THE FORMER head of the British Army has accused government officials of treating Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a political pawn.

General Lord Dannatt said a debt of £400 million owed by the UK to pre-revolution Iran should have been paid off decades ago.

He told GB News: “I think there’s a big question to be asked, why have we dragged our feet by not paying that £400 million bill to the Iranians?

“And if that was the reason that kept this poor woman in prison for six years, well, big questions are going to be asked.”

He added: “She has been on the face of it a political pawn, when we probably could have resolved this some time ago.

“So there may be smiles in the Foreign Office today but I think there are officials going back many years, they need to search their consciences and ask themselves the question, should we not have paid that bill?

“Was it not a legitimate bill? Should we not have settled it decades ago, and I think the poor woman has copped the lot as far as that’s concerned and that’s not good diplomacy.”

He made his comment in an interview with Tom Harwood on GB News this morning (17 March).