U.S. Lauds Step Towai^Restoratlon oiTStability
REACTION, From A1
on Iranian oil tankers and by Iranian
warships and speedboats on neutral
shipping.
Fitzwater said that
if the cease-
fire actually occurs and
oil tankers
could travel safely through the gulf,
the United States would be willing
to withdraw
its naval escorts and
reduce
its military
forces. But he
said the United States was not pre-
pared to completely leave the
gulf,
as Iran has demanded, noting that
U.S. forces have been present there
since 1949.
Asked whether the United States
would
move
toward
normalizing
relations with Iran
if the war ends,
Fitzwater
said
the
administration
"has made
it
clear
a
number
of
times
that we would be
willing to
establish a dialogue” but so far "we
have not received a response from
Iran
that we consider
valid,
legit-
imate or reasonable.”
Oakley
said
speculation
about
whether
the
United
States would
now reduce its military presence in
the
gulf or end
its naval escort of
Kuwaiti
tankers was "premature.”
But she
said
that as
"threats and
conditions change,” the administra-
tion would be prepared to examine
"how
to meet
that changed condi-
tion in an appropriate manner” and
that U.S. policy was under constant
review. She also described as "pre-
mature”
speculation on
a
possible
improvement
in
U.S.-Iranian
rela-
tions.
A Pentagon spokesman also said
it was "premature”
to
talk
of any
immediate
change
in
the
U.S.
Navy's escort operation in the Per-
sian Gulf for
1 1 Kuwaiti oil and gas
tankers. “We’ll just have to see how
the whole thing plays out,” he said.
There
are 27
U.S.
warships
in
the operation— 17 inside the gulf or
in the Strait of Hormuz and the rest
nearby
in the Gulf of Oman.
U.S.
and Iranian forces have clashed nu-
merous times
in the past year, and
the cruiser USS Vincennes on July
3 mistakenly shot down an Iranian
airliner, killing all 290 aboard.
Oil
prices
leaped
yesterday
in
reaction
to
news
of
a
possible
cease-fire.
August
contracts
for
West Texas
Intermediate
oil,
the
U.S.
benchmark
crude,
rose
cents a barrel to $15.70,
the
big-
gest one day
rise
since March
3,
1987, when
it jumped 96 cents a
barrel.
Traders
seemed
to
anticipate
that a cease-fire would reduce ten-
sion between Iran and Saudi Arabia,
enabling the Organization of Petro-
leum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
to reach an agreement to restrain
production.
They
also seemed
to
believe
that
an
end
to
hostilities
would reduce the pressure on Iran
and Iraq, as well as their allies, to
produce oil at a fast clip in order to
finance the war.
But other analysts said an end to
the war would allow Iran to rebuild
its
shattered
production
capabili-
ties—the
country
once
produced
about three times what
it can
to-
day—and
Iraq
to
increase
its
al-
ready high rate of production.
Iraq,
which
produces about
2.7
million barrels a day, has been ex-
porting all its oil via pipelines across
Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Iran has
an export quota of 2.37 million bar-
rels-a-day, which
is set by OPEC,
but has been exporting less because
of
repeated
Iraqi
attacks
on
its
tankers.
Fitzwater
said
national
security
adviser Colin L. Powell had
called
the
president,
who
is
taking
a
week’s vacation at his mountaintop
ranch northwest of Santa Barbara,
to inform him about the Iranian ac-
tion.
The importance the White House
attached to the Iranian decision was
emphasized by the on-camera brief-
ing given by Fitzwater after a meet-
ing with Powell and other officials.
The White House
has planned an
unusually
light
public schedule for
the week
as
part
of an
effort
to
keep a low presidential profile dur-
ing the Democratic
National Con-
vention.
Fitzwater said
"it’s very difficult
to determine
all
the motives” be-
hind Iran’s move. But he cited re-
cent losses by Iran in the war, dip-
lomatic efforts by a number of na-
tions and U.S. resolve to continue
its military presence in the gulf de-
spite the downing of the airliner.
