THE families of jailed British nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have urged new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to prioritise the release of their loved ones from Iran. 

Husband Richard Ratcliffe was due to speak to Ms Truss by phone today and said he wanted to see firm and clear steps taken to secure their release.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a second sentence, this one from home in Iran, after being convicted of propaganda against the Iranian regime in 2016.

Mr Ratcliffe argues that she and others are being held hostage in response to Britain’s failure to pay an outstanding £400 million debt to Iran. 

Speaking to the BBC ahead of his phone call with Ms Truss, who was appointed her new role on Wednesday, Mr Ratcliffe said: “Partly I just want to hear that this is a top priority, and that Nazanin and the others who are being held as bargaining chips will be brought home.”

The family of Mr Ashoori, who has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for the past four years, also spoke to Ms Truss by phone today.

His son Aryan said that they appreciated the minister’s call and hoped she “will have a fresh way to go about this.” He said Ms Truss told them she would pick up where her predecessor had Dominic Raab left off.

“We would like to see her pick things up as soon as possible, because every time we feel like there’s some sort of progress, someone is either sacked or changed or there’s an election. We’ve had two or three foreign secretary changes in the last four years now.”

“It’s always a bit of a setback when people change,” he told the Morning Star.

The family have sent a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office requesting he mention the issue in his address to the United Nations in New York this week. Ms Truss is due to meet Iran’s foreign secretary for the first time at the conference. The families hope the exchange will be positive. 

Aryan said the issue should also be a strategic priority for the government in order to build trust with Iran and move on to solving bigger issues, including the country’s nuclear energy programme. 

Amnesty International UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: “The plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and other UK nationals held in Iran has extended across the last four foreign secretaries — it’s long past time that the UK finally brought this deeply distressing episode to an end.”