Zarif: Nazanin Zaghari was supposed to be exchanged for 400 million pounds
The Iranian foreign minister says that the then British foreign secretary had offered to pay off the debt for the purchase of Chieftain tanks in exchange for the release of Nazanin Zaghari. He announced that he was ready to mediate for this, but Jeremy Hunt called the matter “blackmail.”
Iran's Foreign Minister acknowledged the discussion of exchanging Nazanin Zaghari in exchange for London's debt to Tehran. Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that he was going to exchange a British-Iranian citizen for the release of Nazanin Zaghari in exchange for London's 40-year debt to Tehran.
Zarif said the proposal was first put forward by then-Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who left the Foreign Office shortly after in July 2016. The proposal was that Britain would pay £400 million in debt to Iran and in return, Zarif would work to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from prison.
London's £400 million debt to Tehran is due to an advance payment for the purchase of Chieftain tanks in 1976, which were not delivered due to the revolution and regime change in Iran.
Zarif told reporters that the offer was on the table even when Boris Johnson became foreign secretary, but was dropped when Jeremy Hunt, the next foreign secretary, took over: “Jeremy said you wanted to take a bribe. I said no, I didn’t start this, Philip did.” Zarif continued that Jeremy Hunt didn’t pursue the job because he wanted to be prime minister.
Zarif said that paying London's debt to Tehran did not amount to ransom, adding that as foreign minister he had no role in judicial decisions for an Iranian citizen: "But I can intervene and offer the court a swap for a foreigner accused of espionage."
Nazanin Zaghari, a Thomson Reuters Foundation employee, was arrested at the airport in April 2016 while returning from a family trip and later sentenced to five years in prison on charges of attempting “subversion” and “espionage.” She holds dual citizenship, but Iran does not recognize this for an Iranian citizen.
The Iranian Foreign Minister said that he recently raised this issue with Dominic Raab, the current British Foreign Secretary, in a telephone conversation, but there was no result.
Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin Zaghari's husband, who is currently in New York and plans to meet with Zarif, said: "During the three and a half years that Nazanin has been imprisoned, we have had a lot of private news related to my wife's arrest and the related debt. I am glad that the Iranian Foreign Minister has spoken so frankly."
Ratcliffe has now launched a campaign called "Families Against State Hostage Taking."
The Guardian writes that British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson strongly opposed the proposal, saying that paying this £400 million debt to Iran is politically unfeasible, especially when the United States is trying to limit the Revolutionary Guard's financial resources.
British officials have called Zarif's comments about Jeremy Hunt "vicious" and denied the claim that he did not arrange for Iran's debt to be paid because he became prime minister.
In November 2017, the British newspaper The Telegraph first reported, citing unnamed British government sources, that the British government was paying for Nazanin Zaghari's release. Officials from both governments denied the news.
Source: DW
