BORIS JOHNSON must “break the deadlock” and arrange for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori’s safe passage home during talks with Iran this week, campaigners have demanded. 

Foreign Office officials are due to meet Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Thursday to resume talks on the Iran nuclear deal, according to reports. 

Human rights group Amnesty International UK has written to PM Boris Johnson, calling for an urgent intervention in the talks to secure the release of British citizens arbitrarily being detained in Iran. 

The letter, sent today, comes amid growing concern for the welfare of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard, who entered the 18th day of his hunger strike on Wednesday. 

Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said the meeting was a “crucial opportunity that [Britain] can’t afford to miss.”

Mr Ratcliffe has been camping outside the Foreign Office in Whitehall to demand ministers do more to secure the release of his wife, who has been detained in Iran for more than five years.

The family of Mr Ashoori, who has been held in Iran for four years, has been protesting alongside Mr Ratcliffe. 

“Richard Ratcliffe’s hunger strike is not a pantomime, he has vowed to remain on hunger strike until Nazanin’s case has been addressed,” Mr Deshmukh said.

“Time is running out and we urgently need the Prime Minister to intervene and break the deadlock.”

He also called on the government to provide diplomatic immunity to Mr Ashoori as soon as possible. “It’s high time all detained UK nationals in Iran are reunited with their families.”

In an interview with the Morning Star last week, Mr Ratcliffe accused Mr Johnson of “unconscionable inaction” over the issue. 

The PM has not spoken directly with the family since January this year, despite Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s situation becoming more grave in recent months after the appeal against her 10-year sentence was rejected.