Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s release has made us look such a pushover in hostage diplomacy that it seems to have bumped up the ransom for Aussies.
The ransom for an Australian just went up. So Kylie Moore-Gilbert is lucky she’s a pretty Anglo woman who photographs nicely.
Moore-Gilbert is now out of an Iranian jail and back home because the Morrison Government was still willing to pay for her freedom by flying three Iranian terrorists back to Iran.
And how the media cheered Prime Minister Scott Morrison to have rescued this damsel in distress.
Trouble is, we now look such a pushover in hostage diplomacy that it seems the ransom for Australians has soared.
Last year Iran freed two Australians, travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin, after arresting them on preposterous suspicion of spying.
And what a coincidence: King and Firkin came home on the day we learned Australia had freed an Iranian research student wanted by the United States for allegedly trying to export radar equipment for detecting stealth planes.
Attorney-General Christian Porter wouldn’t say last year whether there’d been a swap, just like Morrison wouldn’t last week confirm what Iran had already announced – that Moore-Gilbert was part of a prisoner swap.