White House, Wright Hail Pact, Push Non-Lethal Aid : Rare Tone of Harmony Breaks Out

The White House and Congress, buoyed by a cease-fire agreement in Nicaragua, adopted a rare tone of harmony today and began crafting a humanitarian aid package to sustain the Contra rebels through further negotiations on a lasting peace settlement.

Passage of a new aid package could come as early as next week.

House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas hailed the cease-fire agreement, reached Wednesday night by Sandinista and Contra leaders, as “a new chapter in the unhappy history of that war-torn country.” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater joined in praising the truce effort, although in less ebullient terms.

Both the White House and Wright promised to seek quick action on a humanitarian aid package for the Contras. The effort is expected to break the deadlock on the Contra aid issue and abruptly silence, at least for a while, one of the bitterest foreign policy struggles of the Reagan presidency.

No Deals Made

Wright began discussing ideas for an aid package on Wednesday in conversations with House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) and White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. But he said no deals had been made.

“The cease-fire talks have made it possible, by entering into an entirely new era, to bury our hatchets in the same trenches where they’re burying their machetes in Central America,” Wright said.

“We’re glad that it occurred,” Fitzwater said, when asked whether the Administration was embracing the peace plan. “There is a lot of room for encouragement here, yes, but there’s also a lot of room for skepticism, and I’m trying to balance those two off.”

Wright said he will meet Monday with House Republicans and representatives of the White House to begin drafting a bill to send food, clothing, shelter and medicine to the rebels before Easter.

Hopes for ‘Bipartisan’ Package

Fitzwater said the White House also hopes that an aid package can be passed “on a bipartisan basis” before the recess.

Wright said the precise form of the aid package remained to be worked out, but that it would have to conform to the cease-fire agreement announced in Sapoa, Nicaragua, after three days of talks.

That agreement calls for “exclusively humanitarian aid” to be channeled through a neutral, international relief organization.

Wright refused to speculate on whether there would be GOP demands to include in the package some standby procedure for authorizing new military aid for the rebels should the peace process become derailed.

Republicans, contending Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega cannot be trusted to fulfill his promises without such a threat, have insisted on such a provision in previous debate on the issue.

“I think it would be counterproductive to talk about it,” Wright told reporters. “We don’t want to rekindle the war.”

Envisions Quick Action

He said he envisioned quick action on “some minimal something that (Democrats and Republicans) can wholeheartedly embrace.”

“For heaven’s sake, if the Nicaraguans, who have been shooting at each other, can agree, then surely Republicans and Democrats can agree,” he said.

The aid bill likely would be similar to a $30-million package rejected by a narrow margin on March 3, although House Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said it was unclear whether the dollar amount would be the same.

The rebels’ last U.S. aid expired on Feb. 29.