Mum’s home
WE can only imagine the joy overwhelming Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella today.
Their reunion late last night promised to be nothing short of magical.
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Nazanin’s courage during six years of hell has been immense.
And we are in awe of Richard’s unwavering dedication and sacrifice, including a hunger strike, to keep his wife in the public mind.
Huge credit goes to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for succeeding where her predecessors could not.
But it is facile for anyone to claim Nazanin could have been freed years ago simply by repaying the ancient, disputed debt we were judged to have owed.
Iran funds terror worldwide. It is still subject to stringent sanctions.
Both facts made handing over £400million virtually impossible.
That payment is now made, under a new agreement that it can only be spent on humanitarian causes.
It is hard to believe that promise will be kept by a callous, medieval regime which locks innocent people away to extort money from their governments.
And though our Government has to insist we have paid a legitimate debt, not a ransom, that is clearly not how Iran sees it.
It freed our hostages only after payment — and still holds others.
It jars too that sanctions were tweaked to allow this deal.
Those curbs must only ever be fully lifted on condition Iran ends its barbaric blackmailing.
We hope sanctions on Russia prove more rigid — and last at least as long as Putin clings to power, given the horrors he continues to inflict in Ukraine.
But on this first day of their new life together let us not detract from the Ratcliffes’ jubilation.
Or that of Anoosheh Ashoori, freed alongside Nazanin.
We wish them all every happiness.
Oil the wheels
BRITAIN has to be pragmatic with Saudi Arabia, as with Iran.
Yes, it sticks in the craw that Boris Johnson had to lobby the brutal Saudis in person to pump more oil.
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But the bleak reality is that we must reduce Western reliance on Russia — and rapidly get pump prices down.
It is ignorant nonsense to pretend that more wind farms and solar panels alone can power Britain.
Until we build new nuclear plants we will need more oil and gas, including from dodgy regimes.
At least the Saudis, unlike Putin, aren’t threatening World War 3.
Lay down law
FANCY law firms have made millions silencing the Press for grubby oligarchs.
So we applaud Government efforts to fight our corner with new laws.
Tougher safeguards for public interest journalism and a cap on legal costs will help.
But we also hope even the greediest of London’s briefs will think twice now before standing up for Putin’s crooked pals again.
