UK’S diplomatic protection for Zaghari contravenes int’l law: Envoy
Iran reacted to the UK’S recent decision to grant an Iranian national, Nazanin Zaghari, diplomatic protection, calling it illegal.
Iranian Ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad tweeted on Friday that the British government’s decision “contravened international law”.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced on late Thursday that London had decided to give Zaghari diplomatic protection “as part of the government’s continuing efforts to secure her release.”
Baeedinejad wrote on his Twitter that “UK Govt’s extension of diplomatic protection to Ms Zaghari contravenes int’l law.”
“Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals. As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian,” he added.
“I have today decided that the UK will take a step that is extremely unusual, and exercise diplomatic protection,” Hunt said.
“This represents a formal recognition by the British government that her treatment fails to meet Iran’s obligations under international law and elevates it to a formal state-to-state issue,” Hunt said in a video statement shared on Twitter, time. com reported.
In his message, Hunt repeated his earlier allegation that Iran had denied medical care to Zaghari, a claim that, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry, “indicated his lack of knowledge on the case,” Press TV reported.
Iran’s intelligence authorities arrested Zaghari at Imam Khomeini International Airport in April 2016 as she was on her way back to London.
She was subsequently put on trial and handed a five-year jail term after being found guilty of spying and spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
British media had claimed that she worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and was on vacation in Iran when she was arrested. However, former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a statement to a parliamentary committee in 2017 that Zaghari had been “simply teaching people journalism.”
Johnson’s remarks amounted to an accidental confession that Zaghari was plotting against the Iranian government, but British authorities described them a gaffe.
Diplomatic protection is a rarely-used tool under international law, which gives a country the right to challenge another state over the treatment of one of its nationals or companies.
It is very different from diplomatic immunity, which applies to accredited diplomats and provides them with safe passage. It is also different from consular assistance, where a state offers assistance to its nationals in another country.