The World - News from April 14, 1989

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced that the foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq agreed to have further direct talks under his auspices in Geneva, beginning April 20. In a statement read to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Perez de Cuellar said he hopes “that both countries will exercise maximum restraint in order to create the proper atmosphere and continue to make gestures of good will.” Each side has repeatedly accused the other of violations of a U.N.-brokered truce that went into effect Aug. 20, ending eight years of war. Foreign Ministers Ali Akbar Velayati of Iran and Tarik Aziz of Iraq held two rounds of direct talks in Geneva last year but made little progress toward a final settlement.