Kidnapers Delay Release of Hostage, Blame U.S.

Pro-Iranian kidnappers said today they have postponed the release of an American hostage because the United States failed to meet their demand to send a senior State Department official to Syria.

The announcement came in an Arabic-language statement delivered by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine to the independent Beirut newspaper An Nahar and a Western news agency.

The handwritten statement was accompanied by an instant picture of Robert Polhill, one of U.S. educators held by the group since Jan. 24, 1987.

The kidnapers said on Wednesday that they were freeing one of the three American educators they are holding within 24 hours, or by Friday evening. The other two are Jesse Turner and Alann Steen.

The group said at the time that it was acting in response to requests from Iran and Syria, whose leaders have encouraged an end to the hostage crisis, and implied that some sort of exchange was involved.

The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine had demanded that John Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, fly to Damascus “to coordinate some final steps” leading to the release.

It did not specify what they expect of Kelly, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon from 1983 to 1988. He was in Bonn, West Germany, on Wednesday.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III cautiously welcomed the reports but said Kelly had no plans to fly to the Middle East “at the present time.”

“As for the release of the American hostage, arrangements had been under way on a basis that they would be concluded and finalized. But Kelly’s failure to respond has so far frustrated the release, which made us postpone this operation until the picture is cleared,” today’s statement said.

Earlier today, White House spoesman Marlin Fitzwater said the Administration did not want to given any appearances of negotating with terrorists for a hostage’s freedom.

But the State Department today dispatched a reception team to Wiesbaden, West Germany, “where they have the medical facilities to receive any hostage that might be released,” Fitzwater said.