Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe docudrama

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Is anyone watching this?

Not really cosy Sunday evening viewing, but very interesting.

@roses2
hopefully nobody tapes over!

There is a documentary and dramatisation on bbc iplayer

Haven’t seen it yet and will be interested to see if all sides are shown and not just her terrible ordeal. Agree about what others posted about FO advice against going. Wonder if the hundreds of millions in payment that changed hands will be mentioned. She was a dual citizen. The Boris bumbling didn’t help, but regine shouldn’t have had the opportunity to use her like that and that means not giving in to their demands. They effectively kept ger child too.

I record it on sky and I’ll watch it when it’s all aired. I’m in Ireland so obviously we don’t have bbc iplayer .

I think saying 'tape' is just a hangover from the olden days. We say tape when we mean recording to the sky box. We record quite a bit if stuff else we'd forget it was on. So fine to stream but I'd probably not remember I was interested in watching the programme . And I'm not keeping a list of programmes I'd like to see (although I wish I kept a list of programmes I'd seen!)

@snowibunnithats it exactly . I still say tape all the time

Yes, he inadvertently acknowledged that NZR was doing precisely what the Iranian Government had alleged.

I mean, the UK doesn't spy, doesn't get involved in espionage, doesn't attempt to undermine and manipulate the political landscape in countries with perceived hostile governments, and the BBC in no way helps facilitate this or provide cover stories. Nope. No sirree. Brits are above all that. The same way that British athletes never cheat and drug taking is all just something rotten foreigners do.

Yes, he inadvertently acknowledged that NZR was doing precisely what the Iranian Government had alleged.

No she wasn’t - she was visiting her parents. If you are alleging she was a spy, I hope you have a good lawyer because that is absolutely outrageous.

Sky box? Hard drive? I prefer to record from I player as if there are bits I want to revisit it’s far less clunky than I player.
Some programmes like Strictly I whizz through boring bits.

I don't think that is what they are trying to say here. They were saying that BoJo got it wrong but what he said added fuel to the fire and made the Iranian Revolutionary Guard think that they were right about her all along!

We relaxed travel to Iran in 2015. Nazanin was (is) a duel passport holder I think they said. It was not foreseen that someone visiting their parents would be held to extract money from the British government based on the non delivery of tanks decades earlier. Iran, remember, fell out with nearly everyone in the late 1970s. We didn’t supply the tanks and had to extract British nationals in a hurry. The Iranians attacked our embassy.

As for the FO. The idea suggested above that they should have immediately negotiated her release is hopeful at best. How? The regime had turned against us. Again. They didn’t want to negotiate and wanted money. Payment can often lead to more captures and more money being extorted. Governments will always play a waiting game to try and negotiate through back channels and they didn’t want her killed.
It’s difficult to know what else we could have done but of course Richard R was furious, upset and impatient. Who wouldn’t be. His book is being published in January I believe.

BoJo didn’t read his brief! Loose words cost lives and, as in many areas of political life, BoJo didn’t grasp the detail. Yet the nation still voted for him to be PM!

Nearly £400 million paid to the corrupt Iranian ‘government’ for her return. Not sure we should be making ransom deals with terrorists when there is so much need at home.

It wasn’t a ransom in the traditional sense. It was a debt dating back to the 1970s owed by Britain to Iran.

For the 2nd time the FO weren’t advising against going to Iran in 2016.
The “millions of pounds” are mentioned, the Uk government owed Iran this money. The Iranians had taken the UK government (or the organisation belonging to the UK government) to court and like it or not the court has ruled in favour of Iran.
They might be a “corrupt” government or a government associated with terrorism but as unsavoury as it might be we still owed them the money and they wanted it. They were holding UK citizens hostage to get it. She was not a spy or even as Boris Johnston said a journalist teaching Iranians to be a journalists (apparently for the Iranian regime this meant spy) she was a women with a 20/12 child visiting her parents in the country she grew up in.

It was no coincidence that on the day Nazarin and Anoosheh Ashoori were released the UK government also coughed up the money the owed to Iran.

This was money owed to Iran. Pre revolution, the Iranian government bought tanks and missiles from the UK. Then came the revolution. The UK renegaded on the deal and re-sold the arms to Iraq, who were by then at war with Iran

The UK had a legitimate debt owed to Iran. Nazanin was used to persuade the UK to re-pay the money they "stole"

@Corgiowner Of course. It was the deal. We didn’t want Iran to have more arms. We didn’t want them to have the money back. Whether this was always planned by Iran - who knows? But we didn’t like our embassy being attacked and the position many people found themselves in because of the new regime there in 1979. We could not do deals with them at that point.

Yes, I agree. She was imprisoned for doing something not liked by the Iranian government, so she contributed to her own plight. As I remember, Boris tried to intervene on her case but Covid was ongoing and it came to nought on the immediate basis as her husband expected. I found the demands irritating - and her lack of any appreciation for the diplomacy used to free her - and certainly won’t be watching this programme.

She was imprisoned for doing something not liked by the Iranian government, so she contributed to her own plight

The Iranian government didn’t like her visiting her parents?

We were not “making deals with terrorists” we were refunding money that an international court had ruled we owed.
Pre the current regime when the Shah was in charge they ordered a shed load of chieftain tanks from a company owned by the UK government. We asked for the cost of the tanks upfront, it was millions of £, the Shahs regime fell we didn’t like the new regime so refused to supply the tanks but also refused to return the money. The Iranians took us to court and won.
Im no supporter of Iran they are an hideous unscrupulous regime, they decided that taking UK citizens hostage in Iran on the pretext that they were spying and imprisoning them was the way they might get their money back and they were right. As I said above poor Nazarin et al were just pawns in the game.

No spoilers, but just watched episode 3 and imho it was both heartwarming and heart wrenching in equal measure 💔 With a shocking little twist at the end!

What is wrong with people she didn’t travel to Iran against FO advise, she wasn’t a spy, she had dual nationality and was visiting her parents with her daughter.
Boris visited Iran when he was the foreign office minister and said to the Iranian leadership she was “teaching journalism in Iran” this apparently was a covert way of saying she was a spy. But she wasn’t teaching journalism she worked for a charity (not in Iran) Boris’s completely incorrect comment damaged her case for release.

@Corgiowner At the time, in 1979, we certainly were not talking to Iran! They certainly were not a nice friendly nation and they took people and imprisoned them. There was hardly a nice easy way to deal with this issue.

I never said they were a nice friendly regime and I’m not sure what that has got to do with it?
No one even the UK government were disputing the facts (although they were keen to keep it quiet); when the Shah was in power they ordered loads of tanks from a company owned by the UK government, the company asked for all the money up front it was millions of £, the Shah fell we only delivered a handful of tanks and didn’t return the money for the undelivered tanks, they took us to an international court for the money and won. But we understandably didnt and still dont like the regime, they sponsor terrorism, they are corrupt etc so decided not to return the money that we owed them.
They as a thoroughly unscrupulous unpleasant regime unsurprisingly got nasty and took British citizens hostage. Eventually due to huge pressure and growing publicity from the media largely down to Nazarin DH who wouldn’t let it go the government agreed to stump up the money that we legally owed then and they released Nazarin on the day we paid it.
Sadly they are still arresting British citizens and accusing them of spying.

Yes. I’m aware of all of that but it wasn’t possible to negotiate and who saw the Nazanin capture coming!? We didn’t have diplomatic channels open for many years.