In Tehran, Iranian authorities shuttered a French language center affiliated with the French embassy, accusing it of serving as a covert instrument for recruiting and expatriating Iran's elite. France rejected the charges as fabrications and pledged a diplomatic response, framing the closure as one more act in a sustained campaign against its cultural presence. The episode arrives amid months of mutual expulsions, competing historical grievances, and a fragile diplomatic calendar — a reminder that even the quiet work of teaching a language can become a theater of geopolitical contest.