How many foreign secretaries does it take….?

merlotgran

I was disappointed that she publicly disagreed with her husband for thanking the government for her release. He will also be angry that it has taken so long but maybe thought that relief and gratitude should come before criticism in these early days.

I would have been more disappointed if, after such an appalling time, she had felt that she had to feign agreement with her husband and 'thank' a government whose leader she must certainly feel had previously worsened her ordeal. Especially when it is so obvious that the measures that brought about her eventual release were about our need for oil - if our supply of that was still plentiful, she would still be detained in Iran.

The kind of anger she must be feeling is best let out, not bottled up for the sake of someone else, not even her husband.

In her position, I certainly wouldn't gave been thanking the government.
If I had, just to please someone else, I'm pretty sure I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

As it is, if she goes on to learn that they actually did more for her than she thought, she can give them genuine thanks in the future, which would be much more meaningful.

I also thought poor little Gabriella looked very uncomfortable at being taken along to the press conference yesterday.

Is there a playbook?

1. She's ungrateful

2. She argued with her husband

3. She's a bad mother

Can't wait for number 4.

maddyone

For what my opinion is worth, I don’t understand why we didn’t return the money to Iran when we decided not to fulfill the order for military arms. I think it might have been for tanks, but someone will come along to correct me I’m sure. The money should have been repaid because it wasn’t our money. We had a right to decline to supply arms to the Ayatollah, but we didn’t have a right to keep the money. In my view anyway.
I think that’s why it took so long and five foreign secretaries. The UK doesn’t pay ransoms and this was seen as a ransom. But in my opinion, it was repayment of the monies paid to us for goods which we declined, rightly, to supply.

I suppose that the thinking was that they would use the money to buy arms elsewhere.

We had clients who both worked in Iran. They were legally married but she used her own family name for work. When it came under scrutiny they were put under house arrest while a decision was made, and she got sent home. She was very indignant, and concerned, because he decided to stay there.

Why did she ignore the advice not to go there ?

Whitewavemark2 the debt goes back many years before Nazanin was wrongly imprisoned by the Iranian regime.

It was Iran which linked her release to the debt.

Sanctions were imposed on Iran by the majority of the Western World.

Are you now on favour of the U.K. Government breaking international law/agreements?

Anniebach

Why did she ignore the advice not to go there ?

She didn't. There was no such advice in 2016.

volver

Is there a playbook?

1. She's ungrateful

2. She argued with her husband

3. She's a bad mother

Can't wait for number 4.

Has anyone actually said any of the above?

They’re simply your OTT interpretation of some comments

are you now in agreement with the uk breaking international law
See what you did there ?

Kandinsky

I feel sorry for her husband, he looks 100x more exhausted than she does.

I wonder if she’ll write a book in time for Christmas?

Oh that’s an appalling comment

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2 the debt goes back many years before Nazanin was wrongly imprisoned by the Iranian regime.

It was Iran which linked her release to the debt.

Sanctions were imposed on Iran by the majority of the Western World.

Are you now on favour of the U.K. Government breaking international law/agreements?

Explain to me why a debt that we owed was not paid, particularly after it became clear to the Tory government that Ratcliffe would be released once it was paid?

Even Tory MPs are now asking the question. One foreign office minister, said that he never understood why we didn’t pay the debt.

What international law?

Has anyone actually said any of the above?

Errmmm... yes?

After all this time, are there really people who don't understand that there are no innocent comments when it comes to things like this? There are moves afoot to discredit Nazanin and either people know about it, and are perpetuating it, or they are sucked in to thinking that they are innocently commenting.

Anniebach

Why did she ignore the advice not to go there ?

Did she ? I’ve asked this question but not got any factual reply
I don’t know the answer (in my ignorance.. which I admit to by the way )

Whitewavemark2

What international law?

Multiple International sanctions on a Country are subject to International Laws

There was no official warning, but as a woman who worked for a worldwide press organisation and travelled regularly to Iran, she would have had to have been very stupid not to be aware of the risks. And whatever else she is, she is not stupid.

An Iranian colleague's teenage son was warned by his Iran based grandmother not to visit the country again, well before 2016.He never has.

Nazanin is being attacked on Twitter now. Bitter misogynistic behaviour but then it's par for the course.

Could we just rejoice that she is at last free and that she is a strong woman who, after all she has been through, is able to speak her mind? Where is the sisterhood?

I am extremely pleased that she is free.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian 20/06/2016, her husband was told to urge the U.K. Government towards a prisoner swop

I heard on a recent interview that the debt to Iran was paid in kind not in cash. This was to get round sanctions and to ensure that it went to humanitarian causes. Vaccines were mentioned, though not confirmed.

I've just seen a tweet saying this:

The British public paid £400M to Tehran to secure this foreign-born citizen’s release and all she can do is complain about it and criticise Britain. Disgusting.

The person who made the tweet is in this picture.

Pick your side, people.

Talk about birds of a feather…

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

What international law?

Multiple International sanctions on a Country are subject to International Laws

And how would that have affected the debt we owe?

Or more to the point, what has happened to enable us to break international law by repaying it?

Blinko yes that is right.

The money has been deposited in a bank and Iran can draw down on it to pay for humanitarian requirements.

That scenario has always existed the case.

So the question remains.

What took this government so long?

The repayment of the debt was clearly not the whole story as the third man is still imprisoned there.
Nazanin is Iranian. She knows the regime there better than most yet she still took the risk to travel there, with a toddler as well.
Nobody is saying she’s a bad mother, but I can’t be the only person who felt uneasy when I saw how uncomfortable her daughter looked.

I accept that she wanted to point out that there have been five Foreign Secretaries since she had been incarcerated, but I still feel that the main emphasis should have been on how hugely grateful she is for the undoubted efforts made here over the past six years to secure her release.

Lucca

You’re very easily shocked and appalled I’ve noticed.
Not sure what’s appalling about saying her husband looks worse than she does?
He does.
And what’s appalling about assuming she’ll write a book about her ordeal?
The parents of James Bulger wrote books about the murder of their child, so did Sara Payne, are you appalled by that?

Yes why wasn't the other British prisoner released if it was all about the money? What are other countries doing about their citizens who are sitting in Iranian prisons, anything/nothing?