Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has today claimed it took ‘too long’ to secure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release from Iran and that the UK Government ‘owes her an explanation’.
The Conservative MP, who served as Foreign Secretary for two years while the British-Iranian national was being held captive in Tehran, said he and other ministers ‘tried their best’ to return her to the UK.
But he said the Government ‘must be honest’ and say the charity worker’s release ‘should have been solved earlier’.
He also called for an independent investigation into the six-year saga, which ended last week after the UK Government settled a historical £400million debt owed to Iran over a cancelled 1970s order for British tanks.
His comments came as the mother-of-one, 44, yesterday took aim at the Government, saying her freedom should have been secured ‘six years ago’.
In her first televised press conference since arriving back in the UK, she also noted the high turnover of secretaries of state at the Foreign Office since her capture in 2016, telling reporters: ‘I have seen five foreign secretaries over the course of six years.
‘How many foreign secretaries is it going to take for someone to get out? Five?’.
Mr Hunt, who served as Foreign Secretary from July 2018 to July 2019, today admitted Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was ‘absolutely right’ that it took ‘too long to free her’.
And he admitted ‘ministerial turnover’ may have been a factor in the delay in the Government securing her release.
In a post on Twitter, the former minister, who also tackled online criticism of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with some describing her comments yesterday as ‘ungrateful’, said: ‘Those criticising Nazanin have got it so wrong. She doesn’t owe us gratitude: we owe her an explanation…
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) has today admitted it took ‘too long’ to secure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release from Iran and the Government ‘owes her an explanation’
The Conservative MP, who served as Foreign Secretary for two years while the British-Iranian national (pictured) was being held captive in Tehran, said he and other ministers had ‘tried their best’ to return her to the UK
In a post on Twitter, the former minister said: ‘Those criticising Nazanin have got it so wrong. She doesn’t owe us gratitude: we owe her an explanation…
Mr Hunt, who served as Foreign Secretary from July 2018 to July 2019 (pictured meeting Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard during his time in office), today admitted Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was ‘absolutely right’ that it took ‘too long to free her’
‘She’s absolutely right that it took too long to bring her home.
‘I tried my best – as did other foreign secretaries – but if trying our best took six years then we must be honest and say the problem should have been solved earlier.
‘Ministerial turnover may have been a factor. So might initial reluctance to pay the debt because people worried it would look like a ransom.
‘So undoubtedly were the complications over how to pay a country that is sanctioned.
Calling for a probe into the saga, he said: ‘It is right that an independent investigation now takes place as to what those reasons were, something I would be glad to assist with.
‘Such a review also needs to assess whether our current policy is sufficient to stop hostage taking in the future.’
Yesterday, in her first televised press conference since returning to the UK, the British-Iranian national admitted she was still getting to know her family ‘better’ again following ‘six years of hell’ in Tehran.
In an emotional press conference, she praised her ‘amazing’ husband Richard’s tireless campaigning efforts and said her reunion with him and daughter Gabriella had been ‘precious’ and ‘glorious’.
Mr Ratcliffe meanwhile said their family needed time to ‘heal’ after a traumatic six years, but that he was ‘immensely pleased and proud’ that his wife was home.
He also joked with reporters that he was ‘negotiating’ with his wife about the pair sharing the same bed once again, revealing that she had been sleeping alongside their young seven-year-old Gabriella following her return on Thursday.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 44, who has been held as a prisoner in Iran since 2016, was flown back to the UK last week after the Government settled a historical £400million debt owed to Iran over a cancelled 1970s order for British tanks.
Mr Ratcliffe, who has campaigned tirelessly for her release over the last six years, praised the efforts of the Government in helping secure her return.
But sitting beside her husband, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who turned up to the media briefing wearing yellow and blue, the colours of Ukraine, questioned why it had taken so long.
‘The journey back was tough. I grant what Richard said about the Foreign Secretary, but I don’t really agree with him on that level,’ she told journalists.
‘I have seen five foreign secretaries over the course of six years. That is unprecedented given the politics of the UK.
‘I love you Richard, I respect what you believe.
‘But I was told many many times: ‘Oh, we are going to get you home’. That never happened.
