The ominous subtext of Nazanin’s release

The British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been incarcerated in Iran for nearly six years on trumped-up charges of sedition, is today on her way back to the UK.

On a personal level, this is truly wonderful news. Her arrest and detention were unspeakable, with the Iranian regime playing cat-and-mouse with her during the years of negotiations for her release. …

Iranian sources always linked the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with other dual nationals whom the regime had effectively taken hostage, to an unpaid British debt of £400 million owed to Iran for the non-delivery of  Chieftain tanks in the 1970s. 

The British government maintained it couldn’t pay this money without falling foul of international sanctions against Iran. Reports emerged yesterday that the government has now agreed to pay this debt — although it insists there is no link between that payment and the release of the prisoners.

But if it has now agreed to pay it, this means that the US is no longer objecting that such a payment would contravene the sanctions against Iran. And that suggests that — just as has been feared — the US is now lifting those sanctions in the unconscionable deal that it has struck with Tehran.

The announcement of that deal, which was expected more than a week ago, was reportedly delayed by Vladimir Putin’s demand that the US should lift its sanctions against Russia over Ukraine to allow Moscow to begin trading with Tehran. Since the Iran deal was being brokered by Russia, this threw a spanner into the works.

The release of the British hostages suggests that the Biden administration has found a way to circumvent that blockage — and finally do this deal with the devil that it has been absolutely determined to achieve. 

As I have written here and here, under its terms that have been leaked America will reportedly enable the most dangerous terrorist regime in the world to receive tens of billions of dollars with which to ramp up its regional power grab, redouble its terrorist activities against Israelis, Americans and others who are in its fanatical sights, and legitimately produce a nuclear arsenal at the end of a mere two and a half years.