Iranian press have poured cold water on hopes Boris Johnson’s trip to the country may help a British woman imprisoned by Tehran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly plotting against Iran’s government. She has always denied the allegations.
After nearly an hour of talks with the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, yesterday, a spokesman for Boris Johnson said they ‘both spoke forthrightly’ and ‘agreed on the need to make progress in all areas’.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meets Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in talks many hoped would pave the way to allowing imprisoned Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed
But reports in Iranian media appear to play down hopes the visit will lead to any change on the country’s position on Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her daughter Gabriella
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has said he hopes the talks could lead to his wife being freed before Christmas.
But Iranian media played down those hopes today, undermining Mr Johnson’s visit and doubling down on the disputed claims against Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The country’s Sharq newspaper said Mr Johnson went home ’empty handed’, while daily Vatan-e Emruz claimed Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was important to the UK because she is an ‘agent’, according to BBC Monitoring.
Papers in the Middle Eastern country also noted that official Iranian accounts of Mr Johnson’s meeting with the president do not mention Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Iranian state TV also did not mention any discussion of the case in its reporting of Mr Johnson’s visit.
The response to the trip came after Mr Radcliffe said he is still optimistic his wife will be home soon.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has been campaigning for her release and hoped Mr Johnson’s visit could pave the way to her being freed
Mr Johnson also met Iran’s foreign minister Javad Nari in Tehran over the weekend
He said Mr Johnson made every effort during his two-day visit to Iran, with ‘positive consequences from that’.
With the postponement of a new court case against his wife, which appeared to come as a result of Mr Johnson’s trip, Mr Ratcliffe said the weekend has been positive, but there is a risk of him over reading it all.
‘We were fearing a bad day and we haven’t had that, which makes it a good day. I guess we will see what the next few days mean,’ he told the Press Association.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard has been campaigning for her to be released
‘But it feels like it a really good sign, almost like we have a momentum – we have had a couple of things that have been positive over the weekend.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, a British-Iranian dual national, has been held in the country since April 2016 on trumped up ‘espionage’ charges.
She had been due in court amid threats to double her five year sentence after Mr Johnson incorrectly told a parliamentary committee that she had been in Iran to train journalists.
In a statement released by her husband yesterday, she said: ‘Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I can see some light today, more than before.
‘The court, the imprisonment emerged all of a sudden out of the blue, so I hope it can disappear out of the blue also – if there is enough will.’