Boris Johnson calls for ‘immediate release’ of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in meeting with Iran President
2 min read
Boris Johnson called for detained British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to be released from prison in a meeting with Iran’s president.
The Prime Minister said the mother-of-two should be freed as he called for wider “progress” on the detention of dual British nationals in the country during talks with Hassan Rouhani.
Downing Street said Mr Johnson used the meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York to call for the “immediate release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals illegally imprisoned in Iran”.
Mr Johnson also invited the Islamic republic’s president to London for further talks.
The PM said his visit to Tehran in 2017 as Foreign Secretary was "very productive but so far inconclusive", but added: “I think we still have a lot of progress to make.”
Mr Johnson said the pair could “discuss things more” in the UK capital, adding: “There are other issues also I wish to raise with you and we retain serious concerns about the detention of dual nationals in Tehran and we are looking forward to make progress on that.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is currently in prison in Tehran on espionage charges, which she and the UK strongly deny.
Mr Johnson was accused of making her case worse when he was Foreign Secretary, after he wrongly said she had been teaching journalism in the Middle Eastern country when she was arrested.
When asked about the gaffe in June during a Tory leadership hustings Mr Johnson accused those blaming him over his remarks of "exculpating" the Iranian regime.
“In that case, it didn't, I think, make any difference," he said.
“If you point the finger at the UK, all you are doing is exculpating those who are truly responsible, which is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.”
Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, later said the comments had had a "traumatic effect" on her.
"Of course they had consequences," he told BBC Radio 4. "The main difference they had was obviously they enabled a propaganda campaign that was run against Nazanin.
Downing Street said Mr Johnson also raised "deep concern about Iran's destabilising activity in the region" in Tuesday's meeting.
It comes after he said there was a "very high degree of probability" that the country was behind attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
The PM was also praised by Donald Trump after he said Barack Obama had struck a "bad deal" with Iran over its nuclear ambitions - which the US pulled out of in 2018.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
