Oh Nazanin, how could we all have been so stupid. We are so sorry and rage at our UK Governments, especially this one, for this sordid history. A Guardian article today links the wrongful detention of Nazanin Zaghari Radcliffe to an old Iranian arms debt from 40 years ago of £400 million, and, of course, that is what it is all about.

We must recall, and remember, the case. The US and the UK were showering the Shah of Iran with weapons because he was vain enough to buy them with his oil money and let the US run his secret service. He was a western military puppet, and was replaced in November 1979 by the Ayatollah, who, not surprisingly did not like US. The Iran Regime took 70 Americans hostages (hostages note) in order to get the Shah returned to them for trial.

There was an order for Chieftain tanks for £650 million. Most of them had not been sent and after the revolution, because we were America’s poodle and did not like Iran, were not sent. We owed Iran £400-450 million which we did not pay. More than this we sold the rest of the tanks to Iraq. They were used against Iran in the Iraq-Iran War which Saddam Hussein started against Iran. Saddam was now our friend and we did not mind him starting a war against Iran. Indeed, the US helped him with chemical weapons and the wherewithal to use them against Iran. The arms trade is a dirty business. Iran, of course, was completely in the right and we were completely in the wrong. “No, we will not deliver your television or send the money back because we do not like you and want to sell it to someone else” is not a viable morality The International trade Court has upheld Iran’s position and the company involved is a UK Government owned one, and the money is held in a separate account. There is no reason not to pay. We are wrong and Iran rightly wants its money back.

The US hostages case was sorted out in 1980. In fact, Ronald Reagan did a secret deal to sell needed arms equipment to Iran in exchange for the hostages NOT being released before the US Presidential election. Otherwise, Carter, not Reagan, the arms companies stooge, would have won.

The Iran Government can not say “We are holding Nazanin because of the £400 million,” but the Conservative Government knows this is the case. She is the hostage. They will have discussed it frequently in precisely these terms, and while mouthing sympathy have done nothing to correct the wrong which would free Nazanin. On any morality, the Government should pay up, but does not, now because of Trump’s anti-Iranianism and the MOD. They choose to be Trump’s poodle and blank Nazanin.

This is directly relevant to the Conservative leadership campaign for it disqualifies both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretaries. They have both wept crocodile tears about Nazanin, knowing they had the means of freeing her. In the dirty Reagan Presidential campaign of 1980 the seventy hostages were freed even as Reagan was sworn in as President. Pay the £400 million we owe and Nazanin will be freed. Johnson and Hunt know this, but have done cover-up politics and presented the tearful front, Johnson even with appalling acting. Given this hypocrisy, they must not hold any office of state, let alone that of Prime Minister, and should be held in prison pending returning £400 million and Nazanin’s release.

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