Iran’s hostage snatching defies civilised behaviour

The detention of four Australians gives the lie to Iran’s insistence that it is not a dangerous rogue state deserving of even tougher international action to compel it to abandon its “hostage diplomacy”. In 2015, when Barack Obama signed his flawed nuclear deal with Tehran, optimists hoped the agreement was a sign that the ruling ayatollahs were turning over a new leaf that would see them abide by global rules of behaviour. Far from abandoning its delinquent behaviour, the Islamic theocracy stepped up its military aggression, especially in Syria and Yemen, and reinforced its Hezbollah terrorist franchise in Lebanon with hi-tech rockets primed for another onslaught against Israel. More recently, Iran’s piracy in snatching foreign oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and its brazen imprisonment of Australian and British hostages underlined the need to maintain and intensify the strongest possible pressure on Iran, including sanctions, which are stirring up anger domestically.

Jolie King, a dual British-Australian citizen and her Australian boyfriend, Mark Firkin, had been travelling since June 2017, frequently posting photos taken by a drone and documenting their experiences to “inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad rap in the media”. They were arrested 10 weeks ago in Iran, reportedly for flying a drone without a licence, and are in Tehran’s notoriously brutal Evin jail. Also, an Australian-British academic, who has been imprisoned in Iran since last year, recently was sentenced to 10 years’ jail. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Marise Payne emphasised “that the best chance of a successful outcome for these three Australians is with Iran through diplomatic channels and not through the media”. That is the traditional diplomatic approach.

Be that as it may, Iran’s shameless misuse of hostages deserves to be elevated by Australia and other nations on the list of international grievances against the rogue state. A fourth woman, dual Australian-Iranian citizen and University of Melbourne demographer Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, was arrested in Iran in December, when she was on a study tour, and was charged with trying to “infiltrate” the nation’s institutions. She is on bail but not allowed to leave Iran.

Iran pioneered state kidnapping when it held the entire US embassy in Tehran hostage after the ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Forty years on they remain shameless in using hostages as bargaining chips. Earlier this year, when an Iranian oil tanker was seized in Gibraltar en route to Syria — suspected of breaking EU sanctions by supplying the Assad regime — Tehran sent Revolutionary Guards to detain a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf and held the crew hostage. When fears mounted that the issue could cause further problems for a British hostage already held in Iran and the tanker in Gibraltar was released, Tehran pledged the oil would not be delivered to Syria. After the tanker was freed, however, Iran changed the vessel’s name, turned off its transponders, and it was tracked delivering the oil to Syria.

For all that, there are signatories to Mr Obama’s nuclear deal, notably France and Germany, that are standing by the deal, despite Donald Trump’s withdrawal. Such naivety beggars belief. Australia, for good reason, is backing US efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital waterways.

A nation that uses hostage-taking for its ends and practises state-sponsored terrorism is beyond the pale of the civilised world. Amnesty International has warned of an “increasingly alarming pattern” of foreign nationals being arrested in Iran. And with Iran’s prison population at more than a quarter of a million, with most detainees held in primitive conditions and many subjected to torture, the Morrison government is right to do everything possible to assist Australians caught up in Iran’s immoral system. Some negotiations might best be conducted in private but the issue warrants increasing attention in international forums, especially when it is virtually impossible for reasonable nations to negotiate with Iran.