UK Foreign Office urged Richard Ratcliffe not to make ‘song and dance’ about wife’s plight

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella upon her arrival at RAF Brize Norton early on March 17, 2022. (AFP)

• Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband had been highly vocal throughout her detention in Iran
• Mom’s release could have been secured earlier if husband had taken different approach: Foreign Office

LONDON: The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, newly released from Iranian detention, was told by the UK Foreign Office not to make a “song and dance” about the ordeal his wife had been through, according to a British MP.
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, whose Hampstead and Kilburn constituency was where Zaghari-Ratcliffe lived before she was held in Iran, said Richard Ratcliffe’s decision to be “so public and vocal” about his wife’s plight had been the correct strategy.
Siddiq, who had been pushing the government to secure Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release for years, on Thursday said: “The Foreign Office told us many times, ‘we could have got Nazanin out earlier if you didn’t make such a song and dance about this,’ but Richard disagreed with that.”
The politician pointed out that Ratcliffe’s approach had been vindicated by her release — reportedly secured because Britain agreed to pay more than $500 million to Iran for a historic debt.
“Throughout the course of the six years now I feel that probably was the right strategy because I think the government did respond to the public pressure and I think they do respond to media pressure in particular.
“I think we probably did put pressure on especially the current prime minister by being so public and vocal and campaigning,” Siddiq added.
She noted that the government had also been edgy about her and Ratcliffe disclosing publicly that the Iranian-British national’s passport had been returned to her earlier this week.
“When I tweeted she got her British passport, the Foreign Office were very nervous about it,” Siddiq said.
“Richard doesn’t have Twitter. He asked me to tweet it because he thinks we need to be transparent about everything. And he thinks that even if the deal had fallen through at the last moment, at least people would have known how close we got.”
Throughout his wife’s six-year detention — comprised of an initial five-year sentence plus an additional year later added on — Ratcliffe had campaigned very publicly for his wife’s release, including carrying out a hunger strike in Whitehall and criticizing the government’s approach intermittently.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released alongside another British-Iranian national, Anoosheh Ashoori — but others still remain confined to Iran.
Morad Tahbaz, who is a joint Iranian, UK, and US citizen, was this week released from prison but is unable to leave Iran.
On Tahbaz, British Minister of State for Europe and North America James Cleverly said: “We will continue to work to not just keep him out on furlough but get him released — and obviously we’ll continue working closely with the Americans and everything to do with Iran.”