Irish Hostage Held 4 Years Is Freed in Beirut : Mideast: Brian Keenan, the fifth Westerner released since April, arrives in Syria. His pro-Iranian kidnapers do not explain the action.

Irish hostage Brian Keenan was freed by his Lebanese kidnapers after more than four years in captivity and arrived in Syria Friday. He was the fifth Western hostage released in five months.

Syrian officials said Keenan, 39, would be handed over to Irish Foreign Minister Gerry Collins by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Shareh at the foreign ministry in Damascus today.

Ireland’s non-resident ambassador to Syria, Declan Connolly, who rushed to Damascus to follow up Keenan’s release, said that Keenan’s two sisters also were expected to arrive.

Officials said that Keenan, a professor from Belfast who was seized on April 11, 1986, as he walked to the American University in Beirut to teach an English class, would be checked by a doctor.

Keenan was freed in Muslim West Beirut by the pro-Iranian Islamic Dawn Organization. Witnesses said Syrian intelligence units were roving West Beirut a few hours before the release took place.

Officials said Keenan, who also holds a British passport, would spend the night in an official guest house in the Syrian capital.

Islamic Dawn announced Keenan’s release in a brief typewritten Arabic statement delivered to the An-Nahar newspaper in West Beirut.

“We have decided to release Irish hostage Brian Keenan. The release took place at 9 p.m. (2 p.m. EDT),” it said.

It gave no reason for its decision.

Iran’s official news agency had reported Thursday that a European hostage held in Lebanon would be released soon. On Friday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mahmoud Vaezi, told the Tehran Times that Keenan would be released and said: “We are thankful to the Islamic groups in Lebanon who once more showed their goodwill toward the West.”

In the interview, Vaezi said the release resulted from “several months of efforts of the Iranian officials and Islamic groups in Lebanon.”

“We expect that the West will take similar steps for the freedom of Lebanese prisoners and Iranian hostages,” Vaezi said. “Such a move will make our efforts for the freedom of hostages easier.”

Eleven other Westerners are still believed held by extremist Muslim groups in Lebanon. The longest held is Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was abducted March 16, 1985.

Keenan was the fifth Western hostage to be released since April. U.S. hostages Robert Polhill and Frank H. Reed were freed in April, and two Swiss Red Cross workers, Elio Erriquez and Emmanuel Christen, were freed this month.

Iran has linked the fate of the Western hostages to that of four Iranians kidnaped by Christian Lebanese Forces militiamen in July, 1982. Although the four are widely believed to have been killed, Iranian leaders have repeatedly stressed that they would use their influence to obtain the release of Western hostages in exchange for help in freeing the Iranians.

Keenan spent most of his life in strife-torn Belfast, and he dismissed the dangers of Beirut when he went there to teach English in 1986.

For four months, he taught at the university, writing home about the beauty of Lebanon and the fine cuisine and night life in Beirut.

Keenan was dubbed Britain’s “forgotten” hostage because his plight did not receive the same publicity as that of Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and British television journalist John McCarthy.