‘So there was a time when I thought: ‘You know what, I’m never going to trust you’, because I’ve been told many many times that I’m going to be taken home.
‘But that never happened. How many Foreign Secretaries is it going to take for someone to get out? Five?
‘It should have been one of them eventually. So now, here we are. What happened now should have happened six years ago.
‘It shouldn’t have taken six years. And I think we have gone through a lot, it has been a tough journey.’
Today, her husband Richard, who has campaigned tirelessly for her release since 2016, tentatively praised the efforts of the Government in helping secure her return. But sitting beside her husband Richard, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who turned up to the media briefing wearing yellow and blue, the colours of Ukraine, questioned why it had taken so long for the UK to get her home
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has today given her first broadcast interview following her release from imprisonment in Iran
While Mrs Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe praised her husband Richard’s tireless campaigning efforts on her behalf, she appeared to disagree on his praise for the Government, saying her release should have happened ‘six years ago’
She also said her experience in Tehran would continue to ‘haunt me’ and that it would be ‘very difficult’ to talk about what she had been through.
‘There is no other way around it. It will be with me.’
Meanwhile she saved praise for her husband’s campaigning adding: ‘(I would like to thank) My amazing husband who has been tirelessly campaigning for me, and my daughter who has been very very patient with mummy coming home.
‘The coming back was very tough. You realise you are coming back to a daughter that is nearly eight. I left her when she was nearly two. I’m getting to know them better now,’ she added.
Earlier in the conference, which also included a talk from Roxanne Tahbaz, the daughter of British-US-Iranian detainee Morad Tahbaz, who remains in prison in Iran, Mr Ratcliffe had praised the Government’s efforts in getting his wife home.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker from north London, left the UK for Iran in 2016 for a family visit. But during the visit she was imprisoned on false espionage charges.
Speaking during the conference, Mr Ratcliffe said: ‘I have lots of thank-yous to say. Thank you to the Government. Thank you to the Foreign Secretary did promise to get Nazanin home and she did.
‘That has been a long struggle, lots of people working behind the scenes.
‘We haven’t always agreed, but we had lovely three days with them after Nazanin came home, very nurturing, very kind people, and they got her home.
‘It is for us over, a new chapter, a process of healing and recovery and going back to normal.’
He added that he was ‘immensely pleased’ to have his wife home, saying: ‘It has been a long struggle. I’m immensely pleased and proud of my wife, proud to have her home, starting a new chapter, and get to be a normal family again.’
However he said it would be ‘baby steps’ for him and his family, revealing he was not yet ‘allowed’ to sleep alongside his wife and daughter Gabriella.
Mr Ratcliffe said: ‘It is baby steps for us. I’m super proud of her, he strength, her grace.
‘We are still negotiating whether daddy is allowed in the same bed as Gabriella and Nazanin.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker from north London, left the UK for Iran in 2016 for a family visit. But during the visit she was imprisoned on false espionage charges
Mr Ratcliffe added that he was ‘immensely pleased’ to have his wife home, saying: ‘It has been a long struggle. I’m immensely pleased and proud of my wife, proud to have her home, starting a new chapter, and get to be a normal family again’
Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, will hold a short private meeting with her, Richard and Ms Siddiq, prior to the press conference
MP Tulip Siddiq, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her daughter Gabriella and her husband Richard Ratcliffe (R), posing with Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle
House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle (R) speaking with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (rear R), her husband Richard Ratcliffe (L) during a meeting at the Speaker’s house, in London
‘We’ll get there. I think we’ll do this (interview) and then we will disappear off and heal a bit.’
He also said it was ‘nice to be retiring’ from the public-eye after six years of campaigning, including a 21-day hunger strike.
Ahead of the media event, chaired by local MP Tulip Siddiq, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was seen arriving at Portcullis House with the Hampstead Labour politician, her husband Richard her daughter Gabriella.
Detention of Iranians at Heathrow Airport may have led to Nazanin’s detention – claims ex- foreign secretary
The detention of an Iranian delegation at Heathrow Airport almost a decade ago may have been behind the arrest of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, former foreign secretary Jack Straw has claimed.
