U.S. media: Iran releases two detained Britons, ending years of diplomatic dispute
Reference News Network reported on March 17 that according to the Associated Press in London, March 16, the Iranian government said on Wednesday that two people with dual British and Iranian nationalities have been released. Years of diplomatic disputes between the two countries have thus come to an end.
According to Iranian media reports, Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe and Anush Ashuri, who hold dual British and Iranian nationals, were released on Wednesday and left Iran on a plane at Tehran airport that day.
According to reports, British Prime Minister Johnson also confirmed the news of the release of the two on social media.
Iranian media reported that the pair were released after the British government repaid a 400 million pound ($530 million) debt to Iran. It is reported that the debt dispute can be traced back to the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Zagary-Ratcliffe was detained at Tehran airport in April 2016 when she was employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation while returning to the UK after visiting family, the report said. She was later convicted of conspiring to overthrow the Iranian government. Ashuri was arrested in Tehran in August 2017. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his alleged links to Israel’s “Mossad” intelligence agency.