The Observer view on the UK’s failure to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British citizen holding dual Iranian nationality, has been detained in Tehran for more than five-and-a-half years on bogus accusations of spying. Successive Conservative foreign secretaries, including Boris Johnson, have promised and failed to secure her freedom. The reasons are unclear. This shocking situation cannot and must not continue.
Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, has campaigned tirelessly for her release. His courage and fortitude are admirable, as are hers. Fearful that his wife may be illegally jailed again, he mounted a 21-day hunger strike outside the Foreign Office to dramatise her plight, before ending it yesterday.
Talks last week between Britain and Iran once more failed to make progress. Nor is there movement in the cases of two other Britons, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz, also held hostage by Iran. “We’re still stuck,” Ratcliffe said. He’s right. It’s another disgrace to shame this shameless government.
Such outrageous injustice cannot be tolerated any longer. Nor can the lack of urgency, application, transparency and guile that have characterised the government’s damaging, disjointed and unsuccessful approach since 2016. Explanations are required. Without further excuses, delays or obfuscation, Johnson must answer the following questions:
•Why is he still refusing to settle an acknowledged £400m debt to Iran, incurred before the 1979 revolution? This unjustified failure to pay up has bedevilled talks. Britain says bank transfer restrictions arising from international sanctions prevent payment. This is disingenuous at best. It can find legal ways around rules it helped create – if it wants to. In 2016, the US settled a similar debt, paying Iran $400m in cash in return for the release of four American hostages.
•Why has Johnson failed to honour his personal promise to pay the debt made, when he was foreign secretary, to Ratcliffe and, indirectly, to the Iranians? Johnson’s promise was a blatant attempt to compensate for his disastrous blunder in parliament, when he misrepresented Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s activities in Tehran. Was it a lie? His blunder was used by Iran to justify her jailing. “He needs to take seriously the promises he makes and keep them,” Ratcliffe said last week. Even Johnson, a man without honour, must see he has a moral duty to set this right. He could – if he wants to.
•Why are Johnson and Liz Truss, the latest foreign secretary, persisting with the Foreign Office’s non-confrontational, softly-softly approach? It has failed utterly. As the former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt says, it’s not about paying a ransom, but it is about credibility. Johnson takes a tougher line with the EU than he does with Iran, whose hardline leaders mock the UK. British moves to block the lifting of international sanctions and sever bilateral relations would get Iran’s attention – if Johnson wants to.
•Did Johnson let US objections wreck a planned prisoner swap last summer? The swap reportedly involved British hostages as well as US and Iranian detainees. Iran says a deal, which included full payment of Britain’s debt, broke down at the last minute when the US balked. Did Johnson let his postBrexit eagerness to curry favour with Joe Biden get in the way of his duty to rescue British citizens? Why did he foolishly agree to link their fate to that of American hostages?
•Did the fact that Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz are dual nationals with foreign-sounding names adversely influence the amount of attention devoted to their plight, at least in the early stages? It’s an ugly thought, but there is evidence in the Ashoori case to suggest it did. After the Afghanistan debacle, it’s sadly possible to believe almost anything of the flailing, ill-led Foreign Office.
Questions such as these will keep on coming the longer the hostage scandal continues. If Johnson wants to prevent it spiralling into yet another fullblown government crisis, he should stop shirking, take responsibility and bend his will to freeing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.