France summons Iranian ambassador over protest disinformation

France has summoned Iran’s ambassador over what the French Foreign Ministry called a disinformation campaign by Iranian authorities regarding student protests. France 24 reports .

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavre said the ambassador was informed of Paris’s position on misleading content disseminated online by official accounts of Iran’s Foreign Ministry. The French side called such publications completely unacceptable and said the provocations must stop.

This came the day after Tehran summoned French Ambassador Pierre Cochard over the treatment of protesters in France. The Iranian side criticized French authorities over alleged violent treatment of demonstrators and large-scale human rights violations. France’s Foreign Ministry called the summoning of its ambassador unfounded.

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Human rights assessments

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused French authorities of using disproportionate force against protesters. According to them, police used tear gas, blast ball munitions and batons for crowd control.

France 24 notes that Tehran’s response came amid international criticism of Iran, including from France, over the suppression of protests in the country itself. The Norwegian human rights organization Iran Human Rights said it had identified 4,219 people killed during anti-government protests in Iran, almost all of whom died on January 8–9. The organization warned that the actual death toll could be significantly higher.