Iran accuses UK of 'blackmail' after Johnson demands release of dual national

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Britain’s prime minister called on Tehran to release a dual national who has been held in Iran for four years, while an Iranian official responded by accusing the United Kingdom of “blackmail.”

“On the fourth anniversary of Anoosheh Ashoori’s wrongful detention in Iran, I reiterate my call for Iran to do the right thing and release him immediately,” tweeted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday.

Ashoori, 67, a British-Iranian retired engineer, was arrested in August 2017 while on a visit to Iran and jailed for 10 years, charged with spying for Israel. 

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi replied to Johnson’s tweet: “UK tries to blackmail Iran by taking our OWN money – illegally kept for more than 40 years – hostage in exchange for prisoners. This is never going to work.”

UK tries to blackmail Iran by taking our OWN money- illegally kept for more than 40 years- hostage in exchange for prisoners.

This is never going to work.

We still have a deal. Time for UK to do right thing and stop letting US to sabotage humanitarian exchange. https://t.co/A6rPOjr8Bf

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) August 14, 2021

Arrests of foreigners in Iran – especially dual nationals who are often accused of espionage – multiplied after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 and re-imposed harsh sanctions against Tehran. Iran responded by steadily walking back on its nuclear commitments under the accord. 

Trump’s successor Joe Biden wants to rejoin the deal and talks to find a way for the US to come back, lifting sanctions, and for Iran to return to full compliance took place this spring in Vienna, but were suspended after six rounds until after Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in. He was inaugurated last week and said he supports “any diplomatic plans” to lift sanctions, but new talks have not yet been announced. 

Araghchi, who is leading Iran’s negotiating team in Vienna, said in July that prisoner exchanges with the US and UK should not be linked with the nuclear deal. “TEN PRISONERS on all sides may be released TOMORROW if US & UK fulfill their part of the deal,” he tweeted.

Washington has said they are engaged in indirect talks with Iran about prisoner exchanges, separately from the nuclear deal. 

In depth: Iran’s jailed dual nationals: pawns in an IRGC power play

Ashoori has appealed directly to Johnson, asking for his government to assist getting him and other British nationals out of jails in Iran where they are at risk of contracting the coronavirus. “My fear is that we have been forgotten by the British government,” he said. In a phone call with Iran’s then President Hassan Rouhani in March, Johnson demanded the release of British nationals.

Ashoori’s family said they have tried for more than a year to meet with Johnson, but without success. 

"We hope to get some formal acknowledgement and recognition of my husband's case... by Boris Johnson, who's never once publicly acknowledged us for four years," Ashoori's wife Sherry Izadi told AFP on Friday. 

Izadi and her two children sat on three chairs outside Downing Street, leaving a fourth chair symbolically empty for Johnson. 

The UK is believed to owe about £400 million to Iran for the non-delivery of tanks ordered by Shah before he was overthrown in 1979.

 

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