Boris Johnson needs to go to Iran and then step down

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www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iran-tv-boris-johnson-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-confession-prison-sentence-plot-a8045386.html%3famp#ampshare=www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iran-tv-boris-johnson-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-confession-prison-sentence-plot-a8045386.html

How can that bumbling baffoon still be in a job? How does he not have the guts to fully apologise, instead of that well rehearsed speech that avoided the crucial word sorry, and more to the point why is he not in Iran trying to speak directly to the Iranian government?

Correct Mum.

The first finger points at the Iranians who have imprisoned her for what? I don’t know what. None of us know why the hell she has been imprisoned.

I wager she’s done nothing to justify imprisonment, the regime is to blame. Why have they picked on her to throw into prison?

Shouldn’t it be properly and fully investigated rather than just demands for politicians to parrot fashion what the husband has said? Iran won’t co-operate with that.

Why she went back to Iran when she knew how bloody medieval they are beggers belief.

He acts like a bumbling baffoon

He is manipulative and he is intelligent he isn’t someone I admire or like but he is far from stupid he didn’t jump on the brexit bandwagon for no reason and he is the reason we are now leaving

But he fucked up here

It all sounds ridiculous and what Boris said certainly didn't help, but if she was guilty of what she's accused of, none of us would know, would we?

There's just something that doesn't "feel" right about the whole thing. There was no need for Boris to wade in in the first place, so why did he? He was trying to help, believing that training journalists wasn't a problem? He's the foreign secretary and he is educated, even if his intelligence is up for debate, he must know something about how that would be received in Iran?

Oops bumbling buffoon ....

Exactly. While there is obviously much public sympathy & condemnation for this woman's plight, there are many that seem to miss the fact, that this case, has been tried in her own country, and they have found her guilty, on what ever questionable or unquestionable evidence they may have had. Without collating our own court worthy evidence and trying the facts in that same manner, how are we to refute the legal machinations of this regime, or any other for that matter?
From a diplomatic perspective, by all means the sentence & punishment bestowed on our nationals, can be negotiated under whatever tenets of goodwill we can muster between two nations, but the decisions of their courts are what they are, and without respect for that process, Iran can do as they please.

I'm wondering if the reason the government won't categorically confirm she was on holiday is because they don't believe that to be the case.

Surely the government can’t just repeat what the husband has said if they don’t know that for fact?

Husband: I insist you say she was on holiday.
Politicians in a back room: Was she on holiday? What was she doing? We can’t just say she was on holiday if we don’t know she was, can we? What if she was on holiday as well as got herself into some bother which contravenes Iranian Law?

Do not go to Iran.

I agree Council and James, something doesn’t seem to be quite adding up. I am no fan of Johnson & Gove but they do seem reluctant to categorically state that she was on holiday and both give a sense that they know something that we don’t. It’s an absolutely awful situation but I don’t think that we know the full story.

That's it Holly, the easy and popular thing for them both to do would be to publicly state Boris made a mistake and she was definitely on holiday, but for some reason they are unable to do that.

You're completely missing the point.

There was absolutely no need for B Johnson to open his gob and say anything.

The Foreign Secretary may be very limited in what he can do to help an Iranian-British dual national in Iran. This is a well-understood issue with dual nationals of most countries.

But only someone who either:

a) was trying to make things worse, or
b) was too dim to grasp or simply didn't care that what he was saying would make things worse,

would publicly open his trap and spout the things Johnson did in the role of Foreign Secretary.

Neither of those two alternatives is attractive. And neither suggests Johnson's a fit person to hold high office. If it's (b), this is far from the only time he has behaved like this.

Exactly. Irrespective of how you think the case 'adds up', the key point is that the foreign secretary made her position worse than it already was.

I said exactly that half a dozen posts earlier Perking. That's why something just feels wrong. There was no need for Boris to say anything (except that he was under pressure from her husband) and yet he did. He's foreign secretary and educated, he knew how his words would be received in Iran. So why did he say it? We don't know. Neither do we know why it seems to be so difficult for him or other government officials to retract them

when she went off to be a political subversive

Have you any evidence for this claim? Even the Iranian Government haven't produced anything.

The poor woman went to visit her parents and took her child with her; a normal thing to do for someone who no longer lives in their home country. Plenty of people visit Iran actually , you can even go on holiday there, should you wish and it is not on the list of countries we are advised not to visit.

Incidentally, would you care to explain why the child, who only has British nationality, had her passport confiscated and was not allowed to fly (be flown) back to the UK when all this first happened? Or do you think an 18 month old was spying?

It's incredible how people believe in Boris. He's foreign secretary and educated and therefore can't do any wrong. Unbelievable.

So her employers say she was on holiday, her husband and family say she was on holiday, but Boris and Gove know something more.

What are you trying to suggest this brilliant duo know, exactly?

Sabine you are talking utter rubbish.

She was a mum on holiday with her young daughter. People care passionately about this as a small child has been separated from both her parents under very distressing circumstances, for reasons completely out of their control. She is being used as a political pawn.

Her daughter is a British citizen who had her passport confiscated for many months and our government did nothing to help her either.

Why are you, Sabine, so unbothered by the Foreign Secretary making the situation so very much worse?

And I'm not for a moment buying into your appalling speculation in your post, but if you personally really believed that were true, surely you would be more bothered that the Foreign Secretary has done this?

the key point is that the foreign secretary made her position worse than it already was

Exactly, this.

And for those who think she may have been spying, let's not forget who she would be spying for - our Government.

I don’t think that she was spying. But I’m struggling to understand why she was arrested, have the Iranians never given a reason?

Indeed. Also, not that I doubt for a second that the UK has spooks in Iran, but there are also dual nationality Iranian-British people who visit there who aren't. Why are you so certain she must be one of them?

Well if she was spying it's far more likely that the Foreign Secretary knew about it than that her DH or her employer would.

I agree BJ hasn't done well here but equally I don't see how anyone here can know she was only on holiday.

have the Iranians never given a reason

It's not a democracy, they don't have to. I think for quite a long time she wasn't even told what the charges were.

B Johnson has retracted his comments, Council.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Gove under fire for comments
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41960006
"Mr Johnson has since said the government has "no doubt" she was on holiday "and that was the sole purpose of her visit"."

the key point is that the foreign secretary made her position worse than it already was

The idea that Boris might have done something careless is simply untenable to many people. Never mind his career of lies, his racism, his coming and going on Brexit, Boris is such an educated man who couldn't possibly make a mistake.

I'm not at all convinced she was a spy - that's not what she's accused of anyway is it? I thought it was undermining the regime? All I'm saying is that no-one here knows what she was doing and for some reason it seems to be very difficult for the British government to defend her.

That could well be incompetence or it could be something else.

I'm not by any means saying Boris being FS and educated means he can do no wrong, I'm saying he knew how his words would be received and still said them, then hasn't retracted them. It's anyone's guess why he did that.