Possible deal to release pair involves agreement by UK to repay £400m debt, according to Iranian sources

British Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori could be freed and allowed to return to London within days under a deal in which the UK agrees to repay a £400m debt and release an Iranian prisoner.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has for months been at her parent’s home in Tehran awaiting news of whether she would have to serve a further one-year sentence in Iran handed down on top of the five years she had already served.

British-Iranian woman has endured almost unbearable psychological stress since her arrest at Tehran airport in April 2016

In White Torture, a book about the horror of solitary confinement in Iranian jails, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe recalled her first night in jail following her arrest at Tehran airport on 3 April 2016.

“The first night of detention I did not know where I was,” she explained. “I don’t remember what happened or what I did. I was shocked. I didn’t know why it had happened. No one gave me any explanations. Nobody told me why they were treating me like that, why they took my child away from me or where I was. The interrogation began.”

Richard Ratcliffe walks away with head held high and huge support after 21-day hunger strike

Surrounded by brightly painted pebbles, posters and paintings calling for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, Richard Ratcliffe brought his 21-day hunger strike to an end on Saturday, clinging on to hope his actions have made a difference to his wife’s fate.

He walked away from his makeshift camp outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as he wanted to: not in an ambulance but with his head held high – at the last possible moment there was a chance he could reverse the damage he has inflicted on his body.