The UK government’s £400m debt repayment to Iran has been “ring-fenced” for humanitarian aid and will not fund terrorism, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly has said.
The release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from Iranian detention follows months of intensive diplomatic negotiations between London and Tehran – including the eventual payment of an outstanding debt owed by Britain to the regime.
Mr Cleverly said British negotiators had made sure that the money would be spent on “significant and meaningful” humanitarian work – saying it had been the only way to comply with international sanctions.
“We owed this debt, we accepted that debt. Obviously, the sanctions position made it incredibly difficult – you cannot just write a cheque,” the minister told Sky News.
Mr Cleverly added: “The details of how we have done it have to remain confidential – but it has taken a huge amount of work to come up with a method of ensuring that money is for humanitarian purposes and that it conforms to the sanctions regime.”
He also told Times Radio: “This has been ring-fenced for humanitarian purposes. Because of international money laundering laws, because of UK money laundering laws, we had to make sure that wouldn’t be money that would be used for terrorism.”
Asked whether he could be confident the settlement would not be used to buy arms, Mr Cleverly replied: “We have taken every precaution to make sure this is used exclusively for humanitarian requirements.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori touched down on British soil at just after 1am on Thursday, as Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugged and kissed her young daughter and Mr Ashoori’s family sobbed.
Asked why it took so long to secure the homecoming, and whether the debt issue could have been resolved sooner, Mr Cleverly said the prisoner release was “incredibly complicated” – and was not necessarily connected to the £400m payment.
Challenged by Sky News host Kay Burley on whether the debt payment was essentially “ransom” money, the minister said: “We have always made it clear that it is not linked … What connections the Iranians make is up to them.”
Asked about Mr Johnson’s now notorious remarks from 2017 – in which he incorrectly stated that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “teaching people journalism” – Mr Cleverly insisted that his comments “made no difference”.
The minister defended the PM and said the Iranian regime was the “sole party responsible for the suffering these people have endured over the years … I have absolutely no doubt these comments made no difference.”
Mr Cleverly also rejected a claim made by Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe – who conducted hunger strikes – that she would not have been released if he had followed Foreign Office advice to stay quiet.
“My admiration for Richard is boundless. I disagree with him on this point,” said the minister. All experience tells us that the less visible, the less high profile, often the easier it is [to secure release]. Obviously the situation around Nazanin was high profile … But our advice is there for a reason.”
