Max Ou

BREAKING: The second-highest ranked diplomat at the French embassy in Iran has been assaulted by the IRGC. Rémy Bouallègue was attacked in front of the French embassy on October 8th despite his diplomatic status. Le Point writes that the French Foreign Ministry decided to hide information about the attack from the public. On July 19th, two diplomats from the French embassy belonging to the Cooperation and Cultural Action Service (SCAC) were arrested and detained for several hours by the security services of the Islamic Republic. One of them was beaten up while in custody. On September 20th, Iranian security forces stormed the French Language Centre in Tehran. Days later, the Iranian judiciary closed that cultural space, which for twenty years has offered French courses and hosted the DELF (Diploma in French Language Studies) and TCF (Test of Knowledge of French) examinations, arguing that “illegal activities” had taken place there. The authorities in Paris believe that France is being primarily targeted because it is one of the last Western countries in Iran still maintaining contact with Iranian civil society, which the Islamic Republic would like to cut off from the outside world in the context of the war waged by the United States and Israel. Having always made a point of keeping its embassy in Tehran open, despite the two successive conflicts that struck Iran in June 2025 and February 2026, France is now, in the eyes of the regime, paying the price for being one of the last major Western countries still present in Iran. The recent attacks come against the backdrop of Macron deciding this summer not to publish a detailed summary note from the General Secretariat for Defence and National Security on interference operations by the Islamic Republic of Iran in France. La Lettre writes that the decision not to make the report public was contrary to the official doctrine of denouncing all actors attacking France. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has been condemning France for being too heavy-handed against the protest movement currently sweeping France. Tehran even summoned French diplomats in Iran to protest how the French riot police act on the streets. Many in France believe that the Islamic Regime in Iran is doing whatever it can to fan the flames in France and is actively involved in supporting the protest movement and radicalizing it as much as possible. Coupled with the string of recent attacks against French diplomats in Iran, experts say that a pattern has become noticeable, with the Islamic regime stepping up its hybrid war against Iran.