WEINBERGER CALLS PRESIDENT'S ATTEMPT TO CHANGE IRAN'S POLICIES 'WELL JUSTIFIED'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504530014-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: November 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504530014-3
WASHINGTON POST
20 November 1986
Weinberger Calls President's Attempt
To Change Iran's Policies `Well Justified'
By Molly Moore
Washington Pail Staff Writer
Shultz has publicly repeated his opposition to
Reagan's covert plan in recent days. Weinber-
ger, however, chose to avoid the issue until he
addressed reporters at a briefing yesterday in
Charleston, W.Va., where he spoke at a military
computer technology seminar.
Asked how the Reagan administration could
espouse a tough policy on terrorism while se-
cretly dealing with Iran, which has supported
terrorism, Weinberger said, "We are obviously
hoping that there will be a different group of peo-
ple or a group of people with different ideas ...
so that the policy would change.
"We don't have any interest whatever in keep-
ing the policy of a country terroristic," he said.
"It is certainly understandable that the pres-
ident would want to do what he could to try to
change-those policies," he said. "Now if that
doesn't succeed, why then, obviously, we'll not
pursue it."
Weinberger said he learned of the Iranian
arms deal "somewhere at the beginning of this
year" and discussed it with the president "when
the proposal was made and later."
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said
yesterday that President Reagan's efforts to
change the policies of the Iranian government
were "well justified," distancing himself from
Secretary of State George P. Shultz's outspoken
criticism of Reagan's program of arms shipments
to Tehran.
Weinberger, asked if he endorsed the presi-
dent's actions, replied, "What we've been talking
[about] right along is an attempt to change the
policies of Iran, which we are all agreed have
been extremely destructive in every way. Any
attempt to try to change those policies, I think,
can be well justified."
Both Weinberger and Shultz opposed Reagan's
secret diplomatic overtures to Tehran when they
discussed the plan with the president last Janu-
ary, according to sources.
In June 1985, according to informed sources
Wein_ berger scribbled "This is absurd" on a top-
secret Central Intelligence Agency memoran-
um recommen mg a e ni e a es ease
its worldwide arms embargo against Iran and en-
coura a some allies to sell selecte military
equipment to Tehran to cultivate closer ties with
cQrtaon overnment factions.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504530014-3