MPs say UK government strategy on Iran prisoners not working

Report says Foreign Office should formally declare detention of foreign nationals as hostage taking'

The UK should do more to constrain Iran by proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist group and formally describe the Iranian practice of detaining British dual nationals as state hostage taking, the all-party foreign affairs select committee has said.

The report finds that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's current approach to seeking the release of detainees is not working. There are least four British-Iranian dual-nationals either in jail, on a tag in Tehran or sentenced to lengthy jail terms, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.