Ines Zeghloul
After the arrest of two additional French people, detained in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Thierry Coville, researcher specializing in the country, explains Iran’s strategy. For him, these arrests are a blow of pressure on the West but also a message for his supporters.
“Blackmail must not work.” The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna confirms that in Iran, two other French nationals have been arrested, bringing the total number of French people detained in the prisons of the Islamic Republic to seven. The minister calls for their immediate release . According to Thierry Coville, researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris) and specialist in Iran, hostages are accumulating to increase pressure on the French government.
“They don’t believe in diplomacy”
“The Iranian authorities are trying to enter into a relationship of force with the government in question to obtain something,” he explains. “In the case of France, I think there is a fairly clear hardening. They don’t believe in diplomacy, especially with Western countries.”
According to the specialist, there may be two purposes for these arrests. First, “it is to have hostages to ask for compensation, in particular from the French authorities”. Thierry Coville also puts forward Iranian blackmail, pressure on France. Secondly, the researcher believes “there is the idea of sending a message to supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran” through these actions. “They keep saying that these demonstrations are remotely controlled from abroad”, so it’s an opportunity to tell the population “look, we are arresting French people or Westerners who have come to foment trouble in Iran ‘.”