Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori Released

So, no blame on the Iranians then..?

 

Of course the Iranians are to blame - they were the ones that unjustly imprisoned her. But useless Johnson made the situation worse, almost certainly delaying her release during his disastrous spell as the worst Foreign Secretary in living memory.

Also, the government has now accepted that there was a legitimate financial debt owed to Iran related to an uncompleted order for tanks. It's almost certain that NZ-R was being held as leverage for that debt. Had we accepted responsibility for the (now acknowledged) debt earlier, she would have been spared several years of imprisonment and estrangement from her family.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/mar/15/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffes-six-years-of-bewilderment-and-injustice?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

I'm not sure the debt was ever disputed or denied, it's been brought up many times over the past 6 years, deal should have been made sooner...

 

Exactly. It's disgraceful that an innocent woman has been allowed to rot in captivity for political expediency.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/16/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-home-boris-johnson-prison-iran?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Incompetence and political chicanery writ large.

 

Even David Lammy, yes that one , has just said in the commons that it was Iran that was totally to blame for this situation by using hostages as bargaining chips...

 

What a crazy statement to make

No matter what your lefty rags tell you, a large degree of blame doesn’t lie with Boris, it was the Iranians and Iran only that have kept her locked up.

Your anger and action, if any, should be directed at Iran and solely Iran.

But as with any lefty, any opportunity to bash the tories yeah?

 

Labour could not ever have done any better as the great British public, as always, deemed them unfit to govern...

 

But the Americans managed it and got their hostages out in 2016, while our useless excuse of a government dithered for years.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/16/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-home-boris-johnson-prison-iran?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

No one is disputing that the Iranians are totally to blame for holding her hostage.

But that doesn't excuse the fact that our government has handled the situation atrociously for years. Eg, Johnson's shockingly ill-prepared gaffe about her giving journalism lessons provided the Iranians with an excuse to continue their false narrative and keep her imprisoned for much longer than necessary.
Despite the sanctions the Yanks, under Obama, got their hostages out in 2016.

 

If we had returned the money when it was due back to them in 1979 all this would not have arisen in the first place, It is a disgrace we kept the money for an order we did not complete

 

So have sanctions been lifted against Iran to allow the payment?

 

It seems like they've actually paid the debt to a neutral third party with the agreement that Iran only actually receive it for things that are exempt from the sanctions such as humatarian aid. How stringently that can be policed is anyone's guess.

Got to say that Liz Truss is generally one of ky least favourite members of the cabinet but she deserves a decent amount of credit for this deal. It wasn't something that I ever expected a solution to.