Hezbollah Sheik Pledges Help on Hostage Crisis

Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, spiritual leader of Lebanon’s fundamentalist Hezbollah movement, vowed Friday to use his influence to end the hostage crisis, but he said that it would take all sides working together and accused Washington of looking at the issue “with one eye.”

Specifically, Fadlallah complained that the U.S. government had not condemned Israel for abducting Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a Hezbollah leader in southern Lebanon, the incident that touched off the latest round in the hostage crisis. Moreover, he said, the United States had inflamed the crisis by dispatching naval battle groups to Mideast waters.

Backs Humanitarian Cause

“We support the humanitarian cause of the hostages without any discrimination (as to nationality),” said Fadlallah, the leader of the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim organization believed to be an umbrella for political kidnaping cells in Lebanon. “We are for the release of all the innocents who are detained, but we have to look at the problem with two eyes, not with one eye.”

At Friday prayers in Beirut, he declared: “Let’s agree and seek together, each by his own means and influence, to end the crisis of hostages--all hostages--and end the issue of prisoners inside and outside.”

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said of Fadlallah’s offer: “It’s an interesting statement. . . . We hope it signals their desire to release the hostages.” But he declined to make any more specific comment.

“We’re in a position today where there really isn’t anything new,” Fitzwater said. “I think we would kind of like to lower our voices a little and let these issues play out for a few days and see what happens.”

U.S. officials expect that little will happen on the hostage situation before next week, when Iranian officials are expected to meet with Hezbollah leaders in Damascus, Syria. Even after that point, Administration experts on the Middle East suggest that many weeks, even months, could go by before any final deal to free the hostages can be worked out.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III is planning to spend the next two weeks on vacation in Wyoming, and the Administration is considering deactivating the special hostage task force that it organized to keep track of the intensive diplomatic efforts that began after Obeid, a Muslim cleric, was seized July 28.

Israel has offered to swap Obeid and an estimated 40 to 50 Shiite prisoners in return for three Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon and all foreign hostages, including eight Americans.

Statements attributed to captors first demanded the return of Obeid in exchange for sparing the life of American hostage Joseph J. Cicippio, and later offered to free Cicippio in return for Obeid and 450 Shiite and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

But none of the Shiite communiques, the last of which was released a week ago today, ever has offered to release the Israeli prisoners.

After Obeid’s abduction, the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, a group affiliated with Hezbollah, said it had retaliated by executing Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American seized in February, 1988, while on temporary duty as chief of the U.N. Truce Supervisory Organization in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told three U.S. congressmen visiting Jerusalem that he is optimistic about obtaining the freedom of the Israeli and Western hostages.

In an hourlong meeting, Shamir said “he was hopeful what was taking place would lead to the release” of the hostages, according to Rep. John Hiler (R-Ind.), one of the congressmen. Hiler, Rep. Bob Clement (D-Tenn.) and Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.) are touring Israel as guests of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.