Two French citizens have now endured three years of detention in Iran, after being arrested at the end of a 2022 visit and charged with espionage by security forces of the Islamic Republic. Their ordeal, which French authorities and human rights groups have universally condemned as baseless and politically motivated, casts renewed scrutiny on Iran’s systematic use of foreign nationals as hostages to exert diplomatic pressure on Western governments.
The two, both educators with no known links to intelligence or political organizations, were taken into custody at Tehran’s airport on the final day of their trip. Reports from French government sources stress that the couple were in Iran as tourists, and their subsequent treatment has included repeated violations of due process, prolonged periods of isolation, denial of consular access, and the extraction of forced confessions aired by Iranian state media.
This case is emblematic of a factually established Iranian strategy. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and under the guidance of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran has detained dozens of dual nationals and foreigners on dubious or secretive charges, often releasing them only as part of prisoner exchanges or after major diplomatic concessions. International bodies such as Amnesty International and the United Nations have labeled these detentions as arbitrary and contrary to international law, documenting a pattern of state-sanctioned hostage-taking that has grown more frequent in recent years.
France and European Union authorities have prioritized securing the release of their citizens, issuing repeated calls for Iran to abide by international law and to end its policy of hostage diplomacy. Ongoing diplomatic efforts, however, have yet to yield substantive results, in no small part due to Iran’s tactics of denying basic legal and humanitarian rights, as well as the geopolitical context of ongoing disputes over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, support for regional terrorism, and egregious human rights record.
Iran’s detention practices fit a larger effort by Tehran to pressure Western democracies and weaken international consensus around basic norms of state conduct. The IRGC, which dominates Iran’s intelligence and security apparatus, is officially designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other governments. Alongside Iran’s use of proxies and regional militias—such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen—the detention of foreign nationals now forms a core tool of destabilization and asymmetric warfare against Iran’s adversaries, including Israel and its Western allies.
The Islamic Republic’s partnership with internationally recognized terror networks has had devastating effects across the region, nowhere more so than in Israel. The October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas terrorists marked the deadliest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust, involving systematic executions, sexual violence, and abductions of innocent civilians—crimes executed with Iranian financial, logistical, and ideological backing. Like Iran’s own hostage-taking, such acts of terror serve both as instruments of coercion and as a demonstration of contempt for international norms.
Within Iran, hostages—including foreign nationals—are frequently held in conditions that violate basic human rights. Reports from advocacy groups and former detainees describe overcrowded prisons, denial of medical care, and the use of solitary confinement and psychological duress to force false confessions. These abuses are compounded by the lack of transparency or access for international observers.
From a legal perspective, the practice of detaining innocent civilians as political leverage represents a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements safeguarding human rights. Multiple United Nations resolutions and European Union declarations have demanded the immediate release of unlawfully held detainees, and called upon Iran to end its campaign of using hostages as negotiating tools.
Despite these efforts, there is little sign that the Islamic Republic will renounce its policy absent meaningful international deterrence. Analysts stress that for Iran’s supreme leadership, the calculus remains rooted in power dynamics: hostages offer leverage in negotiations, and their release is often exchanged for the return of convicted operatives, unfreezing of assets, or pauses in international pressure campaigns. The cost to the hostages and their families, meanwhile, is incalculable—marked by years of uncertainty, isolation, and psychological distress.
The plight of French, American, British, Australian, and other citizens echoes that experienced by Israeli victims of Iranian-backed terror groups, where the abduction and abuse of civilians is likewise used as an instrument of political warfare. International efforts to secure releases are often frustrated by the lack of reciprocal legal frameworks and the Iranian regime’s disregard for diplomatic conventions.
Human rights organizations have urged Western governments to increase pressure on Iran through a coordinated strategy that includes sanctions, international criminal proceedings, and multilateral diplomatic isolation, while also publicly amplifying the stories of those held captive. They argue that raising public awareness and maintaining sustained diplomatic pressure are essential to altering the Iranian regime’s cost-benefit analysis regarding hostage-taking.
As the international community marks another year since the French couple’s abduction, their case serves as a poignant reminder of the moral and strategic challenges posed by Iran’s conduct. The continued use of hostages in pursuit of political objectives not only devastates families and undermines basic principles of human rights, but also constitutes a threat to the global order and the safety of all who travel or engage with the Islamic Republic. Only a concerted, sustained international response stands a chance of ending these abuses and restoring justice to those whose lives have been upended in the process.
