Britain to transfer over £400m debt to Iran soon

ANKARA: Britain will soon repay a debt of over 400 million pounds ($527 million) to Iran, the Iranian ambassador said on Friday, but the payment was not linked to the case of a British-Iranian charity worker jailed in Iran. “An outstanding debt owed by the U. K. to Tehran will be transferred to the Central Bank of Iran in the coming days. The payment . . . has nothing to do with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case,” Hamid Baeedinejad wrote on his Telegram channel. Zaghari-Retcliff was detained in April 2016 in Tehran by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter. She was sentenced to five years in prison after an Iranian court convicted her of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship for its nationals. Britain’s Foreign Office was not immediately available to comment on the Iranian ambassador’s comments.