Iran arrests three Australian citizens

Bloomberg

Iran has arrested three Australian citizens, including two with dual British nationality, in what appears to be a stepped-up targeting of foreigners for arrest amid a tense standoff with Western powers over the nuclear deal.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the detentions, but declined to provide further details due to “privacy obligations.”
The Times newspaper reported that Australia was providing consular assistance to the families of the three and urging people to reconsider travelling to the nation.
Those held include a British-Australian academic who is being kept in solitary confinement and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the report said. It wasn’t clear when she was arrested, or what the alleged offense is, though the length of the sentence is common for espionage charges against foreigners, according to the Times. Separately, a female blogger, who is also a dual British-Australian national, was detained along with her Australian friend about 10 weeks ago, the newspaper said.
Iran’s often competing intelligence agencies have a long record of targeting Iranians with dual nationality as well as foreign nationals, detaining them on vague security charges and then using them to gain leverage in negotiations with Western countries, often over financial and political disputes.
It’s a policy that has been condemned by human rights groups as akin to hostage-taking and there’s evidence its use has increased as Iranian authorities fight back against a US-led economic offensive. American sanctions are steadily collapsing the 2015 nuclear deal which ended the Islamic Republic’s isolation. European efforts led by France to save the accord are foundering, while the tit-for-tat seizing by UK and Iranian forces of oil tankers sparked a diplomatic storm between the two.
Most of those with foreign passports arrested in Iran are Iranians with dual European or US nationality. The latest arrests are unusual in that they involve Australians with no apparent family ties to Iran. In January 2019, Iran arrested and then released a dual Iranian-Australian population expert, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavosi, accusing her of “infiltration.”