Official Says Meese Vows to Help Canada in Arms Sale Investigation

The U.S. attorney general promised Monday to share all available details on Canadian middlemen connected to the sale of U.S. arms to Iran, his Canadian counterpart said Monday.

Ray Hnatyshyn told Parliament that Edwin Meese III gave the assurance in a telephone conversation. Canada had sent a protest note to the State Department on Friday complaining about being kept in the dark.

Hnatyshyn said Meese had confirmed that Toronto businessmen Donald Fraser and Walter E. Miller are the two Canadians believed involved in the controversial arms sale.

They are associates of Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and are reported to have helped finance at least part of the arms transactions but to have lost $10 million when the Americans halted shipments and the Iranians held up payments.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government announced Friday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would investigate a possible violation of Canadian law. Hnatyshyn said there would be no government inquiry before police findings were known.

Canada prohibits the sale of military equipment to Iran. Police may also look for tax or banking violations, but government officials said that so far there was no evidence of illegal activity.

“Mr. Meese has indicated that . . . the Department of Justice is quite prepared to cooperate with our officials and the (police) with respect to investigating whether any Canadian law has been broken,” Hnatyshyn told the House of Commons.

Miller, 55, is a real estate dealer who lives outside Toronto and the Canadian press describes Fraser as a 42-year-old accountant based in Monaco.