Iranian minister drops offer to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe in swap
Foreign minister had claimed jailed British dual national could be released in swap deal
Hopes that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe might be released from a Tehran jail as part of a prisoner swap have suffered a setback after the Iranian foreign minister appeared to retract the proposal and the UK foreign secretary said he could not be party to any deal that presumed she was guilty of spying.
Mohammad Javad Zarif specifically referred to Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national held in Iran since April 2016, in a speech in New York on Wednesday in which he said he had the power to authorise her release in return for the freeing of an Iranian woman held in Australia.