Liz Truss: We owe Iran and repaying it is now our priority

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced on Wednesday, March 15, that paying London's £400 million debt to Tehran and the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national prisoner in Iran, are priorities for the country's government.

In response to a question from a Sky News reporter, Ms. Truss, without mentioning whether this debt has been paid to Iran, only said that these two issues have been prioritized.

He added, however, "We have made it clear that this is a legitimate debt to Iran and we have been looking for ways to pay it."

His comments come a day after Tulip Seddiq, a member of parliament and close to Ms. Zaghari's family, tweeted in the UK that Nazanin Zaghari had her passport revoked after six years.

Ms. Seddiq also announced the presence of a British negotiating team in Tehran, and the British Foreign Secretary confirmed the presence of this team in Iran without giving details.

Unconfirmed news has been published in Persian-language cyberspace indicating that the British government's £400 million debt to Iran has been paid.

Iranian state media reported in 2021, citing anonymous Iranian officials, that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen, would be released after paying this debt.

The British government owes Iran about four hundred million pounds for not delivering the Chieftain model tanks, a contract for which was signed more than four decades ago between the Pahlavi regime and the then British government.

Nazanin Zaghari, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 at the end of her trip to Iran to visit her family on charges of "espionage" and sentenced to five years in prison.

Last year, despite the end of the dual citizen's sentence, the Iranian government opened a new case against her, once again sentencing Ms. Zaghari to one year in prison.

Source: Radio Farda