France and Iran Appoint Ambassadors After Months of Tensions
France and Iran end a six-month absence during which relations have remained tense.
(Bloomberg) -- France and Iran have appointed ambassadors to each other’s capitals, ending a six-month absence during which relations have remained tense between the two countries.
Philippe Thiebaud will take up the role of France’s top diplomat in Tehran “in the coming weeks,” the French embassy said in a Tweet on Wednesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi will become his counterpart in Paris, Agence France-Presse news agency reported, citing an Iranian official.
France is involved in an effort alongside the U.K. and Germany to salvage an international nuclear deal with Iran that was hit hard after a U.S. decision to withdraw in May.
Relations between France and Iran have worsened in the past months, however, with French officials echoing concerns expressed by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Iran’s missile program, which Iran says is a matter of national security.
France also accused Iran’s security intelligence service of seeking to carry out an attack at an annual gathering in France of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an exiled Iranian dissident group with the stated goal of bringing down the Iranian regime.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, James Regan, Mark Williams
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