Oakley said it was "premature” to
talk
about
the
reasons
for
Iran’s
action,
and
she
doubted
any
one
"determining
factor”
caused
the
move. But she said the administra-
tion felt the U.S. military presence
in the gulf had contributed to stop-
ping the spread of the war and yes-
terday’s
development
in
Tehran
indicated "the success
of that
pol-
icy.”
Privately,
some
officials
sug-
gested that President Reagan’s
of-
fer of compensation to the families
of victims
of
the
airline
disaster,
while blaming Iran for sending the
plane directly over a combat zone,
may
have
played
a
role
in
Iran’s
decision.
"In a weird way, something good
may come out of this horrible trag-
edy if it speeds an end to a war that
has
cost more than
half a
million
lives,” said an official who asked not
to be
identified and who also said
that
reversals
on
the
battlefield
may
have
"damaged
Iranian
mo-
rale." Speaking of the downing
of
the airliner, he said that U.S. refus-
al to back down from its role in the
gulf
after
this
incident may have
made an impression upon Iran.
Fitzwater did not go that
far. He
gave most of the credit for the Iran-
ian about-face on the cease-fire res-
olution
to the diplomatic efforts
of
U.N.
Secretary
General
Perez
de
Cuellar. The White House
spokes-
man said the United States was will-
ing to help
in the process of trans-
fering that cease-fire into reality but
didn't want to do anything that would
get in the way of the U.N. efforts to
end the war. "We
don’t want
any-
thing to hurt the process,” Fitzwater
said.
".
.
. The
U.N.
has
the
lead
here, and
I must say that we com-
pliment Mr. de Cuellar
for
his role
and urge him Godspeed.”
In a prepared statement Fitzwa-
ter said he welcomed Iran’s formal
acceptance of U.N. Security Council
Resolution
598,
which
calls
for
a
cease-fire,
verification of it by the
United Nations and repatriation of
prisoners of war.
. "As Vice President Bush empha-
sized
to
the
Security Council
last
week,
the United States has long
sought a just, negotiated settlement
of
this
tragic
conflict,"
Fitzwater
said.
"Intensive
efforts
have been
undertaken
by
the
administration
over the the
past year
to further
this
objective. The
United
States
will continue to do
all
it can,
indi-
vidually
and
in
cooperation
with
like-minded
governments and
the
United Nations, to hasten a durable
peace between Iraq and Iran, and to
enhance the stability and security of
the gulf region.”
[In Atlanta, Michael
S. Dukakis,
the
prospective
Democratic
pres-
idential
nominee,
welcomed
the
Iranian
cease-fire
announcement,
wire services reported.
["With
all Americans,
I hope and
pray that this conflict can come to a
rapid close.
I urge both Iran and Iraq
to support a swift and complete im-
plementation
of
all aspects of U.N.
Resolution 598,” the Massachusetts
governor said in a statement.)
Oakley said three main obstacles
blocked improved
U.S.-Iranian
re-
lations and
the reestablishment of
diplomatic
ties severed during the
1980-81
crisis over Iran's occupa-
tion of the
U.S. embassy
in Teh-
ran— the continuation
of the war,
the
Iranian
role
in
the holding
of
American hostages in Lebanon and
its continuing support for terrorism
and violence.
"Clearly,
if
the
implementation
can proceed of the
[U.N.]
resolu-
tion,
if the war can end, we’ll all be
in
a
situation where
think
we’ll
have to look at it [reestablishing re-
lations],” she said,
Arab World Pleased
By Iranian Decision
From News Services
Iran’s announcement that it is ac-
cepting a U.N.
call for a cease-fire
in
the
Persian Gulf war was wel-
comed
yesterday
by
the
Arab
world, but Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres cautioned that an end
to
the
fighting
could
pose
a new
threat to Israel.
Peres, speaking
to
reporters
in
Jerusalem,
said a cease-fire might
change .military
.. balances
in
the
Middle East. He said that he did not
necessarily
expect
aggression
against Israel but that Iran and Iraq
would have to decide whether they
would
rebuild
their
countries
or
would
“compete
for
prestige”
by
menacing Israel.
