A verdict looms for a British tourist couple tried in Iran over the weekend on espionage charges just as Tehran's relations with London plumb new lows over a European move to impose new international sanctions.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, were arrested during a motorcycle world tour in January and accused of spying - allegations they deny.
Lindsay's son Joe Bennett said the pair made a court appearance on Saturday and that a verdict was expected within days.
"Although they're mentally resilient, I think their physical health is really starting to suffer," he was quoted as saying by BBC Radio 4. Their family is "exhausted", he added, and "terrified by what may come next".
"I have nightmares thinking about how Mum and Craig can possibly be coping with this injustice, hearing false accusations, feeling helpless to be able to defend themselves, knowing that their words have been mistranslated," he added.
A UK Foreign Office representative was not allowed to attend the couple's Tehran trial on Saturday, the Guardian reported on Thursday, citing their family.
Critics and rights groups have long accused Tehran of engaging in so-called hostage diplomacy by detaining foreigners in exchange for jailed nationals abroad or economic and political concessions.
Iran denies the accusations and says it faces Israeli and Western intelligence infiltration.
France, the United Kingdom and Germany last month triggered the resumption of long dormant international sanctions on Iran which took effect over the weekend, accusing Tehran of evading its nuclear inspections. Iran denies seeking a bomb.
Three French nationals also remain in Iranian custody. Two of them, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, were detained in May 2022. Iran's state TV aired a confession from the pair in October of that year in which they admitted spying charges.
Rights advocates say they are being held in torture-like conditions in Iran's Evin prison and that authorities routinely extract false admissions through physical and emotional pressure.
The last prisoner swap between Iran and a European country came when Italy freed an Iranian national wanted by the United States for allegedly supplying Tehran with drone technology in exchange for an accredited Italian journalist arrested in Iran.
Araghchi told CNN this week that negotiations with Washington under the current conditions amounted to “a total deadlock,” citing what Tehran calls repeated breaches of commitments by the United States.
He said UN sanctions reimposed under the snapback mechanism had made diplomacy more complicated and difficult.
The IRNA analysis said Iran and the United States, since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, had moved between dialogue and confrontation.
Initial indirect talks mediated through Oman and Qatar saw US envoy Steve Witkoff float limited enrichment proposals, but Washington later demanded zero enrichment and the handover of enriched uranium stockpiles.
Iran has strongly rejected US demands, a stance underscored by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a televised address just before President Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech to the UN General Assembly.
Echoing that line, Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Thursday that Western powers were not seeking genuine negotiations but aimed to exploit economic and security pressure. “Western governments see economic pressure as a tool to trigger unrest and weaken Iran,” he said.
Pezeshkian also rejected those terms, saying: “Why should we give them our enriched uranium? For what reason? If there is to be dialogue, it must be about the whole issue. Otherwise this is not negotiation; this is surrender.”
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Wednesday that, according to Araghchi, Iran had expressed readiness in New York to hold a meeting with the three European countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and US envoy Steve Witkoff, but the proposal was either rejected or the counterparts failed to attend.
Mistrust deepens after June conflict
IRNA said Tehran views US demands as unilateral impositions and believes the American approach has aligned with Israel’s military campaign against Iran earlier this year.
The agency added that Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran in June, joined briefly by US forces, was seen in Tehran as “a shot at diplomacy” that reinforced mistrust.
Citing Iranian officials, IRNA said Washington most recently offered to delay snapback sanctions by three, then nine, and finally 12 months in return for a halt to enrichment and the transfer of uranium stocks.
Tehran rejected the plan, with Pezeshkian calling it “excessive and coercive.”
Tehran mulling over response
The analysis said Iran’s immediate response is likely to be guided by the Supreme National Security Council, with possible measures including suspending the “Cairo Agreement” with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While exit from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was described as unlikely, IRNA said Iran would continue to rely on “resistance economics,” closer ties with non-Western partners such as China and Russia, and selective diplomacy.
The government is scheduled to approve a response plan to the UN snapback sanctions on Sunday, Mohajerani said on Wednesday, adding the strategy assigns ministries tasks to ease public pressure.
“Tehran currently sees the solution in adopting strategic patience until the West changes course or the playing field shifts,” the agency wrote. It added that success would depend on domestic economic reforms, unity at home, and stronger backing from non-Western allies.
Ali Herischi, who represents several Iranians seeking asylum in the United States, told ABC News that two of his clients “disappeared” from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee locator system this week and were then deported to Iran.
He said one of them is a Christian convert who had arrived at the southern border earlier this year with his pregnant wife.
“We tried multiple times to ask for his appeal,” Herischi said. “And suddenly, without any information, we realized that he disappeared from [the ICE] detainee locator and then the news broke that Iranians had been deported back to Iran.”
Herischi said his client’s wife, who recently gave birth and remains in the United States, was able to briefly speak with her husband after his deportation. According to Herischi, the man told her that he was “shackled and handcuffed all the way to Iran.”
The attorney called the deportations “unconscionable,” adding, “It was so wrong, and unfortunately these are the same people that … US foreign policy tries to protect. These are those who stand up against the regime, who pay a price for standing up against the regime, and then you give them back directly to the hand of evil.”
ABC News reported that Herischi represents 25 people who are worried about being deported to Iran.
Earlier this week, Iranian state media quoted an official as saying about 120 Iranian nationals detained in the US would be returned in the coming days.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that a chartered US flight carrying more than 100 Iranians departed Louisiana and was scheduled to arrive in Tehran via Qatar.
Iranian officials confirmed that 120 citizens are being repatriated, some voluntarily, while others had asylum claims denied.
For decades, the US has provided refuge to Iranians fleeing political or religious persecution. Human rights advocates warn that returnees -- including converts to Christianity, dissidents and activists -- could face serious risks on arrival in Iran.
The State Department’s Persian-language account on X said three women -- Somayeh Rashidi, Jamileh Azizi and Soudabeh Asadi -- died in recent days at Qarchak prison near Tehran after being denied medical care, adding their deaths followed that of Farzaneh Bijanpour in January.
It cited a statement by 45 women prisoners who condemned “inhumane treatment” of fellow inmates.
Washington also highlighted the case of Hossein Ronaghi, a well-known dissident jailed for criticizing the authorities, who is on hunger strike in protest at what it called “horrific prison conditions.”
The US said his health had sharply worsened due to denial of medication for chronic illness and demanded his immediate release.
Separately, it condemned what it described as the arbitrary detention and torture of Kurdish activist Pakshan Azizi, arrested with relatives in August 2023 and sentenced to death after what it called a sham trial.
“We call on the regime to halt her execution, free her and all political prisoners, and end its campaign of terror against its own people,” the statement said, adding more than 1,000 executions in Iran so far in 2025.
