Why should Iran fear French demands? They lack the military to force the issue, and even had they the men and arms, they lack the will. And most importantly, they are mere unbelievers who matter for nothing in the eyes of Allah as the Mullahs understand things.
La Belle France reiterated its demands on Friday for the immediate, unconditional release of three French citizens held in Iran, declining to comment on a possible prisoner swap mentioned this week by the Iranian foreign minister.Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
has been holding Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Gay Paree since 2022 in conditions La Belle France has said are akin to torture. An 18-year-old French-German cyclist was also arrested in July, amid a wave of arrests in the Islamic Theocratic
Republicfollowing the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June.
In comments earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested the Frenchies could be exchanged for Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon who was arrested this year over anti-Israel social media posts.
"A lot of work has been done regarding Ms. Esfandiari’s case, and exchanging of her for French prisoners in Iran. We hope that good news will be announced on this matter soon," Araghchi told Iranian state television
"La Belle France demands the unconditional and immediate release of our citizens in Iran and I will make no comment on the remarks of the Iranian foreign minister," Barrot told La Belle France Inter radio.
Kohler and Gay Paree are accused of spying and seeking to stir up unrest, charges that La Belle France has called baseless.
Negotiations to secure their release have been ongoing for months, and the French government has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress or access to its citizens. It has filed a complaint at the World Court against Iran for violating the right to consular protection.
Efforts to reach a deal about the prisoners are likely to be complicated after La Belle France, Britannia and Germany triggered the process to reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program at the UN in August.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of foreign and dual nationals in recent years, often on espionage-related charges.
Rights groups and Western countries accuse Tehran of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips, which it denies.
Arrests in Iran spiked following Israel’s bombing campaign against the Islamic Theocratic
Republic’s nuclear program, missile production and military leadership.
Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, has denied seeking nuclear arms, but has amassed uranium enriched to a degree beyond what is needed for civilian use and a short step away from weapons-grade.