Envoy Asks Soviets for Hostage Help : U.S. Ambassador’s Personal Plea to Shevardnadze Seen as Test of Ties

In a dramatic test of new Soviet-American contacts aimed at combatting terrorism, the United States has asked the Kremlin for its help in determining the status of American and other Western hostages held by militant Muslims in Lebanon, informed sources said here Wednesday.

The request, which follows the reported killing of an American hostage Monday and a threat to kill another one today, was made at a hastily called meeting Wednesday between Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and U.S. Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, the sources said.

Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported the meeting in a three-line announcement Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy, confirming that the meeting had taken place, said it had come at Matlock’s request, lasted for “less than an hour” and was intended “to convey the deep concern of the U.S. government regarding the hostages being held in Lebanon.”

Neither side provided any further details, but an informed source said Matlock had sought Soviet assistance “in the new spirit of 011cooperation the two countries have declared in the battle against terrorism.”

Another source termed the contact useful but refused to provide any details of the Soviet response.

The meeting took place only hours after Shevardnadze returned from what Tass termed “a brief working visit to Tehran,” where he met with the new Iranian president, Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Tass said: “Shevardnadze touched on the exacerbation of the situation in Lebanon . . . in connection with the abduction of Sheik (Abdel Karim) Obeid, a Shiite leader, and the execution of U.S. citizen William Higgins, who was taken hostage.”

Israeli commandos seized Obeid, a Muslim clergyman and leading pro-Iranian militant, in a raid into southern Lebanon last Friday, reportedly hoping to exchange him for three Israeli servicemen held in Lebanon.

A Shiite group known as the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth demanded that Obeid be freed by Monday, but the Israelis refused. On Monday, the group 12announced that it had hanged Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, 44, the Marine Corps officer seized in February, 1988, while serving as a United Nations truce observer in southern Lebanon.

The circumstances of Higgins’ reported death have not been confirmed. A special U.N. envoy, Marrack Goulding, arrived in Beirut on Wednesday to investigate.

Another pro-Iranian Shiite group, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, has said it will kill another American hostage, Joseph J. Cicippio, 58, if Obeid is not released by 6 p.m. today (8 a.m. PDT). Cicippio was acting controller of the American University of Beirut when he was abducted on the campus there Sept. 12, 1986.

According to the Tass account of Shevardnadze’s visit to Tehran, President Rafsanjani “voiced deep regret over what has happened and confirmed that Iran does not have relation to the tragedy which broke out in Lebanon.” It said the two sides “denounced any actions of the terrorist nature and favored the adoption of urgent measures to prevent a further sharpening of the situation.”

The Organization of the Oppressed on Earth is a faction of the Hezbollah, or Party of God, organization, which is believed to be the umbrella group uniting terrorist cells that hold most of the 14 Western hostages in the country, among them eight Americans. The Revolutionary Justice Organization is also believed to be a faction of Hezbollah.

The hostage situation was discussed last January by U.S. and Soviet civilian experts at an unprecedented bilateral symposium on the subject. The four-day meeting produced a joint communique urging the U.S. and Soviet governments to create a formal means of cooperating in the fight against terrorism. Contacts were institutionalized last May when the subject was placed on the agenda for talks in Moscow by Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet leaders.

In June, government anti-terrorism experts from the two countries reportedly had an unannounced meeting here to explore the possibilities for joint action and an exchange of information.

According to published accounts that appeared several days later, the U.S. delegation to the latest meeting was headed by Morris Busby, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism. His Soviet counterpart was Yuri Ryabakov, chief of the Foreign Ministry’s legal affairs department.

Cooperation between the superpowers on such a delicate and traditionally secret subject as combatting terrorism faces a number of possible hurdles, starting with disagreement over who is a terrorist and who is a “freedom fighter.”

Relations between the Soviet Union and Iran have been improving recently, and, in addition, the Soviet Union counts Syria among its allies in the region. Syria is considered another key player in the Lebanese situation.

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