Julie Bishop has offered to help the government secure the release of aussies detained in Iran

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has offered to step in and use her connections in Iran to secure the release of detained Australians.

Australia’s former foreign minister Julie Bishop said she would help the government obtain the release of Australians detained in Iran by using her diplomatic relationship with her Iranian counterpart.

According to The Australian, Ms Bishop, who stood down as foreign minister last year and retired this May says she will attempt to pull some strings if the government asks her.

“I have a longstanding and constructive relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister (Mohammad Javad) Zarif and I met with President (Hassan) Rouhani during my visit to Tehran,’’ Ms Bishop told The Australian.

“I am available to support the government in its efforts to secure the release of the detained Aust­ralians, should the government make that request.’’

Julie Bishop, former foreign minister to Australia is offering the government her assistance in securing the release of Australians detained in Iran. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

Ms Bishop visited Iran in 2015, conferring with Mr Zarif on various subjects including the threat from the Islamic State and the needs of asylum-seekers.

Ms Bishop’s comments came as it emerged that Negar Ghodskani — the Iranian woman at the centre­ of a prisoner-swap plot — could be deport­ed back to Tehran within five years; and that two detained travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin could be used as ‘bargaining chips’.

It comes as new details are revealed about the Melbourne academic locked up in an Iranian jail.

Iranian women inmates sit at their cell at the Evin jail, north of Tehran. Picture: AFP

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert attended All Saints College in Bathurst and was a contributor to her local newspaper.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert was dux of the college with a final score of 99.40.

An All Saints College Newsletter, dated February 2006, details her achievements.

Under the title Head Lines, Ms Jenny Williams congratulated Ms Gilbert-Moore.

“Kylie also had the distinction of coming first in the state in Visual Arts (out of 8,548 candidates. She was also placed on the Premier’s all rounder’s list with a band 6 result ( 90 % or more) in 10 units (5 courses).”

A New South Wales Government website confirmed her achievements in visual arts.

Her time at the University of Cambridge has also been revealed as a website shows her pictured in a desert and encouraging other students to learn about the Middle East.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has studied Middle Eastern politics and lectures at the University of Melbourne. Picture: The Modern Middle East, YouTube.

“As a student of Arabic and Hebrew the bulk of your time is spent on language acquisition, and being a small faculty you are given an incredible amount of individual attention- small class sizes and private ‘two-on-one’ supervisions ensure you make progress with some immensely challenging languages,” Dr Moore-Gilbert wrote of her time at Wolfson College in Cambridge.

“If you are considering this Tripos (course) — either with a focus on the Middle East or the Far East — I would really encourage you to give it a go, and as a mature undergraduate there really is nowhere quite like Wolfson.”

Bathurst paper The Western Advocate has revealed that Dr Moore-Gilbert wrote a column for the newspaper in 2011 about a meeting with Julian Assange.

She had met Assange at Cambridge before he was sought asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape allegations.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has studied Middle Eastern politics and lectures at the University of Melbourne. Picture: The Modern Middle East, YouTube.

He now remains in Belmarsh prison, fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges that carry a maximum 175 years’ sentence.

Dr Moore-Gilbert detailed her thoughts on Assange for the newspaper.

“Assange, being on bail and currently launching his appeal against a British courts recent ruling that he should be extradited to Sweden on sexual assault charges, was prohibited from speaking about the case or his legal troubles,” Dr Moore-Gilbert wrote.

“Instead, he spoke about the role of Wikileaks in the current unrest in the Arab world (saying it played a much larger role than that of Twitter or Facebook in bringing down Ben Ali and Mubarak), and the difficulty the organisation has in obtaining funding, due to the campaign against them which prevents them from receiving donations via Paypal, Visa, etc.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, former student at All Saints' College.

“He was asked several questions about his own personal moral code.

“He admitted that he is guided by his own set of ethics, saying that if his sources disagreed with the way he used their leaks, such as the timing as to when the leaks are released [he said he aimed for ‘maximum impact’], then they would stop leaking their information to Wikileaks. In this way the system is ‘democratic’.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed Dr Moore-Gilbert had been arrested in Iran on Saturday following media reports.

Her family has also put out a statement saying it was in contact with Australian government authorities.

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Originally published as Julie Bishop has offered to help the government secure the release of aussies detained in Iran