UK downplays chances of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’srelease despite reports in Iran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her husband Richard Ratcliffe. Picture: Family Handout/PA

UK officials have downplayed the prospect of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imminent release from Iran, after state TV suggested Britain would pay a £400 million debt to secure her release.

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the British-Iranian charity worker, said the family had not been updated, as hopes were raised by the suggestion the long-running dispute had been resolved.

The UK Foreign Office said “legal discussions are ongoing” despite the claim made on Iranian state TV, which cited an anonymous official.

“We’ve heard nothing," said Mr Ratcliffe, who has campaigned for the release of his wife after her detention in 2016.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter Gabriella (Ian West/PA)

Earlier in the day, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the debt “is not actually the thing that is holding us up at the moment”.

The dispute dates back to the 1970s when the then-shah of Iran paid the UK £400 million for 1,500 Chieftain tanks.

Britain refused to deliver the tanks to the new Islamic Republic when the shah was toppled in 1979, but kept the cash despite British courts accepting it should be repaid.

Hopes were raised when Iranian state TV reported that the UK had agreed to pay the £400 million to see the release of the 42-year-old.

The anonymous official was also quoted saying a deal had been made between the US and Tehran for a prisoner swap in exchange for the release of seven billion dollars (£5 billion) of frozen Iranian funds, but Washington did not immediately acknowledge any deal.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: “We continue to explore options to resolve this 40-year-old case and will not comment further as legal discussions are ongoing.”

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, Mr Raab said it was clear the Iranians were using Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe as “leverage” and suggested authorities were holding her “hostage” in treatment amounting to “torture”.

The report in Iran raised the prospect that there was co-ordinated action between Tehran, London and Washington.

Last Monday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged “we are working with our American friends on this issue”.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, of north London, was detained in Tehran in 2016 while taking daughter Gabriella to see her family, as authorities made widely refuted allegations of spying.

She completed a five-year sentence in March, having carried out hunger strikes in protest over her treatment in jail as diplomatic efforts were made to secure her freedom.

But she and her family were delivered a fresh blow last week when she was given an additional one-year jail term. She was also banned from leaving Iran for a further year.