Iran on Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case, attack on cargo

Iran on Monday urged Britain not to politicise the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British woman held in Iran since 2016, who faced new charges in a new trial in Tehran on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists at a briefing that her case is a legal matter that should run its course.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe reappeared in a Tehran court on Sunday to face accusations of spreading propaganda after completing her full five-year prison sentence on widely refuted spying charges.

She remains in limbo in Iran awaiting the verdict, unable to fly home to London.

Iranian authorities had introduced the new indictment months ago, but adjourned the trial until Zaghari-Ratcliffe completed her sentence last week.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab denounced the new case against Zaghari-Ratcliffe as “wholly arbitrary,” adding that “she must be allowed to return to her family in the UK without delay.”

The latest twist in Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case comes as Britain and Iran negotiate a long-running dispute over a debt of some 400 million pounds ($530 million) owed to Tehran by London.

Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the late Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi paid the sum for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered.

Authorities in London and Tehran deny that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case is linked to the repayment deal for the non-delivery of tanks.

Also during Monday's news conference, Khatibzadeh accused Israel of being behind an attack on an Iranian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea last week.

Iran's state TV reported on Friday that an Iranian cargo vessel was targeted on Wednesday in a "terrorist attack".

The report said there were no casualties in the explosion.

It quoted the spokesman for the state shipping line as saying that Wednesday's attack damaged Shahr-e Kord, a commercial vessel traveling to Europe.

An "explosives device" damaged the hull of the ship and set off a small fire that was quickly extinguished.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman in February, a mysterious explosion that further spiked security concerns in the region.