French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna , who is accompanying President Emmanuel Macron on his visit to China, met her Iranian counterpart , Hossein Amir Abdollahian , in Beijing on Thursday, during which she demanded the release of Frenchmen detained in Iran.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the minister "had talks yesterday (Thursday) with her Iranian counterpart," who was in Beijing to meet his Saudi counterpart.

The statement added that Colonna "renewed its urgent demand for the immediate release of the six Frenchmen arbitrarily detained by Iran."

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and the Iranian, Hussein Amir Abdollahian, met in Beijing on Thursday, as part of the recent rapprochement, sponsored by China, between their two rival countries in the region.

More recently, Beijing has established itself as a major new diplomatic player in the Middle East.

According to the French statement, the meeting between Colonna and Abdullahian "also dealt with the situation in Iran, all regional issues and the Iranian nuclear program."

"The minister expressed France's concern about the position of the Iranian authorities on these various issues," the French Foreign Ministry added in its statement.

Iran is holding dozens of Westerners whose countries say they are innocent, and Tehran uses them as pressure and bargaining chips in its international relations.

The Islamic Republic and major Western powers are trying in vain to revive the agreement concluded in 2015 on the Iranian nuclear file.

In addition to the dispute between the West and Tehran over the nuclear file and the issue of detainees, the West imposed a series of sanctions against officials involved in suppressing the popular protest movement that erupted in Iran to protest the death of the young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in September after the morality police stopped her for violating the strict dress code.