LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has argued that the release of Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Iranian prison took much too long.
Mr Hunt stated to the BBC. The return to the UK of the British-Iranian couple last week was an amazing achievement, but it should have happened sooner.
He demanded an impartial investigation of the matter.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained for six years on suspicion of spying.
She was imprisoned while visiting her parents in Iran, and she has consistently disputed the claims.
Mr Ashoori, who was also released at the same time, had been held for over five years on spying charges, which he rejected.
Mr Hunt, who served as Foreign Secretary from July 2018 to July 2019, told BBC Radio 4’s Today that he did “all I could” in his position to obtain their release, but that it “took too long.”
While claiming that Iran bears “primary responsibility” for their arrest, the Conservative MP continued, “I believe we all have to ask ‘could we have done it faster?” And I believe the answer is that we could.”
He did, however, applaud Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and the Foreign Office for securing the release of the couple, calling it “an extraordinary achievement.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe reacted angrily to Ms Truss’s release on Monday, saying, “I have seen five foreign secretaries change over the period of six years. How many secretaries does it take for someone to come home?”Â
Mr Hunt also praised PM Boris Johnson for authorising the settlement of a £400 million debt to Iran related to a botched arms sale in the 1970s, saying he “deserves some credit.”
Both the Iranian and the UK governments have stated that the two situations should not be linked, however Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe claims that her captors told her that her detention was tied to the unpaid bill.
When Mr Hunt first became foreign secretary, he said there was “a lot of reluctance” to pay the debt because he feared it would be perceived as a “ransom” and promote more hostage taking.
“But this is a debt, not a ransom, and I believe the decision to pay it in principle was made when I was foreign secretary,” he stated.
Because Iran is subject to economic sanctions, the realities of repaying the debt “took a long time to sort out,” he noted.
Morad Tahbaz, who holds Iranian, American and British citizenship, is still being held in Iran.
Mr Tahbaz, who was born in the United Kingdom, was arrested in Iran in January 2018 while undertaking conservation work.
Under the guise of engaging in environmental and scientific projects, he along with seven other conservationists were accused of gathering sensitive information about Iran’s critical territories. The charges are denied by all eight defendants.
His family claims they were told by the Foreign Office that Mr Tahbaz would be released as part of any deal to free Iranian hostages.
Mr Tahbaz, 66, was recalled to detention last week after being released on furlough on the same day as Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori.
Roxanne, his daughter, told BBC Breakfast that her father, who had cancer, had been on a three-day hunger strike.
Ms Tahbaz described her inability to visit her parents for four years as “devastating.” Her mother is likewise barred from leaving Iran due to a travel ban.
She went on to say that the family hoped the UK government would honour their word and at the absolute least get her father an unrestricted furlough and her mother’s travel prohibition lifted.
