France to Repay Some of $1 Billion Loan From Iran

France and Iran reached agreement Wednesday on paying back some of the $1 billion French officials borrowed 12 years ago, a move that may help clear the way for the release of French hostages in Lebanon.

The authoritative Le Monde newspaper, meanwhile, said a truce has been arranged--with Syrian and Algerian aid--between France and a terrorist group to stop a series of bombings in Paris that last month killed 10 people and wounded more than 160.

Jean-Bernard Raimond, minister for external relations, denied that report in a television interview Wednesday night.

Accord Follows Talks

The French Foreign Ministry announced that a repayment agreement with Iran has been reached after talks that began Monday between French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur and an Iranian delegation led by Iran’s vice minister for finance, Mehdi Navab.

A spokesman said the accord has been initialed but still needs to be signed by senior officials of the two nations. He said a date for the signing has not yet been decided.

Iran has been seeking repayment of the $1 billion loan to France’s Atomic Energy Commission that was granted by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1974 for participation in Eurodif, a European uranium-enrichment plant built in France.

Tehran also wants interest lost on the $1 billion, which it estimates at between $5 million and $7 million.

France’s Counterclaim

France has not contested that it owes the money to Iran. But it claims Iran owes it $14 billion--$9 billion in revenue lost by Iran’s refusal to accept its portion of enriched uranium and $5 billion lost in the breaking of an agreement with the French company Framatome for the construction of a nuclear plant in Iran.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to specify how much France plans to repay Iran, but he said the accord represents a new text of a tentative agreement reached last July between the two nations. Under that agreement, France would pay back $330 million as a first installment.

The spokesman said the new accord addresses several “technical difficulties” that Iran had with the July agreement.

The settling of the Eurodif dispute could ultimately lead to a breakthrough in the case of eight French hostages held captive in Lebanon by pro-Iranian militiamen, who have listed the repayment of the loan as one of the demands for their release.

Connection Denied

The French government and Iran have both denied any connection between repayment of the loan and freedom for the hostages.

But Iranian officials have said an easing of tensions between the two countries would facilitate cooperation and help resolve problems, including those that led to the capture of the hostages.

France has said it would not negotiate with terrorists over the fate of the hostages or for the release of three convicted terrorists in French jails, whose freedom was demanded by terrorists who detonated five bombs in Paris in 10 days last month.

But Le Monde reported that a truce has been arranged with the brothers of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the reputed leader of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Faction, who is one of the three convicts whose release from prison has been sought.

Valid Until February

Le Monde said the truce would be valid until next February, when Abdallah, now serving a four-year term for possession of arms and explosives, is to go on trial on charges of involvement in the 1982 assassinations of a U.S. military attache and an Israeli diplomat.

“The message: If there are no terrorist attacks until February, 1987, the criminal court trial of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah could turn in his advantage,” Le Monde said.

The newspaper said Syrian intelligence agents as well as the Algerian director of military security served as intermediaries in the truce.

Separately, Raimond revealed that France has blocked the delivery of arms to Syria purchased under contracts signed in 1982 and 1984. Premier Jacques Chirac’s government had come under fire for reportedly discussing an arms sale to Syria at a time when Britain has severed relations with Damascus for its reported involvement in a terrorist plot to blow up an Israeli airliner departing from London.

Assures National Assembly

Raimond made the comment in response to questions in the National Assembly. He assured the deputies that recent authorization requests for arms sales to Syria have been refused.

Further, he said, deliveries on “important contracts concluded in 1982 and particularly in 1984 . . . remain blocked.”

The contracts include sale of helicopter gunships and missiles, he said, without providing details on the deliveries yet to be made.