French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free. President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that the two former detainees are "on their way to French territory" after three and a half years held in Iran, first imprisoned, then placed under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran.
A woman walks past posters with the portraits of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, on the day of support rallies to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, in front of the National Assembly in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. The slogan reads "Freedom for Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris". Reuters/Abdul Saboor
French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free. President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that the two former detainees are "on their way to French territory" after three and a half years held in Iran, first imprisoned, then placed under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran.
"This is a relief for all of us and obviously for their families," Macron wrote on X, thanking Omani authorities for their mediation efforts and French state services for their "relentless" work toward the pair's release.
According to sources close to France's foreign minister, Kohler and Paris left Iran at dawn Tuesday under diplomatic escort alongside the French ambassador, and were last reported in Azerbaijan.
While Oman's mediating role has been widely acknowledged, the more significant fact is simpler: Tehran gave the green light. And the timing is not accidental.
Two reasons stand out. First, Iran appears to be rewarding Macron for what critics describe as a conciliatory stance toward Tehran since the outbreak of the regional conflict. Second, the release fits a pattern, dividing Europeans, peeling France away from a more hawkish Western consensus on Iran.
The liberation of two French citizens is, of course, welcome. But it inevitably invites scrutiny of the diplomatic game Macron has been playing.
His foreign policy inconsistencies are well documented, and this episode will do little to silence those who argue that France's approach to Iran has been more accommodating than principled.
For the ayatollahs and their allies, the release is not a concession, it is a calculated move. The question is whether Paris fully understands the price it may have quietly agreed to pay.
The United States expressed confidence that peace talks with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire loomed.
Ships were largely avoiding the Strait of Hormuz on Monday after an escalation at the weekend in which Iran fired what appeared to be warning shots at vessels and the U.S. military seized an Iranian cargo ship.
In a characteristically combative post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump has pushed back against media narratives surrounding the conflict with Iran, while doubling down on his conviction that Tehran must never acquire a nuclear weapon and openly calling for regime change.
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