Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Trass said on Wednesday, December 8, that Britain's £ 400m ($528m) debt to Iran was a "real debt" that London wanted to repay.

Tras made the remarks at Chatham House on Wednesday, and also touched on foreign policy goals.

The British minister noted that her country was working "around the clock" to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.
But she added that Britain is also seeking to "resolve" its debt crisis to Iran related to the cancellation of the contract for the sale of 1,500 "Chieftain" tanks to Tehran.

It is worth noting that this treaty was signed between Iran and Britain during the Shah Pahlavi regime in Iran, but it was rescinded after the Khomeini revolution in 1979.

She said, "We want to repay this debt and consider it a real debt," and continued that "there are a lot of issues that I'm sure you know well."
The British Foreign Secretary confirmed that she had discussed this issue with her Iranian counterpart, but added that "this issue is not a simple issue for various reasons".

The UK has refused to state the reasons why it has not paid its debt to Iran, but has previously stressed in the media that international sanctions against Tehran, particularly by the United States, are one of those reasons.

In recent months, demands have been mounting from the British government to return its debts to Iran in order to end the detention of a British-Iranian citizen imprisoned in Iran, Nazneen Zagari and other citizens with dual citizenship.

On November 17, former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson: "If international sanctions prevent this debt repayment through the banks, is there no other way to solve this problem?"

"If for various reasons we can not pay this debt through the banks, why not act like President Obama in January 2016, when he sent a plane full of money to Tehran?" He said.

The British Prime Minister, who attended the House committee meeting, replied: "This (option) is definitely worth examining, but as we know, there are some complications in this matter, and it is important to note that there are Iranian-British citizens in addition to Zagari, who are also part of the equation."

It is worth noting that in recent years the Iranian regime has arrested a large number of foreign nationals and citizens with dual citizenship on various charges, including espionage, cooperation with foreign security services or action against the regime. Some were replaced with 
Iranian prisoners who were imprisoned in other countries.

This Iranian approach has been repeatedly condemned by governments and human rights organizations around the world and has been called a "hostage" operation.