Hunt call to release Briton in Iran visit

FOREIGN Secretary Jeremy Hunt flew to Iran yesterday to call for the release of British mother Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe.

He met Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Zarif in a bid to free the charity worker, who is serving a five-year jail term on alleged spying charges.

Mr Hunt is the first Western foreign minister to travel to the country since the US pulled out of a nuclear deal and imposed sanctions earlier this month.

He is calling for Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe, 40, to be reunited with husband Richard, 43, and their four-year-old daughter Gabriella.

Before the visit, Mr Hunt made clear his opposition to using innocent people in a bid to gain “political leverage”.

Heartbreaking

He said: “We must see those innocent British-Iranian dual nationals imprisoned in Iran returned to their families in Britain.

“I have just heard too many heartbreaking stories from families who have been forced to endure a terrible separation.

“So I arrive in Iran with a clear message for the country’s leaders – putting innocent people in prison cannot and must not be used as a tool of diplomatic leverage.”

British-Iranian Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe, of Hampstead, north London, is an employee of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport in 2016.

She has consistently denied the allegations of spying.

Mr Ratcliffe has battled hard for his wife’s release and said she was suffering as a result of being kept in Evin Prison.

In August she was allowed a three-day reunion with relatives.