Talks in ‘High Gear’ to Ensure Waite’s Safety

Intensive secret negotiations involving Syria, Iran and Lebanese militia leaders have begun to determine the fate of missing hostage negotiator Terry Waite and to ensure his safety, a senior militia official said Sunday.

“These hush-hush talks are in high gear,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The parties concerned are burning up the (telephone) wires trying to ensure Mr. Waite’s safety. Plenty of Syrian and Iranian emissaries are shuttling back and forth.”

In another Mideast development, an American reporter, Gerald F. Seib of the Wall Street Journal, was detained in Iran. (Details on Page 5.)

Waite, the personal emissary of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert A. K. Runcie, flew to Beirut on Jan. 12 on his fifth trip to Lebanon to win freedom for foreign hostages.

Talks With Islamic Jihad

The Anglican Church envoy has not been seen publicly since he left the Riviera Hotel in Muslim West Beirut on Jan. 20, presumably to negotiate with Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a pro-Iranian Shia Muslim faction that holds Americans Terry A. Anderson and Thomas Sutherland. Both men were abducted in 1985.

Various reports have said Waite may have been taken prisoner.

Iran is believed to wield influence with some of the groups in Lebanon that have claimed responsibility for abducting Western hostages. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose militia was in charge of Waite’s security, offered himself as a hostage Saturday to replace Waite if reports of his abduction proved true.

But the Church of England said Waite had left strict instructions forbidding any rescue mission, ransom payment or substitution of hostages if he was kidnaped.

Runcie, spiritual head of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, said Waite had written a letter “along the lines of things he has said to me several times about having no part in supporting any money being paid or any exchange being made, should anything happen to him.”

Diplomatic Contact

John Gray, the British ambassador in Lebanon, contacted Jumblatt to try to find out what had happened to Waite, the Foreign Office said Sunday. “He is talking to everyone who he thinks might be able to help,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Wife in Seclusion

Waite’s wife, Francis, has gone into seclusion. His cousin, John, said the family fears that persistent reports from Beirut that he has been kidnaped “have the awful ring of truth.” The 47-year-old negotiator has three daughters and a son.

In the face of all the fears, the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al Ittihad on Sunday quoted what it described as reliable Lebanese sources as stressing that Waite had not been kidnaped. It said he was still in West Beirut “conducting quiet talks with the kidnapers.”

Julie Flint, one of the few Western journalists still in Beirut, wrote in London’s Observer on Sunday that Waite was in trouble with Islamic Jihad because he had failed to meet its demands for the release of 17 terrorists jailed in Kuwait in return for the November release of American hostage David P. Jacobsen.

Interest in 3 Prisoners

“The interest of Islamic Jihad centers on three Lebanese among the 17,” wrote Flint, a Briton. “Sources close to the Waite investigation here say these include a cousin of Imad Mugniyeh, the man believed to be holding Waite.”

Eleven foreigners, including three Americans and two West Germans, have been kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut since Waite’s arrival.

An underground group threatened late Saturday night to kill the three Americans and an Indian colleague unless Israel frees 400 Arab prisoners and flies them to Syria on a Red Cross plane within one week. In Israel, authorities rejected the demand.

The threat to kill hostages came in a handwritten note delivered to a Western news agency and a Beirut newspaper along with photos of two American captives.

The pictures showed Jesse Turner, 39, of Boise, Ida., a visiting professor of mathematics and computer science; and Alann Steen, 47, a native of Boston, a communications instructor.

They were kidnaped Jan. 24 along with Robert Polhill, 53, of New York City, a lecturer in accounting; and Mithileshwar Singh, 60, a visiting professor of finance, an Indian native and legal resident alien of the United States.