Jean-Noël Barrot spoke with Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, assigned to the French embassy in Tehran | EUROtoday

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, stated on Saturday March 7 that he had spoken with Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, launched from detention in November and assigned to the French embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital hit for per week by American-Israeli strikes.

“I spoke with them today. They are going through a very difficult ordeal and they are showing, as they have for almost four years, extraordinary courage”declared the minister on France 5. “We will continue to do everything to obtain their immediate return to France and their definitive release”he added, specifying that he had “passed messages” on this sense to his “Iranian counterpart”.

Mr. Barrot met on Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

No evacuation of embassy employees

Jean-Noël Barrot has dominated out at this stage the speculation of an evacuation of the French embassy. “The diplomatic staff present in Tehran carry out their mission in a very degraded context, showing great dedication. And part of the mission is precisely to ensure the safety of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. (…) They will continue to carry out their mission. It’s their honor”he stated.

The households of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris stated Tuesday “very worried” in view of the quite a few bombings hitting the Iranian capital.

After greater than three years of detention, the 2 French individuals had been sentenced final October to twenty and 17 years respectively in jail for espionage for the advantage of Israel particularly, then launched in the beginning of November however with a ban on leaving Iranian territory. They are awaiting a possible alternate with an Iranian nationwide, Mahdieh Esfandiari, whom French justice sentenced to at least one yr in jail on February 26.