British Stress They Still Won’t Give In to Terrorists

Britain responded Friday to President Reagan’s speech on Iran by stressing London’s refusal to negotiate with terrorists for hostages’ freedom and saying it has gradually reduced arms supplies to Iran.

The government did not directly criticize the speech in which Reagan confirmed that the United States had included arms supplies in a secret diplomatic initiative to Iran that has been going on for 18 months.

But the opposition Labor Party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Denis Healey, said Reagan’s speech was “stupefyingly incredible.”

Healey said Reagan had “broken ranks” with other Western countries by supplying arms at a time when Iran was known to be planning an offensive against Iraq in the six-year-old Persian Gulf War.

In his speech, Reagan said the weapons shipments “could easily fit into a single cargo plane” and would not affect the war’s outcome.

In Copenhagen, meanwhile, a spokesman for the Danish Sailor’s Union questioned Reagan’s assertion that Washington’s talks with Iran did not include an arms-for-hostages arrangement.

‘If that is the case, then it is strange that each time an American hostage has been released from Lebanon, a Danish ship carrying American arms has arrived in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas from Eilat in Israel,” said Henrik Berlau, deputy chairman of the sailor’s union.

Last month, the union said it had evidence that Danish freighters had transported at least 3,600 tons of U.S. weapons from Israel to Iran.

Berlau said that in September, 1985, when the Rev. Benjamin Weir was released in Beirut, two Danish vessels had arrived in Bandar Abbas from Eilat packed with U.S. weapons.

He said another Danish freighter, the Else Th., had unloaded another cargo of U.S. weapons in July, 1985, when Father Lawrence M. Jenco was released by the Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) organization.

Another shipment of weapons aboard the freighter Morso coincided with the Nov. 2 release of David P. Jacobsen, Berlau told reporters.

“Now, Reagan can try and say that there weren’t any American arms on board. It just doesn’t hold water. We have witnesses. The crew, captains and not least statements to the crew from harbor authorities in Israel and Bandar Abbas,” the union leader said.

In the British foreign policy debate in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe said London does not preclude contacts with people who might help win freedom for hostages--a Briton and a man with dual Irish-British citizenship are missing in Lebanon--but will not make concessions to terrorists.

“This government will not do deals with terrorists for the release of hostages,” Howe said. “This is not an easy policy to follow. Sometimes it is agonizing, but it is right.”