By Haris Hussnain | Contributor
The husband of the imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has just finished a 3 week hunger strike. Richard Ratcliffe camped outside the Foreign office in protest of his wifeÔÇÖs imprisonment and the imprisonment of other British and Iranian dual nationals. He has been protesting for the government to take action, saying ÔÇ£I guess IÔÇÖm looking for some kind of breakthroughÔÇØ.
Nazanin was first imprisoned in 2016 in Tehran on charges of plotting to topple the Iranian government. She has always denied these claims. Whilst NazaninÔÇÖs case is the most well known,┬á there are other British-Iranians in the same situation. Despite negotiations for NazaninÔÇÖs release the UK has stated that it cannot pay a ┬ú400m debt to Iran, which is seen as a precondition to NazaninÔÇÖs and other dual nationalsÔÇÖ release, due to bank restrictions caused by international sanctions.┬á
On the 19th day of his hunger strike Richard Ratcliffe met with the Middle East Minister, James Cleverly. Mr Ratcliffe commented that ÔÇ£it felt like, you know, perfectly nice, sincere, caring, everyone in the room was caring. But you know we are still stuck in the same status quo. WeÔÇÖre still stuck in the same problems that led us to end up on hunger strikeÔÇØ.┬á
RatcliffeÔÇÖs meeting followed talks with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, who said ÔÇ£that now what the UK government are bringing up is the limitations on banking interactions, saying itÔÇÖs a difficulty and finally they cannot do itÔÇØ.┬á He was pressed on the need for Iran to release all wrongfully imprisoned dual nationals including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz. Ali Bagheri Kani has stressed that the debt is not related to RatcliffeÔÇÖs release and has also stated that the debt is lower than ┬ú500m including the interest added to it.┬á The British Foreign Office hasnÔÇÖt commented on the reasons why an agreed debt cannot be paid.┬á
Mr. Ali Bagheri Kani was asked if he had a message for Mr. Ratcliffe. He answered ÔÇ£we have Iranians that are in prison in the UK for more than 20 years . One manÔÇÖs health is in danger and he is very weak. We work day by day with other countries for the swap of prisoners. This is not very unusualÔÇØ.┬á┬á
With Iran still recovering from the 2018 nuclear deal abandoned by Donald Trump, and the UK’s inability to pay debts it is unclear what the fate of Nazanin and other dual nations will be.
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