LONDON: British and Iranian government officials have refuted reports that the repayment of more than £400 million ($527.4 million) to Iran is connected to negotiations to free jailed Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been imprisoned since April 2016, and is serving a five-year jail sentence after being accused of spying and plotting to overthrow the Iranian establishment, charges she denies.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday that Britain was preparing to transfer the money in a gesture of goodwill to Iran as it works to secure her release.
A government spokesperson said: “This is a longstanding case and relates to contracts signed over 40 years ago with the pre-revolution Iranian regime
“Funding to settle the debt was paid to the High Court by the Treasury and IMS in 2002. Iran’s Ministry of Defense remains subject to EU sanctions.
“It is wrong to link a completely separate debt issue with any other aspect of our bilateral relationship with Iran.”
An Iranian official acknowledged on Thursday that Tehran and Britain are discussing the possible release of the money, which was paid by the previous regime of the shah of Iran for Chieftain tanks, AP reported.
The contract was canceled after the Iranian revolution in 1979, but the money was never returned.
Following a ruling in Iran’s favor by the The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2001, Britain promised to repay the money but was prevented by sanctions on Iran, which have since been eased following the nuclear deal in 2016.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has suggested that his wife’s detention is being used as collateral to persuade Britain to pay up.
“It is important that the UK honors its international legal obligations so that Iran can honor its legal obligations.”
“They are separate things but it is good for the atmosphere if they are all solved.”
However, commentators have pointed to recent exchanges between the US and Iran that follow a similar pattern.
In 2016, the US delivered $400 million to Iran on the same day as a prisoner exchange that freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans.
“Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment was just another attempt by IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) officials to extort money from the West,” said Ahmad Majidyar, director of the IranObserved Project at the Middle East Institute.
“The British government is trying its utmost to de-link the two issues, but it is hard to believe that the payment is not directly related to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment.
“From the very outset, it was clear that IRGC authorities were using the British-Iranian charity worker as a bargaining chip to secure the decades-old debt from the British government. Charges filed against her were consistently vague and spurious.”
On Monday, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson vowed to do “everything we can to get her out of Iran,” and retracted comments made last week suggesting that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “training journalists” in the country.
Her family has repeatedly said she was there on holiday with her daughter visiting relatives.
Johnson is due to visit Tehran in the coming weeks to discuss the strengthening of Anglo-Iranian relations, but the issue of Zaghari-Ratcliffe is expected to dominate proceedings.
According to her family, the error has been used by Iranian authorities as proof that Zaghari-Ratcliffe posed a threat to the Iranian regime and could lead to her sentence being significantly increased.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Johnson apologized for the “distress and anguish” his comments caused. “Of course I retract any suggestion that she was there in a professional capacity,” he said.
Ratcliffe has highlighted his wife’s worsening health, and called for the British government to grant her diplomatic protection.
Iran, which does not acknowledge Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s dual nationality and sees her as solely Iranian, has indicated that this move will be ineffectual.
An article in the IRNA state news agency said: “As Zaghari has dual British-Iranian citizenship and Iran doesn’t recognize her British citizenship, the principle is fundamentally impractical.”
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said it was “unlikely” her release will be facilitated without the Iranians getting something in return.
“No doubt the British government is looking at a raft of options, including a possible payment and granting diplomatic protection to Zaghari-Ratcliffe, neither of which is ideal,” he told Arab News.
“Conferring diplomatic protection on her would be dubious, and it would also set a very dangerous precedent where other states could try to do the same thing, so I think that would be an unlikely option.
“Paying off the debt also has the danger of looking as though it is rewarding Iran for illegitimate actions.”
Majidyar said: “If Iran gets what it wants, it will release her sooner or later. But while the freedom of the British mother will be a cause for celebration, paying ransom also leaves behind a risky precedent as it encourages the IRGC to continue taking more Western hostages for concessions or ransom.”
