The CSPPA was a group of Paris-based Shiite Muslims linked closely to Hezbollah and Iran that carried out a series of 1985-86 bombings in public places in Paris that killed 13 and injured over 300.  The bombings were part of an Iranian attempt to influence French policy towards Iran and its allies.  The Iranian government hoped to accelerate negotiations over a one billion dollar financial claim it had against the French government, induce the French government to cease providing arms to its enemy Iraq, and force the French government to release a number of figures linked to Hezbollah and the Iranian government.  The bombings were initially claimed by the CSPPA in a letter to Agence-France Press and called on France to release several terrorists including Anis Naccache, who attempted to assassinate former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar in 1980; Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese citizen charged with complicity in the assassination of an American military attache and an Israeli diplomat; and Armenian Waroujian Garabedjian, convicted of the Orly bombing in July 1983.<br /><p><br />Initially, French authorities suspected the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF), but in early 1987 learned from an informer that the attacks had been carried out by a group of Shiite Muslims based in an Islamic school in a Paris suburb led by Fouad Ben Ali Saleh.  Information obtained by wiretaps led investigators to suspect Wahid Gordji, a translator at Iran's Paris Embassy, of coordinating the attacks.  In June, French authorities subpoenaed Gordji who fled to the Paris Embassy leading to a six month standoff in which French police surrounded the Embassy.  In response, Iranian police surrounded the French Embassy in Tehran.  The two countries severed diplomatic relations in July and Hezbollah took several French citizens hostage.  The standoff ended in November 1987 when Gordji was briefly interviewed by French authorities before flying to Iran.  The French hostages in Lebanon were released shortly thereafter and full diplomatic relations were restored in June 1988.<br /><p><br />Iran claimed that France expedited the repayment of loans made by Iran, cracked down on anti-Iranian regime activity in France, and made a multi-million dollar payment to the Lebanese kidnappers.  French Prime Minister Jacque Chirac denied that any deal was made.<br />