Image copyright AFP PHOTO / FREE NAZANIN CAMPAIGNNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be released from jail in a prisoner swap with Iranians detained in the US and Australia, Iran has suggested.
The British-Iranian was jailed for five years in Iran in 2016 after being convicted of spying, which she denies.
Speaking in New York, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif said he felt sorry for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and had done his best to help her.
“Let’s have an exchange. I’m ready to do it,” he said.
Mr Zarif said there were Iranians being held in prison in the US, Germany and Australia on what he claimed were phony charges.
He added: “I put this offer on the table now. And I have the authority to do it.”
He said he made a previous offer to the US six months ago but got no response.
Richard Ratcliffe, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, told the BBC he was surprised by the announcement and sceptical.
He said the British government had given his wife diplomatic protection last month specifically to protect her from being used as leverage.
The new status turned her case into a formal legal dispute between Britain and Iran.
At the time, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was unlikely to be a “magic wand” to get her released.
However, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale said it should allow Britain to raise her case with greater ease at international forums such as the United Nations.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, was a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and lived in London when she was arrested in Iran in April 2016.
She was later sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly plotting against the Iranian government.
She maintains her innocence, and says she was on holiday in Iran taking her daughter Gabriella to visit her parents.
Content provided by the BBC. Original piece can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48046235
