Iran and Saudi Arabia aren’t liberal democracies – but they present less of a threat than Russia

Editorial: After years of unfair detention, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori are having their passports returned – yet human rights in Iran and Saudi Arabia are taking a backseat to the slaughter in Ukraine

(Dave Brown)

Even in such times as these, sometimes the stars align just right for a happy result. After years of unfair detention, two UK-Iranian dual nationals, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, are having their passports returned, and, it seems, will be released.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of their families, Foreign Office diplomats, lawyers and MPs such as Tulip Siddiq, the pair may soon be home. They were in effect both hostages, under house arrest and in jail, and now, at least in the eyes of the ayatollahs, the ransom has been paid. An unhappy combination of war, oil and money comprise the teeth in the key that has unlocked their cells.

The most obvious and long-running source of contention was the £400m or so that the British authorities were themselves holding hostage, in effect, since the fall of the Shah in the revolution of 1979. This piece of leftover business was the payment made to the UK for a consignment of British Chieftain tanks, duly embargoed when the Islamic Republic of Iran transformed from reliable western ally to implacable enemy and sponsor of terrorism.

Almost continuous sanctions on Tehran and episodes of extreme tension, particularly with the United States, have prevented efforts to resolve the financial issue during the ensuing decades.

To make things even more difficult, for reasons of past British imperialist exploitation of Iranian oil interests and political interference, the British are viewed with an unusual suspicion and resentment by the government in Tehran – as “Little Satan” to America’s “Great Satan”. And so the problem just drifted on.

On taking office, Boris Johnson, who has previously badly damaged Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case, reputedly saw no great obstacle to giving the Iranians their money back, with interest, and thus securing the release of the dual nationals, but political and legal difficulties delayed a resolution, despite his wish to cut through the obstacles. Now the urgent need for the west to make friends with old foes, get their oil pumping into world markets and isolate Russia has transformed the background to the case.

It has had other unexpected ramifications. The war in Ukraine is also plainly the reason why Mr Johnson has flown to Saudi Arabia to get them to pump more oil to replace lost Russian production, and remonstrate with them about their ambivalent attitude to Moscow and their snubbing of President Biden.

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The prime minister has said he will “raise” the execution of 81 people in Saudi Arabia for “terrorism” and “deviant thoughts”, but the very fact he is the guest of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman undermines the force of his objections. It appears that human rights in Iran and Saudi Arabia are taking a back seat to the slaughter in Ukraine.

Mr Johnson said the UK is “building an international coalition to deal with the new reality we face” due to consequences of the Ukraine invasion. He also announced a £1bn Saudi investment in a green fuel factory in Teesside.

With the west weak, Tehran may also be looking to gain some concessions in the talks in Vienna over the presently doubly-moribund Iranian nuclear deal. America is open to a fresh understanding with Iran after President Trump decided to withdraw from the compact, while Russia, another co-signatory, is also looking to cement its partnership with Iran.

Contrary to the usual reflexively anti-American and pro-Russian voting pattern at the United Nations, the Iranian UN delegation abstained on the motion condemning Russian aggression tabled at the General Assembly. Iran is used to playing the superpowers off against each other. This time it has yielded some incidental benefit for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori (who has spent a decade incarcerated).

Iran and Saudi Arabia are no one’s idea of liberal democracies, but even they, for their merciless proxy wars in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, do not present as mortal a threat to the peace of the world as Vladimir Putin and his freshly revamped nuclear arsenal.