Iranian minister aims for Paris 'prisoner exchange' by mid-January

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that a “prisoner exchange” with Paris involving two French citizens in Iran and an Iranian woman in France should be concluded by mid-January.

After a meeting with his counterpart in Paris, Jean-Noel Barrot, Mr Araghchi said that “an agreement” had been reached between the two countries.

“Over the next one or two months, depending on legal procedures, I think this will be finished and the exchange will take place,” Mr Araghchi said in an interview with French television network France 24.

French citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were arrested in May 2022, were freed from Evin prison earlier this month but are still at Paris's embassy in Tehran waiting for permission to leave Iran.

Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler were transferred from Evin prison to the French embassy and are waiting to return to France. Family handout/AFP

Iranian Mahdieh Esfandiari was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting terrorism on social media, according to French authorities. She is due to go on trial in Paris on January 13, but was released on bail by the French judicial authorities in October and is now at the Iranian embassy in Paris.

Iran is ready to allow Kohler and Paris to return to France but is “waiting for legal procedures in France to be finished”, Mr Araghchi said, echoing statements made by Tehran in October, after it claimed a deal was close. “Prisoner exchange based on international agreements is commonplace in international affairs.