TEHRAN – Jailed British-Iranian spy Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will serve out her five-year prison sentence, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday, dismissing a call for her release by a British minister visiting Tehran.

“Mrs. Zaghari is an Iranian. She has been convicted on security charges and is spending her sentence in prison,” Abbas Mousavi told a press conference.

“Iran does not recognize dual nationality,” he said.

Foreign Office Minister Andrew Murrison pressed Iran for the “urgent and unconditional release” of Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Sunday, during a visit to Iran to discuss the situation in the Middle East, his ministerial area of responsibility.

Referring to pressures on Iran’s diplomatic mission in London, Mousavi said measures such as Zaghari’s husband’s move who has started a strike on the doorsteps to Iran’s Embassy in London, are intended to increase the media hype and attract attention, underscoring that such moves will not help resolve the case.

“Causing disturbance and hindrance to the daily and current routines of an embassy’s affairs is in violation of international conventions and such moves are not accepted by Iran,” he said, describing the recent moves in front of the Iranian diplomatic mission in London as destructive.

SP/PA