PARIS—Hopes for two French journalists held captive in Iraq faded on Saturday when Foreign Minister Michel Barnier returned to Paris with no news of their imminent liberation.

“I am going back to Paris now to give an account of the first part of my mission to the president of the republic and the prime minister,” Barnier told AFP in the Jordanian capital Amman before heading back to Paris. He had been in the region since Monday and had hoped to be able to accompany journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot home.

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