UK’s Johnson makes fuller apology for remarks on jailed aid worker in Iran
LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson issued a second, fuller apology on Monday for remarks about an IranianBritish aid worker jailed in Iran that critics said might have prompted Iran to extend her prison sentence.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges.
Johnson told a parliamentary committee on Nov 1 that she had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016, contradicting her and her employer, who said she had been on holiday visiting her family.
“It was my mistake. I should have been clearer. I apologise for the distress and anguish that has been caused to Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe and her family,” Johnson told lawmakers on Monday.
“Our priority now is to do everything we can to get her out of Iran on humanitarian grounds.”
On Nov 7, Johnson said in the course of an exchange with an opposition MP in parliament that “I am sorry if any words of mine have been so taken out of context and so misconstrued as to cause any kind of anxiety for the family.”
Opposition British lawmakers had said the remarks could land the aid worker a longer term in jail.
Johnson, whose job has come under pressure over the case, said he would meet Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband this week, adding that the issue was casting a shadow over relations with Iran.
“I shall travel to Iran myself later this year to review the full state of our bilateral relations and to drive home the strength of feeling in this House and in the country at large,” Johnson said.
Earlier on Monday, the government said it was considering granting diplomatic protection to Zaghari-Ratcliffe as part of an effort to secure her release from jail.
It is unclear how such protection could be offered retrospectively to a dual Iranian-British citizen, or whether such a move could help to secure her release, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said it was one option being considered.
“The prime minister has been involved with this case from the outset, she’s raised it with the Iranian president on at least two occasions, the entire government is working towards securing her release as quickly as possible,” he said. — Reuters