Hostage Negotiator Denies Any Arms Sales Role

Anglican church envoy Terry Waite, who has helped to obtain the release of hostages in Iran, Libya and Lebanon, Tuesday denied any involvement in the sale of arms to Iran, alleged to have been made in return for the freedom of American hostages.

Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy to the Middle East, refused to comment on the contacts made during his many hostage mercy missions.

“The responsibility of a negotiator is to be in touch with a wide grouping of people,” he said in a statement. “At the moment, the interests of the hostages will not be served by specifying my contacts. My mission to release the hostages has always been based upon humanitarian grounds, and at no time have I ever had any dealings in arms or money.”

Waite added: “My mission has been, and will continue to be, independent of any government.”

Sources in Washington have said Waite may have met with Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, then a member of the White House National Security Council staff and now a key figure in the Iran arms scandal, on at least six occasions in 1985 and 1986.

The U.S. sources said that, if Waite had been meeting North over a period of two years, he must have been aware that other efforts were being made to free the hostages.

When Waite returned to London last month after helping to obtain the release of American hostage David P. Jacobsen in Beirut, he said he knew nothing about contacts between Iran and the United States aimed at obtaining freedom for American hostages held in Lebanon.