Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe talks ‘going to the wire’, says Boris Johnson | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

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Negotiations with Iran to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are “going right up to the wire”, Boris Johnson has said.

The UK prime minister said talks with Tehran over the release of the British-Iranian dual-national were “moving forward” but that he could not say more as “negotiations continue to be under way”.

Hopes were raised on Tuesday that she might finally be released, after an MP said that the 43-year-old’s British passport had been returned to her.

The Hampstead and Kilburn MP, Tulip Siddiq, also said a British negotiating team was in Tehran, while Zaghari-Ratcliffe remained at her family home in the Iranian capital.

Asked by broadcasters at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday whether a UK negotiating team was in the Iranian capital attempting to secure her release, the prime minister said: “It is true and it has been for a long time that we’re negotiating for the release of our dual nationals in Tehran.

“There are some very sad cases, including Nazanin. I really don’t think I should say much more, I’m sorry, although things are moving forward … those negotiations continue to be under way and we’re going right up to the wire.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 as she prepared to fly back to the UK, having taken her daughter, Gabriella – who was then under two years old – to see relatives. She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and charged to five years in jail, spending four years in Tehran’s Evin prison and one under house arrest.

Both the British government and Zaghari-Ratcliffe have always denied the allegations.

While the details of the negotiations remain unclear, it is possible they are linked to a $400m debt dating back to the 1970s owed to Iran by the UK. The government accepts it should repay the “legitimate debt” for an order of 1,500 Chieftain tanks that was not fulfilled after the shah was deposed and replaced by a revolutionary regime.

Tehran remains under strict sanctions, however, which have been linked to the failure to clear the debt.

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