The UK government was questioned what “practical steps” it’s taking to deter future politically motivated hostage-taking after it paid a historic debt to Iran “in parallel” with the release of British-Iranians Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori on Wednesday.
Labour former minister Hilary Benn said the payment and the release of the detainees were“always sequential” in the eyes of the Iranian regime, and Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat reminded the government of a precedent where the regime took more hostages after receiving ransom from the United States and urged the government to make sure the fund is not used to purchase weapons.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori, imprisoned and detained in Iran since 2016 and 2019, respectively, were allowed to leave the country on Wednesday after negotiations between the UK and the Iranian regime. The duo was flown to the Gulf state of Oman, which has been closely involved in the behind-the-scenes negotiations to secure their freedom, and is expected to be flown on a government-chartered flight to Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton station in Oxfordshire.
The UK government on the same day confirmed it had authorised the payment of £393.8 million (approx. $515 million) to clear a historical debt “in parallel” with the release of the two British Iranians.
In a written statement to Parliament, Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace said he had authorised the payment on March 10.
The debt was a result of an unfulfilled arms deal between the pre-revolution Iranian government and a British company owned by the Ministry of Defence.
“Following the Iranian revolution, the contracts were not fulfilled, despite pre-payments made by Iran to the UK,” Wallace said, adding that UK and International courts later confirmed the debt was still owed to the new Iranian regime.
However, the repayment of the debt has been held up due to sanctions against the Iranian regime.
Wallace said the UK sought to ensure the funds “can only be used in accordance with applicable sanctions, and domestic counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering legislation, for example, to purchase humanitarian goods.”
MPs warmly welcomed the news of the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori after Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs Liz Truss updated the House of Commons, but some raised concerns that the Iranian regime may be emboldened by the gain.
Tugendhat said he was “hugely grateful” that the two detainees will be reunited with their families, but pointed to “some of the implications that happened when the last time a ransom payment was paid” to the Iranian regime.
“That ransom payment was paid by the U.S. government a number of years ago. About six months after they were paid, the Iranian government took another six American dual nationals hostage and merely started the whole process again. Sadly, furthermore, the money that was paid was then spent on murdering hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims in Syria,” the Foreign Committee chairman said.
“Can she assure us that that will not happen this time, that British citizens will be very carefully warned of the dangers they face in visiting Iran, and that none of this payment will end up in weapons and ammunition to kill Syrians?”
Truss stressed that the debt and the detainees were “two parallel issues in our bilateral relationship” and said the UK is “joining a group” with the Canadians and other Group of Seven (G7) nations to “end the practice of arbitrary detention.”
Benn disputed Truss’s statement that the debt was paid “in parallel” with the release of the two dual nationals.
“But we all know that for the government of Iran it was always sequential,” he said, questioning what “practical steps” Truss was hoping to secure from her talks with other G7 foreign ministers to make it “much, much more difficult for governments to engage in hostage-taking for political purposes.”
Truss said Benn was “right that we do need to change the practice of countries detaining other countries’ nationals unfairly,” adding she couldn’t comment more at the stage but hoped to “be able to say more soon.”
Pressed by Conservative MP Simon Hoare on whether the fund will be appropriated to be used to help Russian President Vladimir Putin in “his ‘humanitarian work’ in the [sic] Ukraine,” Truss assured the MP that “the definition of humanitarian aid in this agreement is certainly not the definition of humanitarian aid that Vladimir Putin would subscribe to.”
A third detainee, Morad Tahbaz, was released from prison but kept under house arrest, Truss told MPs that he was not fully released at this time due to his U.S. citizenship.
“On the subject of Morad Tahbaz, the real issue is that he is a tri-national and that is seen in Iranian eyes as also meaning that the [United States] are involved,” she said, adding that the UK is “working very closely” with the United States on securing his release.
“We have secured his release from prison. Of course we want to see him come home, and we will continue to work to achieve that with our U.S. partners,” Truss added.
