Boris Johnson needs to go to Iran and then step down

[DB22]

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?

The thing is, even if she wasn't on holiday, Boris has still fucked up colossally. Arguably even more so if she actually was a spook, since she would have more value to the British government then. So the OP is NBU.

It's also perfectly rational to conclude that she was only on holiday in the absence of any evidence otherwise, and to ignore the claims of a regime from a country where rule of law and due process do not apply.

But retracting doesn't put the toothpaste back in the tube. International diplomacy isn't like that.

Will people please stop speculating that she was spying. There is absolutely zero evidence for this. Iran themselves have released absolutely no proof of her being there for any reason other than a holiday. The UN human rights experts have called for her immediate release. If you can provide a single shred of evidence to support your insinuations please do so, otherwise please accept that she was on holiday, as her family, friends, employers, government and UN experts have agreed and let's proceed on that basis to try to raise awareness and get her home.

Mr Johnson has since said the government has "no doubt" she was on holiday "and that was the sole purpose of her visit".

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

Well, give us some good ideas of what the something else might be...

Ah, OK, I must have been asleep all weekend. I thought he'd only said something vague about being sorry if his words had been unhelpful.

Iran has arrested 30 dual nationals in the last two years, a marked increase over previous years. 19 of the 30 hold dual citizenship with a European country, whereas previously, those detained tended to have US citizenship. The increase in Europeans being seized and held on trumped up spying charges is thought to be in part an attempt to use them as international bargaining chips and in part an attempt to stop European firms moving to Iran.

In this particular case it may also be relevant that we owe Iran a large sum of money.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/iran-sues-mod-firm-over-the-shahs-tanks-9101713.html%3famp

I'd love for Boris to go to Iran. Someone might 'accidentally' leak that he has gone there to start a revolution. Then he can find out how that poor woman is suffering.

I never did understand why TM made him Foreign Secretary. He always has been such a buffoon. He should have stuck with comedy.

Now TM can’t sack him because she knows he would make a leadership challenge.

No of course Boris Johnson shouldn't step down.

He has no idea for certain why the woman was in Iran apart from what her family have said, and of course their official line is that she was just visiting her parents.

That may or may not be true.

Michael Gove when asked if he knew why the woman was there, replied that he didn't know. The only correct answer surely?

Isn't that exactly why she appointed him FS Mittens? Awful that she was literally playing with people's lives, but the hope was he'd make such an idiot of himself in a high profile position as to be unelectable for PM thereafter.

Trouble is she's not sure he's quite done enough yet so as to be no threat to her if she sacks him.

what kind of spectacular arsehole would you have to be to continually vote for Boris and his twisted side elf, Gove, to be your MP?

Johnson should be sacked, not resign.

Not only is this the latest "gaffe" (I'm being polite) in a line showing he's not up to the job, but his comments have made the situation worse. Iranian state television basically ran a piece along the lines of "after 18 months his slip of the tongue has revealed the truth"

Will people please stop speculating that she was spying. There is absolutely zero evidence for this. Iran themselves have released absolutely no proof of her being there for any reason other than a holiday. The UN human rights experts have called for her immediate release. If you can provide a single shred of evidence to support your insinuations please do so, otherwise please accept that she was on holiday, as her family, friends, employers, government and UN experts have agreed and let's proceed on that basis to try to raise awareness and get her home.

^^ with bells on.

The conspiracy theorists on this thread may do well to think about the fact that both Boris and Gove are proven liars so there is no reason whatsoever to give credence to their blunders. Nazanin on the other hand is a woman whose case is supported by Amnesty International and whose imprisonment has been declared to be a gross miscarriage of justice by the UN and various other international organisations. It beggars belief that some think there is any room for doubt.

Of course she was just visiting her parents!

Honestly, it is unbelievably frustrating that after 19 months people are still being taken in by what the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are saying in preference to what the UN, Amnesty International, N's employers, her family, her MP and finally the British Government are saying. There is not a shred of evidence to the contrary and I really believe that it is appalling to endanger this poor woman further by giving credence to such trumped up and obviously spurious charges.

As for the question of why I should care .....Well this is very selfish and shallow of me but, if I were ever to get into difficulties overseas, I would like to think that even if the Foreign Secretary couldn't do much to help, that I could at least count on them not to make my position even worse.

Otherwise what, exactly is the point of them?

He's a total buffoon and unfortunately too many people just affectionately smile and say 'That's just Boris' 😳
I think he's a total liability, if he is clever then he's certainly not demonstrating it, and he should be sacked.
I wouldn't trust him one inch; he should pair up with Trump, they'd make a good pair of oafs ☹️

Boris & Gove may not have handled this well, I agree, but they cannot state something as fact and certainty, without any other evidence beyond hearsay. We cannot interfere with the legal jurisdiction of another country, whatever despot regime they may have. Yes within the global force of UN and such like, we can align ourselves on the side of humanitarian beliefs and protection of human rights, but that cuts little sway with countries like Iran. And even less so, where they do not recognise any other citizenship other than their own. This lady is an Iranian national, tried and charged under her own country's jurisdiction. There really is not much that any diplomat can do, be it Boris or not, and UN rapporteurs can decry & demand all they do, but it is not our Governments place to try and interfere with their due process, however wrong & warped it may seem.

The PM has just stated as a fact that N was on holiday visiting her parents in Iran so there's no reason why Boris and Gove should have any trouble. Boris messed up because he didn't have a proper grasp of the facts, compounded the error by being reluctant to admit his mistake and Gove then made things worse by using it to signal support for Boris in their manoevres against a weak PM.

There really is not much that any diplomat can do, be it Boris or not,
Still missing the point. If there really was nothing anyone could do then he should have done and said nothing

The support for Boris and Gove is remarkable.
Is it connected to the fact that they are the leading brexitteers in cabinet? I can't understand why else people would defend their cock-up.

There's lots that Boris can do actually.

1 Clearly state N's innocence.

2 Protest her detention.

3 Meet with and speak to N's husband. He spoke to him on the phone for the first time this week, but has never actually met him, despite numerous requests.

4 Visit N.

5 Take N's husband to Iran to see his wife and daughter under diplomatic protection.

Yes, she was on holiday in Iran. But that's not the issue is it?
Iran have reason to believe she was a threat to their regime, whether she happened to be there on holiday or not, is irrelevant.

Oh and

6 Issue a formal retraction of his error in Farsi.

Exactly Mumto2. Johnson and Gove can't possibly know without a shadow of doubt what the woman's reasons for the visit were.

It is ridiculous to blame British MPs for an Iranian woman being imprisoned in her own country.

One more time: the issue is that the Foreign Secretary has made her position worse.