Reuters - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday the imprisonment of two French nationals in Iran was unbearable and demanded their immediate release, in a case that complicates French efforts to defuse tension between Washington and Tehran.

�On Human Rights Day, my thoughts go to Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, our compatriots held in Iran, and their families,� Macron said on Twitter.

�Their imprisonment is intolerable. They must be freed without delay. I told President Rouhani, I repeat it here,� he wrote.

Paris reported the arrest of Marchal, a senior researcher at Science-Po university, in mid-October, while his Franco-Iranian colleague Adelkhah has been in prison in Iran since June.

Reporting by John Irish; writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Sandra Maler