ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Tuesday denied French allegations linking Tehran to an October cyberattack targeting hundreds of French entities, urging Paris to focus its resources on serving its people rather than alleged activities inside Iran under diplomatic cover.

On Monday, France accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being behind cyberattacks in mid-October that targeted supermarket refrigeration controllers deployed in more than 700 large retail outlets across the country, warning that Paris was determined to use “all available means of response.”

The cyberattack caused “considerable material damage, fires, and food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros,” the French foreign ministry said.

Iran “completely rejects the French government's baseless and biased accusations against Iran of participating in alleged cyber activities in France and strongly condemns the blatant policy of making accusations against Iran,” read a statement from the foreign ministry.

"Making these baseless claims by the French government is a projection of their weaknesses in governance, their inability to meet the demands of the people, and their failure to address the weaknesses of the country's administrative systems, which are not even capable of controlling the temperature of refrigerators."

The Iranian ministry described the French accusation as “very irresponsible and ridiculous,” which aims to allegedly “tarnish Iran's image and disrupt its relations with other countries.”

Paris attributed the cyberattack to the IRGC’s Shahid Kaveh offensive cyber unit, which has been accused of conducting cyberattacks in pursuit of the Islamic Republic’s interests over the years, with allegations raised by the US, Israel, the UK, and France.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot warned that Paris will implement sanctions “at the European level” against those responsible. The cyberattack was “unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression.”

Accusations of espionage

Iran also accused France of spending large budgets “on intervening in other countries, including by abusing diplomatic cover and seemingly cultural projects,” indirectly pointing to the July diplomatic rift between Tehran and Paris.

“Iran strongly advises French officials to spend their resources on meeting the livelihood and educational demands of their own people.”

In late September, Iran closed the French Language Center (CLF) in Tehran, accusing the institution of conducting activities that were “threatening national security,” undermining the country’s cultural norms, and facilitating the identification and departure of Iranian elites from the country.

Soon after the center’s closure, France’s foreign ministry condemned the incident in the “strongest possible terms,” noting that attacks on French cultural activities and its diplomatic mission staff in Iran are “unjustifiable and unacceptable,” and that France will take “appropriate measures in response.”

In July, France said that two officials from its embassy in Tehran were detained by Iranian security forces “without reason” for several hours and interrogated, claiming that one of them was “assaulted”, with Barrot describing the incident as an “extremely serious” act of intimidation by Tehran.

Tehran later denied the allegations as “baseless and false,” claiming that they were involved in a meeting with “security suspects.”