Thatcher Hails Reagan Ability to Lead World

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, attempting to bolster President Reagan’s image amid the Iran- contra scandal revelations, declared today that the world needs U.S. leadership now more than ever and that Reagan “is uniquely able to give it.”

Thatcher’s remarks came toward the close of a whirlwind, one-day visit to Washington that had been billed as an attempt to shore up Reagan’s stature and to continue their dialogue on global issues from East-West nuclear arms talks to international terrorism.

The two leaders met and chatted on the colonnade outside the Oval Office, where Reagan resisted responding to reporter questions about the Iran-contra hearings with a “no comment” and Thatcher sat by, silent on the subject. Afterward Reagan was host at a White House luncheon in her honor.

“Now more than ever, we need American leadership, and your President is uniquely able to give it and will give it,” Thatcher, wearing a black-and-white polka-dot dress, declared in a farewell statement.

‘Staunch Leadership’

She said she was seeking to underline the “essential importance” of the relationship between Britain and the United States at the start of her third term, won by a wide margin last month.

“We must not let slip the tremendous gains of the last few years,” she said, later congratulating Reagan for his “staunch leadership in the West.”

Reagan said, “We had a comprehensive and thorough discussion of issues from arms reduction to terrorism” and “we enjoy a high degree of agreement on the major issues of the day.”

He said both he and Thatcher have endorsed the pending resolutions in the U.N. Security Council to bring about a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq War and added that U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar should personally undertake a mission to the region to meet with the warring parties.

If the cease-fire resolution fails, Reagan said it should be followed by a U.N.-ordered arms embargo against the nation that refuses to go along.

Missile Negotiations

Reagan also said that he and Thatcher discussed the U.S.-Soviet intermediate-range missile negotiations which have been slowed down by Moscow.

In morning TV interviews, Thatcher lived up to the unanimous predictions of British commentators who described her purpose as an attempt to shore up the image of an American President.

“I don’t think they’ll (the Soviet Union) find a politically weakened President” in negotiating any arms reduction treaty, Thatcher said in an interview on the NBC “Today” program--statements she later echoed in other interviews. “I have absolute trust in him.”

She urged Reagan to move forward with foreign policy initiatives.