France, Iran Close to Naming a Proxy in Each Other’s Capital

An agreement between France and Iran on which country will represent each in the other’s capital is “imminent” and will open the way for talks on evacuating embassy personnel, the French External Relations Ministry said Wednesday.

France broke diplomatic relations with Iran last Friday, and Iran followed quickly with a reciprocal break.

A ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Italy would be designated the representative for France and Pakistan for Iran.

Key to Talks

“From that moment, very concrete discussions can start” on the return of embassy staff members blockaded in their missions for a week, the spokesman said.

Wednesday was the departure date suggested by France after it broke relations with Iran, but the spokesman said it was “very clear” that no one was leaving.

The two countries erected police blockades around each other’s embassies last Thursday in a stand-off over France’s insistence that Iranian Embassy translator Wahid Gordji surrender for questioning about last year’s Paris bomb wave.

Iran, in turn, demanded that French Embassy First Secretary Paul Torri turn himself over to a court for trial on spy charges.

Gordji has been in hiding in the Iranian mission for at least three weeks. Iran contends that he is a diplomat and is entitled to diplomatic immunity, but France says he does not have a diplomatic passport.

French officials said a number of French nationals were not allowed to board an Iran Air flight from Tehran to Paris on Tuesday, but they were not certain if this constituted deliberate harassment.