Two French diplomats in Iran suffered "an extremely serious act of intimidation" by Iranian security services, with one of them physically abused, France's foreign minister said Monday. Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement sent to AFP that the two diplomats were targeted by the Iranian officials late Sunday "in flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity". Both were "detained for several hours without reason, interrogated, and one of them was physically abused" before they were able to return to the embassy, he said. They were now safe and expected to return to France within hours, Barrot added. "The assault is all the more shocking given these two officials oversee our programs supporting civil society, particularly Iranian artists and scientists," he said. Barrot, currently on a visit to Iceland, said he had told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that the "serious and unacceptable" incident "cannot go without consequences". The comments came after Barrot reiterated last week that European sanctions on Iran would not be lifted unless Tehran abandoned its nuclear program and what Paris calls its destabilizing activities in the region. Iran said Monday it was fighting a "full-scale war" with the United States, as Washington expanded strikes across the Islamic republic with a ninth consecutive night of strikes since a fragile truce collapsed.
