Nazanin Ratcliff Release Depends On UK Paying Back $400 Million Loan To Iran
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Roshan Amiri
- . February 23, 2022
- . Update: February 24, 2022 11:56 am
United Kingdom– In a shocking revelation, it has been determined that the unlawful confinement of the British-Iranian citizen Ms. Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliff is actually dependent on United Kingdom paying back the huge amount of money that it owes to Iran.
Dating back to the 1970s, the loan amounts to £400 million ($542m) and was incurred with regards to the sale of tanks to then the Shah of Iran. The official spokesperson Liz Truss, UK’s foreign secretary has communicated to her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian that, UK has all the intentions to repay the loan at the earliest.
What really has delayed the process is the mounting pressure that comes with the ongoing economic sanctions on Iran. Currently, both countries exhibit that this loan has always been independent of the Vienna talks and the fate of three British dual nationals held in Evin prison, or the detainment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran.
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According to Tulip Siddiq, the MP representing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency in London, an agreement collapsed last year that could have triggered the release of detained British citizens in Iran, one of whom is Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe. This was primarily because of the loan amount not being paid back to Iran.
The extension of the loan comes with its own blackmails as Iranian counterpart is expecting some more involvement by UK over the Afghan refugee crises on its borders. A few weeks back the UK Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace did agree that, “We also have international law obligations around sanctions and that makes how we hand back that money very difficult while Iran is in breach of all sorts of obligations, and indeed engaged in malign activity around the Middle East.”
The money went in a debt situation due to non-delivery of military vehicles and equipment worth £400 million in 1979, with the shipment stopped because of the Islamic revolution. The dispute concerns an Iranian payment in the 1970s for 1,500 Chieftain tanks and armoured vehicles.
