UK foreign secretary to press Iranian FM on prisoners, nuclear deal
In her first overseas trip as new UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City this week.
The United Kingdom’s new foreign secretary will meet her Iranian counterpart to discuss detained British nationals and stalled efforts to revive the nuclear deal, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said Monday.
In her first overseas trip as foreign secretary, Liz Truss will hold talks on Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City this week.
“I will be asking Iran to ensure the immediate and permanent release of all arbitrarily detained British nationals in Iran, and to begin working with us to mend our fractured relations,” Truss said in a statement.
The statement said Truss will call for the release of UK nationals including British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who will mark her 2,000th day in detention this week. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested at Tehran’s airport in April 2016, is banned from leaving Iran despite having completed her original five-year prison sentence.
