‘My parents were taken hostage in Iran. I need to hear from them’

The son of a couple arrested in Iran has said it is “intolerable” that he has not been able to speak to his parents in more than 200 days.

Joe Bennet said the Foreign Office told him he could call Lindsay and Craig Foreman last week, but after a “sleepless night of anticipation” it did not happen.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said they were “deeply concerned” by the case and continued to raise it directly with Iran’s government.

Mr and Ms Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January while on a “once in a lifetime” trip around the world.

They have since been charged with espionage – something the family denies.

Mr Bennet says the family has not spoken to his 52-year-old parents, who are from East Sussex, since they were arrested.

“We don't know their condition, their state of mind, or even with certainty that they are alive.

“All we have had are vague reassurances through officials,” he added.

Mr Bennet described the situation as unbearable and called directly on Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to intercede on their behalf.

“It is a weight no family should have to bear,” he said.

Scottish National Party MP Brendan O’Hara, vice-chair of the all-parliamentary group for arbitrary detention and hostage affairs (APPG), previously told the BBC the couple were “innocent victims of a geopolitical power struggle” between western states and Iran, likening them to “bargaining chips”.

He pointed to the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian national who was held hostage by the Iranian government for six years to pressure the UK to pay a long-standing, multi-million-pound debt.