U.S. Concerned About Terms of Hostage Release

The Reagan Administration, in a blunt statement, said Wednesday that if France made any sort of concessions to obtain the release of three French hostages in Beirut, it could “encourage future kidnaping and . . . prolong the captivity of the other hostages,” including nine Americans.

State Department spokeswoman Sondra McCarty said the United States does not yet know the terms for the release in Beirut of two French diplomats and a journalist. However, a French diplomatic source in Washington said the deal probably included a substantial cash settlement and might also involve a pullback of French warships in the Persian Gulf.

“We are aware of the release and are awaiting additional information,” McCarty said. “We would be concerned by any sign that concessions were made. We believe concessions encourage future kidnaping and could prolong the captivity of the other hostages.”

The State Department’s statement notably did not congratulate France on the release of the hostages nor praise the role of any intermediaries. In contrast to similar statements in the past, it did not even say the U.S. government “welcomed” the release of diplomats Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann.

Another State Department official said, “Obviously, they (the French) made some kind of a deal, but we don’t know what yet.”

A French source in Washington said Paris probably would repay all or part of an old loan to Iran that was outstanding at the time that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution overthrew the late Shah of Iran. France had suspended payments because the loan was obtained from the deposed royal government.

Last November, after two French hostages were released, the French government acknowledged paying $330 million of the loan. The source said an additional, unpublicized payment of $330 million was made later. Even with the repayments, a total of $1.4 billion was still owed.

The source said France also may have agreed to gradually reduce its naval presence in the Persian Gulf by failing to replace warships that leave the region under normal rotations. France is second only to the United States in the size of its gulf armada.

French captains are authorized to come to the assistance of neutral merchant shipping that comes under attack from Iran or Iraq in the gulf “tanker war.”

The source also said France may agree to free an Iranian convicted in 1981 of the attempted assassination of Shahpur Bakhtiar, the last prime minister in the shah’s government who lives in exile in Paris.

A total of 18 foreigners are believed to be held hostage by pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. In addition, an American and a Frenchman are believed to have been killed, although their bodies have never been found.

The Americans include Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, head of a U.N. truce group, kidnaped last Feb. 18; Beirut University College staff members Alann C. Steen, Jesse J. Turner and Robert Polhill, kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987; Edward A. Tracy, a convert to Islam, kidnaped Oct. 21, 1986; Joseph J. Cicippio, deputy comptroller of American University of Beirut, kidnaped Sept. 12, 1986; Frank Reed, a director of the Lebanese International School, kidnaped Sept. 9, 1986; Thomas Sutherland, dean of the American University of Beirut Agricultural School, kidnaped June 9, 1985, and Terry A. Anderson, Beirut bureau chief for the Associated Press, kidnaped March 16, 1985.