Britain’s new foreign secretary has been urged to revive a deal to free three UK citizens who are detained.
Liz Truss is due to meet her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday to discuss the detention of Anoosheh Ashoori, a retired engineer, aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and conservationist Morad Tahbaz.
All three hold British and Iranian citizenship; Mr Tahbaz also has a US passport.
A deal to release them collapsed this summer, and Ms Truss’s predecessor Dominic Raab has spoken of his frustration that they had not been freed. The families believe the agreement is still on the table.
In a telephone call on Sunday, Mr Ashoori’s wife urged Ms Truss to continue to lobby Tehran.
Sherry Izadi, whose husband was jailed for 10 years on charges of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, said the UK government told her in August it had come tantalisingly close to striking a deal. She did not specify the terms.
Had it succeeded, Mr Ashoori would have been released at the time of talks in Vienna aimed at bringing Iran and the US back into a 2015 nuclear accord. The talks in Austria were unsuccessful.
“I asked her [Truss]: ‘Will you still be pursuing that deal?' and she said ‘yes’,” Ms Izadi said.
“Today is our wedding anniversary, our 37th, and the fifth that we have missed. Hopefully, it will be the last one.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, also spoke to Ms Truss on Sunday.
He had sent her department a list of 10 Iranians linked to what he called the “hostage-taking industry”, and said they should face sanctions.
His wife was detained in April 2016 after being convicted over security charges.
When her sentence ended, she was forbidden from leaving Iran and faced a new charge. She is on bail, and could be returned to prison if convicted.
Mr Ratcliffe and Ms Izadi believe the fate of their spouses is tied to an unpaid £400 million ($547.1m) debt the UK owes Iran.
Tehran had ordered tanks from Britain, but when the shah was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, they were not supplied to the new regime.
The prisoners’ families have urged the UK to end the financial stand-off, which continues to rumble through the courts.
They say it is a positive sign that Ms Truss has spoken to them within days of taking office after a government reshuffle.
Before she left the UK, Ms Truss said: “I will be asking Iran to ensure the immediate and permanent release of all arbitrarily detained British nationals in Iran, and to begin working with us to mend our fractured relations.
“The UK, US and our international partners are fully committed to a nuclear deal, but every day that Iran continues to delay talks whilst escalating its own nuclear programme means there is less space for diplomacy.”
Her Foreign Office colleague James Cleverly, the Middle East minister, said negotiating with the Iranian leadership was never easy.
“We will continue pushing and we will not rest until we get them all home,” he told Sky News. “She’s an incredibly focused and energetic minister – she’s well regarded for that – and I have no doubt that she will apply that energy to these negotiations.”
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
The years Ramadan fell in May
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
More on animal trafficking
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Pari
Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani
Three stars
Zayed Sustainability Prize
THREE
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Nayla%20Al%20Khaja%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Jefferson%20Hall%2C%20Faten%20Ahmed%2C%20Noura%20Alabed%2C%20Saud%20Alzarooni%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
