French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called for the immediate release of two French nationals held in Iran, a festering issue that has complicated French efforts to defuse tension between Washington and Tehran, reports FRANCE 24.
"On Human Rights Day, my thoughts go to Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, our compatriots held in Iran, and their families," Macron said on Twitter.
"Their imprisonment is intolerable. They must be freed without delay. I told President Rouhani, I repeat it here," he wrote.
Marchal, a senior researcher at Science-Po university in Paris, and his Franco-Iranian colleague Adelkhah have been in prison in Iran since June, though French officials only went public about Marchal's detention in mid-October.