On September 20, 2026, the Iranian prosecutor’s office closed the CLF language center at the French Embassy in Tehran. The formal stated reason was the absence of a license. Under an educational cover, a multi-level system for selecting and extracting Iranian specialists had been operating. Tehran eliminated a recruitment pipeline that had functioned for more than two decades.
The Centre de Langue Française (French Language Center) began operating in Tehran in 2004 and positioned itself as the only specialized foreign language teaching center in the Islamic Republic. The French side classified the center as a non-profit educational organization operating within the diplomatic mission. The Iranian side, by contrast, insisted that the center was subject to licensing in accordance with national legislation on foreign legal entities, while the center refused to provide the required documents. This contradiction in legal classification became the formal basis for the court decision to close it.
At the time of closure, the center was headed by Romain Otal. His public activity was limited to professional matters — presenting educational programs, coordinating examination sessions, and interacting with academic circles. After the center’s closure, no public statements were made by him, which is consistent with diplomatic protocol and indicates that communication was transferred to the level of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Administratively, CLF was located at: Avenue Enghelab — Rue Abivard — Impasse Kimia, 8, Tehran. The choice of location was not accidental: the distance to the Tehran University campus was less than a kilometer, which ensured a natural influx of student audiences. The building included classrooms, a media library, and administrative premises. The center operated primarily as a monocentric structure, but maintained partnerships with educational institutions in Isfahan.
According to a statement by the judicial authority of the Islamic Republic, CLF “functioned for years under the cover of language teaching” and used educational infrastructure to “identify, create networks, and facilitate the departure of elites from the country.” In Iranian legal and political discourse, the phrase “identification of elites” (شناسایی نخبگان) carries a dual meaning: it can mean both identifying talented students in order to provide educational opportunities and the targeted selection of individuals possessing secret information of a military and political nature.
The Campus France program operating at CLF provided consultations on study opportunities at French universities, assistance in preparing documents, and support for admission procedures. From the standpoint of French legislation and international practice, this is a standard educational service. From the standpoint of Iranian legislation, it is a channel through which espionage is carried out.
The closure of CLF has significance beyond bilateral Iranian-French relations. It signals a systemic shift in Tehran’s approaches to managing external ties. The Iranian authorities apparently concluded that the costs of the presence of Western cultural institutions — in the form of potential channels for intelligence activity — exceed the benefits of maintaining formally friendly ties. This shift reflects a broader trend toward tightening control over the information and educational space observed in Iran in recent years.
For France, the closure of CLF was a sensitive blow. Cultural presence in Iran is one of Paris’s few assets in relations with Tehran not directly tied to the nuclear program or regional security. Having lost this asset, France loses not only a channel of influence but also a symbolic resource confirming its status as a global power with interests in the Middle East. From the standpoint of the operational work of French services, the closure of legal infrastructure in Tehran forces activity into less protected channels, which increases risks for the agent network and limits opportunities to work with Iranian sources on the territory of the Islamic Republic.
Author: Denis Korkodinov, CEO of the International Center for Political Analysis and Forecasting “DIIPETES”