£400 million debt to Iran has no links to imprisoned aid worker, UK officials claim
£400 million debt to Iran has no links to imprisoned aid worker, UK officials claim
US says it downed four Yemen rebel drones in Red Sea
- US military says the unmanned aerial systems presented threat to merchant vessels
- It says the action was taken to protect freedom of navigation in international waters
WASHINGTON: The United States military said Wednesday it had downed four drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen aimed at a US warship in the Red Sea.
US Central Command said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that its forces had “engaged and destroyed four long-range unmanned aerial systems” at around 2 am Sanaa time (2300 GMT), adding there were no injuries or damage reported to US or coalition ships.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the statement said.
“These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” it added.
In November, the Houthis launched a campaign of drone and missile strikes against vessels in the Red Sea, an area vital for world trade, in professed solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
Outpouring of anger as thousands of Jordanians protest at Israeli embassy
- Surge in protests sparked by claims of Israeli soldiers raping, executing Palestinian women
- Many of Jordan’s 12m citizens are descendants of displaced Palestinians
AMMAN: Thousands of Jordanians marched to the Israeli embassy in Amman on Wednesday for the fourth consecutive day in an outpouring of anger at Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
“The people demand the end of Wadi Araba,” some chanted, referring to Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Protestors, who began gathering at the Kaloti mosque around 10 p.m., were met by hundreds of security personal and military tanks in anticipation of the planned march to the heavily fortified Israeli embassy nearby.
Ambulances and medical teams were stationed as a precaution in the wake of days marked by violent confrontations between protestors and riot police.
Jordan has had some of the largest peaceful protests in the region since October, with regular marches in downtown Amman drawing hundreds of thousands of people on consecutive Fridays.
However, several demonstrators on Wednesday told Arab News the recent surge of daily gatherings near the Israel embassy were triggered by claims by Jamila Al-Hissi, a Palestinian woman, who told Al Jazeera Arabic of Israeli soldiers torturing, raping and executing women inside Al-Shifa hospital.
There have been reports that Al-Hissa’s claimed were denied on March 25 by a former Al Jazeera executive, who referenced a purported Hamas investigation.
Jordanians have felt the impact of the war in Gaza deeply, where Israel’s relentless bombing has killed over 32,000 Palestinians.
Many of Jordan’s 12 million citizens are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.
“I’m devastated that we haven’t been able to help Gaza. The least that we can do is to be here so that our brothers and sisters in Palestine know that we’re standing with them,” 29-year-old Haneen Ashour told Arab News.
Popular chants like “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian soil” reflect the widespread public opposition to diplomatic normalization with Israel, seen as a betrayal of the Palestinians suffering under occupation.
Despite the large turnout and passionate demonstrations, some protesters have expressed doubt about the impact of their actions.
“This is our duty and it’s the least that we can do, but to be honest with you I don’t (know if) these protests are making any difference. If they were, we wouldn’t be 171 days into the war in Gaza,” 24-year-old Ammar Najar said.
Several protesters were beaten in previous days, and dozens were arrested as they attempted to break a heavy police cordon around the embassy, witnesses said.
Jordan’s authorities allow protests but say they cannot tolerate any attempt to storm the embassy, instigate civic unrest or try to reach borders with the occupied West Bank or Israel.
Gun attack on school bus in West Bank wounds 3 Israelis: army
- Soldiers were pursuing the suspect
JERUSALEM: Medics and the army said three people including a boy were wounded in a gun attack Thursday that targeted a school bus near the city of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
After reports that a militant fired toward “a number of vehicles,” soldiers were sent to the scene near the town of Al-Auja, the military said, adding that soldiers were pursuing the suspect.
The military confirmed a school bus had been targeted.
A 30-year-old man was in serious condition with gunshot wounds, while a 21-year-old man was less seriously wounded and a 13-year-old boy suffered shrapnel injuries, emergency services said.
Israeli public radio said the masked gunman started shooting at Israeli cars at around 7:00 a.m. local time, hitting a car and a school bus.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October. The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 that left about 1,160 people dead.
