Supporters and relatives of French citizens detained in Iran, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, gather in front of the Eiffel Tower, during a rally demanding their release, in Paris, France, Jan. 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Supporters of two French citizens held in Iran for three years staged rallies on Wednesday to demand their release as France‘s foreign ministry said it would soon file a legal complaint against Tehran at the International Court of Justice.

Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been held since May 2022. Iranian state television aired a video later that year with them appearing to confess to acting on behalf of French intelligence services, which Paris categorically denies.

France has accused Iran of keeping Kohler and Paris in conditions akin to torture in Tehran’s Evin prison and not allowing proper consular protection. Iranian officials deny the charge.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said France would file a legal complaint in the coming days at the ICJ over the issue of consular protection.

“It is necessary to recall one thing: Cecile and Jacques are innocent and are being held arbitrarily under shocking, inhumane conditions,” Lemoine told reporters.

Supporters of Kohler, a 40-year-old humanities teacher, and Paris, 71, a former math teacher, gathered in Paris and eastern France on Wednesday to mark their three years in prison.

French officials have toughened their language in recent months towards Iran, notably over the advancement of its nuclear program and regional activities, but also the detention of European citizens in the country.

Lemoine said about 20 European nationals were being held in Iran ranging from researchers to journalists and tourists.

France was behind a push by the European Union in April to add sanctions on Iranian officials and entities linked to the judicial and prison system. French officials said further sanctions could not be ruled out.

In recent years, Iran‘s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.

Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.

Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage.

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An Israeli military vehicle patrols on the Israeli side of the Gaza border, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter.

The “high-level” consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a US official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources said.

According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a US–led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US–led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force, and it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after failing to contain a growing insurgency.

Other countries would be invited to take part in the US–led authority in Gaza, the sources said, without identifying which ones. They said the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Islamist group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the West Bank.

Islamist terrorist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, sparked the current war when its fighters stormed into southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing another 251.

The sources said it remained unclear whether any agreement could be reached. Discussions had not progressed to the point of considering who might take on core roles, they said.

The sources did not specify which side had put forward the proposal nor provide further details of the talks.

In response to Reuters questions, a State Department spokesperson did not comment directly on whether there had been discussions with Israel about a US–led provisional authority in Gaza, saying they could not speak to ongoing negotiations.

“We want peace, and the immediate release of the hostages,” the spokesperson said, adding that: “The pillars of our approach remain resolute: stand with Israel, stand for peace.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

In an April interview with Emirati-owned Sky News Arabia, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he believed there would be a “transitional period” after the conflict in which an international board of trustees, including “moderate Arab countries,” would oversee Gaza with Palestinians operating under their guidance.

“We’re not looking to control the civil life of the people in Gaza. Our sole interest in the Gaza Strip is security,” he said, without naming which countries he believed would be involved. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for further comment.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, rejected the idea of an administration led by the United States or any foreign government, saying the Palestinian people of Gaza should choose their own rulers.

The Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment.

RISKS

A US–led provisional authority in Gaza would draw Washington deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mark its biggest Middle East intervention since the Iraq invasion.

Such a move would carry significant risks of a backlash from both allies and adversaries in the Middle East, if Washington were perceived as an occupying power in Gaza, two of the sources said.

The United Arab Emirates – which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 – has proposed to the United States and Israel that an international coalition oversee Gaza‘s post-war governance. Abu Dhabi conditioned its involvement on the inclusion of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and a credible path toward Palestinian statehood.

The UAE foreign ministry did not respond to questions about whether it would support a US–led administration that did not include the PA.

Israel‘s leadership, including Netanyahu, firmly rejects any role in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority, which it accuses of being anti-Israeli.

Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would expand its attacks in Gaza and that more Gazans would be moved “for their own safety”. Israel is still seeking to recover 59 hostages being held in the enclave.

Some members of Netanyahu’s right-coalition have called publicly for what they describe as the “voluntary” mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza and for the reconstruction of Jewish settlements inside the coastal enclave.

But behind closed doors, some Israeli officials have also been weighing proposals over the future of Gaza that sources say assumes that there won’t be a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, such as the US–led provisional administration.

Among those include restricting reconstruction to designated security zones, dividing the territory and establishing permanent military bases, said four sources, who include foreign diplomats and former Israeli officials briefed on the proposals.

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Smoke rises in the sky following US-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adel Al Khader

A ceasefire deal between Yemen’s Houthis and the US does not include sparing Israel, the Iran-backed terrorist group said on Wednesday, suggesting its shipping attacks that have disrupted global trade and challenged world powers will not come to a complete halt.

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the US would stop bombing the Houthi rebels in Yemen, saying that the group had agreed to stop attacking US ships.

After Trump made the announcement, Oman said it had mediated the ceasefire deal to halt attacks on US vessels.

There have been no reports of Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea area since January.

“The agreement does not include Israel in any way, shape or form,” Mohammed Abdulsalam, the chief Houthi negotiator, told Reuters.

“As long as they announced the cessation [of US strikes] and they are actually committed to that, our position was self-defense so we will stop.”

While tensions may have eased between the United States and the Houthis, a resilient force that withstood years of heavy Saudi-led bombing in Yemen’s civil war, the agreement does not rule out attacks on any other Israel-linked vessels or targets.

Iran welcomes the “end of the US aggression” on Yemen, its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, thanking Oman for its efforts in this regard.

The US intensified strikes on the Houthis this year, to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping. Rights activists have raised concerns over civilian casualties.

“They said ‘please don’t bomb us any more and we’re not going to attack your ships’,” Trump said of the Houthis during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “And I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately.”

GAZA WAR

The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian terrorist group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The US military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets since its current operation in Yemen, known as Operation Rough Rider, started on March 15. The strikes, the US military said, have killed “hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders.”

Tensions have been high since the Gaza war began, but have risen further since a Houthi missile landed near Israel‘s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday.

The Israeli military carried out an airstrike on Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa on Tuesday, its second attack in two days on Iran-backed Houthi rebels after a surge in tensions between the group and Israel.

Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, the US and Britain retaliated with air strikes against Houthi targets in an effort to keep open the crucial Red Sea trading route – the path for about 15 percent of global shipping traffic.

After Trump became US president in January, he decided to significantly intensify air strikes against the Houthis. The campaign came after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden.

On April 28, a suspected US airstrike hit a migrant center in Yemen, and Houthi TV says 68 people were killed.

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