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A French court was to rule Thursday in the trial of an Iranian accused of “promoting and inciting terrorism”, a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens held in Iran.Mahdieh Esfandiari, 39, was arrested in France last year over comments she is accused of having made on social media, including on Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Prosecutors in the case have called for a four-year prison sentence, of which three would be suspended.If convicted, some observers see her as a potential bargaining chip in negotiations with Tehran for the release of French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are still waiting to leave Iran.”They are well. They are safe,” foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told AFP on Wednesday.The outcome of the trial is eagerly awaited by the relatives of Kohler and Paris as tensions rage over Iran’s nuclear programme, with the United States threatening military action.Arrested in Iran in May 2022, Kohler and Paris were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied.They were taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran, where they live now.- ‘Everything is ready’ – Esfandiari was released after some eight months in pre-trial detention in October, and her trial began in January. In mid-January, the prosecutor requested a four-year jail term, including three years suspended, for Esfandiari, but said it would not be necessary for her to be re-incarcerated.”We expect the court to acquit Ms Esfandiari,” her lawyer Nabil Boudi told AFP on Wednesday.As for a possible exchange, he added, “everything will depend on the upcoming decision”.The Iranian authorities have expressed their wish to exchange their national for the two French citizens once the legal proceedings in France have finished.The French government has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of a potential exchange deal.France has described Kohler and Paris as “state hostages” taken by Tehran in a bid to extract concessions. They were convicted on espionage charges which their families have always condemned as fabricated.Esfandiari has condoned Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.”There were children killed, women killed, hostages taken on the Palestinian side, and October 7 was a logical response,” she has said. “It’s not an act of terrorism, it’s an act of resistance.”Tehran argues she has been unjustly detained.In November, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a potential exchange between Tehran and Paris “had been negotiated.””An agreement has been reached and indeed, we are waiting for the entire legal and judicial procedure to be completed in both countries.””Everything is ready. We are waiting for the judicial process to be completed in France.”

Iran and the United States began indirect talks in Switzerland on Thursday, a last-ditch bid to avert war following the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades. The Oman-mediated discussions follow repeated threats from Donald Trump to strike Iran, with the US president last Thursday giving Tehran 15 days to reach a deal.The US and Iranian delegations arrived at the venue at the Omani ambassador’s residence amid tight security, following a protest by Iranian exiles at their talks last week who threw objects at the Iranian motorcade.Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi later confirmed that discussions had begun, saying the two sides had expressed “unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions”.Iran’s president insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not “at all” seeking a nuclear weapon.”Our Supreme Leader has already stated that we will not have nuclear weapons at all,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said, in a reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi would likely also attend the discussions in Geneva, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said.While Iran has insisted the talks focus solely on its nuclear programme, the US wants Tehran’s missile programme and its support for militant groups in the region curtailed.As part of the dramatic US build-up, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week, left a naval base in Crete Thursday, an AFP photographer said.The developments follow a massive protests in Iran that rights groups say saw thousands of demonstrators killed after the movement called for the end of the Islamic republic. – ‘Sinister nuclear ambitions’ -In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of “pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions”, though Tehran has always insisted its programme is for civilian purposes.Trump also claimed Tehran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America”.The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims “big lies”.The maximum range of Iran’s missiles is 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed. However the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometres — less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.Trump’s State of the Union accusations in Congress were delivered in the same forum in which then-president George W. Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile programme, calling Tehran’s refusal to discuss ballistic weapons “a big, big problem”.He followed up by saying “the president wants diplomatic solutions”.But US Vice President JD Vance told Iran to take Trump’s threats “seriously”, saying the US president had a “right” to use military action.”You can’t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons,” Vance told “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News.- ‘People would suffer’ -Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, had called them “a historic opportunity”, adding that a deal was “within reach”.The US will be represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.In January, Tehran launched a mass crackdown on nationwide protests that have posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.Protests have since resumed around Iranian universities.Tehran residents who spoke to AFP were divided as to whether there would be renewed conflict.”There would be famine and people would suffer a lot. People are suffering now, but at least with war, our fate might be clear,” 60-year-old homemaker Tayebeh said.burs/axn/ser