Syria-Iran Negotiations on French Hostages Reported

A Lebanese weekly magazine said Friday that Syria and Iran are engaged in “hard negotiations” that might win the release of six French hostages held by Muslim extremists in Lebanon.

The pro-Iranian Al Shiraa magazine said Syria initiated the negotiations after French Premier Jacques Chirac appealed to Syrian President Hafez Assad.

“Hard negotiations are taking place and might result in the release of the French hostages,” the magazine said without citing any sources.

“Assad gave instructions in this regard to his foreign minister, Farouk Shareh, who visited Tehran lately to conduct the negotiations,” Al Shiraa said.

The magazine, the first to reveal the arms-for-hostage deal between Iran and the United States, also said Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, missing in Lebanon since Jan. 20, was detained by Muslim extremists who found an electronic device in his hair. The magazine said a Soviet agent tipped off Iran about the device.

“A thorough search was conducted of Waite and the electronic device was found in his hair, which made his detention necessary,” the magazine report said.

“The device was similar to the devices carried by the American pilots of the 6th Fleet,” Al Shiraa said. It did not elaborate.

The report, which could not be independently confirmed, did not say who is holding Waite.

No group has claimed responsibility for abducting Waite, but Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt--who guaranteed Waite’s safety while the Anglican envoy was in Lebanon trying to negotiate the release of other foreign hostages--accused the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah, or Party of God, of detaining him. Hezbollah denied the charges.

Waite, 48, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert A. K. Runcie, vanished Jan. 20 when he left his hotel in Muslim West Beirut to meet the Muslim fundamentalist kidnapers of American hostages held in Lebanon.

Since then, his fate remains unknown.