SYRIA APPEARS TO BE SPOILER OF ACCORD BETWEEN U.S., IRAN ON HOSTAGES, ARMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302500008-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 6, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

6 November 1986
Syria Appears to Be Spoiler of Accord
Between U. S., Iran on Hostages, Arms
Q N PM - -
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302500008-7
hRTICLE APPEARED WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Yin :SSEF M. IBRAHIM
J And ROBERT S. GREENBERGER
Staff Reporters Of THE WALL STREET JOCRN AL
Syria, which often has blocked U.S.-
Mideast diplomacy, appears to be the pri-
mary spoiler of a delicate U.S.-Iranian un-
derstanding to release the remaining
American hostages in Lebanon in ex-
change for U.S. arms.
According to Arab diplomas U S Pov-
ernment and intelligence sources and Iran-
ian-affairs experts the deal had been se-
cret] in the makin since Ma y, when an
Iranian official former Foreign Minister
Ibrahim Yazd! visited the US.
The agreement moved closer to fruition
last week with the release of one hostage,
David Jacobsen, by his pro-Iranian captors
in Beirut. But the arrangement seems to
have been scuttled, at least temporarily.
by Syrian disclosure of a secret visit by a
Reagan envoy to Tehran sometime in Sep-
tember.
Embarrassment in U.S., Iran
The publicity has embarrassed the Iran-
ian and U.S. governments, angered U
S
.
.
.
Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia, and Similarly, in Iran, a substantial part of
placed the Reagan administration in an th
e government flh
ees tat even though that
embarrassing position with Western allies country's need for arms is acute, it
it had been urging to refrain from supply- shouldn't be satisfied at the price of deal-
ing weapons to Iran. The Syrian action ing with the U.S., still dubbed the "great
may have been provoked by White House Satan."
Chief of Staff Donald Regan's insistence I
nterviews withi
varous sources in the
e every effort to talk directly to the
Sunday that Syria played no part in Mr. U.S.. Western Europe and the Middle East Peomakple holding the hostages, instead of pos
Jacobsen's release. Syria repeatedly has suggest that part of th r turin
sought ways to underscore to the U.S. that standing was that the S. would an overlook g one way publicly about no negotia-
Damascus can't be excluded from a cen? the su 1 of vital U. U .S. wa h terrorists and then acting
tral role in Mideast events. pp y S. spare parts, partic y privately. We haven't exhaustto
ed
ularly for th I
e
always acted as a spoiler in they Mideast
whenever he's disregarded in any deal,"
said David Mizrahi, editor of MidEast Re-
port.
Things began to unravel Monday with
the startling revelation in a pro-Syrian Bei-
rut publication, Al Shiraa, that Robert
McFarlane, former national security ad-
viser to President Reagan. had visited Iran
secretly. On Tuesday, Iran's parliamen-
tary speaker confirmed the news, which he
characterized as a sign of "American
weakness." Although the U.S. officially
hasn't acknowledged the McFarlane visit,
top administration officials privately said
that it was a one-time diplomatic maneu-
ver.
The perception that the administration
is willing to strike an arms deal with Iran
has increased anxiety in Saudi Arabia and
other Persian Gulf states that already are
nervous about Iran's militant fundamental-
ism and its six-year-old war with Iraq.
Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. sought an
explanation yesterday from the assistant
secretary of state for Mideast affairs. Iraq,
which has been receiving U.S. arms, and
Saudi Arabia, which relies on U.S. security
guarantees, see an American willingness
to sell arms to their most feared adver-
on the international black market at exor.
bitant prices. The fall in oil prices since
December has slashed the country's hard
currency revenues, compounding the prob-
lem.
Since early spring, Iran has amassed
700,000 men for a major assault on Iraq,
but they are still in need of arms, ammuni-
tion and other support to s
t
i
us
a
n such a
large offensive.
"The Iranians have their backs to the
wall," said Paul Jabber, director of the
on
d
a
? ----?oc-
t,c
ominance or
Fore, n Relations. Mr. Jabber esti-
the Senate is likely to further erode Saudi mates Iranian foreign-currency reserves
confidence that the administration can se- have fallen to between $1 billion and $2 bil-
cure Congress's approval for arms sales to lion because of the oil price collapse and
Riyadh. that gold holdings are valued at an addi-
The top administration officials said tional $3 billion.
yesterday that the McFarlane trip doesn't Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz esti-
represent a change in the longstanding mated in a recent interview that the war
U.S. policy to deny arms to Iran. Sources costs Iran between $5 billion and $8 billion
say any U.S. arms or spare parts that a year, which he and other sources suggest
might have been part of an agreement is becoming increasingly difficult to sus-
would have come indirectly from E
t
m
a
urope
p
.
and Israel. 'Terrorism Pays'
Even so, there appears to resistance
th
o such a deal witin the administration. By attempting to talk with Iran, ana-
Secretary of State George Shultz, a long- lysts in Washington said, the administra-
time opponent of supplying arms to Iran, tion gives the impression of abandoning its
said on his way to Vienna yesterday: tough anti-terrorism stance. "The message
"That's what r -,oi;a.,o r -11 _ is. terrnrem
u ,auuc IlClln$,
it
" a Mideast expert at the Brookings Institu-
ti
raman air forces fleet of all avenues yet."
U.S. built jets purchased by the shah's The administration insists that it has a
regime. Iraqi sources say that Iraqi air- I consistent anti terrorism policy. A State
planes raiding economic and military tar- Department spokesman reiterated
yester
gets in Iran have met increa
d
'
se
intercep
-
tion from Iranian F-4s, presumably resup-
plied with spare parts, in the past two
months. Sources said the spare parts came
from Israel and South Korea via European
suppliers.
Encouragement in Iran
The sources say Mr. McFarlane's White
House-authorized trip to Tehran appar-
ently was encouraged by elements of the
Iranian government, including the s
e
k
p
a
an w
er
t
close ties
of parliament, Hojatolislam Hashemi Raf- to Syria. Britain broke diplomatic relations
sanjani, the regime's second-most senior I with Damascus.
official after the supreme leader, Ayatol London has urged other European na-
lah
ff Ruhollah he supine. tions to take similar steps. The appearance
The principal motivation of an American willingness to deal with
government of Iran to consider talks with
the U.S. is an acute need for cheaper arms
and ammunition, the sources said. Because
of the American-inspired weapons em-
bargo, Iran has been forced to buy arms
on. If these guys hold out long enough,
they get rewarded for their acts."
James Abourezk, a former U.S. senator
from South Dakota who met with Syrian
President Assad in August over the hos-
tage issue, said: "At this point I wo
ld
u
day, Wt
e do not negotiate with terroristc
Isis.
The analysts also warn that these
mixed signals couldn't come at a worse
time. European Common Market members I
are scheduled to meet next week to discuss
possible sanctions against Syria for its al-
leged involvement in an aborted plot to
blow up an El Al airliner. After a London
court convicted a Jordani
i
h
Iran. a known sponsor of terrorism, offers
a convenient excuse for several European
states not to take tough measures against
Syria.
I Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302500008-7
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302500008-7
Islamic Jihad, in a statement ac-
companying Jacobsen's release,
warned that "we hold the American
government fully responsible for the
consequences of any failure to take
advantage of this opportunity and
proceed with current approaches
that could lead, if continued, to a so-
lution of the hostages issue."
The references to "current ap-
proaches" suggested secret initia-
tives being undertaken by the Rea-
gan administration and coincided
with the first reports of McFar-
lane's purported mission to Iran.
Ash Shiraa, a pro-Syrian maga-
zine in Lebanon, reported in its lat-
est edition published Monday that
McFarlane visited Tehran in Sep-
tember and stayed at the Indepen-
dence hotel, formerly the Hilton.
According to the Iranian news
agency, Rafsanjani said McFarlane
.and his companions were confined
to a hotel for five days and then de-
ported. He said they had arrived,
disguised as crew members, aboard
a plane carrying military equipment
for Iran purchased from interna-
tional dealers.
"The envoys carried Irish pass-
ports with duplicates now being
kept by Iranian officials," Rafsanjani
was quoted as saying. He said the
Americans brought "a Bible signed
by Reagan and a cake" as tokens of
good will.
The cake, which Rafsanjani said
the Americans described as "a key
to open U.S.-Iran relations," was in
the shape of a key, he said, but was
eaten by hungry revolutionary
guards at the airport.
In his speech, Rafsanjani listed
Iran's conditions for the release of
French and American hostages as
follows:
"The Washington and Paris gov-
ernments should guarantee the re-
turn of Iranian assets, recognize the
rights of Lebanese Moslem people
and set free political prisoners in-
carcerated in Israel and other parts
of the world."
Rafsanjani, who is considered one
of the country's shrewdest politi-
cians and a key player in the suc-
cession fight, is believed to be one
of the leading figures advocating
more cooperative relations with
other countries, especially Saudi
Arabia.
Rafsanjani is backed by Iranian
President Ali Khamenei in his
views, but reportedly is opposed by
Montazeri and his followers, includ.
ing the arrested Hashemi.
In his speech yesterday, Rafsan-
jani said the prime minister of Japan
had sent a letter asking Iran to use
its influence to secure the release of
U.S. and French hostages.
Rafsanjani said he told Tokyo
that Iran would make efforts in that
direction if the United States
shipped weapons that were pur-
chased by the shah's government
but never delivered.
In 1979 the United States froze a
roughly $500 million Iranian fund to
purchase arms from the Pentagon.
Some Arab diplomats said they be-
lieved this money could also be a
factor in hostage negotiations.
If the reported McFarlane visits
to Tehran were linked to allowing
even indirect arms or spare parts
shipments to Iran, it would repre-
sent a reversal of what had been
Reagan administration policy.
The United States, throughout
the Reagan administration, has
maintained a publicly enunciated
policy of trying to force resolution
of the Iran-Iraq war by denying
both sides the weapons and other
materiel necessary for continued
fighting and thereby forcing them
into negotiations.
In pursuing this policy, the admin-
istration rhetorically has tilted to-
ward Iraq on several occasions, not-
ing Iraqi flexibility toward the idea of
negotiations and accusing Iran of
seeking to prolong the fighting. As a
result, the United States has been
following a policy of seeking to deny
Iran the means of continuing to wage
war by appealing both publicly and
privately to other nations not to sell
weapons to Iran.
That policy was given a particu-
larly high priority after George P.
Shultz became secretary of state in
1982.
According to the officials, it was
pressure from Shultz that caused
Israel to abandon the policy it appar-
ently had pursued in the early days of
the war of supplying some materi-
el-reportedly spare parts such as
airplane tires-to the Iranians.
Despite official Israeli denials,
the Israelis supposedly had been
doing this for three reasons: to keep
Iraq tied down militarily and unable
to take an active part in the Arab-
Israeli conflict, to earn some for-
eign exchange because Iran was
paying premium prices, and to pro-
tect the small remaining Jewish
population in Iran from reprisals.
However, the officials said, it has
been the American understanding
that the Israelis, deciding the effort
was not worth the risk of alienating
Shultz, abandoned its covert deal-
ings with Iran around 1983.
Washington Post staff writers
David Hoffman and John M.
Goshko and special correspondent
Peyman Pejman contributed to this
article.
a-
I Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302500008-7