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: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
.
LONDON,
Aug. 1—A
leading
Anglican cleric who held talks with
Iranian
officials
in
Tehran
last
month
said
today
he. was hopeful
that three British hostages believed
to be held by pro-Iranian groups in
Lebanon could be free by the end of
this year.
Archbishop
David
Penman,
of
Melbourne, Australia, said that the
“relationship between
the
Iranian
authorities and
those
holding
the
hostages
is
at
best
tenuous,
but
they may be influential in the end.”
The
Iranians “say they have
in-
fluence, and they are willing to use
it, given certain preconditions and
the availability of those friends they
are willing to work through.”
Penman's comments came amid
increasing signs of a thaw between
Iran and the West and negotiations
CPYRGHT
reported.
The 13 Iranians were seized for
interrogation at the Christian port of
Jounieh as they were trying to travel
to
Cyprus
without
proper
docu-
ments, according to security sources
quoted
by
Boustany.
The
Iranian
Embassy
in
Beirut
has
remained
tight-lipped about the 13 and has not
claimed them as missing.
Britain and
other
nations
with
hostages in Lebanon, including the
United States, hope that tlie appar-
ent calming of tensions in the Per-
sian Gulf region could lead to the
release of at least 23 western cap-
tives in Lebanon.
locate three Iranians and their Leb
anese driver who disappeared near
the Christian Lebanese town of Ba-
troun in July 1982.
In addition to Penman's
visit to
Tehran, Runcie. said today that the
Rt. Rev. John" Browri; bishop in Cy-
prus and the Persian Gulf, traveled
to Beirut last week at his behest to
inquire about the missing Iranians.
Brown
said
here
tonight
he was
“pretty hopeful” of an early break-
through in the overall hostage
sit-
uation.
Lebanese clerics told Brown they
would check
into
the
fate
of the
three Iranians and their driver, but
it
is widely assumed
in the
diplo-
matic
community
in
Beirut
that
they are dead, Boustany reported.
Christian security sources in Beirut
j
have reported their deaths in 1984
j
or 1985
at' the hands of the Leba-
nese Forces when they were com-
I
manded
by
rebel
Elie
Hobeika,
Boustany added, but western
dip-
lomats have said they cannot inde-
pendently confirm this.
Penman an Arabic speaker who
worked for four years in Beirut, told
reporters in Cambridge today that
he was “encouraged” by indications
from
Prime
.Minister
Margaret
j
Thatcher that “she sees .the climate
changing” in Iran.
“I think this isjhe best opportunity
j
we've had for years to deepen our
links and to plan for a more positive
and
constructive
future,”
Penman
said. “I would not be surprised if Ter-
ry Waite and
the
others were, re-
leased before the end of the year.”
at the United Nations in New York
for a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war.
In
Beirut,
Lebanese
Christian
militia
officials
declined comment
on the case of 13 Iranian nationals
they reportedly have detained since
May and on any prospects
for
a
swap
of the 13
for western
hos-
tages held in Lebanon, Washington
Post correspondent Nora-Boustany
The British hostages mcItide;:Ter-
?
ry Waite; -fte
of Canter-
bury's ^special, envoy,
. who
disap-
peared
;mdnthst- ago'
in
. Beirut
whil^on a^ehuixh.missiomto nego-
tiate the, release oFofher captives.£t
Archbishop of Canterbury Robert
Runcie; has repeatedly appealed to
Tehran for help in securing the re-
lease of Waite and others. On sev-
eral occasions, Iran has responded
with an appeal to Runcie
to help
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j^. w
U.N. Team Goes to Gulf War Fmnf
TEHRAN—A small group of U.N. military
observers left for the war front to prepare for
the U.N. peace-keeping force that will monitor
a cease-fire in the war between Iran and Iraq.
Military and diplomatic sources in Iran re-
fused to speculate on how the observers would
react
if Iraqi-backed People’s Mujaheddin dis-
sidents ignored the cease-fire. The Iranian dis-
sidents, who said they would continue to wage
war within Iran, have an army estimated at
30,000 based in Iraq.
