Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has UK passport returned, MP says.

[JagLover]

CoolHands said:

To me it seems obvious she was going there and agitating in some fashion, but presumably using the ‘protection’ of being a British citizen and thinking she’d be safe. Foolhardy.

I don't think she was "agitating" in Iran . She was convicted for something she had done as far as I am aware, which was training Iranian journalists. She carried out this work in the UK I believe.

She was almost certainly foolhardy to then visit Iran afterwards but was there to visit family I believe.

[Iminquarantine]

JagLover said:

I don't think she was "agitating" in Iran . She was convicted for something she had done as far as I am aware, which was training Iranian journalists. She carried out this work in the UK I believe.

She was almost certainly foolhardy to then visit Iran afterwards but was there to visit family I believe.

Iran is far from looking good with this affair, but Boris Johnson handed the Iranians the ammunition to use against her and which enabled the Iranians to use her as a pawn. Johnson himself, then foreign secreatary, departed from script in front of a parliamentary committee and said "‘When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it, at the very limit.’"

She was not doing that, but Johnson, like he engages his penis before his brain, engaged his mouth before his brain and made this statement. This facilitated the Iranians detaining Ratcliffe.

https://metro.co.uk/2017/11/07/boris-johnson-admit...

[JagLover]

Iminquarantine said:

Iran is far from looking good with this affair, but Boris Johnson handed the Iranians the ammunition to use against her and which enabled the Iranians to use her as a pawn. Johnson himself, then foreign secreatary, departed from script in front of a parliamentary committee and said "‘When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it, at the very limit.’"

She was not doing that, but Johnson, like he engages his penis before his brain, engaged his mouth before his brain and made this statement. This facilitated the Iranians detaining Ratcliffe.

https://metro.co.uk/2017/11/07/boris-johnson-admit...

She was already in prison and convicted when he said that and he was making clear what she had been convicted of when dealing with a select committee question on the subject.

This is what it was stated she had been imprisoned for. For running "a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran"

She had worked for the BBC World Service Trust and provided training for Iranian citizens.

As with many current issues you have to look past the media frenzy to try and find out what is actually going on.

[andyA700]

I posted this on another forum back in 2017 and said that Iran would probably let Nazaneen go free if we paid this debt. The US paid Iran $400m (owed for non delivered military equipment) back in 2016 and Iran released 4 of their hostages.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/britain-owes-iran-4...

[GreatGranny]

JagLover said:

She was already in prison and convicted when he said that and he was making clear what she had been convicted of when dealing with a select committee question on the subject.

It was a typically ill thought out statement which undoubtedly delayed any chance of release and legitimised Irans reason for her arrest and incarceration in the first place.
There’s no situation where Johnson or any previous Tory governments come out of this with anything but embarrassment and shame.

[Ian Geary]

Countdown said:

Ian Geary said:

Another success for Russia

They've made Iran palatable again

Go team Putin!

It's odd how some countries are considered "palatable" and others aren't.

Not really.

Simple decision tree:

- do they follow international rules and norms: yes/no

- do they have oil/gas: yes/no


Get "no" twice and you're unpalatable

GreatGranny said:

It was a typically ill thought out statement which undoubtedly delayed any chance of release and legitimised Irans reason for her arrest and incarceration in the first place.
There’s no situation where Johnson or any previous Tory governments come out of this with anything but embarrassment and shame.

Ooh, I think I spotted someone who doesn't like the Conservatives. Other accounts say it was the husband who delayed the return, by making such a fuss about it.

Who knows? We won't ever know. Yet the husband's work achieved precisely nothing for 6 years, until the govt repaid £400m and suddenly his work pays off. Riiight,


Good on him for not giving up etc, but let's not pretend it wasn't a geopolitical shift wrt Russia that has prompted this thawing with Iran

[rjfp1962]

Lovely footage from Brize Norton in the early hours of this morning... Wonderful scenes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRVo17-yIo

[LeadFarmer]

Disastrous said:

LeadFarmer said:

Shock horror, who knew!!!

Yes we all know that, but they weren't going to pay it to get her released. But then things changed.
Go to Iran by all means, and get locked up by all means, don't then ask for sympathy or bail outs.
Why should the British government suddenly have to pay a £400m debt just because I went to Iran and got locked up?

Oh, I see.

This is ‘your thing’ is it?

Makes you appear very worldly wise and clever. Good stuff.

Thank you, and yes I suppose I am very wordly wise and clever. Thanks for confirming this.

Hopefully her release was a by-product of a separate deal struck between Iran and Britain, and we didn't simply pay them £400m just for her release. Even if she wasn't guilty of any offences, she was certainly guilty of being very naive, possibly foolish.

Criticising the Iranian regime and then visiting Iran = foolish.
Or to simplify it further - visiting Iran = foolish

Edited by LeadFarmer on Thursday 17th March 13:10

[andyA700]

Ian Geary said:

Countdown said:

Ian Geary said:

Another success for Russia

They've made Iran palatable again

Go team Putin!

It's odd how some countries are considered "palatable" and others aren't.

Not really.

Simple decision tree:

- do they follow international rules and norms: yes/no

- do they have oil/gas: yes/no


Get "no" twice and you're unpalatable

GreatGranny said:

It was a typically ill thought out statement which undoubtedly delayed any chance of release and legitimised Irans reason for her arrest and incarceration in the first place.
There’s no situation where Johnson or any previous Tory governments come out of this with anything but embarrassment and shame.

Ooh, I think I spotted someone who doesn't like the Conservatives. Other accounts say it was the husband who delayed the return, by making such a fuss about it.

