Larijani: Dual nationality is not a crime; we rejected Jeremy Hunt's request for a meeting

The head of Iran's judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, stated that dual nationality is not a 'crime' in the Islamic Republic, and judicial officials did not respond positively to repeated requests from British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for a meeting due to his 'arrogance' in behavior and speech. Larijani added that Hunt had warned the Iranian government in a 'condescending tone' prior to his trip to Iran to refrain from imprisoning dual nationals. This refers to the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen and employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, who was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards at the airport while leaving Iran in 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison for 'participating in soft overthrow activities.' Hunt's request to meet Zaghari during his recent visit to Tehran was denied, but he was able to privately meet with Zaghari's daughter and brother, which faced criticism from hardliners. The British Foreign Secretary stated that if Iran's policy is to use the detention of dual nationals as a diplomatic pressure tool, such an approach will have costs for Tehran. In response, Larijani remarked that 'this manner of dealing is reminiscent of the colonial attitudes of past centuries. Foreign countries must shed their arrogance and officials like the British Foreign Secretary should understand they are not in a position to warn the Islamic system about its duties.' He also claimed that dual nationality is not a crime in the Islamic Republic and that those dual nationals detained in Iran have committed acts against national security or engaged in espionage. Larijani described Britain as 'indebted' to Iran, asserting that London has received funds for weapons since the Shah's regime, which constitutes part of their debt to the Iranian people, but this issue has no relation to judicial matters. Following Hunt's visit to Iran and renewed efforts by London for the release of Zaghari and Iranian-British dual nationals, Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, stated that Zaghari's case 'has nothing to do with Britain's debt to Iran.' However, in December 2017, the British newspaper Telegraph reported that the British government, then led by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, had expressed readiness to repay £400 million (approximately $527 million) related to a deal from the Shah's era in exchange for Zaghari's release. While Larijani claimed that dual nationality is not a crime in Iran, Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador to London, indirectly accused these citizens of unintentionally 'transferring specific data and information' under pressure from Western intelligence services. Larijani also referred to the warnings from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic regarding the 'enemy's' attempts to 'infiltrate' among officials, stating: 'It seems natural that the Islamic Republic would be sensitive to this issue and that the judicial and security system would deal with those who work for the enemy from within or facilitate enemy interference in the affairs of the Islamic Republic.' The exact number of dual nationals imprisoned in Iran is unknown, but Siamak Namazi, Xiyou Wang, Iranian-American citizens, Nizar Zaka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in the U.S., Abbas Adalat, a mathematics and computer science professor at Imperial College London, and Kamal Foroughi, two Iranian-British citizens, are among those imprisoned in Iran. Previously, Karen Vafadari, an American citizen, and her husband Afrin Nissari had also been imprisoned in Iran. Reuters reported last year that the IRGC had detained at least 30 dual nationals on charges of 'espionage' between 2015 and 2017, with 19 of these individuals holding European nationalities.