Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards over three years ago — after a holiday with her young daughter.



Her case was plunged into chaos in November 2017 when Johnson mistakenly told MPs she was in Iran teaching journalists. He later retracted his comments.

Days later, his words were cited in an Iranian court. Following Johnson’s intervention, a senior Whitehall mandarin described him as a “fucking moron”, another official told BuzzFeed News.

Johnson told BBC's Our Next Prime Minister: "In seeking to point the finger either at me or anyone in the UK for the incarceration of Nazanin or anybody else — and I have deep sympathy for Nazanin and her family, but in pointing the finger at us..."

Presenter Emily Maitlis intervened: "Words have consequences..."

But Johnson insisted: "Well, actually in that case it didn't, I think, make any difference. But if you point the finger at the UK, all you are doing is exculpating those who are truly responsible, which is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."

In the wake of Johnson's comments, Iran's state TV cited them as "proof" of its allegations.

