Get tough with Iran, husband of jailed Nazanin urges PM
THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe yesterday urged Boris Johnson to be “brave” by toughening his stance against Iran.
Richard Ratcliffe met the Prime Minister in Downing Street and told him the Government should be doing more to secure the release of his British-iranian wife, who has been detained in Tehran since April 2016.
Diplomats remain anxious to avoid Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe becoming a bargaining chip, and believe she is seen as more valuable by Tehran each time her case appears in the news.
Mr Ratcliffe disagrees, and said after the meeting: “I think there remains that gap between my sense that the Government needs to be tougher with Iran, alongside improving relations generally, and the Foreign Office instinct to not have things escalate.”
He said he did not come away from the meeting thinking his wife will be released “tomorrow or even next week” and said he would think about what to tell her on the phone “about where the hope is to come”.
“I don’t stand here hopeful, if I’m honest,” he said. “I stand here with my wife still in prison and things aren’t moving.”
Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.
She was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to her parents with her daughter, Gabriella.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman last night insisted that the Government was “doing everything we can” to secure her release.
“We continue to believe her detention is inhumane and completely unacceptable, and we remain concerned for her welfare,” the spokesman said.
“The Prime Minister was clear that we will continue to raise this issue with Iran. “Dual nationals must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Mr Ratcliffe said the UK “obviously is wary of that tightrope it is walking between the US and Europe in Iran relations and the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal],” but called on the Government to “uphold universal values where hostage-taking shouldn’t be happening”.
Mr Ratcliffe took Gabriella, now five years old, to Downing Street, where she was given a toy version of Larry, the No10 cat.
In return, the pair gave the Prime Minister a wallet Mrs Zagahri-ratcliffe had made in prison, which Mr Johnson said he was “touched” to receive.
The meeting came as the Court of Appeal in London prepares to hear a case that addresses a long-running dispute between Britain and Iran.
The Iranian government claims Britain owes it £400million for the cancelled sale of tanks in the Seventies.
An international arbitration court has ruled the money should be paid,
‘I don’t stand here hopeful, if I’m honest. I stand here with my wife still in prison and things aren’t moving’
but the Ministry of Defence opposes handing over money to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The case is relevant to Mrs Zaghariratcliffe’s imprisonment because it is thought that her release is more likely if the UK Government pays its debt.
But Mr Johnson’s spokesman said the Government did not recognise a link. And Jacob Rees-mogg, the Leader of the House, said the Government “cannot and must not pay or appear to pay, either in fact or reality, money to allow people who have been illegally detained to be released”.
“The risk that would cause to other Britons travelling abroad would be very considerable,” he said.
Mr Ratcliffe said Mr Johnson did not apologise for his past mistakes in dealing with his wife’s case. As Foreign Secretary, he mistakenly claimed she was training journalists in Iran, rather than visiting on holiday.