Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is set to return home to the UK after being released from prison in Iran.
The British-Iranian mother has been detained in Iran for nearly six years after being arrested while taking her daughter Gabriella to see her parents in 2016. Both Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow detainee Anousheh Ashoori are believed to be heading to Tehran airport today to leave the country.
Tulip Siddiq, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's MP in Hampstead and Kilburn, wrote on Twitter: "Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home." The Foreign Office has not commented on the reports and earlier Boris Johnson said negotiations about Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe were "moving forward" but "going right up to the wire".
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Following the news that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on her way home to the UK from Iran, Sir Keir Starmer said: "For Nazanin, for Richard, and their daughter, this is an incredible moment after so much anguish."
There is still nervousness in Whitehall about the situation, with sources stressing the pair will not be free until they are actually on a plane out of Iran. There have been signs of progress in delicate negotiations between the UK and Iran in recent days.
But Mr Johnson, during a trip to the Middle East, was careful not to elaborate further when speaking to reporters on Tuesday. A glimmer of optimism for 43-year-old Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe came yesterday when her MP said her British passport had been returned.
Mr Johnson confirmed a British negotiating team was working in Tehran to secure the release of dual nationals, while Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe at the time remained at her family home in the Iranian capital.
He told broadcasters at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi: "I really don't think I should say much more, I'm sorry, although things are moving forward.
"I shouldn't really say much more right now just because those negotiations continue to be under way and we're going right up to the wire."
According to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family, she was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400 million debt to Iran. The Government accepts it should pay the "legitimate debt" for an order of 1,500 Chieftain tanks that was not fulfilled after the shah was deposed and replace by a revolutionary regime.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News on Wednesday that it is a "priority to pay the debt that we owe to Iran". The Tehran regime remains under strict sanctions, however, which has complicated efforts to repay the money.
