BRITISH NAME IRAN-U.S. GO-BETWEEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403780001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403780001-2
NEW YORK TIMES
20 November 1986
British Name Iran-U.S.
By JOSEPH LELYVELD
9pec14I to The New York Tames
LONDON. Nov. 19 - A British televi-
sion documentary, scheduled o be
broadcast here Thursday, will name an
Iranian businessman as a likely go-be-
tween in the secret diplonacy between
the Reagan Administration and the To.
heran authorities !arty this year.
The businessman, Cyrus Hashemi,
died suddenly in a prtvate+t ondon hos-
pital in July of what was d!sgnosed as
rare form of cancer.
At the time of his death, his brother
here suggested that Mr. Hashemi
might have been killed because of his
role as a Justice Department inform-
ant in a case of illegal arms smuggling
to Iran. The smuggling case resulted in
the indictment in New York of an Is-
raeli general and nine others accused
of being co-conspirators.
The Thames Television documen-
tary, which was shown in a preview
here today, bases its contention that
Mr. Hasheml was functioning as an Ad-
ministration intermediary on sources
it does not identity and on an interview
with Elliott L. Richardson. the former
Attorney General who is described as
having acted as Mr. Hashemi's lawyer.
C.I.A. Contact Reported
Speaking to viewers at the preview,
the reporter responsible for the pro-
gram, Julian Manyon, quoted Mr. Rich-
ardson as having said that he had re-
ferred Mr. Hashemi to a contact in the
Central Intelligence Agency early this
year. According to the reporter, it was
not Mr. Richardson but the unidentified
sources who confirmed that Mr.
Hashemi went to work for the agency.
Earlier this month, while attendrg
conference :n Peking, Mr. Richardson;
said he 'r ad :arranged contact between
Mr. Hasnemi ar.c \meriean officials 'r
an effort to win !-eedom for the l,os-1
cages in nor. But he denied any
connection c the secret American
arms deliveries to Iran.
The thesis of the television doucmen-
tary is that Mr. Hashemi was involved
both in an arms deal the Administra-
tion did not authorize - the one that
produced the indictments - and in set-
ting up the negotiations that led to the
arms shipments that were secretly au-
?horiied for Iran. The program asserts
that he played a similar intermediary's I
rcle in the secret negotiations that
preceded the release in 1981 of the hos-
tages, held at the American Embassy in
T?heran.
Quoting a Justice Department tape
of a bugged conversation between Mr.
Hashemi and an American lawyer
named Samuel Evans, who was also in-
dicted on the illegal arms traffic
charges, the program reports that inc
arms dealers learned late last year
that the Administration was changing
its line on arms sales to Iran. In the
conversation as it is represented on the
program. the lawyer says he has heard
that Vice President Bush approved the
change but that Secretary of State
George P. Shultz opposed it. The con-
versation is said to have been recorded
last December.
The source Mr. Evans cites for this
information was a reputed arms dealer
in the south of France named Jean de
la Rocque, also known as Rousseau,
who was later named as a co-conspira-
tor with him. Mr. Manyon said he had
talked to Mr. de Is Rocque, who had
confirmed the lawyer's account.
Mr. Evans, the Thames TV program
will point out, is a lawyer for Adnan
Khashoggi, a Saudi businessman and
arms dealer. Mr. Khashoggi was re-
ported by The Observer last Sunday in
a vaguely attributed article to have
met with high sraeli officials to ar-
range the arms shipments to Iran.
Meanwhile, Britain's Ministry of De-
fense confirmed reports that an official
Iranian delegation visited Landon for
talks with International Military Sales,
a state-owned company that handles
Go-Between
British arms exports. The Iranians
were said to oe seeking spare parts
under contracts that were signed in the
19'0's before the fall of the Shah.
Since December 1984, Britain nas en-
forced what the Foreign office he-
scribes as a restrictive policy on sales
or military equipment to Iran. it nas
never banned all such sales, but it nas
turned down applications for equip-
ment that could be described as ir-
thal" or that could be said to nave a
bearing on the balance of power be-
tween Iran and Iraq, enemies in the
nearly six-year-old Persian Gulf war.
Timothy Renton, a junior minister m
the Foreign Office, answered opposi-
tion cnarges that the Government cf
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
was as compromised on arms deals
with Iran as the Administration was by
saying the licenses turned down would
have been worth hundreds of millions
of pounds to British companies.
Tank Spare Parts Shipped
Nevertheless, about five months
after the restrictive policy went into ef-
fect, several planeloads to spare parts
for Chieftain tanks add Scuruiun ar-
mored vehicles were flown t-.,,n
Heathrow Airport to Teheran. A Far-
eign Office official explained that these
parts were unrelated to the weapons
systems of the tanks or armored cars;
requests for spare weapons parts were
turned down, the official said.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403780001-2