Nazanine Zahari-Ratcliffe

Still can’t see her being released, new charge to face, new mind games! Bless her.
 
It is quite appalling but the government must now consider paying Iran the £400m they paid for arms that we did not deliver some decades ago and could not pay due to EU sanctions.
We are no longer under EU rules so could pay the money owed and hopefully see the release of the lady.
 
The ongoing pain that this woman and her family are suffering is disgraceful and nothing less than torture. For a Government of any country to put a woman through what she is going through is sub human and medieval.
It was our Foreign Secretary at the time who didnt help her case, as I recall. Whatever happened to him?
 
It is quite appalling but the government must now consider paying Iran the £400m they paid for arms that we did not deliver some decades ago and could not pay due to EU sanctions.
We are no longer under EU rules so could pay the money owed and hopefully see the release of the lady.
That’s our only export bombs and bullets - I support that ban - why on earth would we send this military stuff to a country like this - I don’t support us stealing the money - humanitarian aid and some nice mother’s day’s cards might go down betterv
 
That’s our only export bombs and bullets - I support that ban - why on earth would we send this military stuff to a country like this -
Yes I support the ban but the arms sales were agreed back in the 1970's paid for and not delivered now the Iranians want their money back have been to the international court who found in their favour and the rest is history.
 
Between 1971 and 1976, the Shah of Iran had signed for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles costing £650 million. Iran paid the British government for the new weaponry up front.

The problem came in 1979 when, with just 185 tanks delivered to Tehran, the Iranian Revolution deposed Shah Pahlavi and installed an Islamic Republic The massive deal, fully sanctioned by the Ministry of Defence, foundered due to sanctions and the Iranians, perhaps understandably, asked for their money back. But Thatcher’s UK government ignored them.

What happened next added injury to insult. The MoD-owned private supply company then sold the embargoed tanks to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq ! Who promptly used them, aided and abetted by the West, in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. Which cost up to about a million casualties on both sides. It’s not surprising the Iranians are pissed off at us.

I understand that there is a repayment of £390 million that has been agreed by the UK to be repaid soon to Iran. However, that will also go into the embargoed Iran account in a British bank, so the Iranians will still not benefit from the repayment. No wonder the Iranians remain pissed off. But that’s because they are still refining and enriching uranium, hence the sanctions.

I deplore the use of Nazanine Zahari-Ratcliffe as a hostage and bargaining counter in the dispute. Although she was released from jail last year after serving 4 years and then another year under house arrest on a trumped-up charge, the Iranians are threatening to charge her with a new offence (no doubt also trumped up) to send her back to jail. It’s about time our authorities swallowed their pride and got her out, I am afraid. She has been tortured in jail and suffered inhumane treatment. And we need proper diplomacy to reduce tensions in the region.
 
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Too busy killing one another in Wales
That is an absolutely crass reply R3.

Whilst I'm at it why not blame Boris for it? I expected someone would involve him.

A K gives a decent breakdown of what the problem appears to be with Iran, and in no way does that warrant a so-called civilized country from carrying out kidnap, torture and ruining the lives of a family who have no way of fighting back. As NZR now has diplomatic cover from the UK it remains to be seen whether or not the Iranians take note of that.

Iran has a history of kidnap etc, ranging from the dust-up with the USA, re its embassy staff, in the early seventies through to the boarding of and confiscation of foreign vessels, usually tankers, in the Gulf, including a British Royal Navy vessel with 15 crew, and a number of other dual nationals presently incarcerated, no doubt interrogated, and tortured in Iranian prisons.

None of this has anything to do with private individuals and NZR should be released now.
 
I’am pretty sure had NZR been American she would have been released a long time ago because America would not have accepted the way one of its citizens is/was being treated.
Shame on our Government for not doing more to release her, shame on Iran for still holding a mother and a wife after 5 years for no crime sentenced in a Kangaroo court.
 
She was given 5 years from the original sentence and has now served that. The fact that she has had her electronic tag removed may offer some hope that she will be released at her next court appearance on Sunday, rather than facing more charges and custody. I can't see how the Iranians would gain anything from retaining her further, as they are not going to get (and shouldn't get) any 'ransom' from the UK. And they may get some diplomatic brownie points from doing that. The fact that the Pope is currently on a visit may well indicate that Iran wants to start to normalise relationships with the West again
 
She was given 5 years from the original sentence and has now served that. The fact that she has had her electronic tag removed may offer some hope that she will be released at her next court appearance on Sunday, rather than facing more charges and custody. I can't see how the Iranians would gain anything from retaining her further, as they are not going to get (and shouldn't get) any 'ransom' from the UK. And they may get some diplomatic brownie points from doing that. The fact that the Pope is currently on a visit may well indicate that Iran wants to start to normalise relationships with the West again
I think you'll find that the Pope is next door, in Iraq!
 