Meanwhile,
a
government-run newspaper
I here said in an edjtqriaLJMTran win “spare
CPYRGHT
CRYBGHT
hostages held^Lebanon!
6 freedom
i
j
C-
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U.N. Secretary General Says Talks to Begin Five Days After Truce
UNITED PftESS INTERNATIONAE
.
U.N. Secretary General Perez de Cuellar announces Persian Gulf war truce date.
By Patrick E. Tyler
Washington Post Foreign Service
UNITED NATIONS,
Aug. 8—
j
Secretary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar, culminating two weeks of
|
intense negotiations
to end the
8-
year-old
Persian
Gulf
war,
an-
nounced
today
that
Iran and
Iraq
have accepted a cease-fire to begin
Aug.
and
will
open
talks
five
days
later
in
Geneva
to
resolve
terms of a final peace agreement.
The ambassadors of the two bel-
ligerent nations v
*re summoned to
the horseshoe-shaped
table
of the
Security Council, where they were
called upon "to observe a cease-fire
and
to discontinue
all
military ac-
tivities on
land,
at sea and
in the
air” as of dawn on Aug. 20.
The
announcement
came
one
year and 19 days after the council
unanimously passed Resolution 598
,
to end the longest conventional war
of
this century—which
has
left
a*
death toll estimated at more than 1
million, some them the victims of
the
first
chemical
warfare
since
World War I.
The secretary general, who made
the announcement in a meeting pre-
sided
over
by
Security
Council
President Luye Li of China, told the
representatives
of
Iran
and
Iraq
that "the restoration of peace
will
bring far greater victory to the peo-
ple of both countries than war.” The
cease-fire
call was greeted by ap-
plause
from
diplomats
and
U.N.
staff assembled for the open session
of the council.
Iran's
ambassador,
Mohammed
Jaafar
Mahallat i, and
I raq's
IsmatT
Kittani
took~seats
feet
apart
across the open gap of the lower
end of the table just before 4 p.m.
They never exchanged looks during
the
carefully
scripted
nine-minute
ceremony.
Kittani and Iran’s foreign minis-
ter,
Ali
Akbar
Velayati,
said
in
statements
later
that
their
coun-
tries would immediately cease hos-
tilities. Asked when
peace
would
begin,
Kittani
said,
"It begins
to-
day ”
In a
letter to Perez de Cuellar,
_VeIayati said, "I wish to inform you
that the government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran is prepared to re-’
frain from
all
military
actions on
land, at sea, and in the air, starting
today.”
'
The secretary general said
in a
report
to
the
council
that he has
assembled
a
350-man
observer'
force from 24
nations
to be
dis-
patched
to
the
730-mile
frontier
next week.
Perez de Cuellar said he did not
know how soon
the tens of thou-
sands of prisoners
of war held by
both sidesrmght begin goingjiome"
See GULF, A16,CoLI
T
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
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Appr
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ovo^’^^r^GfGasc 2000/00/00
. ClA-RL)H9b-UU /
SoQQ
•ay? of Word Juggling
roduced Formula
ARAFAT, From A1
. The Swedish Foreign Minis-
lad communicated to Washing-
lhe main points of what Arafat
jided to say and had been told
would
suffice
for a change
in
policy toward the FLO, he said
interview.
it Arafat's speech, written and
ered
in Arabic, enunciated the
ts
in
a
scattered manner and
out using precisely the agreed-
i language, Andersson said.
Vhen we analyzed
the
text, we
d everything
the American
ad-
stration wanted was in the text,
he had split
it up and he had not
the same
words,"
Andersson
ained.
“If the United States and
den make
an
agreement,
it
is
/ important to follow every word,
that is not the Arab way, and that
hat caused the troubles.”
us
a
result,
the
State
Depart-
it immediately rejected Arafat s
ech
as
insufficient
Tuesday
ht. PLO officials raged, and the
g-nurtured agreement appeared
denly to have fallen through.
