Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she is 'very grateful' to be home

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Nazanin, 43, revealed her faith in British foreign secretaries ebbed away as she remained captive in Iran. Speaking for the first time since her return, she said: “I have seen five foreign secretaries. I was told many many times, ‘Oh we’re going to get you home’, that never happened. “How many Foreign Secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five? What’s happened now should have happened six years ago.”

Nazanin, 43, a dual British/Iranian national, was arrested in Tehran in 2016 after taking her 22-month-old daughter to see her parents.

Falsely accused on trumped-up spying charges, she was sentenced to five years in jail.

In reality, she was a human bargaining chip in drawn-out wrangling between Britain and Iran over an aborted arms deal dating back to the 1970s.

Before he was dethroned in 1979, the Shah of Iran paid £405 million up front to Britain for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other armoured vehicles.

Only 185 were delivered before Britain tore up the contract in the wake of the Iranian Revolution which brought the anti-West Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

Nazanin, who was a baby when the Shah was overthrown, said: “I have been a pawn in the hands of the two governments over the past six years.”

She added: “What upset me all these years was my life was linked to something that had nothing to do with me.”

Asked if she was angry at the government she said: “I cannot be happier than this that I’m here. But also… this should have happened six years ago. I think that answers your question.

“I always felt like I’m holding this black hole in my heart all these years but I’m just going to leave that black hole in my heart on the plane, when the plane left.

“I’m not going to live the rest of my life with a grudge.”

She added “it has been cruel what happened to me” but said she was only just home, adding: “I think it’s a bit early to hold that grudge.

“But it should have happened six years ago. It took a very, very long time for the politicians to sort it out.”

She also demanded other Iranian detainees be released, saying: “I was the lucky one who got to be recognised internationally”.

Nazanin made a moving plea for the release of Morad Tahbaz and other detainees still held in Iran.

Conservationist Mr Tahbaz, 66, detained since 2018, was briefly freed on house arrest as Nazanin prepared to fly home last week.

The British/US national has been returned to his cell and is now on hunger strike.

Nazanin said the “meaning of freedom is never going to be complete” until Mr Tahbaz and other dual nationals are released and reunited with their families.

She thanked everyone who helped secure her release and paid tribute to her “amazing” husband Richard and her daughter Gabriella, seven.

Mr Ratcliffe said: ““It’s been a long struggle. I’m immensely, immensely pleased and proud of my wife, and proud to have her home, proud that we start a new chapter, and get to be a normal family again.”

Mr Ratcliffe said it feels like he has spent six years “conspicuously waiting”, adding: “And here we are. So, thank you to everyone who has been part of bringing Nazanin home and making us whole again.”

He said the journey back to normality will involve “baby steps”, adding: “I am super proud of her strength and her survival and her grace.

“I’m so pleased she’s back home, that she came home to us. We’re still negotiating whether daddy’s allowed in the same bed as Gabriella and Nazanin. “We’ll get there.”

Mr Ratcliffe said: “I think we’ll do this and then we will disappear off and heal a bit.”

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