Iran has replied to Britain’s selection to grant Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection, calling it unlawful.

The charity worker, who’s serving a prison sentence in Tehran for “espionage,” changed into the day gone by prolonged the safety – the first such time inside the UK’s current records – in a sparkling try to cozy her release.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, tweeted in response that the Government’s important decision “contravened global regulation.”

“Governments may also only exercising such safety for very own nationals,” he stated. “As the UK government is acutely aware, Iran does no longer understand dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms. Zaghari, therefore, remains Iranian (sic).”

Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a twin British-Iranian countrywide who had been residing in London and her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, was arrested all through a family go to Tehran in 2016.

The trouble of citizenship has created an impasse among the two countries and has meant Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been denied British consular assist.

The move could give ammunition to hardliners in Iran, who have usually claimed she was spying for the British government. Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, who was working with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has continually denied all allegations in opposition to her.