That disappointment was the be-
ning
of
a
frantic 24
hours
for
dersson as well as Anders Bjur-
•
and
Mathias
Mossberg,
two
es assigned to work fulltime on
wnoting
U.S.-PLO
contacts,
ey operated on the premise that
afat was making a good-faith
ef-
t to meet U.S. demands, but they
dized that moire clarification was
cessary to overcome mistrust
in
ashington, Andersson explained.
“We
traveled
between
despair
d hope all through the day,” Bjur-
r said as he looked back on the
ggling.
Andersson
said
the
question
lickly became whether
it was pos-
)le to save the agreement by hav-
g
Arafat
make
his
declarations
;ain, this time in language and for-
ulas that would
satisfy Washing-
,n. Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel-
leguid
of Egypt, working
in
tan-
zn\ with Andersson, said he met
ith Arafat at 2 a.m. and again later
i the morning to persuade the Pal-
stinian leader to try again.
A fab, sources said Arafat resisted
t first, expressing fear that he was
einc asked to humiliate himself. Ac-
Bjurner
said,
a telephone
line was
kept open
to Washington
for
fre-
quent references back to the State
Department.
Proposed
language
went back and
forth on telephone
facsimile machines, Andersson said.
"It was like a tango, one step for-
ward, two back," Bjurner said.
The
Swedish
foreign
minister
met twice with
Arafat during
the
day
for
crucial
decisions.
Bjurner
said he and Mossberg met through-
out the day with top Arafat aides,
including
Bassam
Abu
Sharif,
a
spokesman and adviser; Abed Abdul
Rahman,
the
senior PLO
spokes-
man; Mahmoud Da r wish,
a prom-
inent Palestinian poet, and Eugene
Makhlouf, the PLO
representative
in Stockholm.
Bjurner declined to say whom he
spoke with in the telephone conver-
sations with Washington. But a Pal-
estinian
official told reporters that
Assistant Secretary of State
Rich-
ard Murphy conducted most of the
negotiations at the Washington end
with
Shultz's
personal
assistant
Charles
Hill, coming on the line
al
one point.
,
Andersson,
meanwhile,
left
thd
bargaining to make what turned ouj
to be a key speech before the Gen
eral
Assembly.
Andersson’s
ad
dress,
ostensibly Sweden’s norma
speech on the Palestinian question
also
contained
a
clear
statemen
that,
in Sweden’s view, Arafat ha
i
met
all
of
Washington’s
require^
merits for dialogue in his speech.
"This can, in our view, not be mi
understood,
not even
by
the
mo;
suspicious,” he declared
in an obv
ous
allusion
to
the
State
Depar
merit. Andersson said that, as he ui
derstood the words, Arafat s speec
\
had made
it dear that:
m The PLO
is prepared to negotiaf
with Israel within the framework
an
international conference
a
cor
prehensive peace settlement of t|
Arab-lsraeli
conflict on
the basis 1
U.N. resolutions 242 and 338.
The PLO undertakes to respc i
the right of Israel to exist
in pea ±
within secure and
recognized
b(
ij-
ders.
The PLO condemns terrorism
all
its forms, including state tcrrrl
ism.
These were
the main
points
pi n Chairman Yasser Arafat is welcomed by East German leader Erich
Honecker as be arrives in East Berlin from United Nations sess.on m Geneva.
reading the statement on terrorism,
in which he replaced the word “con-
demn" with the word "renounce."
Andersson said the shift of verb
and
expansion
of
the
terrorisn
statement to make it more incfusiv<
was an example of the changes thai
helped persuade Washington.
In his speech, Arafat said, “l con
demn terrorism in all
its forms ”
It
the
news
conference,
he
said,
repeat for the record that we totalb
and absolutely renounce all forms o
terrorism,
including
individua
!
group and state terrorism.”
Other
shifts
appeared
similar!
slight.
On- recognition
of
Israel’
right
to
exist,
for
example,
th
change seemed to be association
<
the word "right" more closely wit
Israel's name rather than putting
STEN ANDERSSON
near the end of tlie same sentence
played key mediating role
Arafat said
in his U.N. speech,
the
English-language
version
su-
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