£450m to Iran

[JimLondon]

Apparently Britain is preparing to give Iran £450m for goodwill in the bid to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. My thoughts are I don’t believe a word of it. 

 

What at do you lot think?

[Uilleachan]

Was under the impression the UK was holding (in which case I rather fancy we've already squandered it) £450 mil belonging to Iran from a pre 79 tank order, cancelled by us on account of the revolution. So, Iranian money being repatriated rather than our money being given. 

Even the mail agrees:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5087177/Britain-ready-pay-450million-debt-Iran.html

 

Edited November 16, 2017 by Uilleachan

[lister22]

Well it is their money

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes those tanks were "donated" to us!

[Pigeon Shredder.]

If it's good enough for the Mail you can count me in, not.

[Uilleachan]

Can't say I'm a mail fan, however if there was going to be any press outrage over this payment, it would most likely be found in the mail or express. So a good acid test for my memory...    

[Bigbob]

She went there of here own free will she knew the risks she can stay there 

[Uilleachan]

Iran, having been in person more than once, doesn't live up to the rhetoric we hear in our press. An amazing country with very welcoming people and I can think of many more deserving candidates for the glass car park treatment than the Iranians.  

 

[grrclark]

I rather suspect there is rather more to this story than we may get to hear.

 

Hammy's take on this would be good to hear.

[Hamster]

30 minutes ago, grrclark said:

I rather suspect there is rather more to this story than we may get to hear.

 

Hammy's take on this would be good to hear.

It seems a little strange to say the least, firstly let me make it clear to all that I am not a fan of the Islamic government but talk of turning various places into glass (even Saudi Arabia) boils my blood a bit because I just can't get over the callousness of wishing instant vaporisation on any human beings. 

The situation in Iran is that after the 79 revolution huge and mainly negative changes swept the country, even today millions will happily turn the clock back and live under the Shah but we are where we are and without a shadow of doubt the ruling clergy have turned a better shade of grey and life there is infinitely better now than it was say twenty years ago. Never forget for instance that Iranian women have been allowed to vote for decades, most of them work, some hold extremely important positions, they all drive, the country is absolutely nothing like it is portrayed. 

In my opinion as wrong as it is to detain anyone, journalist or not, this lady appears to have been an informed and well connected intellectual who forgot the most basic rule of not putting a foot wrong, you just can't do that. I for instance wouldn't travel to Trump country and start hustling the local lads in pool bars ! How's that gonna end ? 

Iran is treading very carefully currently because it knows Saudi Arabia at the behest of murica and Israel are itching to start something to get them drawn into a proxy conflict; their involvement together with Russia in Syria and helping to destroy Isis haven't gone down too well in certain quarters  so noises are invariably being made to try and trap them into a war either via Yemen or more probably Lebanon. 

The one thing I can promise you is that Iranians are no fools regardless of whether they wear a turban or not, the fact they even held her for a day seems to me to suggest that all is not well with her story. The skeptic in me even thinks she may well have been tripped and set up for all this because Iran certainly doesn't need the negative publicity.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Hamster

[grrclark]

2 hours ago, Hamster said:

It seems a little strange to say the least, firstly let me make it clear to all that I am not a fan of the Islamic government but talk of turning various places into glass (even Saudi Arabia) boils my blood a bit because I just can't get over the callousness of wishing instant vaporisation on any human beings. 

The situation in Iran is that after the 79 revolution huge and mainly negative changes swept the country, even today millions will happily turn the clock back and live under the Shah but we are where we are and without a shadow of doubt the ruling clergy have turned a better shade of grey and life there is infinitely better now than it was say twenty years ago. Never forget for instance that Iranian women have been allowed to vote for decades, most of them work, some hold extremely important positions, they all drive, the country is absolutely nothing like it is portrayed. 

In my opinion as wrong as it is to detain anyone, journalist or not, this lady appears to have been an informed and well connected intellectual who forgot the most basic rule of not putting a foot wrong, you just can't do that. I for instance wouldn't travel to Trump country and start hustling the local lads in pool bars ! How's that gonna end ? 

Iran is treading very carefully currently because it knows Saudi Arabia at the behest of murica and Israel are itching to start something to get them drawn into a proxy conflict; their involvement together with Russia in Syria and helping to destroy Isis haven't gone down too well in certain quarters  so noises are invariably being made to try and trap them into a war either via Yemen or more probably Lebanon. 

The one thing I can promise you is that Iranians are no fools regardless of whether they wear a turban or not, the fact they even held her for a day seems to me to suggest that all is not well with her story. The skeptic in me even thinks she may well have been tripped and set up for all this because Iran certainly doesn't need the negative publicity.

So perfectly timed Hamid, and there is no insincerity in my comment.

Big ticket items in news headlines are NEVER so one dimensional as the headline would imply.

