Iran says release of French citizens is 'pending procedures', weeks after claiming deal was close

Iran said on Monday a proposed deal with France to release a couple in exchange for an Iranian student is pending "necessary procedures", weeks after Tehran claimed the agreement was close.

The statement struck a different tone from that of Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said last month that the exchange was in the “final stages”.

Mr Araghchi made the announcement before UN economic and military sanctions were reimposed on Iran. The measures took effect as the three European partners to the deal – the UK, France and Germany – activated the so-called snapback mechanism, after accusing Iran of "continued nuclear escalation" and a refusal to co-operate.

"Decisions regarding the release of these two individuals are being made by the relevant authorities and we hope that, once the necessary procedures are completed, this will happen," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

He repeated the claim that Paris has not informed Tehran of the "exact" reasons behind the arrest of Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman living in the French city of Lyon, who was arrested this year over what has been described as anti-Israel social media posts.

Tehran arrested Cecile Kohler, 41, a French literature teacher, and her partner, Jacques Paris, 72, in May 2022, during the last day of a tourist trip to Iran. They were accused of spying for Israel, an accusation they deny.

In a separate case, an Iranian court on Monday announced the acquittal of Lennart Monterlos, a French-German citizen accused of espionage and arrested in June during the war between Iran and Israel.

Mr Monterlos, 19, was arrested on June 16 in the southern city of Bandar Abbas. The charges against the teenager, who was cycling alone across Iran on a Europe-to-Asia bike trip, were never disclosed.

His family had called on Iranian authorities to release him, arguing he was "innocent of everything".

"The Revolutionary Court, taking into account legal principles and doubts about the crime, has issued a verdict of acquittal of the accused," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported. The prosecutor could object to the decision.

In the couple's case, France filed a case against Iran at the UN's top court in May over their detention. In the case filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accused Iran of "violating its obligation to provide consular protection" to the pair, who "have been held hostage ... detained in appalling conditions that amount to torture", Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 TV.

Last month, the ICJ said it ended the case at the request of France.

Ms Kohler and Mr Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran and their families say they face tough conditions in jail. They are among several Europeans held by Tehran in what some countries, including France, regard as a strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme.