App oJeWrIll *A - XROO0401020006-9 It TAnk lieirut D.ela~u'd Apprc .fusal to Dispatch Envoy Cited U.S. Re By Caryle Murphy Washington Post Foreign Service- Bush Spurns DAMASCUS, Syria, April 19- Lebanese kidnappers said tonight in Beirut that they have postponed Captors' freeing an American hostage be- cause of the refusal by the Umited 'Dema States to dispatch a senior State n& Department official here to make final arrangements for the release. The statement by the Islamic By David Hoffman Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine Washington Post Staff Writer has at least temporarily halted the KEY LARGO, Fla, April freeing of one of three American 19-Presidmt Bush ;aid to- educators held hostage by the Iran. day he decided not to send ian-backed Lebanese group since Assistant Secretary of State January 1987. On Wednesday' the John H. Kelly to Damascus as kidnappers had announced that they requested by a pro-Iranian would release one American hos- group holding American hos- tage "within 48 hours." tages because '"the United Tonight's announcement, deliv- States does not knuckle under ered to Western and Arab news to demands", by such groups. organizations in Beirut, appeared to "The U.S. position is surprise senior Syrian government clear-we do not meet. de- officials here who had seemed con- mands," Bush said at a joint vinced that the release would take news conference with French place Friday. President Fr .ancois Mitter- . Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa, rand whom he met with here who conferred for more than an to discuss U.S.-European is- hour with U.S. Ambassador Edward sues. . . Djerijian tonight, said after the an- Although administration nouncement: "We hope this Amer- ials earlier in the day. bad ican hostage will be released either Offic on Saturday or Sunday." suggested that a message The message repeated the from the pro-Iranian group group's demand made Wednesday might lead to the release of an that John Kelly, the U.S. assistant 'American hostage held in Lebanon, Bush took a more secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, come to pessimistic tone 'after. the Damascus to complete arrange- group announ .ced it would ments for the hostage's release. postpone the release because "Kelly's failure to respond has so Kelly bad not been'sent. far frustrated the release, which . "We've been disappointed made us postpone this operation before, hopes, raised only to until the picture is cleared," the kid. h.ave them, dashed;by extes- nappers said. sive speculation,", Bush said, The Bush administration refused He said the United States is to dispatch Kelly to Damascus, say- "not talking to the hostage 'ing his presence here could be seea holders." as engaging in negotiations for the "So let me just. take this release of one of eight American opportunity to repeat what I hostages held by various Shiite said when I first became pres- Moslem fundamentalist groups in ident," Bush said. "Goodwill Lebanon. The United States has begets goodwill. And I link called for the unconditional freeing that to release of American of the hostages and said it will not hostages. We can't have nor- negotiate for their freedom. mal relations (with Iran] when The kidnappers did not say how hostages are helV Referring long Lbev wDuld t)ostt)oue- the hos- to both Iran and Libya, Bush See HOStAGES, A23, Col. 3 See MSIDENT, A23, CoL 4 1020006-9 Approved For Rplease 2000/08/08 CIA404"00040102ARR,$~m2q THE WASHINGM rOST 1990 A23 Release o e rican Hosta g--e--Postpo n-ed Ith.reat to attack jetliners and air- ports used in the transport of em- igrating Soviet Jews to Israel. "The organization serves this fi- nal warning ... on all those partic- ipating , in this matter, especially those countries offering transit fa- cifities,* the statement said. "All civilians should stay away from the airports, airlines and jetliners that will be the targets for operations mounted at times we deem ade- quate -It remained unclear whether to- night's postponement signals a tac- tical delay or final blow for the re- lease soon of an American hostage. If this is merely a delay, observers said, the kidnappers may be hoping to extract more rewards for com- plying with Syrian and Iranian re- quests to free the captiv6s. But if not, the captors may be asserting demands, such as Kelly's presence here, that they expect the United States to firmly reject in order to foil any further movement toward a resolution of the hostage issue. Both Syria, which has 40,000 troops in Lebanon, and Iran have indicated in recent weeks that they want to see the hostages freed. Iranian officials founded and contin- ue to -finance the Shiite Moslem fundamentalist groups in Lebanon that hold 17 Western hostages, in- cluding the Americans. Islamic Ji- had for the Liberation of Palestine is believed also to have close links with Syrian intelligence officials. In October 1988, the group re- leased Mithileswar Singh, an Indian who was kidnapped with the three Americans at the college. At the time, U.S. and Arab sources 8pid. Syria played the key role 'in 9 reign - his freedom. Syrian Fo I ister Charaa announced the rel HOSTAGL% From Al expressed hope that