Husband of detained Nazanin glum after UK-Iran meeting

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The hunger-striking husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained for more than five years in Iran, said talks between British and Iranian officials failed to make any headway on securing her release. Richard Ratcliffe, who has been on hunger strike for 19 days outside Britain’s Foreign Office in central London, said he was nearing the end of it “as a strategy.” Ratcliffe was speaking after he met with James Cleverly, a British foreign minister to hear details of the talks he had with Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani. Ratcliffe said his wife is being used as “leverage” by Tehran, specifically with regard to the U.K.’s failure to pay an outstanding 400 million-pound ($550 million) debt to Iran.