Iran International
Iran and France traded barbs after dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won cinema’s most coveted prize at Cannes, but the diplomatic rift between the two countries runs far deeper than red carpets and celebrity politics.
“There have been many transgressions making a mockery of France’s ‘human rights activism,’” Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, posting a screenshot of a Common Dreams headline from November 2024: “‘Pathetic’: France Says It Will Not Enforce ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu.”
“But perhaps nothing has made the hypocrisy as stark as the French approach to the Israeli regime and its war crimes,” he wrote.
Iran summoned the French embassy's chargé d'affaires on Sunday after French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barroti called Panahi a symbol of resistance against what he said was Iran's oppressive policies.
Nuclear disagreements
France is one of the three European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal—known as the E3—alongside Germany and the UK. It has the power to trigger the snapback mechanism, which would reimpose UN sanctions lifted under the agreement.
The deadline for this is October 18, as set by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
According to The Jerusalem Post, senior E3 officials have privately warned Washington that Tehran is deliberately dragging its feet in nuclear talks, potentially weakening the ability of the Europeans to reimpose UN sanctions if negotiations collapse.
Some state-linked outlets in Iran have long accused France of adopting the toughest stance within the P5+1 group.
“France has long played the role of a ‘pressure actor’ in Iran’s nuclear dossier,” a Nour News commentary argued last month. “In effect, Paris acted as the ‘bad cop’ in the negotiations, assuming the tactical role of a disruptor within the P5+1 mechanism,” the piece said.
French firms exit Iran
Tensions are also rooted in economic fallout.
Following the reimposition of US secondary sanctions in 2018, several major French companies exited Iran, abandoning multibillion-dollar ventures launched after the 2015 deal.
In 2017, TotalEnergies signed a $4.8 billion agreement to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field—then the largest Western energy investment in Iran since the nuclear deal. The company withdrew in 2018.
France’s auto sector was similarly hit. PSA Group (Peugeot-Citroën) suspended joint ventures with Iran in June 2018, despite a 2016 deal with SAIPA to invest €300 million. Renault also pulled out of a project to produce 150,000 vehicles annually with plans to expand to 300,000.
Detained citizens
France has repeatedly accused Iran of “hostage diplomacy”—detaining foreign nationals as leverage in negotiations.
On May 16, Paris filed a case against Iran at the International Court of Justice over the detention of two French citizens and Tehran’s refusal to grant consular access for more than a year.
Cécile Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Jacques Paris were arrested in 2022 and later appeared on Iranian state TV making what France says were coerced confessions.
French Foreign Minister Barrot warned in January that the release of detained French nationals would directly affect bilateral ties and potential sanctions.
Other detained French citizens include:
Tehran, meanwhile, accuses Paris of politically motivated arrests of its citizens.
In April, France arrested dual national Shahin Hazamy over alleged support for Hezbollah and Palestinian groups online. In February, French authorities detained Mahdieh Esfandiari, a language teacher, on charges of inciting violence and defending terrorism. Iran says it has been denied consular access in both cases.
In February, French authorities also arrested Mahdieh Esfandiari, a language teacher and translator, on charges of publicly defending terrorism and inciting violence online.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on April 7 that Iran was denied consular access to her.
Sanctions over rights, Ukraine war
France has sanctioned dozens of Iranian individuals and entities—either unilaterally or with EU partners—for Tehran’s crackdown on popular protests and its provision of drones and missiles to Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Those targeted include senior IRGC figures and executives of state-affiliated media.
The clash over Jafar Panahi may have brought tensions into the spotlight, but the grievances on both sides point to a relationship under sustained and widening strain.
