Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had an emotional reunion with her husband and daughter after she landed back in the UK six years after being arrested in Iran.
The British-Iranian mum broke down in tears as she was reunited with her seven-year-old daughter just minutes after landing back on British soil.
Her flight, that also carried Anoosheh Ashoori, touched down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire shortly after 1am on Thursday morning.
Heartwarming pictures show the family reunited for the first time in years, after having been stuck at the heart of an international incident that tore them apart.
Gabriella was heard asking "is that mummy?" as Nazanin departed the plane.
In a video shared on Instagram by Anoosheh Ashoori’s daughter Elika Ashoori, Gabriella shouted “mummy” as Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe walked down the plane’s stairs.
Later in the video, Richard Ratcliffe shakes Mr Ashoori’s hand, before Mr Ashoori was reunited with his family, who were in tears.
The seven-year-old girl was pictured running excitedly around the room and being carried on her mother’s hip.
Tears of joy can be heard as the family were reunited, the newly reunited mum can't stop hugging and showering her only-daughter with kisses.
Gabriella could be heard telling her: "You smell nice".
To which her mother replied: "Do I smell nice? I haven't had a shower for 24 hours. Is that okay?". They hugged again as Richard said: "She smells nice to daddy".
Later that night, daughter Gabriella slept between her parents on their first night back together after 2,173 heartbreaking days apart.
The youngster had reportedly refused to believe her mum really was coming home after a number of false starts in getting Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe back.
Speaking early this morning from the safe house the family spent their first night together, dad Richard admitted the family were still overcome with exhaustion and sheer relief.
He said : “We’re all sleepy and relieved here. Gabriella firmly planted herself between us last night and is still sleeping soundly now.”
The newly freed pair, landed in the UK after intense negotiations around a £400million debt Britain owed Iran, that led to their release.
Their flight initially took them to the Gulf state of Oman, which has been closely involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations to secure their releases.
Nazanin's sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe, said they newly reunited family were looking forward to enjoying the normal experiences others take for granted.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, she said: "They have lived apart for such a long time, had such different experiences, they are not going to go back to how they were before. Of course they won't.
"They are never going to be a normal family. I think there is an element of having those normal experiences that they haven't been able to for such a long time.
"Go swimming together, go to the supermarket together, go out for walks - all those things the rest of us take for granted when we have got children that they are looking forward to."
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe departed the plane first, followed by Mr Ashoori, before the pair walked down the steps away from the aircraft together.
The British-Iranian mother waved at cameras as she walked into a reception building at the Oxfordshire airport, while Mr Ashoori, who was carrying a magazine, gave a salute.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was reunited with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and daughter Gabriella, who welcomed her home inside a reception building at the airport.
The family have waited years for the reunion which happened around 1am this morning, through hunger strikes and petitioning a number of different Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries.
The British-Iranian mum-of-one was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denied.
The family's lawyer Hojjat Kermani said she had been freed alongside Anoosheh Ashoori, following talks between London and Tehran over a £400million debt between the UK and Iranian governments.
A source close to their families has now claimed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori had left Iran this morning.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking the couple's daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest.
Nazanin told independent investigators she was threatened with execution and the torture of her family.
She also said she was chained and blindfolded in prison – and suffered sensory and sleep deprivation.
And she said she was interrogated for nine hours at a time in solitary and bombarded with bright lights and blaring TVs.
Her husband Richard says Nazanin, who spent a week in a psychiatric hospital chained to the bed in 2018, was even left suicidal.
She was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss was instrumental in seeing the British pair returned home.
She said: "I think it's been a really difficult 48 hours, the expectation that they would be released, but we weren't sure right until the last moment.
"It's been very emotional, but also a really happy moment for the families, and I'm pleased to say that both Nazanin and Anoosheh are in good spirits and they're safe and well back here in Britain."
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK's chief executive, said: "This is fantastic news, but it hasn't come a moment too soon.
"Nazanin and Anoosheh should never have been detained in the first place - they were both jailed on trumped-up national security charges, a familiar tactic in Iran.
"Nazanin and Anoosheh have unquestionably been used as political pawns by the Iranian authorities - and the Iranian authorities have acted with calculated cruelty, seeking to wring the maximum diplomatic value out of their captivity.
"The Government needs to follow up on Nazanin and Anoosheh's release by immediately renewing its calls for the release of the UK nationals Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz, both of whom are still going through an ordeal all too similar to Nazanin and Anoosheh's.
"It's been clear for years that the Iranian authorities are targeting foreign nationals with spurious national security-related charges to exert diplomatic pressure, and it's more important than ever that Britain works multilaterally to combat this insidious practice."
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe said he was “deeply grateful” for her release and that he and their daughter Gabriella were “looking forward to a new life”.
Earlier, Labour's Tulip Siddiq, the family's local MP, confirmed the news in tweet: "Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home. I came into politics to make a difference, and right now I’m feeling like I have."
Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly said the negotiations with the regime in Tehran had proved "incredibly difficult", not least because of the "huge number" of sanctions imposed on Iran.
He said they had taken "every precaution" to ensure the money paid to settle the outstanding debt for an order of British tanks which was never delivered would be used purely for humanitarian purposes.
"We owed this debt, we accepted that debt. Obviously, the sanctions position made it incredibly difficult - you cannot just write a cheque," he told Sky News.
"The details of how we have done it have to remain confidential, but it has taken a huge amount of work to come up with a method of ensuring that money is for humanitarian purposes and that it conforms to the sanctions regime."
Mr Cleverly said the Government was working to secure the return of a third dual-national, Morad Tahbaz - who also has US citizenship - who was released from prison on furlough.
"He also has American nationality, which has in the eyes of the Iranians - not in ours - made his case more complicated," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We will continue to work to secure his release and, obviously, we work in close co-ordination with the US on these issues as well."
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister confirmed that he had had no contact with Nazanin yet, and as of yet there was no intention to invite her to No10.
When asked whether the UK was paying money for hostages, they said: "We have always acknowledged that this was money that we owed. We said we would settle the IMS debt in parallel. We have done that. It is not contingent on the release of any detainees and we have been clear on that from the start."
He added: "The UK has never accepted our nationals being used as political leverage for any purpose, including to secure IMS debt repayment."
Downing Street refused to comment on the details of the payment or whether the US had signed it off.
Asked if we were now "best buddies" with Iran, the spokesman said “No”, adding: "There are very significant issues we have with Iran and the regime."
