Boris admits his remarks ‘could have been clearer’ about mum in Iran prison
BORIS Johnson has admitted he “could have been clearer” in his comments about British woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and was “sorry” if his remarks were misconstrued.
The Foreign Secretary has faced calls to quit after telling a committee of MPs last week that Ms ZaghariRatcliffe was training journalists in Iran at the time of her arrest last year, something her employer and her family insist is incorrect.
But in the Commons Mr Johnson said the UK Government “has no doubt that she was on holiday” in Iran and that was the sole purpose of her visit and he insisted his remarks could provide no reason for lengthening her sentence.
He said he was concerned at suggestions from Tehran that his remarks last week to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee were being used as justification to increase Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s jail term.
Mr Johnson’s comments put at risk all the work done by her sister in law Rebecca Jones, who lives in Cardiff , to campaign for her freedom.
Before updating MPs in the Commons, Mr Johnson told his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif there was “no justifiable basis” for further legal action against Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Mr Johnson’s phone conversation with Mr Zarif came after Ms ZaghariRatcliffe, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for supposed involvement in a coup plot, was summoned before an Iranian court on Saturday to be told she was now facing allegations of “propaganda against the state”.
Her family fear that this charge could lead to a further five years’ imprisonment.
Speaking last month, Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe’s sister-in-law Rebecca Jones, who lives in Cardiff, spoke about the impact her imprisonment had had on her family, especially her daughter Gabriella.
She said: “Gabriella is three now and she has grown up so quickly without her mother and father.”
The Iranian judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights said Mr Johnson’s comments to the Foreign Affairs Committee had “shed new light on the realities about Nazanin”, contradicting her defence that she was in the country for a holiday at the time of her 2016 arrest.
Both her husband Richard and her employer the Thomson Reuters Foundation had urged Mr Johnson to correct his comments.
In the Commons Mr Johnson said: “I’m sorry if any words of mine have been so taken out of context and so misconstrued as to cause any kind of anxiety for the family of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, of course I am.”
The Foreign Secretary said he had voiced “concern at the suggestion emanating from one branch of the Iranian judiciary that my remarks to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee last week had some bearing on Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case”.
“The UK Government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit.
“My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime – not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Ms ZaghariRatcliffe has been engaged in such activity.
“I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect and I’m glad to provide this clarification.” Mr Johnson said he will discuss all the UK’s consular cases when he visits Iran in the coming weeks. Mr Ratcliffe said Mr Johnson’s comments were “pretty much what I was asking for”.
He told the Press Association “that’s not an acknowledgement of error but it is a clarification” and an “important correction”.
Mr Ratcliffe said the Foreign Secretary should visit his wife while he is in Iran, and asked for a meeting with Mr Johnson before he heads to Tehran. He also called for the British Embassy in Tehran to issue a statement clarifying the situation.
Downing Street said Theresa May still had “full confidence” in her Foreign Secretary.
But shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said: “What will it take before the Prime Minister says enough is enough?
“But if the truth is she can’t, because she doesn’t have the strength or authority to sack him, how about the Foreign Secretary himself shows a bit of personal responsibility and admits that a job like this, where your words hold gravity and your actions have consequences, it is simply not the job for him.”
Mr Johnson told the parliamentary committee on November 1: “When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it, at the very limit.”