In a message posted on his X account on Friday night, Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the hypocrisy embedded in French political conduct and argued that France’s positions are guided by political interests rather than consistent human rights principles.
“Mr. Minister, hypocrisy remains a hallmark of French political culture — a vice which, as Molière so accurately observed in his 1664 masterpiece Tartuffe, or The Impostor, ‘has become fashionable’,” Baqaei said, addressing French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
“You remained silent — indeed, you became complicit — while Iranian cities were brutally bombarded and innocent Iranians were mercilessly killed in Minab, Tehran, Lamerd, Isfahan, and elsewhere,” the spokesman reminded the French minister.
“And yet today, when it serves your regime’s political interests, your selective conscience suddenly awakens and you presume to lecture the entire world on human rights. What a Tartuffe!” Baqaei added.
His post came after Jean-Noël Barrot said in remarks carried by French media that “the Iranian population” was “the great loser of this war,” adding that Iranians were caught “between repression on one side and bombardments on the other.”