France expels two members of the Iranian embassy following an attack on diplomats in Tehran

France announced this evening (Tuesday) that it declared two staff members at the Iranian Embassy in Paris as undesirable persons, following what it described as a “very serious attack” carried out by the Iranian security services against two staff members of the French Embassy in Tehran last month.

It was also reported that instead of investigating the incident in which “the staff members were attacked in a deliberate and calculated manner”, bringing those responsible to justice and pledging to protect the embassy personnel and the French facilities, the Iranian authorities chose, according to Paris, to make false accusations against the French employees and build a case of interference in Iran’s internal affairs in order to justify their actions.

The deportation decision was delivered to Iran’s ambassador to France, who was summoned today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. The step marks another deterioration in relations between Paris and Tehran, when France chooses to respond diplomatically directly to what it sees as a deliberate attack on its people and their diplomatic immunity.