In London, Massoud Rajavi, leader
of
the
Iranian
Mujaheddin-e-Khalq
rebel group, said the the regime of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "is ad-
mitting to the complete defeat of its
strategy” and is "on the verge of to-
tal collapse,” Reuter reported.
Jordan
and
Egypt,
which
have
strongly backed
Iraq, commended
Tehran, as did Saudi Arabia, which
broke diplomatic relations with Iran
in April.
The
official KUNA news agency
in Kuwait, whose shipping has been
drawn into the hostilities, noted the
announcement
came
after
“signs
pointing
to
a
division
within
the
Iranian
leadership” on whether
to
pursue the war.
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«?«***
•
PeUetreau
Is Cafe#
lomat
Point Man for PLO
Knows Mideast
By Patrick E. Tyler
Washington Post Foreign Service
CAIRO, Dec, 15—Robert H.
Pelletreau Jr,, the U.S. diplomat
tapped by
the Reagan admin
istration to open a dialogue with
the Palestine Liberation Organ
ization, is a veteran of both the
State and Defense departments
who has spent most of his ca
reer in the Middle East.
Described by associates as
a
cautious
professional
with
at
intimate
understanding
of
the
Arab-Israeli
dispute
and
the
principal
political actors
in the
region,
Pelletreau
is expectec
to
conduct
the
U.S.-PLO
dia-
logue
in
constant
consultatior
with Washington.
His
selection
for
this
high
profile diplomatic task comes at
a time when Pelletreau, 53,
is
widely
reported
to
be
arnon*
those
senior
Foreign
Service
officials under consideration foi
the post of assistant secretary
of state for Middle Eastern
af-
fairs in the Bush administration
The
post
is
currently
held
bj
Richard Murphy.
Pelletreau, named ambassa
dor to Tunisia
in March 1987
,spent most of his time in Wash
* ington during 'the The Reagai
ROBERT H. PELLETREAU JR,
.
.
. U.S. ambassador to Tunisia
administration. He served as a
deputy
assistant
1 secretary
of
defense
for Near Eastern and
South Asian affairs twice and as
deputy
assistant
secretary
of
state for the same area.
He served as ambassador to
Bahrain from 1979-80. During
his
Foreign
Service
career,
which began in 1962, Pelletreau
has served in U.S. embassies in
Algeria,
Morocco,
Mauritania,
Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
[Colleagues
say
he
enjoys^
telling about
the time he was
held hostage by Palestinian ter-
rorists for several hours in 1970
as
a
junior
political
officer
in
Amman,
Jordan,
and
walking
away from his captors, The As-
sociated Press reported. As Pel-
letreau has told the story to col-
leagues, he was kidnaped on the
streets of Amman by Popular
Front guerrillas and taken with
other hostages to a news con-
ference
at
a downtown
hotel.
Noting
his
capftorsV
attention
was diverted, Pelletreau edged
in among
the
journalists
then
slipped out and walked away, a
U.S. diplomat said.]
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
Call From UiS.Enyoy
.
Opens Contact.With PLO
By Patrick E. Tyler
Washington Post Foreign Service
CAIRO, Dec. 15—The U.S. am-
bassador to Tunisia, Robert H. Pel-
letreau Jr., today telephoned a sen-
ior PLO
official
in the
first
official
contact
with
Palestine
Liberation
Organization leaders in 13 years.
Pelletreau
reportedly
asked
to
meet Saturday with two members
of the PLO’s 15-member executive
committee,
and
the
meeting was
arranged with the assistance of the
Tunisian government. PLO
official
Khalid Hassan said from Tunis in a
telephone interview that he had no
details on the agenda for the
first
meeting, but he added:
“It’s good.
It’s the opening.”
Hassan
said
the
meeting
had
been requested by Pelletreau
in
a
telephone
call
to PLO
offices
at
midday
in Tunis. A U.S. Embassy
official in Tunis, Adnan Siddiqi, con-
firmed
that
Pelletreau
had made
telephone contact with the PLO but
could not confirm that a time had
been set for the first meeting.
Pelletreau
was
designated
by
Secretary of State George P. Shultz
as the sole point of contact between
the
guerrilla organization and
the
U.S.
government,
which
banned
contacts with the PLO
in 1975
at
Israel’s request. The ban was lifted
Wednesday
after PLO
Chairman
Yasser Arafat used the most explic-
it language
to date
in renouncing
terrorism
and
in
recognizing
Is-
rael’s right to exist.
Hassan
identified the PLO
off!
cials who will attend the first meet-
ing as Abdullah Hourani and YasseiJ
Abed
Rabbo.
The
meeting
wa:
scheduled
to
take
, place
at
Saad;
Palace, the Tunisian government';
official guest house, in the present
of Tunisian Foreign Ministry
off!
cials. The PLO’s ambassador to Tu
nisia and the deputy director of th<
PLO’s
political
department
wer
also expected to attend the meet
ing, Hassan said.
The
first" U.S.-PLO
contacts
i
more than a decade took place ami
strong expressions of relief and sat
isfaction that the Reagan adminu
-
tration
in
its
final
days
had
re-
sponded
to urgent Arab
pleas
t)
support the apparent trend towar
i
moderation in the PLO.
Tho decision also has been m( t
community
in a
clear, courageous
and constructive way.”
Mubarak added, “Both King Hus-
>em and I are happy with the U.S.
iecision.”, Mubarak,
, who
s^id
he
conferred with Arafat by telephone
;onight, said, “We all want to move
forward
,and
convene
an
interna-
tional [peace]
conference, but
[Is-
raeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Sha-
mir does not want to go forward—
but we must.”
The PLO’s Hassan said that the
U.S.-PLO
dialogue
will
embolden
political constituencies inside Israel
who want to negotiate with a non-
threatening PLO leadership.
“The
people
who
have
been
speaking softly for peace now will
speak loudly,” Hassan said.
The Soviet Union moved quickly
to
capitalize on the American de-
cision, urging that an international
peace
conference
be
convened
quickly, as did the U.N. General As-
sembly still meeting in Geneva. The
debate
on
Palestine
was
hastily
moved there from New York after
Shultz denied Atafat a visa to enter
the United States.
“The Soviet Union stands for an
immediate
start
of
preparatory
work within the United Nations Se-
curity Council aiming at convening
of
the
international
conference,
Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir
Petrovsky
said
in
a statement
is-
sued in Geneva.
Petrovsky, in language obviously
targeted at Israel, added, “We con-
sider that the process of normaliza-
tion of relations [with Israel] should
start the same day as the work for
the international conference starts.”
Israel has .been seeking a renewal
of diplomatic relations with the So-
viet Union, broken after the 1967
Arab-Israeli war,
to
facilitate
the
emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel.
Arafat was in East Germany to-
day, from where he conferred with
Mubarak by telephone after a round
of
talks with East German leader
Erich
Honecker. The
joint
state-
ment. issued
after
their
meeting
echoed the Soviet call for prepara-
tory work for a peace conference.
“Given the support
of the great
majority of states for the convening
of
an
international
Middle
East
peace conference,
it is now time to
tackle concrete preparatory steps,”
the
East
German
news
agency
nnntpH
two leaders as saving.
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The Washington Post
jLfLB£-
Shiite L
s ior Hosts.
Fadlallah Sees Humanitarian Gesture as Politically Beneficial to Iran’s Leadership
By Nora Boustany
Special to The Washington Post
BEIRUT, July 24—Mohammed Hussein Fad-
' lallah, a spiritual guide of Lebanon’s Shiite Mos-
lem fundamentalists, made a plea today for the
release of foreign hostages held here
in a dis-
course on the merits of humanitarian politics.
