Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe negotiations ‘going right up to the wire’, Boris says
Negotiations to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are ‘going right up to the wire’, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed.
His intervention comes as hopes again rose for the British-Iranian mother’s release from prison, after Iran returned her passport on Tuesday.
Her family are also feeling ‘more hopeful’ about progress in her case than they have since she was arrested six years ago, local MP Tulip Siddiq said.
The Foreign Secretary confirmed that the UK has a negotiating team in Tehran and branded it a ‘priority’ to pay a £400 million debt to Iran.
The PM added that talks with Iran over releasing Nazanin were ‘moving forward’ but that he could not say more as ‘negotiations continue to be under way’.
Asked by broadcasters at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi whether a UK negotiating team was currently in Tehran, the Prime Minister said: ‘It is true and it has been for a long time that we’re negotiating for the release of our dual nationals in Tehran.
‘There are some very sad cases, including Nazanin.
‘I really don’t think I should say much more, I’m sorry, although things are moving forward.
‘I shouldn’t really say much more right now just because those negotiations continue to be under way and we’re going right up to the wire.’
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said British negotiators were working in Iran to release dual national including Nazanin.
She told Sky News: ‘We have been having discussions. I met my counterpart, the Iranian foreign minister, back in September – we’ve been in regular touch since.
‘We do have a team in Tehran, but I absolutely can’t say anything else at this stage.’
Ms Truss claimed the UK was working ‘very hard’ to ‘secure the release of Nazanin’, and other dual-nationals.
The Cabinet minister said it was also a ‘priority to pay the debt that we owe to Iran’ – a reference to the £400 million outstanding in relation to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s – but stressed she could not say anymore.
Meanwhile, Hampstead and Kilburn Labour representative Ms Siddiq told BBC Breakfast: ‘As you can imagine, (her husband) Richard is feeling hopeful, more hopeful than he has in six years. You know, this campaign has been very long. It feels like there’s a bit of light at the end of a very long tunnel.’
She said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been called in for ‘quite intense’ questioning by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence and then had her British passport returned – for the first time since April 3, 2016.
Ms Siddiq added: ‘She is technically on a travel ban but the fact that a passport has been given to her makes us feel very hopeful, and her husband is certainly feeling quite hopeful today.’
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