LONDON: Two British-Iranians imprisoned for years in Iran were reunited with their families in the early hours of Thursday, tears of joy and long hugs marking the culmination of years of campaigning and earlier false hopes.
Their release on Wednesday came as the British government confirmed it had paid a longstanding debt over a canceled defense contract, and as major powers inch closer to renewing the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and 67-year-old engineer Anoosheh Ashoori touched down at RAF Brize Norton in southwest England just after 01:00am (0100 GMT), following a stopover in Oman.
Both appeared relaxed, smiling and waving briefly at the cameras before heading toward the building where their families were waiting.
As they stepped out of the plane, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s seven-year-old daughter Gabriella could be heard asking “Is that mummy?” and then shouting “Mummy!” as she recognized her, a live video showed.
The footage, posted on Instagram by Ashoori’s daughter Elika, streamed the two families’ first meeting after years of enforced separation — Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained since 2016, and Ashoori since 2017.
Gabriella ran toward her mother as the released pair entered the room, and loud sobbing could be heard as the families kissed and held each other.
“Do I smell nice?” Zaghari-Ratcliffe, clinging to her daughter, asked in mock surprise. “I haven’t had a shower in 24 hours!”
The project manager worked for the philanthropic arm of the Thomson Reuters news and data agency and was arrested in Tehran on a visit to family in 2016, accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.
Ashoori, a retired engineer from southeast London, was arrested in 2017 and jailed for 10 years on charges of spying for Israel.
Both families believe they were being held as political prisoners until a debt between Britain and Iran was settled.
The UK has consciously avoided saying the detention of the pair, and others held in Iran, was linked to the debt for an order of tanks that was canceled after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But soon after the release was announced, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed that London and Tehran had resolved the £394-million ($515-million) issue “after highly complex and exhaustive negotiations.”
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday that Iran had received the money but that it was “wrong to link Iran receiving its debt ... to the release of these people.”
Truss said the money can only be used for humanitarian goods.
The pair’s release also comes as major powers in Vienna close in on renewing the landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on regulating Iran’s nuclear program.
The deal gives Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, and Tehran on Wednesday said that “two issues” remain with the US to restore the deal.
Before her return, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has twice gone on hunger strike to highlight his wife’s plight, said “the first thing she wanted was for me to make her a cup of tea.”
“I’m relieved that the problems were solved,” he said, adding that the government should make sure “it doesn’t happen again.”
Ashoori’s family said their “family’s foundations were rocked” when he had been detained.
“Now, we can look forward to rebuilding those same foundations with our cornerstone back in place,” they said in a statement.
Truss, who was waiting with the families, wrote that it was “great to see both Anoosheh and Nazanin in such good spirits.”
She also announced that Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American who also holds British nationality, had been released from prison “on furlough” to his Tehran home.
Tahbaz was arrested alongside other environmentalists in January 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in jail for “conspiring with America.”
Addressing parliament on Wednesday, Truss said: “The agonies endured by Nazanin, Anoosheh, Morad and their families must never happen again.”
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said the government must renew “its calls for the release of the UK nationals Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz, both of whom are still going through an ordeal all too similar to Nazanin and Anoosheh’s.”
Raoof, a labor rights activist, was detained in October 2020 and was being held in solitary confinement, according to Amnesty.
Dual nationals from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and the United States have also been arrested in similar circumstances.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, fellow British-Iranian reunited with family in UK after Tehran release
https://arab.news/pc8yf
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, fellow British-Iranian reunited with family in UK after Tehran release
- British government confirms it had paid a longstanding debt over a canceled defense contract
- Major powers inch closer to renewing the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna
World welcomes 2026 with fireworks after year of Trump and turmoil
- Australia holds defiant celebrations after its worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years
- Hong Kong holds a subdued event after a deadly fire in tower blocks
PARIS, France: People around the globe toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, bidding farewell to one of the hottest years on record, packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his traditional New Year address to tell his compatriots their military “heroes” would deliver victory in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was “10 percent” away from a deal to end the fighting.
Earlier, New Year celebrations took on a somber tone in Sydney as revellers held a minute of silence for victims of the Bondi Beach shooting before nine tons of fireworks lit up the harbor city at the stroke of midnight.
Seeing in the New Year in Moscow, Natalia Spirina, a pensioner from the central city of Ulyanovsk, said that in 2026 she hoped for “our military operation to end as soon as possible, for the guys to come home and for peace and stability to finally be established in Russia.”
Over the border in Vyshgorod, Ukrainian beauty salon manager Daria Lushchyk said the war had made her work “hell” — but that her clients were still coming regardless.
“Nothing can stop our Ukrainian girls from coming in and getting themselves glam,” Lushchyk said.
Back in Sydney, heavily armed police patrolled among hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore barely two weeks after a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.
Parties paused for a minute of silence an hour before midnight, with the famed Sydney Harbor Bridge bathed in white light to symbolize peace.
Pacific nations including Kiribati and New Zealand were the first to see in 2026, with Seoul and Tokyo following Sydney in celebrations that will stretch to glitzy New York via Scotland’s Hogmanay festival.
More than two million people are expected to pack Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for what authorities have called the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.
In Hong Kong, a major New Year fireworks display planned for Victoria Harbor was canceled in homage to 161 people killed in a fire in November that engulfed several apartment blocks.
Truce and tariffs
This year has brought a mix of stress and excitement for many, war for others still — and offbeat trends, with Labubu dolls becoming a worldwide craze.
Thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.
The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new, American, pope and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.
Donald Trump returned as US president in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.
Trump used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of midterm elections to be held in November.
“Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!” he wrote.
After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October — though both sides have accused each other of flagrant violations.
“We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief,” said Gaza City resident Shireen Al-Kayali. “We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror.”
In contrast, there was optimism despite abiding internal challenges in Syria, where residents of the capital Damascus celebrated a full year since the fall of Bashar Assad.
“There is no fear, the people are happy, all of Syria is one and united, and God willing ... it will be a good year for the people and the wise leadership,” marketing manager Sahar Al-Said, 33, told AFP against a backdrop of ringing bells near Damascus’s Bab Touma neighborhood.
“I hope, God willing, that we will love each other. Loving each other is enough,” said Bashar Al-Qaderi, 28.
Sports, space and AI
In Dubai, thousands of revellers queued for up to nine hours for a spectacular fireworks and laser display at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
After a build-up featuring jet skis and floating pianos on an adjacent lake, a 10-minute burst of pyrotechnics and LED effects lit up the needle-shaped, 828-meter tall (2,717-feet) tower.
The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space and questions over artificial intelligence.
NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by tech titan Elon Musk, will launch a crewed spacecraft to circle the moon during a 10-day flight, more than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission.
After years of unbridled enthusiasm, AI is facing scrutiny and nervous investors are questioning whether the boom might now resemble a market bubble.
Athletes will gather in Italy in February for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
And for a few weeks in June and July, 48 nations will compete in the biggest football World Cup in history in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