Syrian Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan "will head to Beirut to wrap up the issue Upon the arrival of Kelly in Damascus." Kenaan, Syria's military intelli- gence chief in Lebanon, has played a key role in past hostage releases in Beirut. The statement was accompanied by a photograph of Robert Polhill, one of the three Americans seized Jan. 24, 1987, from Beirut Univer- sity College by men masquerading as campus police. Wednesday's communique by Islamic Jiliad for the Liberation of Palestine was accompanied by a picture of Jesse Turner, implying that the 42-year-old mathematics professor would be'the American set free. The group also holds Alann Steen, a journalism professor who turns 51 Sunday. Polhill, 55, taught accounting at the college. The captors said Wednesday that they had decided to release a hos- tage in response to appeals from both Iranian and Syrian officials for a 'goodwill initiative in order to close the hostage file." But the group also indicated that it expects, to see the *goodwiir met in kind. "We are ready for either positive response or escalation, and the oth-' er party has to choose," the mes- sage said. It did not make clear, however, whether Kelly's presence in Damascus was an essential con- dition for the release. U.S. officials appear to have been unaware of a possible hostage re- lease this week. Dierldian was In Bonn Wednesday for a meeting with Kelly and other American envoys. The ambassador returned here late this afternoon and later met with Charaa at the Foreign Ministry. Afterward, Djeriiian said only, "We are in close contact with the Syrian government." Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine also repeated an earlier Bush Rejects Request From Pro-Iranian Group PRESIDENT, Fmin Al- of terror is terribly important if we are to have better relations there." U.S. officl* spid Syria had re- layed a message to Washington say- ing that a hostage might be re- leased, and Bush said "we are grate; ful to Syria for trying to play a con- structive role in what is going on." But a senior administration offi- cial4ii-Washingt6n said the Syrian message transmitted through dipo- matic channels did not mention Kel- ly or any condition for release of the hostage. "The Syrian government did not request that we send Kelly,* the official said. 'The hostage hold- ers did.* The statement by the pro- Iranian group, the Islamic Jibad for the liberation of Palestine, had said Kelly should come to Damasc "to us coordinate some final steps.' The U.S. official cited three ma- jor reasons why the administration rejected "at least for now" Kelly's participation in an arrangement for the release of a hostage. 'This was a demand from hostage- takers and to send. Kelly would clear- ly be part of meeting a demand," he said. "It would clearly to us and prob- ably to you [the media] be construed as negotiating with hostage-holders." Secondly, the official said, "the pres- ident feared that once Kelly got fto Damascus] there would, in fact, be further demands, not to say the whole world's attention on the hos- tage-situation. And we woWd be caught in that cycle." Finally, the of- ficial said, "We were extremely re- luctant to send him into such a dan- gerous situation. How would it look if he turned into another Terry Waite?" An envoy of Britain's Anglican church negotiating for the release of hostages, Waite was captured in 1987. Defending the decision not to send Kelly to Damascus, Bush and other officials noted the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Ed4vard Djerejian, was Or- dered to return to Damascus from Bonn in case a hostage was released, and that WAM'contacts with the Syrian foreign minister on the hos- tageissue. At the news conference here, Mit- terrand also defended France's ef- forts to gain the release last week of three French hostages-efforts that have been controversial because of the appearance that negotiations were held for their release. In Washington a State Department official confirmed that on Wednesday Syria had signalled an imminent hos- tage'release to,Us.' officials. "Syria let us know yesterday at about the same time the statement [from the pro-Iranian group].came out in Bei- rut that a. hostage was coming out," the official-said. 1t is nnt-surprising if it takes place that Syria would like to take credit.* In a related development yester day, a House panel brushed aside ad ministration objections and approved a non-binding.resolution condemning Iraq for'human rights abuses, includ ing torture and executions The res 7 olution by the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights cited Iraq's use of chemical weapous against its Kurdish minority in 1998 and persistent repression of all PQ_- litical opposition, among other, Vi__ Iation& Rep. Gus Ya Ar.- (D-Pa.) subcom- mittee chairman, said the State De- partment opposed the measure be-, cause it referred to Iraqi""consis- tent pattern of gross violatione,of human rights, language that in a binding resolution could trigger a cut-off of all U.S. aid to Iraq. Staff writers Nora Boustany and Ann Devroy in Washington contributed to this report. Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789RO004010'20006-9