Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s return to the UK is first and foremost a moment of joy for her family; politics can wait. A mother and her young daughter, separated for nearly six years, can hold each other again. The loss of those years and the terror of not knowing how much longer the captivity would go on are hard for others to fathom. But that does not prevent us sharing gratitude that the ordeal is over.
The longing for reunion was a private grief, but its realisation has lifted public spirits. The relief is contagious. Richard Ratcliffe’s fortitude through the years of demanding that the government do whatever was required to secure his wife’s freedom has its deserved reward. He was wise to ignore Foreign Office requests that he be quieter on the subject.
Much of the diplomacy that led to her release and that of Anoosheh Ashoori, another British citizen, who has spent four years in an Iranian jail, will remain secret. It is unclear why Morad Tahbaz, a third detainee, was not on the same flight. He has been released from prison but remains under house arrest.
Some opacity is inevitable in negotiations to release hostages. That is not the term used by the authorities in Tehran, of course. There were judicial processes, of a sort – bogus charges of espionage. But the affectation of legality cannot sanitise an act as vicious as kidnapping for ransom. It has been known for some time that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release depended on the UK government’s readiness to repay a debt dating back to an uncompleted tank procurement in the 1970s. In public, ministers used to insist that the two issues were separate. The case inevitably became tangled in the wider web of strategic manoeuvres around the deal to ease western sanctions in exchange for suspension of Iran’s nuclear programme.
It might also be relevant that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has forced a reappraisal of western strategic priorities. Recognition of the need to reduce dependency on Russian energy exports puts a different complexion on relations with Iran, which happens also to be the site of vast natural gas reserves. That is all strategic backdrop. Closer to the foreground is ministers’ recognition that the tank debt was “legitimately owed” to Iran – a view privately held in the Foreign Office for some time. Signalling willingness to pay (which also required overcoming US objections to the payment) has made the difference to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her fellow detainees.
Liz Truss deserves credit for facilitating a breakthrough that eluded her predecessors. One former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, made matters worse. In 2017, he publicly muddled the record of why Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Iran when arrested, saying she had been teaching journalism – a mistake that reinforced Tehran’s version of events. In truth, she had been on holiday. Credit is also due to Tulip Siddiq, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP, for pursuing her constituent’s cause with tenacity. But it is the courage of the hostages themselves that is humbling in these circumstances.
There is political intrigue that goes into securing a hostage release. That effort must continue for Mr Tahbaz. Much of the process necessarily unfolds in diplomatic shadows; in the dark. But Wednesday’s reunion of families that have been cruelly separated for too long shines out as a beacon of joyful light in sombre times.
