Ministry defends foreign secretary, who admits he could have been clearer about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Foreign Office has insisted Boris Johnson’s remarks about a British-Iranian woman have had no impact on her imprisonment in Iran, although the foreign secretary has admitted he “could have been clearer”in his comments.

Johnson telephoned his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, on Tuesday morning to discuss the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker who was detained while visiting the country with her young daughter.

The call came after Johnson told the Commons foreign affairs committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “teaching journalism” while in Iran, a statement rejected by her family and employer, who said she was on a family holiday.

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Johnson’s comments were cited in Iran as evidence that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was spreading “propaganda against the regime”, prompting fears she could be detained for longer as a result.

But in his talk with Zarif, Johnson said his remarks “could form no justifiable basis for further action in this case”, and urged Iranian authorities to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds.

A Foreign Office statement said: “The foreign secretary expressed concern at the suggestion from the Iranian judiciary high council for human rights that his remarks last week at the foreign affairs committee ‘shed new light’ on the case.

“The foreign secretary said this was absolutely not true. It was clear, as it always had been, that Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in Iran on holiday when arrested.

“The foreign secretary made clear that the point he had been seeking to make in his evidence to the foreign affairs committee was that he condemned the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that he believed the Iranian allegations that Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity.”

In return, the statement said, Zarif told Johnson that any developments in the case “were unrelated to the foreign secretary’s remarks” and he was committed to finding a solution.

The statement added: “The foreign secretary accepts his remarks to the foreign affairs committee could have been clearer on this aspect.”

Monique Villa, the chief executive of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, said Johnson had still never met her family or her employers.



Villa said she welcomed the clarification, but it would be “useful for him to finally meet with Nazanin’s family, and myself, to fully appreciate the situation. This would be the first time he would have met us since Nazanin was jailed 19 months ago.”



She said Nazanin had never trained journalists in Iran “and we are pleased that [Johnson] has admitted to the Iranian foreign minister that she was in Iran purely on holiday”.

Johnson is set to address the Commons on Tuesday afternoon, where it is understood he will clarify his comments.

The address will be focused on updating MPs on efforts to combat Islamic State, but Johnson is also expected to address his comments about Zaghari-Ratcliffe to head off an urgent question tabled by her MP, Tulip Siddiq.

The former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and the former foreign secretary Jack Straw have been among those condemning the remarks, made last week to the foreign affairs select committee.

“Hard to find words for how appalling this is. For him it’s just another lazy, arrogant failure to check facts. For her it’s incarceration,” Cooper tweeted.

Straw told the BBC it was a “grave error” by Johnson. “In those circumstances he should have taken rather less than six days to make that clear. Rule one, if you are a British foreign secretary, is to remember that careless talk can cost lives, in the case of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe may cost her literally an extra five years in prison,” he said.

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The foreign secretary was also criticised by Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who accused him of being too hazy on the detail of his Foreign Office brief. He said Johnson had got it wrong and called on him to pay more attention to his job.

But the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, said “we all make slips of the tongue” and suggested that, despite the concerns the comments could lead to an extension of the jail term, Johnson’s remarks were “not a serious gaffe”.

Johnson had told the foreign affairs select committee last week that he believed Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it”. He said neither she nor her family had been told what crime she had committed. “And that I find extraordinary, incredible.”

Her family and her employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, have said she was in Iran on a family holiday with her now-three-year-old daughter, who is still in Iran being cared for by grandparents while her mother serves her jail term after being convicted of spying.

Shortly after Johnson’s comments to the committee, she was returned to court, with his words cited as evidence against her.

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said in a letter to Johnson that his comments “reveal a fundamental lack of interest or concern for the details of Nazanin’s case and the consequences of your words”.