Mr Straw said the Iranian team arrived in the UK in 2013 to discuss the repayment of a historical £400 million pound debt Britain owed for a consignment of tanks that was never delivered.
Although they had been properly issued with visas, the negotiators were held by border officials and sent back to Iran a few days later, Mr Straw said.
He believes the subsequent detention of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe may have been Iran’s way of retaliating.
Britain’s agreement to settle the debt – relating to the cancellation of an order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks after the overthrowing of the Shah of Iran in 1979 – was key to securing the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori.
Mr Straw, who was Labour’s foreign secretary from 2001 to 2006, said the whole affair may have arisen because of the way Britain antagonised Tehran.
Mr Straw, was Labour’s foreign secretary from 2001 to 2006
‘There was full disclosure about why they needed visas and they were given those visas. They got on the aeroplane, they arrived at Heathrow,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
‘There was no welcoming party. Instead, border officials detained them, locked them in an immigration centre for two or three days and then deported them.
‘The Iranians subsequently claimed they were ill-treated. I have no idea whether that was the case, but it was certainly not what they were expecting nor what we should have done.’
No member of the Iranian government was permitted to come to the UK following the sacking of the British embassy in Tehran by protesters in 2011, which Mr Straw said possibly explains the delegation’s treatment.
‘What I surmise, and it is only surmise, is that at this stage the more hardline elements in the regime decided they were going to take some kind of direct action,’ he said.
‘They decided that if somebody suitable presented themselves, which I am afraid Nazanin did when she arrived there in 2016, they would arrest her and charge her with spurious spying charges.’
During his time at the Foreign Office, the tank debt had not been raised as an issue that needed resolving, Mr Straw said.
Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, also held a short private meeting with her, Richard and Ms Siddiq, prior to the press conference.
Ms Siddiq, who had never previously met Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, despite years of campaigning for her, said she was ’emotional’ meeting the charity worker.
‘We knew we were going to meet each other and she had called me to say that I was one of the first people she wanted to see’, Ms Siddiq said.
‘So she came to West Hampstead and we hugged each other for ages and we were both quite tearful and it was quite emotional meeting her.
‘She knew so much about me and I knew so much about her and she did thank me profusely but I said to her ‘it wasn’t me, this was a shared victory and everyone here in this community campaigned for you and, obviously, full credit to Richard – he was the one who was relentless in his campaigning’.’
It comes after Ms Siddiq shared an image of her and the charity volunteer following her return to the UK last week.
She said: ‘We can’t stop smiling!! Incredible to have my brave constituent Nazanin back home. She’s eternally grateful to all of you for campaigning so hard for her release.’
Meanwhile, Ms Siddiq today said she will be asking the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to investigate claims by former foreign secretary Jack Straw that the detention of an Iranian delegation at Heathrow Airport almost a decade ago may have been behind the arrest of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Mr Straw said the Iranian team arrived in the UK in 2013 to discuss the repayment of a historical £400 million pound debt Britain owed for a consignment of tanks that was never delivered.
Although they had been properly issued with visas, the negotiators were held by border officials and sent back to Iran a few days later, Mr Straw said.
He believes the subsequent detention of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe may have been Iran’s way of retaliating.
Britain’s agreement to settle the debt – relating to the cancellation of an order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks after the overthrowing of the Shah of Iran in 1979 – was key to securing the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori.
Mr Straw, who was Labour’s foreign secretary from 2001 to 2006 and has written a book about UK-Iran relations, said the whole affair may have arisen because of the way Britain antagonised Tehran.
‘There was full disclosure about why they needed visas and they were given those visas. They got on the aeroplane, they arrived at Heathrow,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
‘There was no welcoming party. Instead, border officials detained them, locked them in an immigration centre for two or three days and then deported them.
‘The Iranians subsequently claimed they were ill-treated. I have no idea whether that was the case, but it was certainly not what they were expecting nor what we should have done.’
No member of the Iranian government was permitted to come to the UK following the sacking of the British embassy in Tehran by protesters in 2011, which Mr Straw said possibly explains the delegation’s treatment.
