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Mr Ashoori was arrested by Iranian authorities while visiting his mother in 2017.
His family say he was convicted without evidence and under severe fair-trial violations, proving he is being held hostage by the regime over his dual nationality status.
They believe the 67-year-old has also contracted Covid-19.
In a letter to Mr Raab, dozens of MPs are calling for Mr Ashoori to be granted diplomatic status, claiming this would help ministers secure his release as well as being a formal recognition of the human rights abuses he has suffered.
Mr Ashoori’s wife Sherry Izadi said that her husband’s four-year incarceration has had a “devastating psychological impact on every member of our family,” adding that he has often felt abandoned by the British government.
Whitehall sources have told Channel 4 News that a plan to send surplus PPE to India was delayed as the Treasury insisted the items would have to count towards overall aid spending – recently capped at 0.5 per cent of national income down from the 0.7, which had been the decades old standard.
A government source has confirmed that £813 million donated to provide coronavirus vaccines and other tools for the developing world also forms part of the overseas aid budget, known as Official Development Assistance (ODA).
By designating money and equipment donated to poorer countries as ODA, the UK government must squeeze other aid spending to stay within the 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income limit imposed by the chancellor last year.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:
Criminalising opposition voices and independent media in Belarus will fuel rather than quell the people’s thirst for democracy and freedom.
The Belarusian authorities must halt this campaign of oppression, release those held on political grounds, and engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue.
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Tough Scots ambassador hopes to bring peace to Ethiopia
Feature
Updated: 18 May 2021, 22:53
A TOUGH Scot, who once survived having a bounty placed on his head by Saddam Hussein, is leading the UK’s efforts to help bring peace to Ethiopia.
Glasgow-born Alastair McPhail has served as a UK Government conflict resolution specialist in trouble spots including Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, and the Gaza strip.
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Alastair shakes hands with the Stetson wearing president of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit when the Scot became the UK s first ambassador to the newly independent country.
Now as the UK’s Ambassador in Ethiopia, the top diplomat is helping deal with the fallout from the eruption of violence in Tigray, which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.