British FM in Iran for talks on Yemen, prisoners

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is visiting Iran for the first time for talks about the conflict in Yemen and freeing UK nationals held in Iranian jails.

It is the first visit to Tehran by a Western foreign minister since the United States withdrew from the multi-nation nuclear deal in May.

Hunt is meeting his counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and they discussed plans to keep trade flowing in spite of renewed US sanctions, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

But Hunt is particularly focusing on the conflict in Yemen, where Iran is accused of supplying weapons to Houthi rebels.

“We are very, very keen to move towards peace in Yemen. That’s our number one priority at the moment,” he tells the BBC.

“But also we have the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals here who are in prison and shouldn’t be. We want to get them home.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year jail sentence for alleged sedition.

“I arrive in Iran with a clear message for the country’s leaders: putting innocent people in prison cannot and must not be used as a tool of diplomatic leverage,” Hunt said in a statement before leaving London.

Britain is determined to keep Iran in the nuclear deal, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“The Iran nuclear deal remains a vital component of stability in the Middle East by eliminating the threat of a nuclearized Iran,” Hunt said in the statement.

— AFP