FDD: Evidence in Iranian Budget of Huge British Ransom Payment
posted by Christopher W. Holton
There are indications that the British government may have been involved in a ransom payment to the Iranian government for the release of a British-Iranian dual citizen being held in by Iran.
Before we get too indignant about this alleged revelation, we should remember that it wasn’t terribly long ago that the Obama regime was sending pallets of Euros on board C-17 transport aircraft to Iran…
Anything that enriches the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism is a bad idea in our view and the West seems to be in a race to see who can help the Ayatollahs sponsor terrorism more…
From the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies…
This past weekend, British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson departed Tehran without securing the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British dual citizen being held hostage by Tehran. However, a single line in Iran’s newly released budget proposal for the coming fiscal year suggests that London and Tehran may be close to a ransom arrangement.
The ransom consists of £400 million that the Shah of Iran paid for British weapons before his ouster in 1979. As a result of the Islamic revolution that year, the UK neither delivered the weapons nor returned the shah’s payment. As a result of sanctions on Iran, British courts have ruled that the funds may not be released. The British government denies that there is any connection between negotiations about the money and negotiations concerning the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. An Iranian spokesman claimed that an agreement to return the £400 million is imminent, but has nothing to do with the status of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news company by that name.
Tehran has a long history of hostage operations designed to secure cash, weapons, and other concessions from the West. Just months after the conclusion of the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, Reuters reported that Iran had increased the rate at which it was arresting dual nationals. It currently holds 30 dual nationals, including 19 Europeans and six U.S. citizens or green card holders.
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