Debt, sanctions and a cold Westminster tent: how the Iranian hostages were freed

Release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori mixed serpentine statecraft, brutal realpolitik and occasional stubborn idealism

• A long time coming': Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori's families joyful at release

The long, necessarily cloak-and-dagger struggle to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori is a story that started in New York and - via the Sultan's palace in Muscat and a cold pavement in London's King Charles Street - ended with nail-biting delays at Tehran international airport.

After the two British-Iranians were finally freed on Wednesday, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and her team received plaudits in the House of Commons for her role and quiet determination in overseeing this extraordinary endeavour.