TEHRAN: Iran confirmed Tuesday the arrest of a French-Iranian academic without giving any details of her case, the latest in a long list of dual nationals held in the country’s prisons.
The detention of Fariba Adelkhah, 60, risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran.
Adelkhah is a well-known expert on Iran at France’s prestigious Sciences Po university.
“She is among suspects that have been recently arrested,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said, without specifying the accusations against her.
“Now is not an appropriate time to give more information on this case,” Esmaili told reporters at a news conference broadcast by the judiciary’s news website Mizan Online.
Sciences Po said the arrest of the researcher was “unacceptable and shocking.”
“We will do our utmost to ensure our colleague Fariba is released as soon as possible and under the best conditions,” it said in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern for her welfare on Monday after his government said the dual national was arrested but had been denied contact with consular staff.
“What has happened worries me a great deal,” Macron said. “We have been aware of this for some days.”
“I have expressed my disagreement and asked President (Hassan) Rouhani for clarification,” he said, adding that France had so far received no meaningful explanation.
Adelkhah is the latest Iranian national with a Western passport to be arrested in Iran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian project manager with Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been detained in Tehran since 2016 on sedition charges, a case that has caused major tensions with the UK.
Other Iranian dual nationals jailed in Iran include Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer, who are serving 10-year sentences for espionage in a case that has outraged Washington.
Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University researcher, is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage, and US national Michael White, 46, was this year also sentenced to 10 years.
Adelkhah’s arrest risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran
Adelkhah’s arrest risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian project manager with Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been detained in Tehran since 2016 on sedition charges, a case that has caused major tensions with the UK
Main donor US unclear on UNRWA future, jettisoning it would leave black hole: Agency chief
- US President Trump’s administration has accused UNRWA staff of having links with Hamas
MUNICH: The United States is still not clear about how it sees the future role of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, its chief said on Friday, warning that jettisoning it would create a black hole similar to Iraq after 2003.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused UNRWA staff of having links with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, allegations UNRWA has vigorously disputed.
Washington was long UNRWA’s biggest donor, but froze funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.
“There is no definitive answer, because the interest of the US is also to be successful in this process and if you get rid of an agency like ours before you have an alternative, you are also creating a huge black hole,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini told Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“Remember what happened in Iraq in 2003 when the entire administration had been dismantled (following the US-led invasion). There was no alternative and people were left without any services,” he said in an interview.
UNRWA has functioned for decades as the main international agency providing for the welfare of millions of Palestinian descendants of those who fled or were driven from homes during the war around Israel’s 1948 founding.
Lazzarini, who leaves his post at the end of March, said UNRWA did not foresee any more cuts in the immediate term and it continued to offer public health and education services that no one else was really providing.
He urged Gulf Arab countries to increase their support because their contribution did not match their strong expression of solidarity with Palestinian refugees.
Israel accuses UNRWA of bias, and the Israeli parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with it. (Reporting by John Irish; editing by Mark Heinrich)
