Tehran on Monday urged Paris to explain the arrest in France of an Iranian woman who has been out of reach for weeks, as tensions mount between the two countries.
The woman was identified as Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 35-year-old French language graduate who has lived in Lyon for eight years.
Her family, worried after losing contact, raised the alarm last month with Iranian authorities, who then contacted their French counterparts adding they have yet to hear back, the French weekly Le Point confirmed.Â
“We hope that the French government will provide access to this case as soon as possible and clarify the reasons for the arrest of this Iranian citizen,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
“Consular access has not been authorised” by French authorities, he told a news conference, adding that Iran was following the matter closely.
Iranian authorities had been “in contact in recent days with the French embassy in Tehran,” Baqaei stated. When contacted by AFP, the French foreign ministry did not immediately comment.
Iran, which does not recognise dual nationality, is holding several European passport holders, some of them dual nationals. Dozens of dual nationals and foreigners have been arrested in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.
Western governments, human rights groups and families of the nationals held in Iran have accused Tehran of engaging in “hostage diplomacy”, a charge the Islamic republic denies.
French nationals Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, arrested during a trip in 2022, are accused by Tehran of espionage, an accusation their families reject.
In March, Frenchman Olivier Grondeau, who had been detained in Iran since October 2022, was released.
Another Frenchman, who requested anonymity and had been under house arrest for several months, was also allowed to leave Iranian territory.
Iran was also involved in a diplomatic rift with the UK after a British couple, Craig and Lindsay Foreman, were detained on charges of espionage. The couple, who were travelling on a global motorbiking trip, were arrested in January in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman, accused of working with covert institutions linked to Western intelligence agencies.
The case also draws parallels to the 2016 detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national who was imprisoned in Tehran on charges of espionage for five years before being released in 2022.
In recent years, at least 66 foreign and dual nationals have been detained by Iranian authorities.
