The reason I am writing here today about the hostages Iran is holding is Richard Ratcliffe’s hunger strike outside the British Foreign Office. Ratcliffe campaigned to bring attention to his wife’s imprisonment once again, and I’m happy to be of service. Such lingering issues get under the carpet in our media, as well as in government offices: there are always other, topical issues that need more urgent attention. But Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (43) has been detained in Iran for two thousand days since she was arrested on a family visit, mostly in prison, now under house arrest awaiting another period in jail, after being convicted of successive espionage and propaganda against Islam. system. And if her case isn’t resolved, Tehran will have other charges in store. After three weeks of fasting, Ratcliffe ended his hunger strike on Saturday. Their daughter Gabriella (7) “needs two parents,” he said.
The Iranian regime uses Iranians of second nationality such as Nazanin Zaghari and two more British Iranians and a lot of others purely as pawns to repay old assets from the Shah’s time and/or to free Iranians who are imprisoned abroad. In Nazanin’s case, it concerns about 400 million pounds (470 million euros) including interest that the Shah had paid for tanks that London no longer wanted to deliver after the Islamic revolution. The British government admits it owes the money, and where pious principles previously stood in the way – we never pay ransom – it’s now a matter of practicality. Former Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt wrote in The Daily Mail: „This is a despicable, heartless regime […] And if this was a ransom, I wouldn’t want to pay it. But a court has ruled that we owe the money […] and we have to pay our debts.”
It is of course both, ransom and old debt, but how to pay? No bank wants to touch Iran with a finger because of the piling up of sanctions that US governments have declared against it. Hunt suggested that this hurdle can be overcome with some creative thinking, and it is. It is unlikely that President Biden would oppose it. He was vice president when President Obama sent three planes with a total of $1.3 billion cash (!) via Europe to Tehran in January 2016. That was not a ransom, you see, for the four American Iranians returned by return of post, but repayment of old debt. Donald Trump criticized this as a presidential candidate, but was very pleased with a prisoner exchange with Iran in February 2019 (i.e. after he had left the nuclear agreement): “Thank you Iran. for very fair negotiations. Look, we can make a deal together!” America also had some Iranians in stock for that purpose.
Except for the Iranian authorities, no one knows exactly how many hostages are held in Iran; some families and governments find it wiser not to make a fuss. Well-known names include American-Iranian Baquer Namazi (84 and sick) and his son Siamak, and Swedish Iranian Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been sentenced to death for “spreading corruption on earth.” Another quote from Hunt: “It’s time to grit our teeth, get them home, and unite with our allies to end Iran’s hostage-taking practice for good.”
Carolien Roelants is a Middle East expert and here she separates the facts from the hypes every week.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of November 15, 2021
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