British-Iranian aid worker to return to UK today

Richard Ratcliffe protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran, on October 25, 2021 in London, England [Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been handed over to a British team at Tehran’s International Imam Khomeini Airport and she is leaving Iran today, Reuters reported Iranian state media saying.

The Guardian said the news was later confirmed by Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer and her MP in the UK, Tulip Siddiq.

Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said negotiations on her release were “moving forward”. He said a negotiating team was working on the release of dual nationals.

The 43-year-old British-Iranian was detained by Iran in 2016 as she was leaving the country at Imam Khomeini airport after a family visit with her daughter.

No details have been given regarding the negotiations, but last month reports emerged that British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she hoped Britain will soon be in a position to pay the £400 million ($522 million) debt overdue to Iran. A message which was repeated today, with Truss not saying if a settlement had already been made.

“We’ve made it a priority to pay the debt that we do owe Iran and we have been seeking ways to pay it,” she told Sky News. She added that there was a British team in Iran.

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