British and Iranian Foreign Ministers Meet to Discuss Detained British Citizens and the JCPOA
The British Mission to the United Nations announced plans for British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to meet with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
The statement, sent to VOA via email on Sunday evening, September 19 (Eastern Time), said the two ministers would meet to discuss “British citizens detained in Iran” and the “nuclear deal.” The meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 19, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to the statement, Ms. Truss will press Iran on current consular matters, including the “arbitrary detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,” and will call on Iran to “allow Ms. Zaghari to return home to her daughter and husband in the UK,” as she approaches the 2,000th day of her detention. She will also call for the immediate release of all British citizens “unjustly” detained in Iran, including Anousheh Asshouri and Morad Tahbaz.
The British Mission to the United Nations also said in the statement that Ms. Truss, while emphasizing that the resumption of bilateral relations between the two countries must have shared interests, will cite "continued nuclear non-compliance and the escalation of Iran's nuclear program" as obstacles to significant progress.
The statement added that the British Foreign Secretary will urge Iran to return to the negotiating table "before it is too late" and resume full compliance with its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA.
Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, told the BBC World Service on Sunday morning, September 19, that he had spoken to Liz Truss, the new British Foreign Secretary, about his wife's case and had asked her to take action to confront the Iranian government's "hostage-taking," which he said had cost the Islamic Republic nothing.
The "Free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe" campaign, ahead of the 2,000th day of her detention next Thursday, has called for the immediate sanctions against 10 Iranian officials, most of whom played a direct role in the hostage-takings following the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979.
Currently, in addition to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Morad Tahbaz, and Anousheh Ashouri, several other dual and multi-nationals are imprisoned in Iran, including Emad Sharghi, Siamak Namazi and his father Baqer Namazi (Iranian-American citizens), Ahmadreza Jalali (Iranian-Swedish researcher), Masoud Mosaheb (Austrian-German citizen), Kamran Ghaderi (Iranian-Austrian citizen), Mehrdad Rauf (Iranian-British citizen), and Nahid Taghavi (German citizen of Iranian descent).
Source: Voice of America
