Iran Issues Conflicting Signals on Seib

The Iranian government has rebuffed all diplomatic approaches in the Gerald F. Seib case, U.S. officials said Tuesday, but an unconfirmed news agency account from Tehran said the Wall Street Journal reporter may be freed soon.

The tiny South-North News Service, in a dispatch from Tehran, quoted unnamed officials at the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence as saying Seib’s arrest Saturday was due to “mistakes and misunderstandings” and that he would be released in the next day or two.

‘Keeping Fingers Crossed’

“We have been fascinated with the South-North News Service account,” a State Department official said. “But we have no other information of that sort. We are just keeping our fingers crossed.

“At this point, it is unpredictable what will happen,” the official added.

The report by Iranian journalist Fereydon Pezeshkan, filed to the one-year-old news service based in Hanover, N.H., provided the only hopeful sign for U.S. officials in the increasingly frustrating case.

The official Tehran radio reported earlier in the day that Seib will be charged with spying for Israel, and the Iranian government refused to talk about the case with the Swiss Embassy. The Swiss have represented U.S. interests in Tehran since the United States and Iran broke off diplomatic relations in 1979.

Unable to Get Appointment

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Swiss diplomats have been unable to obtain an appointment with the Iranian Foreign Ministry to discuss the case. He said the last contact between the Swiss and the Iranians on the subject was made Saturday night, when the Swiss lodged a formal protest shortly after Seib was arrested.

“We would like to have consular access to Mr. Seib and to find out what he is charged with,” Redman said. “His detention is simply unwarranted.”

Pezeshkan’s report to the news service, which specializes in Third World coverage provided by native correspondents, said the Intelligence Ministry is ready to release Seib because of “the humble approach” to the matter taken by the White House, the State Department and the Wall Street Journal.

Officials of the U.S. government and the newspaper carefully avoided confrontational rhetoric in discussing the case, which they said could have been the result of an honest mistake. The approach was designed to give Iran a chance to back away from the incident without losing face. If Pezeshkan’s report is correct, the plan seems to have worked.

Few Alternatives for U.S.

The Reagan Administration really has very few alternatives. In the midst of the controversy over earlier arms sales to Iran, Washington is in no position to offer any tangible inducements to the Tehran regime. On the other hand, the use of military or other pressure would be unlikely to obtain Seib’s release.

“I am assuming that the arrest is a function of internal Iranian politics that we are unable to influence very much,” a State Department official said.

Several non-government Middle East specialists have speculated that Seib was detained on orders from hard-liners hoping to sabotage any sort of U.S.-Iranian rapprochement. The Intelligence Ministry, which apparently ordered the arrest, is known to be run by anti-U.S. militants.

Seib, 30, who was based in Cairo, was one of more than 50 journalists invited to Iran for a tour of the Iran-Iraq War zone and to attend government press conferences.

Accused as Spy

Pezeshkan, in a dispatch from Tehran on Monday, quoted unnamed Intelligence Ministry sources as charging that Seib was a spy for the United States, Israel and Iraq. The sources also were quoted as saying that Iranian officials believed that Seib was Jewish. He is a Roman Catholic.

However, Pezeshkan’s Tuesday dispatch, also attributed to Intelligence Ministry sources, was almost diametrically opposed in tone to his Monday account.

The Tuesday story said Iranian officials hope that the release of Seib might encourage Washington “to take serious steps to meet Iran’s requirements for normalizing relations.” U.S. officials said they were baffled by the seeming reversal of position.

The South-North News Agency, which uses Dartmouth College students as fact-checkers, has 16 domestic subscribers, ranging from mid-size to large newspapers, according to its founder, Peter Bird Martin.