Iran Warns It May Break Ties With France

Iran said Thursday that it is reducing the staff of its Paris embassy and will break relations unless France quits blockading the mission and punishes policemen who allegedly beat an Iranian envoy.

France responded Thursday night by strengthening the police detail at the embassy.

Pierre La France, the French charge d’affaires in Tehran, was informed that Iran would sever ties in 72 hours unless the conditions were met.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored in Nicosia, said the diplomatic staff in Paris was being reduced to a “minimum.”

It did not say how many people would be withdrawn or give the number of Iranians now on the staff. French officials say about 40 Iranians work at the embassy, including five diplomats.

‘Considerably Reinforced’

A statement from the Interior Ministry in Paris said: “The French government Thursday night gave instructions that the . . . ring around the Iranian Embassy in Paris be considerably reinforced.” It gave no details.

Police have been checking the identities of Iranians who enter or leave the embassy.

Premier Jacques Chirac’s government demands that the mission turn over Wahid Gordji, who is identified as an Iranian interpreter without diplomatic immunity and has taken refuge there.

He is wanted for questioning about five bombings in Paris last year that killed 11 people and wounded more than 150.

Chirac said in an interview that France might break relations with Iran unless Gordji presented himself.

Embassy’s No. 2 Man

Police sources say privately that Gordji actually is the embassy’s No. 2 man, with ties to the Iranian secret service and at least one person arrested in the bombings.

The official Iranian news agency said Iran also demanded punishment of French customs police whom it accuses of beating an Iranian diplomat Saturday at the Geneva airport, which straddles the border between Switzerland an France.

Tehran radio said Second Secretary Mohsen Aminzadeh arrived home Thursday and was hospitalized immediately with “severe injuries to the head and one eye.”

Swiss doctors who examined Aminzadeh in Geneva said that they found only a few small blue marks on his forehead and that he was in good health.