The incident involving the detention of two employees of the French Embassy in Tehran by Iranian security services “will not go without consequences.” This was stated by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

In an official statement, Barrot emphasized that the two diplomatic mission employees fell victim to an “extremely serious act of intimidation” on Sunday evening, describing what happened as a blatant violation of diplomatic immunity.

According to him, the diplomats were held “without any grounds” for several hours, interrogated, and in one case subjected to physical violence, after which they were able to return to the embassy.

Barrot said that both employees are currently safe and that he expects their return to France in the coming hours.

The minister added that the incident is particularly outrageous also because these employees were responsible for French programs supporting civil society — in particular, Iranian artists and scholars.

Jean-Noël Barrot noted that he had already informed the head of Iran’s Foreign Ministry that “this extremely serious and unacceptable violation of the physical integrity of our personnel will not go without consequences”.

Iranian authorities have not yet commented on the incident.