Aletho News

Senior Iranian MP warns France over ‘constant betrayals’ after Tehran expels diplomats

Press TV – August 19, 2026

Senior Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi has condemned France’s “constant betrayals” against the Islamic Republic, warning that Paris’s continued anti-Iranian measures will only further complicate its ties with Tehran.

“The Iranian people will never forget France’s constant betrayals over issues such as contaminated blood, INSTEX and snapback,” Azizi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, wrote on X on Wednesday.

“Continuing this course and anti-Iranian actions will only make conditions more difficult for it,” he added.

Azizi’s reference to the INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) and snapback comes against the backdrop of longstanding disagreements between Iran and the E3 — France, Germany and the UK- over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.

The three countries shut down the INSTEX mechanism in 2023. Established in 2019, the INSTEX was designed to facilitate trade between European companies and Iran, bypassing the US sanctions.

The E3 also moved to trigger the UN Security Council’s “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year, despite Tehran’s commitment to diplomacy and transparency regarding its nuclear program.

Azizi’s remarks came after Iran’s Foreign Ministry declared two French diplomats working at the French Embassy in Tehran persona non grata over activities that violated international law and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the two French officials had engaged in activities contrary to international law, particularly provisions of the Vienna Convention.

The ministry said that, despite several weeks having passed since the misconduct was uncovered, France had taken no steps to address the diplomats’ actions or provide assurances against similar incidents, prompting Tehran to bar the two from entering the country.

The move follows a diplomatic dispute between Tehran and Paris that escalated in July, when the diplomats were briefly detained in Tehran after Iranian forces discovered them at a secret meeting site while carrying out a judicial order to arrest two suspects in a major case involving foreign infiltration and interference.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said the two diplomats had “extensive records of violations and conduct contrary to domestic laws and diplomatic obligations.”

Azizi also referred to the issue of HIV-contaminated blood products supplied by France in the 1980s, another longstanding grievance in Tehran’s relations with Paris.

In 1985, French pharmaceutical company Institut Mérieux supplied blood-clotting products contaminated with HIV to several countries, including Iran. The products were administered to hemophilia and thalassemia patients, many of whom contracted the virus and later died.

Iran recorded its first HIV infections among patients who had received the contaminated French blood products.

August 19, 2026 - Posted by aletho | Economics, Wars for Israel | France, Iran