There is something deeply uncomfortable about the latest diplomatic clash between Iran and France: Tehran is not inventing a new argument. It is borrowing Paris’s.

Iran summoned French Ambassador Pierre Cochard on October 6, accusing French authorities of excessive force against student protesters and demanding respect for peaceful assembly, fundamental freedoms and human rights. Tehran also called for independent investigations into alleged abuses.

On the surface, it is another geopolitical confrontation. Look closer, however, and something more interesting is happening.

Iran has turned France’s own diplomatic vocabulary back against France.

In January, Paris used remarkably similar language when confronting Tehran over the suppression of protests in Iran, calling for respect for fundamental freedoms, peaceful assembly and human rights. Now, months later, those same principles are being cited by Tehran in relation to French teenagers.

And France is currently dealing with a protest movement that is no longer easy to dismiss as a handful of angry students.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets on October 6 over overcrowded schools, teacher shortages, deteriorating infrastructure and education funding. French authorities recorded 266,000 demonstrators nationwide. At the same time, the protests have produced genuine violence, including attacks on police and property damage.

Image: Supplied

But the police response has created an even more explosive issue.

A 15-year-old in Lens lost his hand after a grenade detonated during clashes. Another teenager suffered severe facial injuries after being struck by a tear-gas grenade fired at close range, while a 16-year-old in Tours suffered an eye injury consistent with a rubber-bullet launcher. Six judicial investigations have been assigned to France’s police watchdog, the IGPN.

That gives Tehran an opening.

Iranian officials are essentially asking: if peaceful protest is a universal right, does geography change its value?

The question is politically loaded because Iran cannot credibly erase its own record by pointing at France.

But neither can France simply dismiss the criticism because it comes from Tehran.

That is the real story.

Human rights have become a diplomatic boomerang, and Paris has just caught it.