No link between Nazanin Zaghari, UK debts: Tehran

Reacting to recent news disseminated by some media outlets in Britain on the United Kingdom's financial debts to Iran and their settlement by London and attempts by these media to connect the two separate issues, Qasemi said that Zaghari's case was examined in the Iranian courts and she has been convicted after undergoing legal proceedings.

It's quite for a long that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to claim the rights of the Iranian people from the UK government through endless efforts and intensive negotiations, he said.

Iran has pursued the case through various channels, he added.

'Nazanin Zaghari's case and the issue of the UK bets to Iran are two completely different issues, the Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed.

Reports suggest that UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond UK treasury secretary have authorized Britain's solicitors to pay Iran's 38-year locked debts valued at Pound 450 million for weaponry contracts signed during ruling of Iran's deposed Shah and conclude the case.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in Kerman in April 2016 with charges relating to national security; she has been sentenced to five years in jail.

Soon after the arrest, the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kerman wrote in a statement, “In a sophisticated intelligence operation in the virtual space and real life, one of the foreign-affiliated ringleaders who had various missions to materialize the menacing designs of the enemies of the Islamic Establishment, was recognized and arrested.”

British foreign secretary Boris Johnson is going to make a visit to Iran next week; he is under mounting pressure on the part of the British media and lawmakers to put forward the issue.

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