Militants Offer Swap of Captives : Will Free Cicippio if Israel Releases Cleric, 450 Others

The Muslim extremist group holding American hostage Joseph J. Cicippio in Lebanon declared Sunday evening that it would free him if Israel released a captive Shiite clergyman and 450 Arab prisoners.

The communique from the Revolutionary Justice Organization was the first proposal by Shiite kidnapers to trade one of their American hostages for Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a southern Lebanon leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement who was abducted from his village by Israeli commandos July 28.

By offering freedom for an American hostage, the statement, handwritten in Arabic and delivered to a Beirut newspaper office, appeared couched to invite U.S. pressure on the Israeli government to comply.

Attached to the statement was a color photograph of yet another American captive, Edward A. Tracy. Tracy, whose abduction was reported in October, 1986, was bearded and wearing a brown T-shirt.

In Jerusalem, Alon Liel, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told The Times that his government has received no word on negotiations from either Hezbollah or the kidnap groups and refused to respond to the welter of communiques being released in Beirut. Privately, another Foreign Ministry official said the Israelis are perplexed by the diversity of offers and demands.

Sunday’s communique declared, without specifics: “Following the positive response and flexible stands, which were announced by the concerned parties regarding the initiative, and after the encouraging regional developments that promised happy endings to the hostage problem, the Revolutionary Justice Organization announces the operation stages of the initiative in return for the immediate release of Cicippio.”

Seeks Release of 450

It then demanded in return that the Israeli government permit the return of Palestinians deported from the occupied territories; the release of Obeid and 150 other Lebanese it said are being held by the Israelis, and freedom for 300 Palestinians jailed in Israel for participating in the intifada , the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“The names will be discussed upon the agreement of the other party,” presumably Israel, the statement said.

A Hezbollah statement released Saturday specified five Palestinians it wanted released along with Obeid, without offering a prisoner swap in return. The five included militants involved in terrorist incidents in Israel earlier this year.

The Revolutionary Justice group, believed to be a cell of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, singled out Syria, an ally of Iran, for playing a positive role in developments on the hostage crisis since the abduction of Obeid and declared: “We hope that the Syrian government will agree to negotiations through international organizations to make the initiative succeed.”

The communique concluded, “The organization points out that the success of this initiative could lead to dramatic developments ending the hostage problem.”

Previous demands from the kidnap groups threatened to kill the hostages if Obeid was not released.

Last Monday, the group calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth announced it had executed U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins and turned over a videotape of a hanged man it said was the American officer.

Later the same day, the Revolutionary Justice Organization threatened to kill Cicippio, a 58-year-old official at American University in West Beirut. He and seven other Americans are among the 14 Western hostages still held in Lebanon.

Cicippio’s execution was twice delayed during the week, then suspended Thursday night as the kidnapers proposed instead an “initiative” to Israel demanding the release of Obeid and an unspecified number of Lebanese and Palestinians held by the Israelis. It demanded a response “within days.” No mention was made of a hostage trade.

Israeli has made a public offer to trade Obeid, two men captured with him and other Shiite prisoners in return for three Israeli soldiers held captive in Lebanon and all the foreign hostages there.

No Mention of Israeli Soldiers

The Revolutionary Justice statement released Sunday made no mention of the Israeli soldiers. However, in an interview Sunday with Western reporters in the Shiite stronghold of Baalbek in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a senior leader of Hezbollah, Hussein Moussawi, threatened to kill one of the Israelis if Obeid was not released. Release of the three soldiers is the key to any deal for Obeid, Israelis officials have said repeatedly.

Moussawi also admitted that some of the kidnapers holding foreign hostages are known to the leadership of Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Islamic movement. “We hold consultations with them from time to time,” he told the reporters. “There are telephone calls, hellos between us.”

In two days of feverish diplomatic contacts on the hostage crisis, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, has denied any direct knowledge of the kidnapers.

Hezbollah issued a statement Saturday denying that it was involved in negotiations for a prisoner exchange with the Israelis. “We affirm that Hezbollah has no direct or indirect links with the hostage issue and with negotiations concerning it,” the message insisted. “The matter concerns only the kidnapers. Everyone knows that and knows how to get to them.”

Diplomats Remain Cautious

While Sunday’s statement by the Revolutionary Justice Organization suggested movement on the hostage issue, foreign diplomats and others involved in the busy round of contacts during the week were more cautious.

In Damascus, Syria, Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement is locked in a long-running struggle for power with Hezbollah among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims, warned Sunday that prospects were slim for an immediate prisoner swap between Israel and pro-Iranian Shiite radicals that would involve the foreign hostages.

Israel’s proposal, which Israeli spokesman Liel said Sunday night still stands, has no chance at present, Berri said. “That is what I believe.” The Lebanese leader met in Damascus with U.N. Undersecretary Marrack Goulding, who is taking soundings on the possibility of a hostage deal.

“You know the problem in Lebanon is a general problem,” Berri told a British interviewer. “To finish the problem of the hostages . . . we have to help to resolve the Lebanese problem, to change the regime in Lebanon,” where the Christian minority is engaged in a 14-year-long civil war with the Muslim factions.

Goulding told reporters he still senses “a kind of subdued optimism” that the hostage crisis could be resolved with the release of the 14 Westerners held captive in Lebanon. But he, too, was pessimistic about an early release.

‘Painful Process’

“The release of the hostages is going to be a long and sometimes difficult and painful process of quiet diplomacy,” he said, “conducted in private and not by public statements.”

Israeli officials privately raised the possibility that the contradictions and confusion caused by the almost daily statements by Shiite organizations in Lebanon may reflect divisions between moderates and hard-liners in the Iranian leadership.

“It poses the question of who is in charge,” one said. Liel, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, commented: “We believe that if all the countries that have hostages in Lebanon stick together and coordinate, their chances are better.”

Times staff writer Daniel Williams contributed to this story from Jerusalem.

ISRAELI CONDITION

A swap must include three captive soldiers, Defense Minister Rabin said. Page 8.