The Gulf Showdown on Embassy Row

France and Iran sever ties, but the threats continue

In Paris, just across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, a beefed-up force of 200 police surrounded the ornate Iranian embassy, floodlighting the building at night to prevent the departure of its 45 occupants. French security agents even checked nearby sewers to make sure no one left the building clandestinely. In Tehran, Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashami announced that the French embassy had been cordoned off and that some of its officials would be arrested for spying. His threat quickly raised fears that the French diplomats might be seized in an ugly replay of the U.S. embassy hostage nightmare of...

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