France has filed a case against Iran at the UN's top court over two French citizens held by Tehran for the past three years, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said.
The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are on Friday set to meet their counterparts from the UK, France and Germany in Turkey for talks on Iran's nuclear programme. A meeting scheduled for earlier this month was scrapped after Iran-US nuclear talks were postponed.
Cecile Kohler, 40, a literature teacher from eastern France, and her partner Jacques Paris, in his seventies, were arrested on May 7, 2022, during the last day of a tourist trip to Iran. They have been held on spying charges, which they vehemently deny.
In the case filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran of "violating its obligation to provide consular protection" to the pair, who "have been held hostage ... detained in appalling conditions that amount to torture", Mr Barrot told France 2 television on Friday.
They are among several Europeans still held by Iran in what some countries, including France, regard as a strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Ms Kohler and Mr Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran and their families say they face tough conditions in jail.
French consular representatives in Iran have been allowed to visit them briefly four times. Paris has said that is insufficient to guarantee their rights under international law and the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular relations. Under the convention, consular representatives should be allowed to inspect detention conditions and provide legal support.
Court procedures at the ICJ are expected to take up to two years. “It’s important to re-establish the truth about the little regard Iran has for international law,” a French diplomatic source said.
Paris also hopes to use the case to put pressure on Tehran over its treatment of the detained French citizens. “Where Iran tries to put pressure on France through its hostage diplomacy, we respond with legal pressure,” the source added.
The family has welcomed the ICJ case. "We welcome this action at the highest level of the state. It is a major turning point, because the fundamental rights of Cecile and Jacques have been flouted from the start," Naomi Kohler, Cecile's sister, said last month after Mr Barrot first announced his intention to launch legal proceedings against Iran. "This is an avenue we had suggested and we hope that it will move the matter forward."
The family's last phone call with Cecile was on March 4. "It's very difficult for us because we feel like she's starting to lose hope," her sister said.
France, as well as other European countries, have in recent years toughened their stance against Iran's human rights breaches and nuclear programme. Relations deteriorated further when it was reported that Iran was supporting Russia in its war on Ukraine, a western ally.
Four rounds of nuclear talks between the US and Iran, mediated by Oman, have been held since April 12. Iran has suggested it could accept to forgo highly enriched uranium in exchange for sanctions relief. If talks fail, European countries, including France, have threatened to reimpose sanctions on Tehran in October.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
Results
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: RB Kings Bay, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: AF Ensito, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: AF Sourouh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Baaher, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
9pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Mootahady, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Dubai Canal, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Harrab, Bernardo Pinheiro, Majed Al Jahouri
Generational responses to the pandemic
Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:
Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.
Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7
World Sevens Series Pools
A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan
B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland
C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales
D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
