Iran’s price ‘is too high for Britain’
THE Foreign Office fears if it gives Iran what it wants to release Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe then the Islamic regime will imprison more British citizens to demand ransoms.
The British-iranian mother was given a five-year sentence by the Tehran authorities for allegedly training journalists in Iran.
A source close to Dominic Raab said the Foreign Secretary fears the consequences of handing over £400million demanded by Iran for an arms deal which fell through in the 1970s.
This “debt” has been linked by the Iranian regime to Ms Zaghariratcliffe’s release.
The source said: “The problem is that if we pay the price demanded then there will be another six British citizens arrested and further demands.”
The £400million comes from money the former Shah of Iran paid to purchase 1,750 tanks and armoured cars from Britain, which an international court says Britain needs to return after holding on to the money because of international sanctions.
Concerns are continuing to grow over the health of Ms Zaghariratcliffe who is being held in the Evin detention centre which holds many of Iran’s political prisoners. The fears over the Tehran regime rounding up more Westerners have been fuelled by their refusal to release British-australian academic Kylie Mooregilbert, who has reportedly been handed a 10-year prison sentence. However, another Britishaustralian woman and her Australian boyfriend have been released. All charges against Jolie King and Mark Firkin have been dropped.
Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars reported the Islamic Republic’s judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili confirmed all three were detained for spying. Ms King and Mr Firkin, who left their home in Perth, Western Australia, in 2017, had been posting updates on their trip across Asia on social media before being arrested for using a drone to take pictures and video of military areas and other unauthorised zones.