French Hostages Target of New Threat
The Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist group, exerting new pressure against France in a worsening diplomatic crisis over Persian Gulf policy, has threatened that no French hostages will “come out alive” unless the group’s demands are met.
The Thursday statement, accompanied by a photograph of French journalist Jean-Paul Kauffman, kidnaped in May, 1985, disclaimed a threat telephoned to news agencies last week to kill two French hostages.
Islamic Jihad demands a cessation of French military aid to Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War and the release of 17 Shia Muslims imprisoned in Kuwait for terrorist bombings in 1983.
Tension between Paris and Tehran grew last week when France broke diplomatic relations in a dispute over whether it should be able to question an Iranian Embassy official in Paris in connection with terrorist bombings there.
Besides Kauffman, there are five other Frenchmen believed held by Muslim extremists in Lebanon.
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