Iran releases detainees in positive sign for nuke talks

Iran has released two long-time UK-Iranian detainees in a possible sign that ongoing negotiations between Tehran and the US over a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement could be nearing a conclusion.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an aid worker arrested in 2016, was "handed over to British government officials at the end of her six-year sentence, along with another detainee, Anousheh Ashouri", Iran's state news broadcaster IRIB said today.

A third dual national, Morad Tahbaz, has been released from prison on furlough, but will remain in Iran, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said in a statement. Tulip Siddiq, member of parliament representing the area of northwest London where Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to live, confirmed soon after that "Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home". Siddiq revealed yesterday that Iranian authorities had returned Zaghari-Ratcliffe's British passport to her.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who is in the Middle East today for meetings with UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh respectively, also confirmed the release, saying that their "unfair detention… in Iran has ended today" and that "they will now return to the UK".

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the London-based Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 on charges of spying for the UK government. She and her family have repeatedly denied the charges. Ashouri was arrested in August 2019 and subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail after being accused of carrying out espionage for Israel and feeding information to its Mossad intelligence agency.

Iran's Irna state news agency reported that the pair had been released "on humanitarian grounds" ahead of the Iranian new year, or Nowruz, on 21 March. But Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, which has strong links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said the release of the detainees came after the UK government paid $530mn to Iran for a long-standing debt relating to a cancelled order for Chieftan tanks from the 1970s.

Foreign secretary Truss confirmed the payment in her statement. "The IMS [International Military Services] debt has been settled in full compliance with UK and international sanctions and all legal obligations," she said, adding that the funds "will be ring-fenced solely for the purchase of humanitarian goods".

Iran's official channels, however, have not yet reported the payment or made a direct link between the debt being settled and the release of the detainees.

Nuclear momentum

News of the release comes as Tehran and Washington edge closer to securing a deal to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, which has been on virtual life support since former US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the accord in 2018, and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran soon after.

Russian demands for US guarantees that sanctions being imposed on it by the west over the conflict in Ukraine will not impact Moscow's ability to co-operate with Iran once the agreement is reinstated briefly put prospects for a deal on shaky ground, particularly after the negotiations in Vienna were put on "pause" due to what EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as "external factors".

But comments by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday that Moscow had secured the guarantees it needed injected fresh optimism that a deal can be reached. This optimism will be reinforced by today's events given the importance that the US and other western parties have placed on securing the release of prisoners in Iran as part of any restored nuclear deal.

The implementation of the original 2015 nuclear deal in January 2016 came with the release of three Iranian Americans — former Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former US marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini — who had each been imprisoned in Iran for several years on similar allegations of espionage.

By Nader Itayim