Boris Johnson to visit Iran in bid to secure release of British mother
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is to visit Iran this weekend to try to secure the release of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Mr Johnson's trip to Tehran is only the third by a UK Foreign Secretary since 2003 and comes at a time of tension in the Middle East over Donald Trump's announcement that he is recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
In wide-ranging talks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Mr Johnson will seek to shore up bilateral relations and urge Tehran to stick by the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government, having been arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents.
Reports suggest she could appear in court again on Sunday, following threats to increase her sentence by five years following Mr Johnson's gaffe of telling a parliamentary committee that she had been in Iran to train journalists. He later acknowledged this was not the case.
It is understood that Nazanin's husband Richard will not accompany Mr Johnson after receiving advice that it may not help his chances of seeing his wife in prison.
Tehran does not recognise Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's dual UK-Iranian nationality, and refuses access to her for representatives of the British authorities, making a prison visit for the Foreign Secretary unlikely during the trip.
Hers is one of a small number of cases of dual nationals whose release Britain is seeking on humanitarian grounds on which Mr Johnson will push for progress.
The Foreign Office has declined to name the other individuals involved - or even identify the number in jail - after their families asked for their cases to be kept out of the public eye.
Relations with Iran have been strained in recent years, despite the reopening of the UK embassy in Tehran in 2015, but London has detected possible signs of greater openness to dialogue in recent months.
Diplomats are hopeful that Mr Johnson's visit will help establish a "load-bearing" relationship, allowing them to work with one another seriously on issues of concern.
It is thought that Iran appreciated the UK's firm response to Mr Trump's decision last month not to recertify the 2015 deal under which sanctions were lifted in return for an end to its military nuclear programme.
Mr Johnson travelled to Washington to urge Congress not to tear up the deal, and made clear that Britain remains convinced it is essential.
Iran is also likely to raise the issue of a £400 million debt, dating back to an abortive order for tanks by the pre-revolutionary regime in 1979, which remains unpaid despite a court ruling against the UK.
The cash has already been deposited in a court for payment, and it is understood that work is under way to find a sanctions-compliant method for handing it over.
The Foreign Office has always stressed that the payment of the money is in no way linked to the cases of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the other imprisoned dual nationals.
Saturday's visit to Iran forms part of a three-day trip to the Middle East, also taking in Oman on Friday and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, in which moves to end humanitarian suffering in war-torn Yemen will be high on the agenda.
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By PA Reporters'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a0b6f908-ff6a-47e3-a938-beaa22996dc9'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:news,paservice:news:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story-enriched'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', 'paasset:video'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Boris Johnson to visit Iran in bid to secure release of British mother'});
