At dawn on Tuesday, two teachers quietly left the French embassy in Tehran by car and travelled for eight hours to the border with Azerbaijan to board a commercial flight to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
The journey was remarkable because of its timing – taking place as the world waited to see if United States president Donald Trump would follow through on a threat to annihilate Iran’s “whole civilisation” – and because of what it says about a diplomatic reorientation brought about by the war.
Air strikes by the US and Israel were ongoing as the small diplomatic convoy crossed the country “without any special co-ordination with the US and Israeli forces” according to the office of French president Emmanuel Macron.
Cécile Kohler (41) and Jacques Paris (72) had been arrested in Iran in 2022 and were held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on accusations of spying. France described them as tourists who had been taken as “state hostages” to be used by Iran as bargaining chips. They had been released to the French embassy in November and were awaiting permission to leave.
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Iran had linked their fate to that of an Iranian national, Mahdieh Esfandiari, who is appealing a conviction by a French court of promoting terrorism with comments made online, suggesting there could be a “prisoner swap”.
French authorities insist the cases are separate. Nevertheless, Esfandiari’s house arrest in France was lifted just after the news broke that the teachers would be allowed to leave Iran.
One week ago the first western European container ship was allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since Iran closed it in response to the US and Israeli attacks. It was owned by the French company CMA CGM.
A week on, this looks more like a gesture of goodwill than a coincidence.
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Iran has imposed a selective and strategic closure of the narrow passage, which is the conduit for 20 per cent of the world’s oil supplies as well as other crucial raw materials.
Access is denied to the United States and its allies. Iran says that vessels from “non-hostile” countries can pass through, but traffic through the strait has been reduced to a tiny fraction.
Ships from Malaysia, China, Pakistan and the Philippines have transited the strait; Malaysia’s transport minister credited a “good diplomatic relationship with the Iranian government”.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said that talks about the passage of French ships had mostly involved “discussions with the shipping company”.
Is there a quid pro quo for Iran?
France was the first country to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to the US and Israeli attacks.
One of the five permanent members of the powerful council, France is credited with a role in blocking any UN resolution that would authorise the use of force against Iran for the purposes of reopening the Strait.
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Shortly after the announcement of this week’s ceasefire, Macron spoke to both Trump and Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian to urge them towards a “lasting” peace agreement and also for Lebanon to be included in the truce.
Iran has a bad regime, Macron has said, but bombing won’t fix the situation.
The president recently laid out a theory of what an “independent” foreign policy should look like in a world in which Washington is no longer a reliable partner.
“We should not be passive. We have to build a new order,” Macron told students in an address in Seoul, South Korea last week.
“Our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers,” Macron said. “We don’t want to depend on the dominance, let’s say on China, or we don’t want to be too much exposed to the unpredictability of the US.”
It looks like this is already playing out.
