“From Gaza to Paris, Resistance!” A sign on display at a pro-Hamas demonstration in France. Photo: Reuters/Fiora Garenzi

The Iranian regime has long worked to infiltrate French society, leveraging political networks, media, and social platforms to expand its influence and stoke unrest, with its operations intensifying since the start of the war in Gaza, according to a new report.

The French think tank France2050 has released a new study revealing how Iran has spent years working to undermine the stability of France, using influence operations and other means to shape politics and the media in a bid to sow chaos and destabilize the government.

Presented to the French Parliament and Ministry of the Interior, the report details the networks the Islamist regime in Tehran has established since 1979, urging lawmakers to create a formal commission of inquiry with full investigative powers to fully expose the scope of the infiltration.

According to Gilles Platret, mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône in eastern France and lead author of the study, Tehran has successfully extended its ideological and political influence not only across the Middle East through its proxies (Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, and pro-Bashar al-Assad forces in Syria), but also into Western societies.

“[Iranian] infiltration has acted as a poison, slowly seeping into French society for nearly 50 years; drop by drop, it spreads, exerts influence, and corrodes,” Platret writes in the report, noting that Iran’s operations in France are now more powerful than ever.

Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, French institutions, media outlets, far-left political parties, major universities, intellectuals, and student bodies have all become targets of Iranian interference, the newly released study found.

“Is it not legitimate to question the explosion of Palestinian flags in public spaces, now seen at most demonstrations, waved even during riots and attacks against French institutions and law enforcement — when Iran has long made the Palestinian cause the spearhead of its effort to win over the Western far left and ultra-left?” Platret says. 

“Indeed, since the war last June, the Palestinian flag is increasingly seen alongside the Iranian flag itself,” he continues, referring to the war in Gaza. 

Palestinian flags fly over French town halls as municipalities defy a government ban ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state. Photo: Screenshot

According to the 85-page report, Tehran relies on its Paris embassy, European Union lobbyists, and operatives funded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian intelligence to operate deep within French territory, pursuing its objectives through covert operations.

“How much longer will France, in the name of supposedly higher diplomatic interests, continue to close its eyes to what is being plotted on its soil — something that threatens its sovereignty and security more each day?” Platret says.

The study also explains that Iran’s growing influence in France serves a dual purpose: to pressure the country on the Iranian nuclear issue, pushing it to influence Israel, and to sow “chaos without war” within French democratic institutions, in line with the “global jihad” strategy enshrined in its constitution.

One of the report’s key findings is that Iran’s extensive political connections and diplomatic network are among the regime’s most important tools, allowing it to expand its influence and shape public discourse within France.

For example, the relationships of certain French political leaders or movements with the Iranian Embassy in Paris, so-called “reformists” in Iran, or Middle Eastern figures linked to Tehran “create clear risks of directing public debate in ways that favor Iranian interests,” the study says.

Beyond its diplomatic network, the report highlights that Iranian intelligence services are actively operating in France, increasingly using social networks as a tool for manipulation.

According to Middle East expert Frédéric Encel, Iran’s strategy is driven by a form of Shiite expansionism that remains central to the regime, with its inherent violence an inseparable aspect of its nature. 

In pursuit of these objectives, Encel explains that the regime relies on propaganda, infiltration, and physical elimination.

“Everything must submit to the imperative of global jihad, even the very text of the Qur’an, whose interpretation is constantly twisted … to merge the religious with the political, in service of an ideological project for which France has become a stage,” the study says. 

For years, Iran has orchestrated terrorist attacks across the globe, engaged in hostage-taking, and even political assassinations, with its efforts intensifying since the start of the war in Gaza, using the conflict to provoke civil unrest and mask ongoing terrorist operations.

In July, France, Britain, the US, and 11 other allies issued a joint statement condemning a rise in Iranian assassination and kidnapping plots in the West

Inside Iran, the regime is responsible for severe human rights violations, routinely repressing dissent and using extreme violence against opponents, peaceful protesters, and independent voices.