Breaking News - Nazanin

Wonderful news.

Where did you see it please?
Independent 9 minutes ago didn't say that yet

She’s at the airport. She’d on her way home. DH and I are in tears!! I hope Johnson gets no credit for this….Tulip has fought long and hard for this moment. I’m so happy for Nazanin’s husband and daughter.

I've just seen on twitter, Nazanin has been released

The debt is from when the Shah was leader, welbeck.

There was a regime change and Iran was subsequently sanctioned years later. Payment of the money would have been in breach of UN sanctions.
The money has been in a holding account, I believe, but there is a dispute about interest too.
Some politicians have been urging for the payment of this debt for some time, one being Jeremy Hunt.

SporeRB

The UK government must have finally settled the £400 million it owes to the Iranian government for the non delivery of tanks in 1970s. The UK government took the money but never deliver the goods. Should have settle the debt a long time ago.

exactly. this salient fact is so often overlooked/unreported.
nothing justifies holding mrs ratcliffe hostage of course, but there has been such a lot of one-sided reporting on uk/iran relations and obligations.
imagine if they owed us £400million for undelivered goods since the 1970s.
we'd never hear the end of it. whereas i have found many people here quite ignorant of this history.

Callistemon21

^Johnson has constant verbal diarrhoea^

Did you pick that up from my post the other day - it is one of DH's sayings and very apt!
He still tried to self-justify today and I was yelling at the TV "oh, just shut up, stupid".
They really need to gag him.

Oh no! I didn’t see that - but your DH speaks the truth?

Johnson has constant verbal diarrhoea

Did you pick that up from my post the other day - it is one of DH's sayings and very apt!
He still tried to self-justify today and I was yelling at the TV "oh, just shut up, stupid".
They really need to gag him.

I have a dream about Nazanin getting home and then Richard Radcliffe just savaging the useless Johnson on the 6 o'clock news.

mokryna

Hope you know who keeps their mouth shut, no names.

Frankly he couldn’t be visiting Saudi at a worse time. Johnson has constant verbal diarrhoea and can’t stop trying to be the centre of attention, and will as a result say worse things at the worst time.

Yes I hope someone is putting a gag on Johnson.

Hope you know who keeps their mouth shut, no names.

Do not count your chickens before they hatch. The Iranian government has played cat and mouse with Nazanin since she was first arrested.

I will not believe she is free or there is any hope of her being released until her feet are on British soil.

North Korea are hand in hand to get around the sanctions.

georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2020/12/01/arms-for-oil-how-north-korea-and-iran-facilitate-each-others-security-strategies/

Some commentators are talking about this coming Saturday or Sunday.
Saturday is Imam Mahadi’s birthday.
Sunday is Oil Nationalization day.
These are days when the government grant leniency to political prisoners.

volver

Everything crossed.

It's a bit more complicated than the UK just not paying their debt, there were sanctions that prevented the payment.

I hope they've found a way through that suits everybody.

I think the US found ways of working round the sanctions. If we’ve paid the money back that we owe them to access their oil it should have been paid back years ago.

I have everything crossed. I really, really hope that she comes home very soon!

Weirdly the Ukraine war has worked in her favour.

We need Iranian oil.

I do hope it is true, her MP has worked tirelessly on her behalf, and in supporting Nazanin's husband.

We had to get agreement from the USA with regard to sanctions etc.

I'm so pleased to hear this glimmer.

I noted in the BBC news app that the prime minister has had the wit not to comment this time.

Thrilled to read this. I really hope this happens now. Has the UK paid what was due then after all this time? Please don’t let Johnson anywhere near as he is the reason why she has been kept a prisoner due to his original remarks re journalist which he “misspoke”.

Marvellous. So wonderful to have any good news but this is spectacular.

Whitewavemark2

DaisyAnne

The negotiators are not generally politicians, are they WWM although they may have one with them.

I have no idea how the politcal tectonic plates may have changed re Iran/Russia/UK . On the principle of "my enemies enemy is my friend" perhaps things have moved just enough to make this possible.

No they are usually civil servants. My concern is (although I guess this is a different department) that many of those skills were lost when we were members of the EU. All the professionalism resided in Brussels for all members to call on when necessary.

True WWM. I think the knowledge and experience is still there but spread very thinly sadly. There was so much we just relied on from Brussels accompanied by so much lazy incompetency in the government.