Between 1971 and 1976, the Shah of Iran had signed for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles costing £650 million. Iran paid the British government for the new weaponry up front.

The problem came in 1979 when, with just 185 tanks delivered to Tehran, the Iranian Revolution deposed Shah Pahlavi and installed an Islamic Republic The massive deal, fully sanctioned by the Ministry of Defence, foundered due to sanctions and the Iranians, perhaps understandably, asked for their money back. But Thatcher’s UK government ignored them.

What happened next added injury to insult. The MoD-owned private supply company then sold the embargoed tanks to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq ! Who promptly used them, aided and abetted by the West, in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. Which cost up to about a million casualties on both sides. It’s not surprising the Iranians are pissed off at us.

I understand that there is a repayment of £390 million that has been agreed by the UK to be repaid soon to Iran. However, that will also go into the embargoed Iran account in a British bank, so the Iranians will still not benefit from the repayment. No wonder the Iranians remain pissed off. But that’s because they are still refining and enriching uranium, hence the sanctions.

I deplore the use of Nazanine Zahari-Ratcliffe as a hostage and bargaining counter in the dispute. Although she was released from jail last year after serving 4 years and then another year under house arrest on a trumped-up charge, the Iranians are threatening to charge her with a new offence (no doubt also trumped up) to send her back to jail. It’s about time our authorities swallowed their pride and got her out, I am afraid. She has been tortured in jail and suffered inhumane treatment. And we need proper diplomacy to reduce tensions in the region.
Excellent post. 400 million pounds!! Just think about it for a second.
 
She was given 5 years from the original sentence and has now served that. The fact that she has had her electronic tag removed may offer some hope that she will be released at her next court appearance on Sunday, rather than facing more charges and custody. I can't see how the Iranians would gain anything from retaining her further, as they are not going to get (and shouldn't get) any 'ransom' from the UK. And they may get some diplomatic brownie points from doing that. The fact that the Pope is currently on a visit may well indicate that Iran wants to start to normalise relationships with the West again
Ransom?!! The UK owes that money. Read Archibald Knox's post.
 
Only on AVFTT.
It was Boris' comments to a Commons committee that directly led to her serving 5 years instead of 2. That's a matter of public record. He said she was a journalism teacher, which was interpreted as publishing propaganda against the state.
 
It was Boris' comments to a Commons committee that directly led to her serving 5 years instead of 2. That's a matter of public record. He said she was a journalism teacher, which was interpreted as publishing propaganda against the state.
I know. It was the juxtaposition of you alluding to that followed shortly after by someone being ironic about the inevitability of someone on here blaming Boris - the inference being that there was no good reason to do so.
 
I see this poor woman has appeared in court again this morning on new hyped up charges.
After serving 5 years on so called spying charges will this woman ever get released?
It’s time something more was done because talking is doing nothing at all.
 
The ongoing pain that this woman and her family are suffering is disgraceful and nothing less than torture. For a Government of any country to put a woman through what she is going through is sub human and medieval.
That's what that tinpot nation is all about it's about time they were dealt with.
 
Send the SAS in and to hell with the consequences.
As soon as they’ve lifted her round up any Iranian diplomatic staff here and send them home with the money that we owe them.
 
Send the SAS in and to hell with the consequences.
As soon as they’ve lifted her round up any Iranian diplomatic staff here and send them home with the money that we owe them.
I think they need to send all the Iranian diplomats back now arrest the Ambassador on a spying charge sentence him to 5 years in prison and then arrange an exchange, simple and we get to keep the money.
 
I think they need to send all the Iranian diplomats back now arrest the Ambassador on a spying charge sentence him to 5 years in prison and then arrange an exchange, simple and we get to keep the money.
They can have the money for me, mate. So long as it’s not part of any deal to get Naz back.
That’s why I’d wait til we know she’s in the air, so we can say we don’t make deals with blackmailers.
 
It doesn't work like it does in the movies.
Really?
Operation Barras (Sierra Leone), Iranian Embassy Siege, Entebbe, Bin Laden, Mogadishu flight 181........plus countless others, including many we don’t know about.

Edit: I’m not being flippant, but where there’s a will there’s a way.
 
As, it seems, were the British Embassy who declined to accompany her to court this morning.

Still, those poached eggs and spinach on toast won’t eat themselves 👍
It’s a disgrace, mate.
I was probably OTT earlier about sending troops in to rescue her, but we seem to be standing idly by whilst this poor woman gets destroyed. It boils my blood.
 
It doesn't work like it does in the movies.
Someone should have told Boris Johnson when he was making comments about her 'training journalists'. I cant decide if that was Laurel and Hardy at their best or maybe one of the Austin Powers movies.

Some view those comments as the basis for the continued persecution against her.

Edit: I see those comments have been covered.
 
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