Iran, France to swap ambassadors after months of tensions – officials

Iran and France will exchange ambassadors, officials said on Wednesday, after months of tensions, including over an alleged Iranian plot to bomb an opposition rally near Paris. Tehran denied the accusations. Bahram Ghasemi, a former envoy to Spain and Italy and current spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, has been appointed as Iran’s new ambassador to France, an official source in Tehran told AFP. In Paris, the Official Gazette said on Wednesday that Philippe Thiebaud, a former envoy to Pakistan who once represented France at the UN atomic watchdog, had been appointed as ambassador to Tehran. Ghasemi and Thiebaud will fill posts that had been vacant for more than six months after a series of diplomatic fallouts between Paris and Tehran broke out last year. The previous French ambassador left Iran at the end of his mandate in August, while Tehran’s envoy left Paris last summer before finishing his term.