Boris to visit Iran in bid to secure UK mother’s release
BORIS Johnson is to visit Iran this weekend in an effort to secure the release of a jailed British mother.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 38, is serving a five-year sentence after she was arrested during a holiday last year and accused of being a spy.
The Foreign Secretary’s trip comes after he told a parliamentary committee she had gone to Iran to train journalists.
The regime seized on his comments last month as proof Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe was not visiting her parents, as she maintains, and Mr Johnson’s blunder prompted calls for his resignation.
Reports suggest she could appear in court again on Sunday, following threats to increase her sentence by five years. Her husband Richard will not accompany Mr Johnson after receiving advice it may not help his chances of seeing his wife in prison.
The couple’s daughter Gabriella, three, who Mr Ratcliffe has not seen for 20 months, remains in the care of her Iranian family.
He told the Mail: ‘What the Foreign Office has said is that it may not be helpful for me to go, though they didn’t say I couldn’t. I’m glad that Boris is going there before she is in court on Sunday.
‘If he could go there and unlock the problem that is most important. Obviously, I would love to go and see them but what would be better than that would be for him to be able to bring them home for Christmas.’
Mr Ratcliffe, of Hampstead, north-west London, added that he had heard nothing about his Iran visa, which he has so far been denied. Iran does not recognise Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s dual UKIranian nationality, and refuses British authorities access to her.
This means that a prison visit by Mr Johnson is unlikely as Britain seeks her release. Mr Johnson’s trip is only the third by a UK Foreign Secretary since 2003.
In wide-ranging talks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, he will seek to shore up bilateral relations and urge Tehran to stick by the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal.
But Iran is likely to raise the issue of a £ 400million debt, dating back to an order for tanks in 1979, which remains unpaid despite a court ruling against the UK. The money has already been deposited in a court for payment, and is due to be handed over to Iran. Last month, the Foreign Office was forced to deny that the payment of the money is linked to Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe’s case.
The visit to Iran tomorrow is part of a three- day trip to the Middle East, including to Oman today and the United Arab Emirates. It is believed Mr Johnson will raise concerns at humanitarian suffering in war-torn Yemen at the hands of Saudi Arabia.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Government remains very concerned about all our dual nationals detained in Iran. The Foreign Secretary will urge the Iranians to release dual nationals where there are humanitarian grounds to do so.’