Two French residents detained by Iran had been launched on Friday on humanitarian grounds and had been on their approach again to France, in keeping with French and Iranian authorities.

One of the boys, Benjamin Brière, a 38-year-old French vacationer, had been held for 3 years. The different, Bernard Phelan, a 64-year-old French-Irish journey guide, was arrested in October 2022.

President Emmanuel Macron of France welcomed their return, calling it “a relief.”

“Free, finally,” Mr. Macron mentioned on Twitter, including that France would “continue to work for the return of our compatriots still detained in Iran.”

Mr. Brière and Mr. Phelan had been accused of spying on Iran and performing towards its safety pursuits, expenses that the 2 males and French authorities strenuously denied. The males had gone on intermittent starvation strikes to protest their detention, weakening them and worrying their households, who had urged repeatedly for his or her launch.

Catherine Colonna, the French international minister, mentioned in a press release on Friday that Mr. Brière and Mr. Phelan had left the jail in Mashhad, a metropolis in northeastern Iran, the place they had been stored.

“They were provided with medical care immediately after their release,” she mentioned. “I am delighted that they will soon be able to reunite with their relatives in Paris.”

Ms. Colonna said that in a phone conversation with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, she had “reiterated France’s determination that the other French citizens still detained in Iran should also regain their full freedom quickly and enjoy their right to consular protection.”

Four French citizens are still in Iranian custody, according to French authorities. A fifth person, Fariba Adelkhah — an academic who holds an Iranian passport as well as a French one — was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison; she was released in February but has not yet been able to leave Iran.

Western and European countries have accused Iran of using detained people as diplomatic bargaining chips or to press for the release of Iranian prisoners abroad.

In 2020, for instance, the French government secured the release of an academic who had been held on national security charges, as part of a prisoner swap.

It was not immediately clear whether the release of Mr. Brière and Mr. Phelan had been secured by a similar deal, but French, Irish and Iranian authorities made no mention of one.

IRNA, Iran’s state-run news service, said on Friday that the discharge of the 2 males was a “humanitarian move,” whereas Iran’s embassy in Dublin mentioned on Twitter that Mr. Phelan had been launched “on consular and humanitarian grounds.”

Mr. Phelan, who grew up in Dublin but was based in Paris, was in Iran consulting for a tour operator when he was arrested during a wave of antigovernment protests and accused of disseminating anti-regime propaganda and taking pictures of security services, according to his family. Mr. Phelan, who according to his family has hypertensive heart disease and chronic bone and eyesight issues, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in March.

Caroline Massé-Phelan, Mr. Phelan’s sister, told Agence France-Presse in January that he was “an innocent man” who “loved Iran, who is 64 years old, who is sick, who just wants to go home.”

Micheál Martin, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and minister of defense, said in a statement on Friday that “the last seven months have been a very difficult ordeal for Bernard and for his family, and I am pleased and relieved that this is now at an end.”

“Many people have worked tirelessly for this outcome over many months,” he added.

Mr. Brière was arrested in northeastern Iran and accused of taking photographs in a prohibited area with a drone, leading to charges of espionage, which is punishable by death. He was also facing a propaganda charge because he had asked in a social media post why head scarves were required for women in Iran but optional in some other predominantly Muslim countries.

Mr. Brière was sentenced to eight years in jail however was then acquitted in February by an appeals court, although he was not launched from jail on the time.