London, March 22: UK’s former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt and MP Tulip Siddiq have called for the committee to launch an inquiry into the reason for delay in paying debt to Iran. This comes following release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last week after six years. The Guardian quoted Burt as saying in a letter to the foreign affairs select committee that the UK government had known for many years that if it paid a £400m debt to Iran it was likely to lead to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Former Tory MP said he had repeatedly urged the government to pay the £400m as it was “not a ransom, but a debt owed”. The £400m debt relates to a 1970s arms deal in which the UK took money from the Shah of Iran but then did not deliver the promised Chieftain tanks after he was deposed by Islamic revolutionaries, The Guardian reported. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Siddiq said, “Nazanin could have been home a long time ago if we had paid the historic debt of £400m earlier. “I will be writing to Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, to ask for an inquiry into Nazanin’s case and the wider issue of hostage taking by Iran.” On Monday, Nazanin asked at a press conference that why it had taken five foreign secretaries and six years to secure her release.
UNI
