Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 7, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFrance is concerned about a missing citizen in Iran amid tensions over detained French nationals accused of espionage.
PARIS (Reuters) -A French man has been missing in Iran since mid-June, France's minister responsible for the country's residents abroad said on Monday, adding that Paris had no details on what had happened to the man.
"It's a worrying disappearance and we are in contact with the family," Laurent Saint-Martin, who is also trade minister, told RTL radio.
"It is worrying because Iran has a deliberate policy of taking Western hostages," he added.
But Saint-Martin did not say specifically that the Iranian authorities were holding the man, who also has German nationality.
French media reported that the man was an 18-year-old who had been on a cycling trip in the region but went missing a few days after Israeli planes struck targets in Iran.
Separately, a diplomatic source said Iran has charged two French nationals - Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler - with spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence service. The two have been held in Iran more than three years in what France has called state-sponsored hostage taking.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who spoke with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi on Sunday, made no mention in a statement of the missing teenager but demanded the "immediate and unconditional" release of Paris and Kohler.
Kohler's sister on Sunday said that the two had been moved from Evin prison in Tehran after Israel bombed the site but that she had not been told where the two were now being held.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of foreign and dual nationals in recent years, often on espionage-related charges. Rights groups and Western countries accuse Tehran of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips, which it denies.
France in May filed a case at the World Court against Iran for violating the right to consular protection, in a bid to pressure Tehran over the detention of its two citizens.
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
A French man, who also holds German nationality, has been missing in Iran since mid-June.
Laurent Saint-Martin expressed concern over the disappearance, citing Iran's policy of taking Western hostages.
France filed a case at the World Court against Iran for violating the right to consular protection concerning its detained citizens.
Two French nationals, Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler, have been charged with spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence service.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the detained citizens during a conversation with his Iranian counterpart.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
