UK DENIES DEAL MADE TO FREE ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE

▶ Iranian claim of agreement with London and prisoner swap with Washington rejected

London and Washington yesterday denied claims by Iranian state media that Britain would pay £400 million ($552.6m) to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and that the US and Iran had agreed to a prisoner swap.

Anonymous sources made the claims only hours after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned Tehran’s treatment of the BritishIranian charity worker and said it amounted to torture.

An Iranian official told state TV: “The release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in exchange for the UK’s payment of its £400m debt to Iran has been finalised.”

The debt dates back to 1979, when the shah ordered UKmade military equipment.

The UK refused to deliver the tanks after the shah was overthrown.

It is understood that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is still in custody, and her husband Richard Ratcliffe said the family “have heard nothing”.

British politicians also denied that there were developments in the aid worker’s long-running case.

“I have spoken to her family and they have heard nothing confirming any of these rumours,” MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said: “I’m told the media reports of a deal are wrong. The situation has not changed.”

Earlier yesterday, Mr Raab said Iran was treating Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe in the “most abusive, torturous way”.

Iranian state media also reported that Tehran agreed to release four Americans held on charges of spying in exchange for the release of four Iranians detained in the US, as well as $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

But US State Department spokesman Ned Price denied the news.

“Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true,” Mr Price told The National.

“As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran.

“We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families.”