‘What I surmise, and it is only surmise, is that at this stage the more hardline elements in the regime decided they were going to take some kind of direct action,’ he said.
‘They decided that if somebody suitable presented themselves, which I am afraid Nazanin did when she arrived there in 2016, they would arrest her and charge her with spurious spying charges.’
During his time at the Foreign Office, the tank debt had not been raised as an issue that needed resolving, Mr Straw said.
‘I dearly wish that it had come up. I am pretty certain that if it had been flagged to me properly I would have said, ‘Hang on a second, we just need to pay this money,” he said.
Responding to the claims: Ms Siddiq said: ‘I owe it to Nazanin to ask questions as to why it took so long to bring Nazanin back and why the debt wasn’t paid for so long, which we know was key,’ she said.
Ahead of the media event, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was seen arriving at the House of Commons with the Hampstead MP, her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella
The British-Iranian national, 44, was reunited with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella in the early hours of Thursday morning at Brize Norton after ‘six years of hell’ languishing in a jail in Tehran
British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held prisoner in Iran for six years, is pictured smiling with Labour MP Tulip Siddiq for Hampstead and Kilburn
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed on security charges after being detained in 2016 at Imam Khomeini Airport following a holiday visit to Iran, where she introduced her daughter to her parents.
The charity worker was flown back to the UK last week after the Government settled a historical £400million debt owed to Iran over a cancelled 1970s order for British tanks.
She was flown into RAF Brize Norton where she was met by her husband and seven-year-old daughter, who she last saw when she was only two years old.
After her arrival, television cameras gathered outside the family’s North London house waiting to capture Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s much anticipated return home on Thursday. But they were sorely disappointed to discover the family had instead been whisked away to a safehouse.
The safehouse in question was in fact Dorneywood – an 18th century mansion sat on a sprawling estate which includes a swimming pool, croquet lawn and 215 acres of lush green woodland, the Telegraph reported.
Typically used by Chancellors of the Exchequer, the grace-and-favour home is owned by the National Trust and the Prime Minister can permit any member of the government to occupy it.
Some of the home’s previous occupants are current Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott – who famously enjoyed a game of croquet on the front lawn.
The family enjoyed two days of peace at the mansion, with Nazanin and Richard getting reacquainted before cooking pizza in the industrial-size kitchen with seven-year-old Gabriella.
But the family are yet to return to their West Hampstead home, and were yesterday relocated to another safehouse. The location has not been disclosed.
A smiling picture of Gabriella and her mother cooking up a pizza in Dorneywood’s huge kitchen was shared on social media by Mr Ratcliffe.
It was swiftly reposted by the family’s local MP, Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, who has also campaigned relentlessly for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s freedom.
Siddiq tweeted: ‘Nazanin told me that this is what she missed most while she was imprisoned – every day moments with her little girl. Today was Gabriella’s choice of making homemade pizzas for lunch’.
But the pair were asked to take the images down by Foreign Office officials over fears their location could be compromised.
The family have now been moved on to another undisclosed location with the family of 67-year-old Anoosheh Ashoori, who was also released alongside Nazanin earlier this week.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe spent the first two days settling back into the UK with her family in a Government-owned Georgian mansion in Buckinghamshire (Dorneywood mansion pictured in the Buckinghamshire countryside)
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 44, was reunited with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella in the early hours of Thursday morning at RAF Brize Norton, but the family were swiftly whisked away to the countryside
The family spent two days at Dorneywood – an 18th century mansion sat on a sprawling estate which includes a swimming pool, croquet lawn and 215 acres of lush green woodland
They enjoyed two days of peace at the mansion, with Nazanin and Richard getting reacquainted before cooking pizza in the industrial-size kitchen with seven-year-old Gabriella
Nazanin landed back on British soil in the early hours of Thursday, along with fellow dual national Ashoori, after the UK finally agreed to settle a long-standing debt to Iran.
Ashoori, 67, was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his elderly mother in Tehran. He was detained in Evin prison for almost five years, having been accused of spying.
Both have consistently and vigorously denied the allegations.
Their release came after months of intensive diplomatic negotiations between London and Tehran.
