Iran will not allow two French embassy employees involved in a diplomatic dispute last month to return to the country, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters that the pair had violated the 1961 Vienna Convention, which lays out the rules and privileges of foreign diplomatic missions, Anadolu agency reported.

Baqaei said that France’s admission that the two individuals were “engaged in activities related to supporting civil ​society” was itself an admission that “the Vienna Convention ​was violated.”