Jeremy Hunt, UK Foreign Secretary, has travelled to Iran to hold talks and make a personal request for the immediate release of dual-national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds. Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been incarcerated in Iran on spurious charges for two and a half years and has had serious health issues during her detention.
The UK foreign secretary has also called on Iran to stop using dual-citizens as diplomatic leverage. As he left the UK he said,
“More than anything, we must see those innocent British-Iranian dual nationals imprisoned in Iran returned to their families in Britain,”
After meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, on 19 November, Hunt tweeted,
“British-Iranian dual nationals wrongly imprisoned must be freed. I’ve pressed hard on this today – innocent people should not be turned into diplomatic pawns”
Nazanin’s story
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since 3 April 2016 when she was arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport on her way back to the UK from a visit to her family for Nowruz, the Persian new year holiday. Her daughter Gabriella’s passport was confiscated at the time and the reason for Nazanin’s arrest was withheld. After 150 days of detention Nazanin was then sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “allegedly plotting to topple the Iranian regime.” The sentence was upheld in 2017 and apart from 3 days furlough she was granted in August 2018, has remained in prison ever since.
Bargaining chip in the UK-Iran relations
In the foreign office statement issued on 19 November, Mr. Hunt highlighted Nazanin’s as one of many dual-nationals that has been used as a bargaining chip in UK-Iranian relations. The foreign secretary is the first western foreign minister to visit Iran since Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in May 2018, a nuclear deal that was also signed by Britain, France, Germany, Russia, US and China.
The Foreign Office say that the foreign secretary will address the issue of the nuclear deal, and that he will urge the Iranian government to stop supplies of missiles that Iran are sending to support the Houthis in the Yemen war.
The US response has been to impose hard economic sanctions on Iran, however the UK does not agree with this approach and believes that the economic pressure being applied to Iran will only strengthen hardliners, making it more difficult for dual nationals such as Nazanin to be freed.
During his visit, the foreign secretary will emphasise the UK’s position on the nuclear deal, which remains the same with the expectation that Iran sticks to the terms agreed. Hunt said,
“The Iran nuclear deal remains a vital component of stability in the Middle East by eliminating the threat of a nuclearised Iran. It needs 100% compliance, though, to survive. We will stick to our side of the bargain as long as Iran does. But we also need to see an end to destabilising activity by Iran in the rest of the region if we are going to tackle the root causes of the challenges the region faces.”
Watch IOHR’s interview with Nazanin’s husband Richard: