Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe criticises delays to her release

Ex British-Iranian hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has criticised the fact she was not released sooner.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe touched down in the UK on Thursday morning after being released by Iranian authorities after a six year ordeal under arrest there.

Speaking to a press conference this morning, Zaghari-Ratcliffe questioned “how many Foreign Secretaries does it take for someone to come home?”, arguing that the UK was reluctant to pay Iran the £400 million debt it owed, dating back to the Shah’s rule.

In a slight change of tact from the praise offered by other members of her family and her local MP Tulip Siddiq in the wake of the release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe complained that five different foreign secretaries had served between her 2016 arrest and her release. “What happened now should have happened six years ago,” she argued.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe also stated that Iranian authorities had specifically explained to her that her release would not be permitted unless the debt was paid.

The 43-year-old charity worker expressed her gratitude for her “amazing, wonderful” husband for his “tireless” campaigning for her release. She also thanked her daughter Gabriella, “for being very, very patient with mummy to be coming home”.

Discussing the failure to secure the freedom of Morad Tahbaz, a British-US national who remains detained in Iran on hunger strike she went on: “Yeah, there were many moments that I felt like that. I felt like I was left behind. I assume this is exactly what Morad is feeling at the time… He’s going to lose faith in everything.

“It shouldn’t have happened to him, he should have been on the same flight with us, and it should have happened with the dual nationals.”

She said she felt it was “frustrating and disappointing” that this had not been possible, adding that: “In the end, it was my faith that got me through.”