France ‘to Keep Word,’ Restore Ties With Iran

Premier Michel Rocard said today that France will keep its word after three French hostages in Lebanon were released and will re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran.

Rocard told Foreign Minister Roland Dumas to begin the process.

The two countries broke diplomatic ties last summer. The hostages, held by pro-Iranian Shia Muslims since 1985, were freed on May 4.

Then-Premier Jacques Chirac said on welcoming the hostages that Iran had intervened to obtain their release and that diplomatic relations were now possible.

“The foreign minister has, by my proposal and the decision of the president, received today instructions to re-establish diplomatic relations with the (Islamic) Republic of Iran,” Rocard told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

Iran has said it has influence over Lebanese groups holding Western hostages.

Chirac, a conservative, resigned after his defeat in the May 8 presidential elections. President Francois Mitterrand, a Socialist, won a second seven-year term and appointed Rocard, also Socialist, premier.

No Written Record

Rocard said his government knows of no written records of any agreement resulting from negotiations with Iran. But he said, “Of that which is known with quasi-certitude, France will keep its word.”

“My government and the president do not intend to pass judgment on the conditions under which these negotiations took place,” Rocard said.

Chirac’s statement about re-establishing diplomatic ties has been the only public reference to what was exchanged in return for the hostages. The French press has speculated on commercial considerations and France’s repayment of a $1-billion debt for the nuclear concern, Eurodif.

The hostages were journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann and diplomats Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton.

France and Iran broke diplomatic relations on July 17 after an Iranian Embassy employee refused to turn himself in for questioning in connection with September, 1986, bombings in Paris.