Not Giving Up on 7 Hostages, State Dept. Says

The Aministration is “making every effort to press to the maximum all opportunities” for the release of seven American hostages in Lebanon, the State Department said today.

“We are in touch with a number of parties in the region. That obviously includes Syria, which has a major role to play in Lebanon,” department spokesman Charles Redman told reporters.

Redman spoke after complaints from relatives of the seven Americans about efforts to free the Americans, who were kidnaped one by one in Lebanon as long ago as March, 1984.

“We’re asking the Administration to stop being spectators in this issue and become participants,” Peggy Say told a Capitol Hill news conference. She is the sister of Terry Anderson, an Associated Press correspondent who was abducted last March 16 by three gunmen in West Beirut.

‘Need for Confidentiality’

Redman said “every effort” is being made to keep family members “as fully informed as possible.” But, he said, “quiet diplomacy is the way to proceed, and there is obviously a certain need for confidentiality in these proceedings.”

Asked whether the Administration believes that the seven are still alive, Redman said, “We have no information to the effect that they are not alive, and all our efforts are based on that premise.”

The seven Americans were kidnaped before the June 14 hijacking of a TWA jetliner on a flight from Athens to Rome. Thirty-nine American TWA passengers and crew members were released in Beirut 17 days later.

The Reagan Administration failed in efforts to secure the release of the seven along with the TWA hostages.