Iran, France near prisoner swap deal including woman held for posts on Gaza

Iran's foreign minister says Iran and France are close to agreeing to an exchange of prisoners, including the release of an Iranian woman arrested in France over her online posts related to the war in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state TV late on Thursday that Mahdieh Esfandiari is expected to be released as part of a swap that he hoped would happen in the coming days.

Esfandiari, a translator living in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February on a terror-related charge for alleged posts on Telegram about the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, according to French media reports.

 

Araghchi did not elaborate on any French prisoners who might be released, but France has long sought the release of two French citizens held in Iran on suspicion of espionage. Ccile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been detained since May 2022.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Nol Barrot declined on Friday to comment on Araghchi's remarks other than to say that France consistently demands the release of its citizens in Iran. These are sensitive subjects, subjects of great seriousness, Barrot said on France Inter radio.

Right groups have accused Iran of using detained Westerners as bargaining chips. Iran denies this, and has said it maintains that Esfandiari was arrested in France only because she supported Palestinians.

In late August, France joined Britain and Germany in initiating the snapback mechanism that automatically reimposes all UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying Iran has willfully departed from their 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures.