U.S. Urges Iran to Free Reporter, Suggests Arrest Was a Mistake

The Reagan Administration, increasingly apprehensive that Wall Street Journal correspondent Gerald F. Seib has become the latest Middle East hostage, urged Iran on Monday to release the reporter, who so far has not been officially accused of any crime.

Apparently hoping to avoid a new U.S. confrontation with the Tehran regime, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that Seib’s arrest Saturday by Iranian authorities may have been a simple mistake that Iran could easily correct.

Other U.S. officials and a spokesman for Seib’s newspaper echoed Fitzwater’s description of the arrest as a mistake, although one Administration official conceded that this was little more than wishful thinking.

No Charges Brought

While Administration and Wall Street Journal officials stressed that no charges have been brought against Seib, an Iranian journalist reporting from Tehran for a little-known news agency said the reporter will be accused of spying for the United States, Israel and Iraq.

Fereydon Pezeshkan, in a dispatch copyrighted by the South-North News Agency, quoted sources in the Iranian Intelligence Ministry as saying that Seib had asked “sensitive” questions about the Iran-Iraq War and about Iran’s diplomatic intentions toward the United States.

A State Department official said he could not confirm the account but that it seemed to be ominously detailed. Concerning the reported basis for the espionage charge, the official said, “What else is a journalist going to ask?”

Hint of Anti-Semitism

Hinting at an anti-Semitic basis for the arrest, Pezeshkan’s report said, “Authorities here make a point of the fact that they understand Seib to be Jewish.” But Seib’s father, Richard, said the reporter is a Roman Catholic.

Seib, 30, who is based in Cairo, was one of more than 50 reporters who visited Tehran last week at the invitation of the government. They were taken on a tour of the Iran-Iraq War front and attended a press conference by Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament. One Middle East expert suggested that the arrest may have been an attempt by Iranian hard-liners to embarrass Rafsanjani and to sabotage any possible rapprochement with the United States.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that Switzerland, which has represented U.S. interests in the Iranian capital since Washington and Tehran broke diplomatic relations, filed a formal protest of Seib’s detention. He said the United States also is using other channels of communication with Iran but declined to say what they are.

Top-Level Huddle

Warren Phillips, chairman and chief executive of Dow Jones & Co. publisher of the Journal, met for more than an hour with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and other department officials Monday.

After the meeting, he told reporters: “We are working through many diplomatic channels--Iran and other countries--to try to convey to the government of Iran that this is a well-respected American reporter who has been seized without any cause at all.

“He has not been seized by some mysterious, elusive band of terrorists but by the government of Iran that had invited him personally and by name, in the company of more than 50 other journalists,” Phillips said. “We believe a dreadful mistake has been made.”

No Harsh Rhetoric

Administration officials avoided harsh rhetoric and gave no hint of what the United States might do if Seib is not released.

“I think all parties in this were interested in setting a tone early that would be conducive to a decision to release Mr. Seib, no matter what the conditions under which he was taken,” Fitzwater said. “I think it was our feeling that perhaps a mistake had been made, and we remain hopeful that that would be recognized and that he would be released.”

Asked if the U.S. government considers Seib to be a hostage, Redman said: “I don’t want to put him into any category at this time. We don’t know of any charges. We don’t know why he’s being held. He simply is not free to leave Iran. And as far as we can see, that’s unwarranted.”

Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas also called for the release of Seib, who is from Hays, Kan.

‘Terrible Blunder’

“We send this message to Tehran loud and clear: Release Gerald Seib now--immediately and unconditionally--so that he can rejoin his wife and family,” Dole said. “We will continue to keep the pressure on Tehran until it admits its terrible blunder and releases Gerald Seib.” Dole gave no indication of how that pressure can be applied.

The Pezeshkan dispatch from Tehran said that Seib was being held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison in northern Tehran. A State Department official confirmed that Seib was taken to that prison after his arrest Saturday but said the U.S. government does not know if he is still there.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said Saturday: “A spy of the Zionist regime (Israel) who entered Iran with a false passport and disguised as a journalist has been identified and arrested.” Seib was not named in that dispatch, and spokesmen for both the U.S. government and the Journal emphasized that he did not fit the description because he carried a valid passport and had proper credentials as a journalist.