Britain paying the money is seen as precondition for release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being detained in Tehran
The UK has told Iran it cannot pay an acknowledged £400m debt to Tehran because of restrictions on bank transactions caused by international sanctions, Iran’s deputy foreign minister has said.
The debt has come to be viewed a precondition for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals detained in Tehran. Richard Ratcliffe is now on the day of a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office, urging it to pay the debt in order to secure the release of his wife.
