Tehran says the embassy-linked institution operated without authorization and engaged in activities which threatened national security
Iran has shut down a French-language center in Tehran, accusing the embassy-affiliated institution of operating illegally and engaging in activities which threaten the country’s national security.
Relations between Paris and Tehran have deteriorated despite France staying out of the war which the US and Israel launched against Iran in late February and denouncing the initial strikes as a breach of international law.
In July, two French diplomats were detained by Iranian security services, which accused them of interfering in the country’s internal affairs. They were subsequently expelled from the country. France retaliated in August by expelling two of Iran’s diplomats.
“Based on the Tehran prosecutor’s office’s order, the illegal center affiliated with the French Embassy in Tehran, which has operated for years under the guise of language instruction, has been closed,” the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said on Sunday.
Iranian authorities claimed that the institution had repeatedly ignored warnings to obtain the licenses required under the country’s laws and had conducted activities that “violated diplomatic conventions.” They also accused it of using language instruction as cover to promote projects opposed to Iranian-Islamic culture, identify and build networks, and facilitate the departure of skilled Iranians from the country.
France has condemned the closure as an attack on its cultural presence in Iran and said it would take “appropriate measures” in response. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has ordered the Iranian ambassador to be summoned.
The French Language Centre (CLF) offered French language courses in Tehran, with thousands of Iranians attending its classes each year, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
In January 2023, Tehran closed the French Institute for Research in Iran after the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published dozens of cartoons mocking then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iran’s religious establishment. The images, some of which were graphic or sexually explicit, were selected through an international contest called “Mullahs Get Out” and were intended to support anti-government protests in Iran.
