Zaghari-Ratcliffe, fellow British-Iranian freed to return to UK

Reuters-03/16/2022-Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, March 16 (Reuters) – British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashouri flew out of Iran on Wednesday, ending a long ordeal during which they became a bargaining chip in Iran’s talks with the West over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Omani state television said the pair had arrived in the capital Muscat following their release in Tehran.

Earlier, a video aired by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the elite Revolutionary Guards, showed a woman dressed in black Iranian Islamic clothes, boarding a Royal Air Force of Oman aircraft.

“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashouri in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard and the family of Ashouri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Antonio Zappulla, CEO of her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said her release was “a ray of light and hope” at a time when the world was in turmoil. The foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.