Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded on his X account after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot posted about Mahsa Amini. Araghchi told his French counterpart to “stop the crocodile tears.”

In a message published on the anniversary of Amini’s death, Barrot accused Iran of repression and said Amini “was killed for demanding freedom.”
Araghchi argued that France remained silent while the United States was killing children in Iran. The Iranian minister said Paris had failed to confront its own colonial past and claimed that France killed 1.5 million Algerians during the country’s war of independence.
Araghchi said France had officially recorded fewer than one-tenth of that number and stated that Paris had still not apologized for its colonial-era practices.
Twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini died on September 16, 2022, three days after she was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating mandatory headscarf rules. Protests began across Iran following Amini’s death.