Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe today said her release "should have happened six years ago" in a powerful blast to the UK government.
In her first press conference since freedom, the British-Iranian mum said her ordeal "will always haunt me" - and she had found it difficult to trust UK Foreign Secretaries to get her home as years ticked by.
In a moving plea, she added the "meaning of freedom is never going to be complete" until Morad Tahbaz and other dual nationals are released and reunited with their families. "I was the lucky one", she said.
She added: "I have seen five foreign secretaries. I was told many many times ‘oh we’re going to get you home’, that never happened.
"How many Foreign Secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five? What’s happened now should have happened six years ago."
Speaking at the same event, Morad Tahbaz's daughter Roxanne said her father was still "abandoned" in Iran and told Boris Johnson: “We beg you to please stand by your word”.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe revealed Iran maintained that her release was linked to a £400m debt - a link the UK government spent years refusing to accept, before paying it at the moment of her freedom last week.
“They told me ‘we want something off the Brits, we will not let you go until such time as we get it’," she said.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe added “I have been a pawn in the hands of the two governments over the past six years", saying: "What upset me all these years was my life was linked to something that had nothing to do with me."
She said the cases of those still trapped in Iran must not be linked to international disputes.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was facing the media in Parliament at a press conference today for the first time since her release from Iran.
The 43-year-old, who landed back in Britain on Thursday after the UK finally agreed to settle a £400 million debt dating back to the 1970s, was joined by her husband, Richard.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe declined to criticise Boris Johnson - one of the five Foreign Secretaries - for wrongly saying she was teaching journalism.
She said during brief visits she only had “40 minutes to see my baby” so had little time to discuss the politics around her case.
Asked if she was angry at the government she said: “I cannot be happier than this that I’m here But also… this should have happened six years ago. I think that answers your question.
“I always felt like I’m holding this black hole in my heart all these years but I’m just going to leave that black hole in my heart on the plane, when the plane left.
“I’m not going to live with the rest of my life with a grudge.”
She added “it has been cruel what happened to me” but said she was only just home, adding: “I think it’s a bit early to hold that grudge.
"But it should have happened six years ago. It took a very, very long time for the politicians to sort it out.”
She also demanded other Iranian detainees are released, saying: "I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete as to such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families.
"To begin with Morad, but also the other dual nationals, members of religious groups, or prisoners of conscience who are ... I mean, we do realise that if I have been in prison for six years there are so many other people we don't know their names who have been suffering in prison in Iran."
She said "I felt like I was left behind" in Iran adding: "Two of us came home, he was left behind." She said it was "frustrating" and "disappointing" adding "it was my faith" that helped her get through it.
The mum said she is still living out of a suitcase and did not know it was Mother's Day this weekend.
She added: "I shouldn’t have been in prison for six years. And I think we have got through a lot it has been a tough journey, the coming back was also very tough.
“You do realise that coming back to a daughter who is nearly eight I left her when she was not even two. There’s a lot to catch up.”
Speaking at the press conference, Nazanin's campaigning husband Richard Ratcliffe said "I am super proud of her strength and her survival and her grace," adding: "This is my retirement day and I’m thankful that it has come."
His wife revealed her daughter Gabriella had told her "mummy, you do realise you are very famous and then it’s me and then it’s daddy". To laughs she added: “We’re bracing ourselves for a week of fame and then we’re going to just have a normal family.”
The couple attended a private meeting with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, joined by their local MP, Tulip Siddiq, who long campaigned for her return.
Ms Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said she was "emotional" meeting with the British-Iranian charity worker for the first time after six years of campaigning.
She said it was "quite weird" when the pair met in her constituency on Sunday because she had come to know Nazanin's life "so intimately" from speaking to her as she went through her ordeal.
"She came to West Hampstead and we hugged each other for ages and we were both quite tearful and it was quite emotional meeting her," she added.
Ms Siddiq said Nazanin was "warm and motherly", was "in every way", and talked of how she dreamt of doing simple things such as the school run and going to the park with her daughter, Gabriella, seven, while in solitary confinement.
"The school run is something I will look forward to," said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe - though she asked not to speak about her experience of solitary confinement.
Ms Siddiq announced she has asked for an inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee, including into a 2013 incident when Iranian officials came to Britain to renegotiate payment of the debt and were arrested and detained at Heathrow.
She said that incident contributed to "important people in the Iranian regime wanting to take matters into their own hands” and take “direct action”.
Downing Street said the Government is continuing to lobby the Iranian authorities for the return of Morad Tahbaz.
Mr Tahbaz, who was originally released from jail last week but was later returned to custody, has joint US, UK and Iranian citizenship.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "He is a tri-national. We are working very closely with the United States to secure his permanent release and departure from Iran. We have been in regular contact with Morad's family and continue to lobby the Irainian authorities at the highest level."
Boris Johnson’s spokesman defended the government’s response, saying the issue had been “extremely complicated and “very difficult work”.
He added: “I think the government including the Prime Minister has committed to securing Nazanin’s release as soon as possible.
“It was entirely always entirely in Iran’s gift to release detained dual nationals, UK officials and ministers were working hard to end their ordeal.”
Asked if the PM did enough when he was Foreign Secretary, the spokesman said: “All the Foreign Secretaries that have taken on this role have worked hard, with officials, to secure the release.”
