Richard Ratcliffe, husband of detained charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The hunger-struck husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran for more than five years, said talks between British and Iranian officials on Thursday did little, if any, to secure his release. , progress has been made.
Richard Ratcliffe, who has been on a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in central London for 19 days in an attempt to increase pressure on the British government, said he was nearing the end of it “as a strategy”.
Ratcliffe was speaking after meeting James Cleverley, a British foreign minister, to hear details of his conversation with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani.
“Quite a disappointing meeting, if I’m being honest,” Ratcliffe deftly said of their meeting. “I expected the meeting with Iran to have some kind of success and recognition – maybe it will be taking away from us but I have no hope.”
Ratcliffe began his showing last month after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran. He is sleeping in a tent outside the main entrance of the Foreign Office in an attempt to pressure the British government to release his wife and other two detained British-Iranian nationals.
“I think there’s a basic medical limit on how long you go on a hunger strike,” Ratcliffe said. “I made a promise to Nazneen, I made a promise to my family, especially my mother and the family doctors, that I would not take it too far.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe served four years in prison and one under house arrest after being detained at Tehran airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, alleging that he, his Supporters and rights groups deny.
In May, she was sentenced to an additional year in prison on charges of spreading “propaganda against the system” for participating in a protest outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009 – a decision upheld by an appeals court this month Was placed. The verdict includes a one-year travel ban, which means she will not be able to leave Iran until 2023.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was employed by the news agency’s charitable arm, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and was arrested as she was returning to Britain after visiting family. Rights groups accuse Iran of placing dual citizens as bargaining chips for money or influence in talks with the West, something Tehran denies.
Ratcliffe said his wife was being used as “leverage” by Tehran, particularly in relation to the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding loan of 400 million pounds ($540 million) to Iran.
“We asked about the debt and they wouldn’t talk about it, I mean really confused,” he said.
Ratcliffe said that deftly wanted to emphasize that the meeting with the Iranian delegation was “cordial”.
“But you know we’re still stuck in the same status quo,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve given Iran a clear enough message that hostage-taking is wrong. I don’t think there will be any consequences for Iran’s continued use of hostage-taking and British citizens.
The Foreign Office said British officials had pressured Iran to “immediately” release Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other detained dual UK-Iranian nationals during their meeting with Kani.
It said British authorities are “working hard to ensure the release of all British nationals wrongfully detained in Iran.”
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