Israeli strike on Tehran's Evin prison unacceptable, France says

PARIS (Reuters) -France's foreign minister on Monday accused Israel of putting two of its citizens in danger after an air strike hit Tehran's Evin prison and he said all strikes had to stop immediately to open the door to renewed diplomacy.

Israel struck Tehran's most notorious jail for political prisoners, but also where a number of foreign nationals are held, in a potent demonstration that it was expanding its targets beyond military and nuclear sites to aim squarely at the pillars of Iran's ruling system.

"The strike targeting Evin prison in Tehran, put our citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held for three years, in danger. It is unacceptable," Jean-Noel Barrot said on social media X.

France in May filed a case at the World Court against Iran for violating the right to consular protection a bid to pressure Iran over the detention of its two citizens.

Barrot, who asked that French diplomatic staff be given access to them as quickly as possible, said they had not been impacted by the damage on site.

"All strikes must stop now to open the way for negotiations and diplomacy," Barrot said.

(Reporting by John Irish and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Toby Chopra)