Iran Rejects Link between UK Debts, Detainee's Case
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied media reports that have drawn a link between the settlement of UK’s debts and Tehran’s approval to free Nazanin Zaghari, a dual Iranian-British citizen jailed on espionage charges.
In an interview with YJC on Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi quashed rumors that British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jeremy Hunt has offered to pay off hundreds of millions of pounds of London’s debts to persuade Iran to release Nazanin Zaghari, who is serving prison term in Iran after being convicted of espionage.
Strongly denying the report, Qassemi said such issue has been raised by certain media outlets to create a fabricated link between the two cases, either unconsciously or purposefully and initiated by certain political centers which aim to mount pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The spokesman explained that the case of Britain’s debts to Iran dates back to before victory of the Islamic Revolution, while Zaghari’s case is something totally different which has been dealt with by the Judiciary.
At the time of her arrest in April 2016, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) referred to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as “a main ringleader of hostile institutions who had been involved in criminal activities over the past years under the auspices of the foreign governments’ media and espionage services.”
She is now serving a five-year sentence in Iran.
British media outlets had already raised speculations that London would hand 400 million pounds to Iran to settle an outstanding debt from the 1970s, when the country’s deposed king placed an order for Chieftan military tanks. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the UK held onto the money.
The money is being held by the British High Court on behalf of the government, after The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of Iran in 2001, according to British sources.
