How much in time and money will this cost the UK?

[Ihatetomatoes]

https://news.sky.com/story/british-couple-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-in-iran-family-say-13503275

It appears his services are required

Idiots, selfish idiots.

They also manage to distract attention from the real victims in Iran - at a time when the government has been know for folding under international pressure and bad publicity and has release --completely innocent-- victims who would have been executed if they had stayed anonymous.

This is true.

The very brave Iranian people who have protested against the regime and were slaughtered in their thousands. Awful.

Iran will keep them until the British Government gives them something that they want. Like the £600 million for that previous moron.

They've lived in Spain for over half a decade!

And the British Government paying Iran £600 million

How arrogant and stupid must you be to see the travel advice to avoid it like the plague and that having a British passport is enough to have you arrested and charged, and then shrug your shoulders and think, 'oh yeah, but I'll be fine'?

But they are still UK citizens hence their appeal for more intervention from the UK government. Not sure Iran listen to any outside governments though.

Wow. Seriously, did it cost tgat much?

The UK owed Iran that money. It was a 40 year old debt which the UK always admitted that it owed, but didn’t want to pay.
We took money for military equipment which we did not delivery due to changed in the government in Iran. But we did owe the money back.

That money should never have been tied to the two people Iran was holding. It was despicable of Iran to do that, but it was equally despicable of the UK to refuse to pay a debt they did owe, when they knew they could have got them released earlier.

But it’s really quite disingenuous to say that those two people cost the UK hundreds of millions to get back. That was a debt we already owed, and had admitted to owing. Iran used those people as leverage, but they were the cause of the debt. They were victims between the UK and Iran fighting over money.

The UK had to pay back a legitimate debt we owed to Iran.

They were victims of their own stupidity and we wouldn't have paid the money if they hadn't gone to Iran. I'm sticking with morons. All of them.

Britain relaxed its travel advice to Iran in 2015. After a deal with Iran. It was approved for travel. Nazanin, being a dual national of Britain and Iran, then took her daughter to visit her parents in Tehran. She was detained. Falsely. And then used by Iran.

After that happened, Britain then put travel advice restrictions back in place.

Britain didn’t have to pay anything that it didn’t owe. It was a legitimate debt that we admitted to but refused to pay.

Her case is not the same as this.

oh, and don’t forget that Boris Johnson made it worse. He stood up in parliament and, when asked about Nazanin, he said she was completely innocent and was just there to teach (one of the things Iran had accused her of) when she absolutely wasn’t. Boris had to apologise for his error later, because he was completely wrong, but Iran used that as a confession on her behalf and said she trying to teach and stir up a rebellion against their government.

So really, these cases are not the same.

Go to Iran, get arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges shocker. Follow this up with family whining on the BBC pretty much every day and half a billion pounds cost to taxpayers. Same old, same old.

It should cost the British taxpayers zero.
They went there of there own volition depsite warnings to stay away

For the regime it’s a prime opportunity to use useful idiots like this pair to gain maximum leverage against the UK in any outstanding disputes and negotiations.
if you ask me they should face a bill for wasted civil service time when they get out.

Yes, they're both a pair of idiots.

What is the point of bother to involve yourself in a discussion when you can’t take in information?

The difficulty was the payment of the debt was considered to be in breach of sanctions against the Iranian regime. This is a pretty key point you have omitted to mention.

Wait a second. You can travel to other countries outside of Iran? Or does this bug only infect you to travel to Iran and nowhere else?

Spot on. They went against government advice to go to Iran of all places which aside form being a muslim country (with all the misogyny that alone brings) also funds terrorism everywhere including the Palestinian attack on 7th October.

I know some lovely Iranians but as for the state... avoid it. Or go at your own risk. Their foolishness will indeed cost the UK a load of diplomatic time and no doubt bribes in the future to get the idiots released.

Adults acting like children.

Because that’s not entirely true. We couldn’t give money to any Iranian military; that was the sanction.
It could have been paid to Iranian national bank (maybe not its actual name, I can’t remember). It also could have been paid in the form of medicines, or any other sort of equipment. The issue was that Britain continued to argue it in court about paying interest, and we kept losing.
The UK repeatedly acknowledged the debt and admitted that it had to be paid, but didn’t do it. After brexit, we were also in charge or our own sanctions so even if paying it to a separate entity from the military was a sanction (it wasn’t), we could have done it anyway.
US treasury also said they wouldn’t go after whichever bank facilitated the payment of this debt.

This is not quite correct. The UK’s restrictions were relaxed in 2015, but Iran was certainly not “approved for travel”. The absolute restriction still applied to trouble spots and border areas, and everywhere else was more “proceed with caution and you will be without consular assistance if you go”. (The UK has not had a consulate in Iran for many years). There are very limited options for UK nationals to obtain tourist visas anyway, so the relaxed advice was sort of a distinction without a difference.

Nazanin was a dual national who (like many others, including my DH) traveled to Iran to visit family. It’s likely she traveled on her Iranian passport since the Iranian authorities do not recognise dual nationality. So whilst her situation was more understandable/credible than the current couple, it wasn’t wildly different in terms of travel advice and availability of consular support.

@Ihatetomatoes

Why would it cost the UK anything? The Government have already refused to get involved. They won't do anything.

Very foolish to go to somewhere like Iran though. You couldn't pay me to go there (or any similar countries.) It was a huge risk doing what they did.

@Cookingupmyfirstbornson

They've lived in Spain for over half a decade!

OMFG! The fact they have resided in Spain for 5 and a half years means they have got a cheek expecting the UK Government to do anything about their 'plight.' They took a risk going to Iran, and sadly for them, they are going to have to face the consequences. Why should over Goverment do anything?!

That said, they do not deserve what is happening to them IMO. Despite being overprivileged and entitled adults behaving like children.

I hope your DCs never catch the travelling bug.
Mine have but they are not naive, politically aware and know that while ordinary folks in different countries are nice and often enjoy meeting foreigners, the state doesn't think the same.
Theres free foreign advice for a reason.

I feel sorry for the couple and dont wish bad on them, but they were foolish.