Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Lord Garel-Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goldie]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question and pay tribute to her particularly detailed knowledge of both Iran and the circumstances of this issue. As she is probably aware, the technical difficulty is that Iranians do not recognise the UK as having any right of access, on the basis that they do not consider dual nationality detainees to be British nationals. Anyone holding Iranian citizenship is considered to be only Iranian, and under international law Iran is not obliged to grant consular access for dual nationals. We are pursuing every avenue that we can in relation to all the dual nationality detainees, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and are doing so in the best way possible. We raise all our cases at every level and every opportunity. The Prime Minister raised all our consular cases in a telephone call with President Rouhani on 13 May. Most recently, on 6 July, the Minister for the Middle East raised our cases in a meeting with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Araghchi. This is a very difficult situation for all our dual nationality detainees. We do the best we can to seek information and ensure that they have access to members of their family—in the case of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her parents in Iran—and that their welfare is addressed. I am sure that the noble Baroness’s plea will not be lost.

[Lord Garel-Jones (Con)]

My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister tell the House whether there is a balance to be struck between doing everything possible behind the scenes to assist Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family, as the Government are indeed doing, and refraining from any public comment that may inadvertently be counterproductive?

[Baroness Goldie]

I thank my noble friend for his particularly shrewd and perceptive observation. These are very difficult cases. For example, we know of other families of dual nationality detainees who have explicitly requested the UK Government not to engage publicly in representations and not to discuss their case at the public level. That is why the United Kingdom Government make a judgment on how best to try to continue communication with Iran and with the Iranian Government. I am pleased to say that in this case, for example, our ambassador in Tehran was able to speak with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe by telephone on both 20 May and 15 July this year. That is unusual but it was a very welcome development.