In a rare glimmer of hope yesterday we heard news that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe might, at long last, be released after a confinement that is largely the fault of Boris Johnson's careless talk.
But, as I tweeted in response:
I fear that really doing the right thing is beyond this government. Everything is purely transactional, and we're all just cannon fodder.
I struggle to see the light of human empathy in these people. And that worries me, about them, and what they're doing to me and the rest of us.
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Boris doing his bit again, by timing it with a visit to one of Iran’s bitterest enemies. Could he not have waited till the hostges were safely out?
I take the point – absolutely – cynicism – and all that time with-holding the money to Iran (childish in the extreme). But if she can be returned to her family then that is good news. It’s the lack of principle that I find abhorrent.
But it also got me thinking about the death and destruction in Ukraine. If peace is brokered (and I want peace believe you me) then what can we say that the conflict was all about if it ends? What can we say of Ratcliffe’s 6 years of suffering?
None of it is easy to justify. What’s happening to us?
You get my point
It’s profoundly depressing.
In the same vein the other week I began to see articles talking about Venezuela suddenly being OK now and with the leader ‘steering them towards capitalism’ it was surely time to lift sanctions. (to be clear I don’t think sanctions should have been imposed on Venezuela I just think it’s interesting how neoliberals will throw their principals out the moment it becomes politically necessary)
I fear that instead of re-evaluating our relationship to fossil fuels etc and making the structural societal change needed, what we will see when a peace is brokered in Ukraine is an eventual rehabilitation of Putin and Russian reputations. The people in power will need that to happen in order to stay in power and to ensure the status quo is maintained.
BRILLIANT NEWS -NAZANIN IS ON HER WAY HOME TO HER FAMILY
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman detained in Iran nearly six years ago, has been released and is on her way back to the UK.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60756870
Brilliant
A ray of sunshine – great stuff.
But again……………why…………. in the first place?
You look at that front bench – from Johnson, Patel, Javid, to Dorries, Raab, Sunak … to Rees-Mogg. Braying across the aisle in the bear pit of the Commons.You just wonder whether any of them are capable of empathy.
That Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been released and allowed to return to the UK is clearly a very good thing. There is at least one more UK citizen, Morad Tahbaz, also a citizen of Iran and the US), convicted and detained on similar charges in Iran and unable to leave, albeit recently released from prison “on furlough”.
That the UK has repaid a debt that has been owed since 1979 is also a good thing, although you might wonder why now and not at any other stage in the previous decades.
It seems a little odd that the means and terms of the c.£400m payment by the UK to Iran are subject to confidentiality. It seems clear it was paid through Oman, but I think we are entitled to ask: who was it paid to, how can it be spent, and what makes us so sure it can’t be used in a way that breaches sanctions? (And even if it is used for wholly humanitarian ends, could it replace Iranian state funds that are used for other purposes?)
I agree