employees would not be permitted to return to Iran, and after France said it would expel two Iranian diplomats in response.
“specifically the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”
WANA News Agency reported that Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry declared the two Iranian diplomats persona non grata due to activities that violated international law, specifically the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and said their entry into Iran is prohibited.
In parallel, France’s move sits within a broader regional backdrop described by Bozeman Daily Chronicle, which said Iran denied the United Arab Emirates’ claim that it fired two ballistic missiles into the Persian Gulf and noted the UAE suspended trade with Iran following the alleged missile incident.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle also quoted Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf arriving in Iraq for a three-day visit, while it described tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and said France announced it would expel two Iranian diplomats in response to the expulsion of French diplomats earlier this week.
