The French Foreign Minister asks her Iranian counterpart for the release of the six Frenchmen detained in Iran

7 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, held a conversation this Friday with her Iranian counterpart, Hosein Amirabdolahian, whom she has asked to release the six Frenchmen detained in Iran, most of them on espionage charges.

Both ministers met in person on Thursday night in Beijing, where they took the opportunity to talk with their Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

“The minister reiterated her urgent request for the immediate release of the six Frenchmen that Iran is arbitrarily detaining,” according to the French government’s understanding and reflected in the meeting statement, referring, for example, to the French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, who recently he has ended a hunger strike that has significantly deteriorated his health.

The two ministers also discussed the situation in Iran — in particular over the strong protests against the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish youth Mahsa Amini last year — as well as Iran’s nuclear program and other regional issues.

“The minister expressed France’s concern about the attitude of the Iranian authorities on these various issues,” according to the ministry statement.

For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has limited itself to commenting that both ministers “emphasized the need for mutual respect and the continuation of dialogue,” reports the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim.