Iran's Revolutionary Guards Used Detainees as 'Tool': Former UK Foreign Secretary

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

45% : Later Hammond, who was foreign secretary under David Cameron between 2014 and 2016, gave evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which is investigating the "handling of state level hostage situations." Hammond said one of the problems was that Iran, like many nations, did not recognise the concept of dual nationality and he said their attitude to cases such as Zaghari-Ratcliffe's was often that it was "none of your business."
41% : He said another issue was that "the government of Iran is not a single united entity as it is here" and he said there was often tension between hawks and doves within the Tehran regime.
37% : He said the government had overcome the "morality" of paying the debt but had to overcome the "legality" of paying it because of international sanctions on Iran, and the "practicality" of paying it, considering that no UK bank wanted to be involved.
31% : He said Iran was a "paranoid regime" and he added: "From the Iranians' point of view they had arrested an Iranian national.
27% : Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, who had dual British and Iranian nationality, and who returned to the UK in March after spending six years in detention in Iran, revealed on Monday she had been forced to sign a "false confession" in front of a UK government official before she was allowed to leave Iran.

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