Who knows? We won't ever know. Yet the husband's work achieved precisely nothing for 6 years, until the govt repaid £400m and suddenly his work pays off. Riiight,


Good on him for not giving up etc, but let's not pretend it wasn't a geopolitical shift wrt Russia that has prompted this thawing with Iran

I think you will find it was the husband highlighting the debt to be paid and our government trying to sweep it under the carpet.

[poo at Paul's]

Randy Winkman said:

Because she was trying to bring down the Iranian government I guess.

Cuckooland.

You really reckon she was just there "on holiday"?
When were you able to to take such time off?
All the thousands of travellers from UK over 40 years, and they ignore them and pick on her?

As pointed out by others, the place is a sthole run by despots and lunatics. Keep poking them and they go full draconian 'tard on you.

[Murph7355]

JagLover said:

Iminquarantine said:

Iran is far from looking good with this affair, but Boris Johnson handed the Iranians the ammunition to use against her and which enabled the Iranians to use her as a pawn. Johnson himself, then foreign secreatary, departed from script in front of a parliamentary committee and said "‘When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it, at the very limit.’"

She was not doing that, but Johnson, like he engages his penis before his brain, engaged his mouth before his brain and made this statement. This facilitated the Iranians detaining Ratcliffe.

https://metro.co.uk/2017/11/07/boris-johnson-admit...

She was already in prison and convicted when he said that and he was making clear what she had been convicted of when dealing with a select committee question on the subject.

This is what it was stated she had been imprisoned for. For running "a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran"

She had worked for the BBC World Service Trust and provided training for Iranian citizens.

As with many current issues you have to look past the media frenzy to try and find out what is actually going on.

And so it goes with all the Grrrr stuff. It's silly and detracts from the bits that are genuinely at his door.

Did Boris ever utter a word about the other two chaps released at the same time? Nope. Their outcomes are the same because the underpinning reasons of why they were incarcerated and why they were released were identical. And had now to do with select committee statements.

The lesson in all of this is do not go to countries run by stty regimes if you don't want to risk being used as a political pawn.

The real joke in all of this is the likelihood that Boris thinks relying on Iran or Saudi is better than Russia. Energy strategy people!

[Fundoreen]

Is the 400 beellion dollars index linked? If not then I guess at least they found out tanks are useless in 2022.
There was no such thing as a 65" flat screen tv in the 70s .Just some crappy 19 inch decca or carnivalli tv's so they are quids in for buying lots of those now.

[anonymous-user]

Fundoreen said:

Is the 400 beellion dollars index linked? ...

I thought interest is haram. It would surely be a grave insult to pay them 50 years of compounded interest!

[Countdown]

Ian Geary said:

Countdown said:

Ian Geary said:

Another success for Russia

They've made Iran palatable again

Go team Putin!

It's odd how some countries are considered "palatable" and others aren't.

Not really.

Simple decision tree:

- do they follow international rules and norms: yes/no

- do they have oil/gas: yes/no


Get "no" twice and you're unpalatable

That's the thing - Iran doesn't get "no" twice. They have Oil/gas and the question about "countries following international norms" in order to be palatable is

We decide who we think is "palatable" (usually for economic reasons) and then draw up some artificial rules to try and justify it. It's massive hypocrisy.

[rjfp1962]

She's given her 1st interview today since being released.. Looking well after her ordeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5GAhEMx_tg

[LeadFarmer]

rjfp1962 said:

She's given her 1st interview today since being released.. Looking well after her ordeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5GAhEMx_tg

She is a good looking woman, and she does look well considering her ordeal, though wasn't most of her time spent under house arrest at her parents?

She still shouldn't have gone to Iran though in my opinion.

[Mark Benson]

I see Beff from Sky News is up to her usual standard, "Who do you blame for your 6 years in jail and why is it Boris?"

What seems to be forgotten is that she's a dual citizen. If you're a dual citizen of a democracy and an authoritarian state, then when you're in the authoritarian state you're less well protected than someone who is simply a visiting overseas national - they can treat you as one of their own and lock you up for whatever they damn well please.
She must have understood this, yet apparently it's the UK government's fault (even though they spent £380m of taxpayers money getting her back).

I'm not a fan of this government but her view seems very one sided.

[rjfp1962]

LeadFarmer said:

rjfp1962 said:

She's given her 1st interview today since being released.. Looking well after her ordeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5GAhEMx_tg

She is a good looking woman, and she does look well considering her ordeal, though wasn't most of her time spent under house arrest at her parents?

From what I can see, it looks like Nazanin began house arrest on March 17th 2020, on tag, and had to stay within 300 metres of her parents home. The house arrest was due to end on April 18th 2020, but was extended indefinetely...

[bitchstewie]

As Nazanin herself says she's been through five foreign secretaries.

His stupid comments didn't exactly help.

[Murph7355]

bhstewie said:

As Nazanin herself says she's been through five foreign secretaries.

His stupid comments didn't exactly help.

How do you explain the other chap, never mentioned in dispatches by Boris as far as I'm aware, who was there for the same amount of time?

The Iranian govt were going to treat both of these (and the chap who's now back in jail I believe) like ste until we paid the money and, I suspect, started talking about easing up on sanctions now they're not the no1 bad guys on the planet for a bit.

Any dual national citizen going to Iran should be deemed "on their own". When they're over there, they are Iranian and subject to Iranian government processes. There should be zero expectation that any dual nation will help/even be able to.

I'm sure none of us have been involved in international diplomatic relations, including NZR. They are clearly something that cannot be banged into MS Project and expected to be resolved by the end date (Terry Whaite wasn't exactly tied to a radiator for 5mins...Boris was only 23 then...but thinking about it, that whole situation was probably his fault too ).