Iran will keep taking hostages – because no one is willing to stand up to them

The release of US hostages from Iranian detention this week was big news in our house. My wife Nazanin was captured by the Iranian regime in 2016, and only released to us in March of last year.

Watching people going down the stairs of the plane and stepping into freedom brought back all sorts of memories for our family last year. I was sat in various TV news studios offering dry commentary. And then I saw the shaking hugs of relief, and suddenly I remembered that feeling – that sense of release. Finally, it was safe to feel, after all those long years.

It will be a long journey back to normality. But it is a magical, life-changing first step.

The deal to bring them home had been a long time coming. We had been campaigning with some of the families since 2016. One of the hostages had been expected on the plane with Nazanin. All had been left behind previously.

On Monday night while they were in the air, we had a powerful Zoom meeting with a number of hostage families and activists. It is a family no one wants to belong to, and it brought out strong feelings. Even in our happiness, there were real tears at how hard the battle had been to get innocent people protected. It should not have been so hard to get governments to care.

It has been a controversial deal in the US. From our view, much of this was for the wrong reasons. It felt like a domestic, partisan argument about which party was the most robust, with commentators rallying to their own side. It reminded me how much of the political commentary on Nazanin’s case became about Boris Johnson and domestic arguments over his fitness for office. Sometimes we became a political coat peg.

There was little focus on how we could better handle hostage-taking by states. Equally, there was little notice given to the fact that two American nationals were again left behind. It is hard to put into words how that abandonment feels and the fear that follows, especially for those left on death row.

There are genuine questions for journalists to be asking the US government over its process, why some hostages were fast-tracked and recovered ahead of others, and what assurances were given by Iran to the negotiators over the safety of those left in harm’s way. Those are questions that affect everybody’s safety.

In the UK media, I was asked to comment on the release. Oddly, no one asked me if I knew anything about the conditions of UK citizens still detained in Iran today; nobody probed me on how many are there still.

It is an unnoticed problem because the policy of the UK and other governments is still to suppress the cases for as long as it can. It still downplays the abuse. It still won’t ever use the word “hostage”, even when it legally applies.

It is not a surprise the problem continues to grow. Since Nazanin’s release, over 30 foreign nationals have been taken by Iran. The UK government used to depict Iran’s hostage-taking as a problem for dual nationals only, but perhaps not for “real Brits.” As Iran has shifted to take all kinds of tourists, and even diplomats with certain passports, the UK has had to amend its travel advice.

The nature of Iran’s hostage-taking has also transformed. 2023 marked the year when Iran started executing foreign citizens to focus the minds of the capitals it was negotiating with. Execution diplomacy radically transforms what it feels like for families on death row.

A second delegation came to New York this week, seemingly choreographed as part of the negotiations – the Iranian government’s delegation to the UN General Assembly.

It included several people we had recommended to the UK and others for Magnitsky sanctions due to their role in Iran’s hostage enterprise. None of them had been sanctioned yet for their role in hostage-taking. It is still a crime that policymakers are reluctant to see.

One of those recommendations posted triumphantly yesterday on social media, proud of the strength of the Iranian government in the US hostage negotiations. I was struck by the tone of goading and the brazenness of his posts. For Nazanin, it was more the shamefulness – at the character of those persons now representing Iran on the world stage.

Over the years in Nazanin’s campaign, we filed for sanctions, we pushed for international court action. We pressed for the UK to call her a hostage, and insisted on UK government officials attending Iran’s Revolutionary Court with her. The Foreign Office always judged it would be best not to challenge Iran, favouring instead a quiet approach. This is how we ended up with them requiring Nazanin to sign a forced confession on behalf of Iran as a condition of her release, and the continuing abuse of the British citizens who remained in Iranian custody after she left.

Crimes fester with impunity. The reason hostage-taking grows is not just because it is effective, but because it is cost free. We have an accountability gap.

Behind closed doors, diplomats lament about how Iran has all the power. In public, the rhetoric focuses on the possibilities with the renewal of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Too often it feels like we are still in denial about Iran’s brazenness, still waiting the problem out, still preferring to suppress its symptoms. There is no urgency, even in the most extreme cases.

Today in New York, Canada is hosting a UNGA side event to rethink governments’ handling of state hostage-taking. There is increasing recognition that the international status quo is not good enough. This week the US made some initial gestures with sanctions for Iran’s hostage takers.

We hope this week might be a chance for heads to come out of the sand.