Urging Iran to capitalize on the political ben-
efits of a humanitarian approach to the hostages’
plight, the Shiite cleric pressed for a "happy end-
ing" to their ordeal. His plea came one week af-
ter
Iran’s
unconditional acceptance
of a U.N.,
Security
Council
resolution
to end
the
eightT|
year-old Persian Gulf war.
The religous leader made his appeal in a speech
marking the beginning of IpkLAdha, the feast of
sacrifice marking the end of the pilgrimage season
to Islam’s
holiest shrines
in Mecca and Medina.
Fadlallah devoted much of his sermon to the for-
eign captives, whose “pain in detention had been
prolonged," he said, for political effect.
In an interview before the sermon, Fadlallah
said that the liberation of western and other cap-
tives held by Iranian-linked groups
in Lebanon
had now become an “inevitable step that has to
be activated, but how, when or where is the big
question.”
He explained that the settlement of the hostage
issue would only be a “minor item and not a big
headline
in the overall
political climate between
the United States and Iran in the wake of Tehran’s
decision to accept U.N. Resolution 598.”
Hassan
Sabra,
editor
of
the magazine Ash
Shiraa, which broke the U.S. arms-for-hostages
scandal in November 1986, said the freedom of
foreign hostages, especially American ones, was
a “foregone conclusion,” because a much wider
U.S.-Iranian understanding involving major
re-
gional interests was now in the making.
Shiite
specialists
in
Lebanon
argued
that,
though. the tune- had come for such a move,
it
[ -may not happen untm after the U.S. presidential
election in November.
.
“Wf> hplipyp that-Afnerica has complicated the
issue of kidnap victims for its own political cal-
culations,
exploiting
humanitarian
slogans
for
political motives,” Fadlallah charged today. We
feel pain in this feast for all those detained inno-
cents,
if they are innocent, because the matter
has a humanitarian dimension.”
In comments on the future outline for ties be-
tween the United States and Iran, Fadlallah, who
is well-versed in Iranian politics, said in the inter-
view that the resumption of relations “would not
be a big problem.” The
cleric noted
that
if the
United States agreed
to
settle pending
bilateral
questions with Iran, and
if Washington could per-
suade Tehran that
it will not work against Iran s
interests, a rapprochement would be natural.
A western diplomat here close to American
thinking said that “if Iran wanted to be pragmatic
and capitalize on the mood of the world commu-
nity, it would move things forward by taking the
initiative and releasing the hostages.”
While pointing out that Washington would make
no deals
to win freedom
for the nine American
hostages
in Lebanon, the
Beirut-based diplomat
said: “Iran can open a window toward the United
States by freeing hostages in Lebanon as a gesture
of good will and with no strings attached.”
The
cleric, renowned
as an
Islamic
scholar,
prides himself on the fact that his political convic-
tions and judgment have always coincided with
those of Iranian parliament speaker Hojatoleslam
Ali Akbar HashemTRafsanjani, the commander in
chief of Iranian 'military-forces who announced
Tehran’s acceptance of Resolution 59S.
Fadlallah praised Iran’s decision to abide by the
resolution
as
“wise,
courageous
and
realistic.”
Hinting that perhaps the health of Iran’s religious
leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was failing,
Fadlallah observed that the “the decision to accept
the U.N. resolution was all the more stronger dur-
ing the life of Khomeini than after it.”
Fadlallah said that
if Iran’s process of opening
up
again
to
the
international community
nad
been “delayed until after Khomeini’s lifetime, the
pressures
and
isolation would
be
great.” and
there would be a potential for unrest among the
Iranian people.”
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CPYRGHT
Hostage hopes
delude in the Iran-Iraq
£e talks the release of
^Americans and nine
i
|V Western hostages
J by Iran’s surrogates
ebanon.
J\e hostages were not
|uded in the United Na-
resolution laying the
bundwork for the peace
rks.
.
:
The U.N. chief has al-
iady raised the hostage
;ue with Iranian foreign
ister Ali Akbar Velyati
id given the issue visibil-
by meeting with the
De Cuellar
f ity by meeting with the
Hosta9a deals
wife of captive U.S. Lt. Col. William Higgins.
h
-3
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