Two British-Iranians who were held in Iran for years have returned home to their families after Britain settled a long-standing debt owed to Iran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were greeted by family members after they arrived early on March 17 at an air base on a government-chartered aircraft.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugged her 7-year-old daughter and her husband, and members of Ashoori's family tearfully embraced one another.
"Looking forward to a new life," said Richard Ratcliffe, who had worked tirelessly for his wife's release. "You can't get back the time that's gone. That's a fact. But we live in the future."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on March 16 on Twitter that the "unfair detention' of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori had ended and they would return to Britain.
The United States, Britain, and other countries have been seeking to secure the release of dozens of dual nationals detained by Iran. Family members and human rights activists have accused Tehran of arresting the dual nationals on trumped-up charges to squeeze concessions out of Western countries.
The release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori was reached as world leaders try to revive the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear pact. Negotiations on renewing the deal have stalled over Russia's demand that its trade with Iran be guaranteed amid massive sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking her daughter to see her family in 2016 when she was arrested and convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She was sentenced to five years in jail and spent four of those years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and one under house arrest.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family had said she was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of Britain's failure to pay an outstanding debt of around $500 million to Iran for failing to deliver tanks that had been ordered decades earlier.
Ashoori was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and another two years for "acquiring illegitimate wealth."
Amnesty International says Ashoori was "arbitrarily detained" and subjected to torture, repeatedly interrogated without a lawyer present, and forced to sign "confessions" while sleep deprived.
The British government said a third detainee, Morad Tahbaz, who holds U.S., British, and Iranian citizenship, was released from prison on furlough as part of the same deal.
Tahbaz was arrested in January 2018 during a crackdown on environmental activists. He and seven others were accused of gathering classified information under the guise of carrying out environmental projects. Officials in Tehran confirmed his release.