UK couple held in Iran 'caught' in geopolitical tensions: son

The son of a British couple held in Iran said on Wednesday his parents were "caught in the middle" of geopolitical tensions as he urged the British government to act on their case.

Joe Bennett - whose mum Lindsay Foreman and stepdad Craig Foreman have been held in Iran since January last year - said "very difficult" UK-Iran relations and other current events were complicating their situation.

But he hit out at what the family sees as British inaction, calling the lack of recent contact with them by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Keir Starmer "alarming".

"It's very difficult," he told AFP outside the UK parliament, after meeting lawmakers to discuss his parents' plight.

"There is a massive unrest in the country at the moment (and) with what's going on geopolitically my parents are caught in the middle of it," Bennett said, as fears swirl US President Donald Trump could order strikes on Iran.

"All we can say is that if there is an intervention, that that intervention is positive for the outcome of getting them home," he added.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both in their early fifties, were seized on 3 January 2025, according to relatives, as they passed through central Iran during a round-the-world motorbike trip.

The following month Iranian state media announced their arrest on espionage charges, which the couple deny. Their family knew little about their whereabouts for months.

Both are now being held in the country's notorious Evin Prison.

Bennett met Cooper late last year, and last month friends, family and ex-detainees handed in a petition to Starmer's Downing Street office signed by more than 61,000 people urging him to do more to free them.

Bennett said they had heard nothing back, despite claiming Cooper had vowed to meet again "if anything changes on the ground or with the situation".

"The lack of response has been alarming," he added.

"I'd say there's been a monumental change since that meeting and yet we've written to her three times... we've had no response."