Union official suspects French couple arrested on holiday in Iran

A diplomat based in the region, briefed about the arrests, confirmed their nationality, saying: "The detained tourists in Iran are French citizens." France's foreign ministry could not immediately confirm the arrest of its two citizens.

A French couple has gone missing while on holiday in Iran, an official from the union one of them works for said on Thursday, a day after Iran's intelligence ministry said it had arrested two Europeans for allegedly fomenting "insecurity" there.

Christophe Lalande, federal secretary of the FNEC FP-FO education union, said he had no news from his staffer. While there was no "absolute certainty", there was a "strong presumption" that she has been arrested, Lalande said of his colleague, adding that she had been due back in France earlier this week.

The couple had been on holiday in Iran, he said, and not there in a professional capacity. A diplomat based in the region, briefed about the arrests, confirmed their nationality, saying: "The detained tourists in Iran are French citizens."

France's foreign ministry could not immediately confirm the arrest of its two citizens. The two arrested were accused of "organizing chaos and social disorder aimed at destabilizing (Iran)" in conjunction with foreign intelligence services, Iranian state TV on Wednesday cited Iran's intelligence ministry as saying, without revealing their nationalities.

The arrests coincided with a visit to Tehran by the European Union's Iran nuclear talks coordinator Enrique Mora, who held talks with his Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri Kani, according to Iranian media. Two other French nationals are held in Iran on national security charges their lawyers say are politically motivated.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)