FRANCE SUMMONS IRAN AMBASSADOR OVER STUDENT PROTEST CLAIMS

France summoned Iran's ambassador on Wednesday over what foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux described as a disinformation campaign targeting France's secondary school student protest movement. Confavreux said the envoy was told that false content disseminated online by official Iranian foreign ministry accounts was "absolutely unacceptable". He said Tehran's own summons of the French ambassador, on 6 October, was baseless. "These undignified provocations must cease," Confavreux said in a statement. The exchange followed Iran's summoning of France's envoy in Tehran on Tuesday, with Iranian state media reporting that Tehran had accused Paris of the "violent treatment" of demonstrators and of extensive human rights violations.

The dispute centres on protests that saw students, parents and trade unions demonstrate across France on Tuesday against what they described as under-investment in secondary schools. France has a long history of student-led protest movements shaping national politics, from the events of May 1968 to the 2006 demonstrations against the Contrat Première Embauche employment contract. The current protests have drawn parents into school gates alongside their children, according to reporting on the demonstrations. The two governments have given conflicting public accounts of how the protests and the policing of them have unfolded.

French authorities have suspended the use of stun grenades at the student protests ahead of a speech by the Prime Minister, according to reporting on the demonstrations. No further diplomatic steps between Paris and Tehran have been confirmed beyond the exchange of summonses and public statements this week. France's foreign ministry has not detailed what, if any, further action it intends to take against the alleged disinformation campaign. Iranian state media has not reported any additional measures following Tuesday's summons of the French ambassador in Tehran.