UK plans to gi ve £400m to Iran fo r ‘go o dwi ll’

BRITAIN is preparing to transfer £400m (€450m) to Iran to secure “goodwill”, as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson vowed to do “everything” he could to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Officials have sought legal advice on how to circumvent US and UN sanctions that have so far prevented them from handing over the money, amid claims the British mother is being held as “collateral”.

It came as an Iranian news agency reported that Mr Johnson is due to visit the country next week.

Senior Whitehall sources said that while the government was at pains to ensure the payment was not directly linked with Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment, work has intensified in recent months in a bid to improve relations with Iran.

Diplomats believe handing over the money could help speed up Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release from jail. The money has been in Britain since a controversial arms deal with Iran during the Seventies. However, it is being held in an account frozen by the courts and Britain agrees it should be returned.

Mr Johnson met with Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband for the first time yesterday, and they agreed that lawyers would meet in the coming weeks to discuss the possibility of diplomatic protection for her.

Mr Ratcliffe believes it would help to ensure his wife’s safe passage out of Iran, but an Iranian news agency yesterday cast doubt on the claim, quoting a lawyer warning any attempt to assert her British citizenship would “trigger off Iran’s severe reaction”.

Mr Johnson and Mr Ratcliffe also discussed the possibility of travelling to the country together but no date has been confirmed for the trip, officials said.

Mr Johnson said “no stone would be left unturned” in his bid to ensure her safe return.

Distress

Earlier in the week he apologised for the “distress and suffering” he caused to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe by telling a MPs that she was training journalists in Iran at the time of her arrest. Mr Ratcliffe said the foreign secretary’s remarks had “raised the stakes”.

It came as two senior government sources separately confirmed fears that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being held as “collateral” in a bid to get the £400m released.

A similar situation in America resulted in Barack Obama flying millions of dollars in used euro notes to Iran in 2016, after which five US citizens were released from detention. (© Daily Telegraph London)