[Hamster]

26 minutes ago, grrclark said:

So perfectly timed Hamid, and there is no insincerity in my comment.

Big ticket items in news headlines are NEVER so one dimensional as the headline would imply.

Exactly, I mean there's talk of hundreds of thousands of children starving to death in Yemen, there's potential for major conflict with Russia and even China and yet this story has somehow made it onto all major news channels in the country for several days on the trot ! Yes Boris is a bit of a bell but could he seriously have dropped such a clanger if there was zero substance to it ?! 

[oowee]

Yes is the simple ans. A bell can clang at any time of day. Even if there is the slightest wiff, even a foreign sec bell should stay quiet.

We need the diplomat's to manage.

[grrclark]

1 hour ago, Hamster said:

Exactly, I mean there's talk of hundreds of thousands of children starving to death in Yemen, there's potential for major conflict with Russia and even China and yet this story has somehow made it onto all major news channels in the country for several days on the trot ! Yes Boris is a bit of a bell but could he seriously have dropped such a clanger if there was zero substance to it ?! 

I rather suspect not, he is working off of a departmental briefing note that is unambiguous in its content.

 

[poontang]

On 16/11/2017 at 13:30, Uilleachan said:

Was under the impression the UK was holding (in which case I rather fancy we've already squandered it) £450 mil belonging to Iran from a pre 79 tank order, cancelled by us on account of the revolution. So, Iranian money being repatriated rather than our money being given. 

Even the mail agrees:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5087177/Britain-ready-pay-450million-debt-Iran.html

 

It hasn't been squandered. It's been sat in a bank account since 2002 where apparently sanctions have prevented it being sent to Iran.

A friend of mine has just returned from a holiday in Iran, she says it's a lovely country and the people couldn't have been friendlier. She wasn't arrested at the airport as she has no links to Thompson Reuters or BBC Media Action, the journalist training 'charities' that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for.  Whether Mrs Z-R was in Iran on holiday or whether she was 'working' I guess we'll never know for sure, but at this moment in time I'm more inclined to believe the Iranians than the BBC or Thompson Reuters.

As an aside, do we actually owe the Iranian govt. the £450m claimed?

The tank deal was done before the Iranian revolution in 1979. After the revolution the country became an Islamic state, with a new constitution and government and became the Islamic Republic of Iran. In effect a new country. A bit like a company which closes down only to open again the next day under a different name. Whilst you can lose all your debts, so you can also lose all your assets.

[Uilleachan]

11 minutes ago, poontang said:

It hasn't been squandered. It's been sat in a bank account since 2002 where apparently sanctions have prevented it being sent to Iran.

A friend of mine has just returned from a holiday in Iran, she says it's a lovely country and the people couldn't have been friendlier. She wasn't arrested at the airport as she has no links to Thompson Reuters or BBC Media Action, the journalist training 'charities' that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for.  Whether Mrs Z-R was in Iran on holiday or whether she was 'working' I guess we'll never know for sure, but at this moment in time I'm more inclined to believe the Iranians than the BBC or Thompson Reuters.

As an aside, do we actually owe the Iranian govt. the £450m claimed?

The tank deal was done before the Iranian revolution in 1979. After the revolution the country became an Islamic state, with a new constitution and government and became the Islamic Republic of Iran. In effect a new country. A bit like a company which closes down only to open again the next day under a different name. Whilst you can lose all your debts, so you can also lose all your assets.

Certainly Iran is an amazing place, it's not yet geared up for the regular package holiday mob but for the more adventurous it's certainly worth a visit. Well done your friend. The only westerners I met, in two visits, were a few Italian mountaineers come to climb Damavand and a German biologist studying some sort of horribly poisonous persian viper, which is understandably horribly endangered on account of it being rather unpopular with persian shepherds. 

On the issue of UK debt liability, despite the board level reshuffle a change of mission statement and rebranding, it's still the same corporate body. We didn't deliver on a contract, therefore we're still liable for the balance of the monies paid, on goods we didn't supply. 

 

[Red-dot]

Worked there for three years. Lovely country, lovely people. Bakshesh talks unfortunately.

[Hamster]

2 hours ago, Uilleachan said:

Certainly Iran is an amazing place, it's not yet geared up for the regular package holiday mob but for the more adventurous it's certainly worth a visit. Well done your friend. The only westerners I met, in two visits, were a few Italian mountaineers come to climb Damavand and a German biologist studying some sort of horribly poisonous persian viper, which is understandably horribly endangered on account of it being rather unpopular with persian shepherds. 

 

 

 

[Uilleachan]

31 minutes ago, Hamster said:

 

 I don't like the look of that fellow at all and I'm going to have trouble sleeping after watching that!! 

Just looked in my notes and all though I didn't list it's name, the viper in question is only found in a small (sub 500kmsq) geographical location in the Lar National park of the alborz mountains and known, it transpires, from a quick search on google, as Latifi's Viper.