However Morad Tahbaz, a wildlife conservationist who also holds Iranian citizenship and who was said to be part of the deal to bring Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori back, was taken back into custody after originally being allowed out on furlough last week
Roxanne Tahbaz, speaking at the same press conference as Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe today, said the situation regarding her father was ‘incredibly urgent’.
‘Nazanin’s family’s been really kind and wonderful to us, so we are genuinely happy for them.
‘But obviously it does trigger something for us and it’s very, very devastating that we’re in this position.
‘But we look at their family and their joy, and hope that we’ll have a very similar experience very soon.
Asked for her message to the UK Government, Ms Tahbaz said: ‘I think it’s very clear that it’s incredibly urgent at this stage, and the bottom line is we want them home.’
Mr Ratcliffe, who campaigned tirelessly for his wife’s release and was instrumental in securing her freedom, told the Times that Nazanin would like to focus on being a full-time mother in the immediate future but that she has not ruled out returning to a campaigning role.
He told the newspaper: ‘People come out with an extra will to make up for lost time and to stop others having to battle against the bad guys that they feel are responsible.
‘And that can take different directions. While I’m sure she’s happy, I can’t tell where her head will be in six months. I’m sure she’s feeling a lot less angry today than she was a week ago. There’s nothing like freedom for changing your perspective.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s neighbours told MailOnline that she cannot wait to return home and take Gabrielle to school for the first time like any other mother.
Her parents-in-law John and Barbara have joked that their son’s North London home needs to be cleaned up urgently because it is in an ‘appalling’ state after years of living without her – and they are considering heading up from Hampshire to do it themselves.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s friends and neighbours in North London said Richard and Gabriella are ‘obviously absolutely overjoyed that mummy is home’.
‘There is so much going on and they need time to adjust but Richard said that they just wanted to settle back into normal life – taking walks in the park, going out for a coffee.’
The neighbour added: ‘Richard said that Nazanin was most excited about taking Gabriella to school in the morning and picking her up at the end of the day like any other parent. I’m so happy for them.’
Back at last: The Zaghari-Ratcliffe family are finally reunited after Nazanin was detained for nearly six years in Iran
The family have been reunited after the mother-of-one’s harrowing six-year stint in an Iranian jail on trumped-up spy charges (pictured before her arrest)
Another neighbour said: ‘They left here on Wednesday afternoon and Richard said that they were unlikely to be back for a couple of days.
‘I think that now they are all back together, coming home for the first time will feel like taking their first steps towards returning to normality.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked as a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.
In an interview by the charity after her release, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla described her as ‘a very dedicated and bubbly colleague’, adding: ‘I didn’t know just how resilient she is. I have nothing but admiration. Nazanin’s life was upended, but her spirit was never broken. She is a truly remarkable woman, with a truly remarkable family.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s two days of bliss in Dorneywood with her family came after Channel 4 said it will air a documentary about Richard Ratcliffe’s campaign to free his wife over the past six years.
The single-episode documentary, called ‘Nazanin’, follows the life of Mr Ratcliffe as he balanced a political campaign with raising Gabriella.
The broadcaster said it includes how the youngster coped with separation from her mother, and the moment Mr Ratcliffe realised her detention was linked to a £400 million debt dating back to the 1970s.
As Gabriella rushed into her mother’s arms — the intimate moment obscured from the camera as they stood behind a screen — we heard, amid the tears, the excited babble of a little girl’s voice. ‘You smell nice,’ Gabriella told her mummy, dissipating the tension as only a child can, before Nazanin replied: ‘Do I? But I haven’t had a shower for 24 hours!’
Finally reunited: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured holding her seven-year-old daughter Gabriella and with her husband Richard, and Anoosheh Ashoori with family members including his daughter Elika after landing in the UK
Pure joy: Nazanin shares an emotional moment with her seven-year-old daughter Gabriella after landing back in the UK
It also follows the final days of negotiations with the British Foreign Office in Tehran and Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s journey home.
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: ‘Nazanin is an intimate, access-driven documentary – part love story, part political thriller. It has a human story with a big heart and mixes original, observational filming with never before seen material filmed by Nazanin herself about her ordeal.’
Nazanin will air later this year.
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