Two British nationals detained in Iran

Two British nationals – a man and a woman – have been arrested in Iran, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

News of their arrest first came from state-run media in Iran which said they were in custody in the south-eastern city of Kerman, accused of unspecified security-related offences.

It did not name them but published a photograph of them with their faces blurred, meeting the British ambassador, Hugo Shorter, at the prosecutor’s office in Kerman on Wednesday.

The Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Iran, saying that British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at “significant risk” of arrest, questioning or detention.

“Having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you,” the advice says.

Also at the meeting between the Britons and the UK ambassador were Kerman’s prosecutor Mehdi Bakhshi and the deputy governor general for security and law enforcement affairs Rahman Jalali, state news agency IRNA reported.

Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency in recent years, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.

Human rights groups say they are often held for leverage, released only when Iran gets something in return.

In 2023, Iran executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari, who had been convicted of spying for the UK. He denied the charge and said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

Later that year, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, a UK-US-Iranian citizen, was among five people released as part of a prisoner swap deal between Iran and the US that also saw $6bn (£4.8bn) of frozen Iranian funds transferred from South Korea.

British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released in 2022 and allowed to leave Iran after the UK settled a long-standing £650m debt owed to Iran.