Iran, France to swap ambassadors after strained ties
Iran and France are set to exchange ambassadors, officials
said on Wednesday, after months of tensions including over an alleged Iranian
plot to bomb an opposition rally near Paris, according to AFP.
Bahram Ghasemi, a former envoy to Spain and Italy and
current spokesman of the foreign ministry, has been appointed as Iran's new
ambassador to France, an official source in Tehran told AFP.
In Paris, the Official Gazette on Wednesday said that
Philippe Thiebaud, a former envoy to Pakistan who once represented France at
the UN atomic watchdog, had been appointed as ambassador to Iran.
Ghasemi and Thiebaud will fill posts that had been vacant
for more than six months after a series of diplomatic fallouts between France
and Iran broke out last year.
The previous French ambassador left Iran at the end of his
mandate in August while Tehran's envoy left Paris last summer before finishing
his term. No official reason was given for his abrupt departure.
In June, France accused a branch of Iran's intelligence
ministry of attempting to bomb a meeting of the People's Mujahedin, an Iranian
opposition group, near Paris.
Tehran vehemently denied the accusations and in return slammed
France for hosting the group which it calls a "terrorist cult of
hypocrites".
Relations between France and Iran have also been strained
over demands by Paris that Iran limits its ballistic missiles program – which
Tehran says is purely defensive.
Iran reined in most of its nuclear program under a
landmark 2015 deal with major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia
and the United States – that lifted sanctions on the Iran.
In May the United States withdrew from the deal and re-imposed
sanctions on Tehran.
France and the other European partners to the deal, have
been trying to salvage the nuclear accord and set up a payment mechanism to
maintain trade and business ties with Iran that would circumvent the US
sanctions.
But Tehran has accused them of dragging their feet, it has
also criticized France for selling advanced warplanes and other weapons to its
regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
News that Iran and France will exchange ambassadors came a
day after the ultraconservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan called for the
expulsion of French diplomats from the country.
Kayhan claimed that Paris had expelled an Iranian diplomat
last autumn. Neither the Iranian nor the French foreign ministries have denied
or confirmed the expulsion.