‘Frank’ talks to free jailed Brit

FOREIGN Secretary Boris Johnson has held “frank” talks with his Iranian counterpart over the case of imprisoned Briton Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe.

The two-hour meeting with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif covered a number of areas.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “They discussed the full range of bilateral issues and they both spoke frankly about the obstacles in the relationship, including the Foreign Secretary’s concerns about the consular cases of BritishIranian dual nationals.”

In what is being seen as a positive move, Mr Johnson will meet Iranian president Hassan Rouhani today.

The Foreign Secretary has been seeking the release of Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe who is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents.

Reports suggest she could appear in court again today, following threats to increase her sentence by five years following Mr Johnson’s gaffe of telling a parliamentary committee that she had been in Iran to train journalists. He later acknowledged this was not the case.

The imprisoned woman’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said: “I am obviously watching closely with hope, fingers crossed and excitement – I couldn’t sleep at all last night.”