In 1986, the manager of the largest state company Eurodif Georges Besse arrived at his office as per usual. When he got out of his car, he was shot at point-blank range by unknown people on a motorcycle. Initially the authorities accused the left radical Action Directe, but very soon the intelligence service found the Iranian trace.
The Iranians, who owned shares of Eurodif, demanded Paris to pay them the dividends that were frozen after the Islamic revolution. The murder of Besse was a blatant menace and it worked. France not only failed to expel Iranian diplomats, but paid Tehran more than $1.6 billion in 1991.