More than 440 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the war broke out, according to the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
At least 17 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in attacks there over the same period, say the Israeli authorities.
Israeli strikes on Rafah raise fear ground assault could begin
- Israeli forces just north of Rafah kept the two main hospitals in Khan Younis, Al-Amal and Nasser Hospital, under a blockade imposed late last week
- In the north, they were still operating inside Al Shifa Hospital, which they stormed more than a week ago
GAZA STRIP: Israel bombed at least four homes in Rafah on Wednesday, raising new fear among the more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground assault could be coming.
One of the airstrikes killed 11 people from a single family, health officials said.
Mussa Dhaheer, looking on from below as neighbors helped an emergency worker lower a victim in a black body bag from an upper story, said he had awakened to the blast, kissed his terrified daughter, and rushed outside to find the destruction. His father, 75, and mother, 62, were among the dead.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say. I can’t make sense of what happened. My parents. My father with his displaced friends who came from Gaza City,” he told Reuters.
“They were all together, when suddenly they were all gone like dust.”
At another bomb site, Jamil Abu Houri said the intensification of air strikes was Israel’s way of showing its disdain for a UN Security Council resolution last week demanding an immediate Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Next up, he fears a ground assault on Rafah, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to carry out despite warnings from closest ally Washington that this would wreak a humanitarian disaster.
“The bombing has increased, and they have threatened us with an incursion, and they say that have been given the green light for the Rafah incursion. Where is the Security Council?” Abu Houri said.
A US official said on Wednesday Israel had asked to reschedule a meeting in Washington to discuss its plans for Rafah, days after Netanyahu abruptly canceled the talks over the passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council that the US decided not to veto.
The US abstention from the vote pointed to frustration with Netanyahu, who rebuked Washington over the move.
More deadly airstrikes
Another Israeli airstrike in Rafah on Wednesday afternoon killed four Palestinians including a woman and a child and injured other residents, Gaza health authorities said.
Just west of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, seven people were killed in an airstrike on a house, health officials said.
The Israeli military says it is targeting armed Hamas militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover. Hamas denies doing so.
Separately, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where bloodshed has worsened in parallel with the Gaza war, three Palestinians were killed and four wounded by Israeli fire during a raid in Jenin overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said.
At least 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive into Hamas-run Gaza, according to the health ministry there, with thousands of other dead believed buried under rubble and over 80 percent of the 2.3 million population displaced, many at risk of famine.
The war erupted after Islamist Hamas militants broke through the border on Oct. 7 and rampaged through nearby communities, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli forces just north of Rafah kept the two main hospitals in Khan Younis, Al-Amal and Nasser Hospital, under a blockade imposed late last week. In the north, they were still operating inside Al Shifa, the enclave’s largest hospital, which they stormed more than a week ago.
Israel says the hospitals have been lairs for Hamas gunmen, which Hamas and medical staff deny. The Israeli military has said it killed and captured hundreds of fighters in a battle in Al Shifa. Hamas says civilians and medics were rounded up.
Gaza’s health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside Al Shifa’s human resources department that was not equipped to provide them with health care.
Residents living nearby have reported hearing constant explosions in and around Al Shifa and columns of smoke coming from buildings inside the premises.
International mediation has failed to secure a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners so far as the two sides stick to irreconcilable demands. Hamas wants an end to the war and total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the group is eradicated.
US says it downed four Yemen rebel drones in Red Sea
- US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well
WASHINGTON: The United States military said Wednesday it had downed four drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen aimed at a US warship in the Red Sea.
US Central Command said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that its forces had “engaged and destroyed four long-range unmanned aerial systems” at around 2 am Sanaa time (2300 GMT), adding there were no injuries or damage reported to US or coalition ships.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the statement said.
“These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” it added.
In November, the Houthis launched a campaign of drone and missile strikes against vessels in the Red Sea, an area vital for world trade, in professed solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.