Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at her parents’ home after temporary release from Evin Prison, Tehran, Iran, March 17, 2020

The UK has acknowledged a £400 million debt to Iran from the 1970s, raising hope for Tehran’s release of Anglo-Iranian political prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said for the first time that he is seeking to pay the £400 million, which arose from non-delivery of Chieftain tanks ordered by the Shah of Iran before he was removed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Wallace recognized the issue in a letter to lawyers for Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker seized by Iranian officials in April 2016 as she and her infant daughter were about to leave the country after a visit to relatives.

The lawyers claimed in a seven-page last week that the Johnson Government was stalling over the debt through “every possible legal objection to payment” and failure “to engage in constructive dialogue with Tehran”. It accused Ministers of “playing politics with the lives of British citizens”.

International arbitration in 2008 ruled the UK owed the money, but lawyers for International Military Services, the Defence Ministry’s now-defunct arms sales agency, have questioned both the size of the debt and if it was payable.

See UK Fear of US Holding Up Iran’s Release of Political Prisoner Zaghari-Ratcliffe — Lawyers

Wallace responded in his letter, “With regard to IMS Ltd and the outstanding legal dispute the government acknowledges there is a debt to be paid and continues to explore every legal avenue for the lawful discharge of that debt.”

However, the payment may continue to be held up by European Union or US sanctions.

A court hearing, repeatedly postponed, is scheduled for November 4. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyers have noted that this is the day after the US Presidential election.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe said:

This is the first response we have ever had to any of the letters we have written to the different defence secretaries, so I am grateful to Mr Wallace for engaging with us directly. I appreciate him responding and setting out his personal position that the IMS debt should be paid.

We would still like to meet him – to understand what is the way forward and to understand what practical avenues the MoD has explored over settling the debt, even through humanitarian supplies since this was something the US state department previously told us they thought would be fine in terms of sanctions.

I’d also like to understand at a basic level what is going on. The Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and a lot of other ministers are all on record saying they want this solved. It is not clear, then, who can be blocking this.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison for “espionage”. Iranian authorities have never presented evidence in a public hearing for the allegation, although Iranian State TV tried to claim she is guilty because she worked for a BBC program training journalists.

The charity worker was released on temporary furlough in March amid Iran’s Coronavirus outbreak. She is under effective house arrest at her mother’s Tehran residence.