Two French diplomats in Iran suffered “an extremely serious act of intimidation” by Iranian security services, with one of them physically abused, France said Monday, warning of unspecified “consequences.”

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement that the two diplomats were targeted by the Iranian officials late Sunday, “in flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity.”

Both were “detained for several hours without reason, interrogated, and one of them was physically abused” before they were able to return to the embassy, he said.

They were now safe and expected to return to France within hours, Barrot added.

“The assault is all the more shocking given these two officials oversee our programs supporting civil society, particularly Iranian artists and scientists,” he said.

“I congratulated them for their courage in carrying out their mission, which places France at the forefront of support for the Iranian people, whom we will not abandon,” he added.

Barrot, currently on a visit to Iceland, said he had told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that the “serious and unacceptable” incident “cannot go without consequences.”

Dimanche soir deux agents de l'ambassade de France en Iran ont été la cible d'une action d'intimidation extrêmement grave de la part des services de sécurité iraniens, en violation flagrante des immunités diplomatiques dont ils bénéficient. Advertisement if(typeof........

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